A Pile of Scraps

Becky sent me this quote a few days ago:  

"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things." Henry Ward Beecher

I couldn't agree more....I do try and find joy in simple...everyday...and common things.  But I chuckled as I reworked the quote for the purposes of this post to say that the art of simple joy lies in the power of extracting an idea from a pile of common scraps.

I've been trimming things up for a couple of weeks now...and I finally had to pause and sort through the precious little scraps looking for useful bits and pieces. I had to make room so I could do more trimming.

This is what my cutting table looked like last night....I sorted through all of it looking for gems.  And you'll never guess what little scrap caught my eye to use first. You might not even notice it.

There at the bottom of the photo was one piece of gold thread....and I can't even remember what project it was from.  I just couldn't throw it away....so I wrapped it around one of my collage hearts....and secured it with a layer of glue on the pieced background.

I trimmed it up and it became a unique scrappy Art Heart with a little shimmery texture.

Speaking of scraps....I try and use every scrap of a collage so I cut the tiny hearts from the corners and spaces.

You can't really stitch around these tiny hearts (I tried).....but you can stitch across them. I think this is a sweet trio.

This whole piece is just a few inches.

And I'm pretty sure Becky got my February calendar page....and if you remember the theme for this year is "whatever is on my table." 

Of course there were Art Hearts on my table.....and I found a little fusible tree leftover from another project.  

I think it's a sweet little combo for February 2024!

Something Simple

It was cold today....but the sky was blue and the trees were hanging onto icy chunks of snow that looked a little bit like cotton balls.

I tried simple today with some of my gelli prints....and it doesn't get more simple than punched shapes. This would be a good project to do with kids.     

I couldn't lay my hands on my small sized square punch...but I did find a small octagon. 

Using a glue stick I attached the shapes onto some lightweight cardstock and trimmed up the edges.

I traced/drew as many hearts as I could on the back and cut them out.

I'm kind of smitten with these simple Art Hearts. 

I got quite a few hearts out of a small collage...

and now I can tuck them in some envelopes.

One Of Those Days

It was one of those days filled to the brim with all things joy.  Even the chores seemed a little better today.  

I plugged the phrase "one of those days" into the search box in the upper left hand corner of my blog and several posts came up.  I've used is many times.  I love days like this.

It started with waking up to 5 inches of fresh sticky snow that was clinging to everything.  I got out in it...and took lots of photos....and here are just a few.

The street view of our condo with the gorgeous morning light.

And I thought this view was Strikingly Pleasing.  

 

The snow coated trees against the morning sky along with the stacked chimneys and peaked rooflines of the condos made me pause.

Then I got to take a closer look at the late night session with my gelli plate play....and this isn't all of them.  Once that brayer starts rolling...it's hard to stop.

I played with color...stencils...and other mark making tools and many of them may benefit from another layer of texture.  That's the joy of a gelli plate and acrylic paint...you can always add another layer.

Some I like just the way they are.  

I added speckles and swirls to a few.

 

Did you know it was National Puzzle Day?  It's actually a thing....and a nice addition to this joy-filled day.

Philippa's puzzle has been finished on my table since last Wednesday....and I honored National Puzzle Day by putting it away and starting another.

The day continued with conversations with many of you about papers and supplies....and I'm enjoying all of it.  I'm making progress on the orders...but please be patient with me as I continue to make hearts and fill both small and large envelopes with goodies.  I'm enJOYing every minute.  Thank you!

Dotty wondered how I pull the stitched threads to the back of my little pieces.

Once the image stitched I gently tug on the bobbin threads from the back and that usually pulls a loop of the top threads through the hole.  I grab the loops with my fingernails or a needle.  Sometimes I catch/split the thread with the last stich...and they don't pull through.  

In those cases I thread up the thread on the front....and poke it down the next hole.  I either tie off the threads on the back...or tape them down.     

  

  It was just one of those days.

Obsessed With Creating

"How to get your art into the world: be obsessed with creating and in keeping the fire burning and rising. Then let it go, almost like a balloon. Be completely detached with where is lands, or who sees it or how many people if affects.  Just completely free it from you. Then, with empty hands, go and create something new."  Victoria Erickson.  

I stopped in to see Margie today. The first two blooms on her amaryllis were done...a third is full and fabulous ...and two or three more are on the way.  

And I will admit....I almost brought these spent blooms home to dry.....

and as I write this I'm kind of regretting that I didn't. I love them!

Some of you might be glad when Art Hearts are behind me...but I do think the tips and tricks I'm sharing can apply to other collage and card making. 

I took 12 Art Heart kits to the local Handiwork shop yesterday....and I'm still filling envelopes. I want each envelope and kit to have one mounted handmade Art Heart....so for now...I'm still "obsessed with creating" them.

I do like just plain white as a background on some them like I shared a few days ago...but I also still want to use painted papers when it works.  

I thought this would be a good time to share a little bit about my mounting process. 

Here I glued 4 pieces of painted papers together...and it was my intention for them to be a little off. I stitched on the heart BEFORE I trimmed up the paper.  If I cut the background first...I would never get the heart centered...or where I wanted it. I'm the master of crooked.  

Once it was stitched....then I trimmed it up using my rotary cutter and a ruler leaving as much border as I want all the way around.  And I WILL use the  tiny scraps.

I do the same thing when I mount it onto a background...whether it's white or a color. 

Here I stitched on the trimmed heart image....THEN I trim it up the border. There is NO way I could center it perfectly or get it straight on a precut card.  

I pull my threads to the back and tie them off.

Here's another example....I used a combination of  a couple painted papers and a book page for the background.  I think it's soft and pretty framed in white.

 

And the background on this one is a painted paper scrap and scrapbook paper. I use really cheap watercolor paper for the border paper...no use using the good stuff! 

I'm keeping the fire burning and rising!

Too much?  ha ha...I know. 😉

Sentimental Supplies

Subtitle: The Joy of Letting Go!

Look what I found on my foxtail fern today!

I am enjoying the email conversations I'm having with those who have reached out for Art Hearts and painted papers and supplies. Some of you are even want more snippets!  Connecting with others and inspiring creativity is a huge source joy for me. My heart is full. 💗

Speaking of a full heart....I have a story to tell.  If you know me...you know that I like a good story.... and I usually need to tell the whole story.  This one has several parts....so settle in if you're interested. And don't feel obligated if you don't have time or have better things to do....I'm good with that.

My dear friend Marita is an English teacher at Yarmouth High School.  I've known her for at least 30 years....and just recently we have reconnected and are trying to get together once a month. She teaches a poetry class and Friday's activity was to decorate their poetry notebooks...and she needed some supplies.  She knows me well....but I only had a day or two to figure it out.

I thought long and hard on what I could share with her.  These were high school students.....so the stuff had to be somewhat cool.  And it was also a poetry class...so  I thought words were important.  

I was a high school special education teacher for 23 years.  For a few of those years I had my dream job working girls who were in transition. We had six girls at a time and they came and went quickly. Some of them were in crisis, others were coming out of correctional facilities...and some were between foster families. With the help of a couple of amazing assistants we created a caring and nurturing classroom environment with the perfect balance of academics, daily life skills, and arts and crafts.  We worked on jigsaw puzzles together and every girl sewed a homemade book bag.  I loved that job.

During that time I acquired a pile of  Stock Image books from an advertising agency.  The books were filled with beautiful photographs of people and nature...and  colorful and bold graphic designs.  They were amazing....and the girls in the program used them for all kinds of art and collage.  The books were well used...but still had a lot of life left in them.

I had cut a few things here and there over the years since...but mostly I've been storing them and moving them from house to house. I just couldn't let them go.  But now I had the opportunity to return these sentimtal supplies back to a classroom where they belonged. They were perfect for Marita's class project.

Now I needed words....and I had those too. I've talked about my sister Angie over and over here on the blog.  Angie loved words and phrases and spent a good chunk of time cutting them out of magazines.  I wrote a post about her word snippets when I was helping when she first entered Hospice Care back in 2020: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2020/10/words-and-phrases.html

I've been hanging onto a bag of Angie's words since then....and I was given the opportunity to share another sentimental supply with a poetry class.  Angie would have been pleased that I gave Marita the whole bag.

Lastly I pulled some not so sentimental colorful papers from my stash 

to add to the mix and Marita was ready for her class.

To start....Marita had the students randomly pick two of Angie's word snippets.  

The prompt was to write a poem using some or all of the words and include a color and an emotion.  They got a start on Friday...and their assignment was to work on their poem over the weekend.  She is going to share the finished poems with me next week.....and I can't wait to read them! 

My heart is full.

Then it was time to decorate the notebook covers.

Marita sent me about 30 photos from the class...and it was hard to pick and choose.  But here are a few of the finished poetry book covers.  My heart is full.

 

  

One student crossed out the word "Kentucky" on a phrase and added the word "poetry"...and it worked beautifully.  

"In poetry you can set your own pace. 

But you may still find yourself breathless."  

 

Marita said this was one of the loveliest clases she's had in a long time....and I can't think of a better way to to use some of my sentimental supplies.  Just like my painted papers....there is joy in letting things go. 

Marita is actually a poet herself....and you can read about her in this post called Beyond Words: 

https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2022/10/beyond-words.html

When You Know Better...

...You Do Better

Believe it or not I had a meeting at our condo pool yesterday as part of gathering bids for a renovation project.

I was smitten with this little moment in the old fence. It was an unexpected pop of color in the middle of winter.

It rained most of the day today....and I'm grateful I didn't have to be out in it.

I thought I would share some of my favorite collage tools.....it's a pretty simple and probably familiar little pile. This pair of old red singer scissors is my absolute favorite...and the new versions are not the same.  I'm guessing everyone has a favorite pair of scissors.

I either collage with matte medium or a UHU glue stick.  If I use medium I use it as a glue and a sealer so all the collage bits are pretty secure.  If I use a glue stick...I have to pay attention making sure corners are glued well. My little glue bottle comes in handy to add a drop here and there if I missed a spot. 

I put my matte medium in a shallow wide mouth jar...making it easy to scoop out. Medium is a plastic product and should NOT go down the drain.  So I've mostly switched to using the spatula in the photo above to spread the medium over and under my pieces. It works well to spread the glue...and smooth out the paper piece.

At the end I can just wipe it off on a cloth rather than having to rinse a brush.  If I do need to rinse a brush...I get as much medium or acrylic paint off the brush as I can then rinse it in a small bottle of water.   

When most of the product is off the brush...that's when I use soap and water in the sink.  I collect the dirty water from my small bottle into a larger container and let the water evaporate in the garage before I throw it away in the trash.  Sometimes I help it dry with a little kitty litter.  

When you know better you do better.

I've switched to some more simple mounting for some of my busier collage Art Hearts. I stitched the heart onto a piece of lightweight watercolor paper...then onto cardstock in a coordinating color.

I didn't love this little collage when I made it.  But I swirled on some white paint with my fineline applicator and it  soften it up a bit.  

Out of one small collage I got three large hearts and four tiny ones. 

And they'll all look OK when they're mounted on a crisp white card.

When you know better...you do better.