Glue it Tuesday and Challenge Day 4/5

Linking up with Glue-It Tuesday today and posting this as well to the Creativity Challenge Day 5.
 




 I took candy wrappers I saved from Easter and glued those down to make a collage then worked off of that. I used gesso, gouache, the wrappers, etc:

 

 

I'm also posting my journal page from Creativity Challenge Day 4 down below. I'm trying to post as often as I can this week.

My church bazaar find:)

Goodness gracious look at my watercolor box. Needs a good cleaning.

 

As always,  thanks for visiting and leaving comments!

Enjoy the rest of your week,

Fran T

 

Art Renewal

 I 'm linking up to Artsyville's Glue-It Tuesdays

 I had started a painting on a page in my art journal but lost interest fast.

I thought I would use that as a base for this composition. 

 

I keep a plastic sandwich bag for my watercolor scraps.

I get great satisfaction out of the fact that

I can use all these little bits together. 

 

I did add some addtional paint to the purple bits, they looked too plain to me

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another project I am working on involves this book I have WaterPaperPaint and I have tried a number of the projects.

This one is Project 20:



 the edges of the artwork don't appear perfectly straight,
 I'll have to flatten in some books.



Of course, as I do with most instructions and recipes,

I don't read all the way through...[shocker]

I was supposed to use black paper or matte black acrylic to start but I just used black gouache.

So it got a bit tricky and easily muddied up the brighter gouache colors.

So next time I will be sure to use acrylic, then I won't have to go over alot of the elements to brighten them up. 

I am tempted to cut this up and make four ATCs but I think I am going to leave it.

Detail, a look closer

My favorite part are the blues, in the top left quarter and bottom left quarter. Green is my favorite color but blue is such a close second. 

 

 

 I am so glad its getting warmer. Aren't you?

A few spring-y things:

 specimens I selected while on my walk with the dog.

the crocuses are coming!

 

Happy Easter, Happy Spring!

Have a terrific weekend and enjoy!

Take care,

Fran T xo

Glue it Tuesday on Sunday

I wanted to make my collage on Tuesday but just getting to it in the very early hours of this morning. Here is my contribution to Artysville's Glue-It Challenge. I'm also going to link up with Sunday Sketches to share what I have been working on this week (more below).

 

I love green, can you tell? :

I initially wanted to have the two pages flow together and
 painted both the same color background,
but they are two distinct collages, to me, and that's perfect.

Green , though I love it so much, is a hard color to capture...
 

no matter how much I try to color correct the photos,
each image has it looking a different green:) I tried to tone down the photo
because in reality its not so garish.

Clean up is tough in the early morning hours.

Hell what am I saying?

Its tough no matter what time of day it is.
 

 

 I couldn't find my glue sticks,

where they disappeared to, I have no idea.

So I mixed a little glue with water.

 

 The book I used to collage in is from a journalling class I took a couple of years ago. Here is a look at some old pages, I think these are from Summer 2011:

 

 

We did alot of collaging in that class and I miss it! I'm on vacation starting Wednesday and I plan on getting together with a friend who loves to collage as well.

 

I also took a stab at creating some art using acrylics. I am very dedicated to watercolors and switching off always feels like sort of a big thing for me.

 

I keep buying these little canvases when I go to Blick and the last time I was there I had to literally say STOP.

And I promised not to buy more unless I do a damn painting. (I'm like to think that I am only a spendthrift when it comes to art supplies)... I went in without a plan so I wasn't expecting too much.

i had, had, HAD to cover that green blob LOL!!! haha.

 

I like how this turned out, this little piece (4"x4"), am pleased with how it looks. I'm glad I tried a little sgraffiti on the right side.

 

I started on another, larger (8"x 8") canvas board and primed it with some black  I'll work on that during my vacation too.

 

Thanks for reading through this far!
Have a lovely week!

Take care,

Fran T xo

 

 

 

First week of January

It's an interesting week. I had off Monday and Tuesday and now back to work. I have been fortunate enough to be able to spend alot of time creating the past few days while I was off. I'd like to share what I'm up to here!

 

I love visiting a blog called Lucile's Kitchen . The other day I read a post related to pastry and bread. I just love how Lucille paints and I was inspired to paint some bread that my husband bought at a local deli. I just painted what was left of the loaf tonight:


From my art journal, 1-2-13. Some packaging labels and taking note of some awesome delicacies.

A fantastic Rumi quote/poem. I had so much fun creating this patchwork of paper, using the scraps from project below.

Here is a small photo collage of work that I did for a friend. She hasn't seen it yet however she doesn't follow my blog. She asks me every so often to make up custom business cards from old paintings that I would just get rid of or paint over. I didn't have to many this time so I made a few extra pages with just watercolor and random stamping. But overall it is fun to do, I don't have to do it too often and she gives me all the time I need to make them.

I hope a good week is had by all. Enjoy the year and all it holds for you. Thanks for stopping by and, always drop me a line I always love to get a hello!

 

Please go to Mary's blog and check out this easy going Link Up:

 

Take care and be well. Happy New Year!!!

Sunday Fun

What a super gorgeous weekend we had here in New York. The weather was just amazing! The ride upstate was beautiful, its so lovely and bucolic up there. Every where you look you want to photograph because its so lush and green. On the way home, we stopped at a greenhouse that specializes in orchids. I picked up a yellowy pinky phalenopsis, to go along with my white-burgandy one the boys got me on Mother's Day. I plan on painting one or both soon before I kill them.

I went to pick up some things at Blick today. I love that damn place:) I bought some new brushes, more Microns :D and some other goodies, spending some birthday cash I received. I came home and was meaning to paint but started collaging and stamping.

 I didn't get a single portrait done this weekend, oh well:) Back to it tomorrow.

Here are some photos of what I worked on today, what fun I had!





I love making these tags. I have to find a craft I can utilize them for, all I can think of using them for is scrapping and adding to gifts when I wrap them.



I decorated some brown Moleskine sketch books I bought at Blicks with my homemade stamps





I think I like this one best:)

The cover of this journal below has this image I really like.

It shows two boatsmen along the shore in this Japanes illustration.

This bit of an image is from a brochure I got at the mall at the Teavana store.

I knew it would come in handy!

This is the front of a mini journal that I collaged,
 the inside papers are not added yet.
More work needed on this!

Here is another journal I started a few weeks back by paper-ing it up.

Today Iadded all the details to the cover.

This a Ronzoni Ziti box, you can see the 'window' right under the bird and top purple swirl. Peeking through is the little envelope I made for the back of the journal. Almost done I have to addthe paper inside still.

I like the scrap papers I used on this. I forget the brand but its so nice.

A little spot to tuck in notes or fortunes.

I am still on a bird kick. They are so popular, every where you turn around there is a bird on something LOL!

Take good care of yourself and I hope you had a lovely weekend!

Portraits 11 and 12 - 29 Faces



I joined this postcard swap at the end of April. The 5 postcards have to be mailed out
by the end of May... so I thought I would
fulfill two commitments ;) by painting portraits on them,
as that will count toward the 29 Face Challenge too!
For Frida here, I recycled a Christmas card, then painted over with
white acrylic, then painted her with gouache on top of that.

Postcard 1 - Frida and her quote.

For Postcard 2, illustrating the Tolstoy quote, I cut the cardboard for this postcard

from a box of ziti, its the perfect thickness! Gouache over white acrylic again, before I painted

the acrylic I glued a page from a book I had bought that was in need of recycling.

I like the stamp at the bottom, its the perfect color. The flowers were

cut from a Vera Bradley card I got in the mail.

Postcard 2 -  Tolstoy Quote.

I have three more to go. The cards are already prepped with acrylic so half the work is done. Now the fun stuff can be done. Tomorrow is Friday and as always I'm sooo happy.

 I think Thursdays make me happier than Friday because of the anticipation..

Have a great day and THANK YOU so much for all the wonderful birthday wishes I received from my bloggie friends!! You're all terrific and I enjoy you my time here with you!

MINI JOURNALS!

Before: Medicine box!

After: Journal!

A few nights back I was inspired by Jennie's youtube channel, again, and made just had to make these journals from medicine boxes and toilet paper tube. I always feel guilty throwing these out wondering if there is anything I can do with them? Well, yes!!

Pill box journal / Front cover

back side

This is the toilet paper tube!

spine view

I glued tags inside in order to use the string, for tying the book closed

Another made from a paper tube! I love the button:)

  

I have so much paper left over from my scrapping days, i could make a hundred of these and still have paper left over. Now I have two macaroni boxes and three papertowel tubes waiting in the wings:)

Happy Tuesday! Enjoy this day. Its cold, gray and rainy here
in my corner of NY today. Hopefully the sun will peek out later.