Light

My goddaughter Emily's birthday is coming up soon and I struggled figuring out what to do for her.  We all have so much stuff.....and most of us don't need another thing. So whatever I did....it had to be fabulous....useful....or just thoughtful.  

Emily and I have a "light" connection....and I've been giving her things that light up for as long as I can remember. I've given her night lights, Christmas lights, flashlights, and light up toys when she was young. I even gave her the same favorite task light I use on my puzzle table and the starburst  light I wrote about this last Christmas.

Yes.....we have a thing for lights. 

When I photograph something I made with gold accents...

I often have to tilt the piece towards the light in order to share the shimmer.

During the last art exchange with my Madison art group....I was working on my card for Becky (Emily's mom) and put a tiny little lighthouse on the horizon...with a tiny little spot of gold for the light. I had to tilt the card so you could see the light. It's tiny...but it's there.

Dotty commented that she thought it was fun that I could make the lighthouse light go on by tilting the card. It made me chuckle.

https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2023/12/anchor-image-exchange-3.html

So in keeping with our theme...I wrote Emily a letter and told her this story of Dotty's comment about turning on the light....

...and I made her an Art Heart with painted papers with gold accents.

And when Emily tilts the card....she can turn on the light!  

It just occurred to me....that I should have made a cake with candles that would turn on!  Maybe next year! 

I added a simple little stand for the back. I glued on a folded piece of paper...and attached a piece of floss to hold the stand in place. 

Emily is not a blog reader....so my silly little gift is our secret for a few days. It's in the mail....and she should get it early next week.  Happy Birthday Emily!

Something New

I enjoy playing around with watercolor and am constantly fascinated by what's possible. And although my results are not always what I hope for....I do find watercoloring very relaxing.  So when an artist I admire offered a class actually called "Watercolor for Relaxation".....I couldn't resist starting something new.

I've taken several classes with Wendy Solganik, also known as Willa Wanders.  I've been a member of her Fodder School for three years and also took her Love your Imperfect Letters course. She's a great teacher and always goes up and beyond what you might expect.

I love Wendy's watercolor style and she mixes watercolor and journaling so beautifully....so I'm so thrilled to be taking a class from her.  I can work at my own pace...and just paint. Because this is a paid class...I can't share Wendy's process....but I can share my results.

This isn't the first lesson...but the idea sprung from something Wendy shared in one of the intro videos.  It was my way easing in. I may do some writing in the negative spaces.

This was actually my second ease in piece...which I like better than the first. 

Here's the spread in the journal where I'll be doing many of the lessons and practicing my Watercolor for Relaxation.  I'll find my own way...and put my own spin on it.....that's what we all should do.

I painted the daisies yesterday...and didn't love them.  I'm pretty sure I didn't use enough pigment/water.....but we haven't had an actual painting lesson yet...so time will tell.

I added the polka dots this morning...and they break up the flatness of the colors. I think I'll add polka dots to all the daisies.  

This was the right course at the right time for me...and I'm happy to be starting something new.

And speaking of polka dots....since my watercolors were out....why not make a watercolor Art Heart!

Cut It Up

We always start our walks looping around the cul de sac at the end of our street....gives us time to appreciate the morning light.

It was one of those sunrises when there was a hint of color in every direction.

As I continue to sift through all things paper in my studio...I'm coming across more things that I can cup up and share....and others that might be good heart material. I found this collage....and to be honest it's pretty bad....so why not cut it up.

I like the colors well enough...I wanted to see what I could do with it.  I drew ten hearts on the back...and just let them land where they landed.  

The colors and composition on some of them were a pleasant surprise....

and I liked them just the way they were.

And others needed a little something.

Just a few white leafy sprigs on this one was just enough.  Knowing when to stop is not my strength...but I'm stopping on this one.

And I'm not sure I love this one....but the idea worked well.  And since my goal is to experiment...and share ideas....then it's a win!  I found this tissue paper with some black permanent pen doodles. 

I snipped off a piece and added it to the heart with medium.  The nice thing about tissue is that the edges just disappear so it looks drawn onto the heart. I added just a touch of white paint to finish it off.

I might play around with some of the others too....

just to see how I can improve upon them.

  

This was the view down the street when we were finishing our walk...

we do love the morning light.

Exchanging Ideas

I think we're all just celebrating and exchanging each other's ideas...and trying to make them our own!  It's true in our homes....our gardens....and our studios. At least it is for me.

Dotty Seiter has been doing some small collages where she is veiling some of her backgrounds with tissue to soften them.  She sometimes starts with an old painting and uses as many layers of tissue needed to get the effect that she's looking for.  Once the background is veiled....she continues work on a new collage.

Taking something old...and making it new with veiling! That got me thinking.

I've never mentioned that fact that this whole Art Heart project began with pink Valentine scrapbook papers.  

I made six kits geared more towards kids with scrapbook paper collage Art Hearts hoping to sell them at the local Handiwork shop. This was before I made the offer here on the blog.

I switched over to using painted papers pretty quickly....and in the end did take those six kits...and six more with painted papers to the store.

I had leftover pink scrapbook hearts....and Dotty's idea of veiling got me wondering if I could rework them a bit.  I started with a piece of tissue that I had used to pull up some watery pink paint on my gelli plate. I covered the heart with medium...and veiled them with the speckled edges of the tissue covering the top with another layer of medium. 

It soften and smoothed the seams of the scrapbook papers and gave the heart a more painterly texture. I liked it.

I also tried veiling the hearts with some swirls that I already had painted on tissue using white acrylic paint.

Game changer!

I had already done this little collage using circles cut from small scraps and I didn't love the hearts that I cut out.

But once I veiled one with the speckled tissue....it was more unified....and not so bad.

Here I used a swirl veil on another heart cut from the circles and turned it into an Art Heart card.

I was going to write this post yesterday....so had taken some of the photos and started a draft.  But I was wiped out at the end of the day and saved it for today. Little did I know...that Dotty was writing a post that included an idea she got from me on HER blog.  

Yup...we're all just exchanging and celebrating each other's ideas....and I'm so grateful.

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.