Plenty of Potential

The art of not being ready and doing it anyway will take you far! Rob Dance

Becky had a beautiful blue, white and gold floral calendar hanging in her studio. I wish I would have taken a photo of that whole wall...it's so magical. Every time I go...there's something new.

Before I left I asked her if I could have a page from one of the previous months....she sent me home with two. I knew they had plenty of potential.

Ever since I came across the little paper cut from a another calendar with gold highlights....I've wanted to try another one. The random color images and gold accents give the cut piece such character....not something you can plan.

So I cut off a swatch from one of the pages and took advantage of the glorious afternoon on the patio and started cutting. No particular plan other than doing leaf shapes. 

I worked from the back....it's much easier to see what you're doing on the white side. All those little leaf cutouts will be useful too.

Once I had the leaf shapes cut...I did the fussy cutting around the outside with a pair of scissors. That's so much easier than trying to do it with an exacto knife. It doesn't look like much at this point....but I knew the potential was there.

I love it....and I'm going to send it to Becky so she can tuck it into one of her art journals. I intended to cut a stem...but I forgot. So it's just a fun starburst of leaves with plenty of potential.

Too Smart!

I had the most delight long lunch with Marita and Lisa. I see Marita every few months often...but I haven't seen Lisa for at least 20 years. I worked with both of them in my special education classrooms in different schools...and I introduced them to each other years ago. We have so much common ground...and our visit was pure joy! 

My phone is too smart for me! 

I get excited now when the circulars come in the mail....not for the slick store adds...but the plain black and white single sheet add that holds them all together. I've been saving them for months....and they've come in handy.

The texture is grainy and flat....the paper is thickish and it folds like a dream. Fabric fuses to it perfectly...and paper collage latches right on with a little glue. It works perfectly for the the bones of my journals.

But I had to chuckle when I took this photo because my phone instantly read the QR code and linked me right to a dental insurance company that will help me pay my bills. Oy!

My phone is too smart for me....I'm kind of old school. 

 

I didn't plan on the the words free toilet to land here...but there they are...for better or worse. 

I thought I would walk through how I'm making the covers.

I cut a piece of fabric a little larger than the cover substrate and fuse it to one side. I fold it over the edge of the paper and fuse it to the other side. It's fast and easy.

Then I fuse another piece of fabric to the inside...and I iron a nice crease.

This cover is a lovely piece of hand dyed fabric. I'm only using what I have on hand...and this shade of indigo blue was perfect for this cyanotype project. 

The paper gives the cover structure...and the layers of fabric on both sides help it hold up to the stitching to come. I think this smarter than my phone! 

Now I get to come up with a design for this beautiful blue cover! 

Other Things

The more you have, the more occupied you are. The less you have, the more free you are. Mother Teresa

We had a wonderful afternoon/evening with Dana and Anne on Deer Isle....

...another incredibly beautiful place. 

I just love the coast of Maine!

And now we're home. 

I was thrilled to see the bloodroot still blooming like crazy....and so many yellow daylilies! And there are more coming!

I took a very limited amount of art supplies with me: A travel watercolor set I inherited from Connie, some new pens from Becky and Emily...and a few of my own along with a pencil, my favorite eraser, a couple Gudrun catalogs, and a small bottle of glue. I also took a small sketchbook, my watercolor journal, and my joy journal ....formerly known as my junk journal. 

I forgot a pair of scissors...but thank goodness there was a pair at the house. 

Here are just a few of the other things played with at the kitchen table at the Cranberry Island church parsonage.

I spent time collaging using snippets from the catalogs I brought with me.

These thumbnails were all about swirls...swoops...and curves....intended to get me into the swing of things for my class.

Some friends of ours have a place on the island and Jim is one of the local Indivisible organizers for events including the No Kings Protests in Portland. His wife Sam is a poet and artist...and they are both such a delight.

I learned it was Jim's birthday while we were on the island (thanks Marian) so when we visited with him and Sam on their porch I took him a birthday card I made with watercolor and catalog collage.

I also did some painting....

...including the first page in my JOY JOURNAL. The page was originally drawn with a fine line black pen around one of my favorite stencils. I may add a little more texture to the flowers.

I love this well loved travel watercolor set I inherited from Connie.

It's still good as new (as far as I can tell) and I love seeing her handwriting above the colors.

I doodled and painted this simple wildflower page in my watercolor journal....

absolutely inspired by Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow.

There are other things.....but I'm calling this post a wrap! 

Recycled Materials

Today was a whirlwind of a day....chocked full of good things from start to finish. But I'm tired! So I was glad I had this draft of a post of my art card for the week ready to go. Tracie just got my card in the mail...and I'll share the others as they get to their new owners and I have photos.

This week's theme for our Tiny Pages Art Exchange was my choice: recycle or repurpose. I save everything that might have potential....so I had so many things to choose from. 

Paul and/or I visit Margie at her assisted living facility at last 3 times each week. And everytime we go we electronically sign in and get a name tag. 

We generally go straight to her room and only need to wear the name tags when we are in other spaces in the building.....so I started saving them. Paul has been humoring me bringing his home too...so my pile was growing. He just chuckles when he hands them to me....quietly wondering if I would ever actually use them. 

Now was the time to start....and there will be many opportunities times to come....so keep 'em coming Paul!

Over a week or so I layered and scraped paint onto a little pile of them...basically to create new stickers from old one. 

I really had no idea how I was going to use them on the art card...but I just kept going.  And from now on I'm going to keep a pile on my painting table...and anytime I need to use up extra paint or roll out my brayer...I'm going to be rolling on these tags. 

At first I thought a floral of some sort....but  ended up doing a landscape. The best part about it was NO GLUE WAS NEEDED! Just peel and stick!

I sliced curvy lines from several of the tags and layered them into a landscape. I probably could have used a little more contrast...but I just went with what I had painted.  I didn't love the sun...which is also part of a tag....I wished I would have used layers of yellows along the horizon rather than a sphere. But when I found the yellow "recycled materials" line in a catalog...decided to make that the focal point.  It's little bold and unexpected...but it fits the theme....and it's perfectly imperfect. 

The back is made from recycled or repurposed papers:

1. A Dunkin Doughnuts Bag

2. Two different security envelopes

3. Words from a Gudrun's World catalog

The "You Matter More" words are are part of a security envelope....a new design I'd never seen.

I enjoy using recycled materials!

Art Hearts

"I think the most special souls are those who see the humanness in others and choose to hold it with kindness instead of judgement." Helen Marie

One of things I've been playing around with is what I'm calling Art Hearts. 

I've done things like this before....I did a full calendar year of "handwritten hearts" for my sister Nancy in 2022.  

What I'm finding...again...is that the possibilities for Art Hearts are limited only by my imagination.  

I made this one today...and I quite like it.

All kinds of paper can work for Art Hearts.  I've been using gelli prints, painted papers, scrapbook paper, and now catalog snippets.  But junk mail, handwriting, cut up art, book pages, greeting cards and old calendars all would work well too.  Or a combination of any of them.  

This Art Heart started with a small collage of catalog scraps that I glued down on a piece of drawing paper with a glue stick . If the base paper is too heavy....the hearts are difficult to cut out.

I traced as many hearts on the back as I could fit and cut them out. I like them just as they are...but recently I've been mounting them on a background.

I glued together more catalog scraps and stitched on the heart.

I trimmed it up...and stitched it onto a piece of watercolor paper. I'm quite fond of this Recycled Art Heart. I'm putting together a few small Art Heart collage kits and I'll be reporting on that part of my journey at some point soon.

Art Play

"Having a safe space to imagine and dream and (re)invent yourself is the first step to being happy and successful, whatever road you choose to pursue."  Ashley Bryan

I'm posting early today...it's a slow and easy travel day and we won't be home until later tonight.

Originally Paul and I were going to head back home on Tuesday...but it's supposed to be rainy most of the day....and the thoughts of getting our stuff on and off the boat in the rain didn't sound like much fun.  So we had a leisurely morning...got the parsonage cleaned up, the laundry done, and everything ready for the next visitors.  Our hope is to meet up with friends in Bar Harbour later in the afternoon...then head back to Portland this evening.

We've done so many wonderful island things....and our experience on Cranberry Island has been just a delight. I also enjoyed my safe space at the kitchen table for some art play.

This is the little pile I brought with me...which included the two lovely zippered bags from Lily and Ramona filled with supplies.

Sometimes the table was fairly tidy and easily cleaned up for dinner....

....and sometimes it wasn't.

Yes....I brought colorful catalogs with me.

I made a little cranberry thank you card for our friends Jim and Sam who helped make our island experience a delight with tours...and a great home cooked  dinner which included homemade ice cream.  I like the mix of watercolor and the catalog snippets....I'll have to play around with that more.

Early on I painted this swirly watercolor doodle.  Then.....

...inspired by an artist I met on Little Cranberry Island/Islesford 

I outlined everything in black pen....giving it a bit more interest.

We met Kate Savidge at the Storyteller Pavillion in Islesford....where Ashley Bryan's work was featured.  Kate was a wonderful host...giving us all kinds of information about Islesford and Ashley's life and work.  She was working on a tiny little oceanscape piece...that she said she was trying to "save" outlining the watercolor details in black pen. I told her how much I loved it.  Then...in another little gallery I was drawn to this puzzle....and low and behold it was Kate's.  I am thrilled to own this colorful piece of art...and even more thrilled that we had that wonderful interaction with the artist.  And how many puzzles do you know with 504 pieces!  That makes me smile.  

Here are a few photos from Islesford....AKA Little Cranberry.

Lobstermen sorting their catch. Maybe these were the guys 

that caught our dinner a few nights ago.

Some of Ashley Bryan's stained glass windows 

made from seaglass and paper mache. 

Ashley Bryan

Attitude

"Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure."

I'm in the middle of a daunting kitchen project (more on that later)....but I was compelled to play a little bit with the birds I cut out yesterday. It helped shift my attitude a bit.

Using some scraps from a Gudrun's World catalog I revisited something I tried years ago....and came up with a little card.  Here's just a glimpse. 

I've done lots of projects with these catalogs....and this is one of my favorites.  I wrote about it here in this post called "Spring Catalog:: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2018/03/spring-catalog.html 

This particular catalog had lots of watercolor images throughout.  

The process is pretty simple. 

I folded over little scraps of the colored papers, overlapped them and secured them with just a bit with a glue stick.  Then I stitch them onto a piece of lightweight interfacing....row by row.  

I inserted the whole thing into one of my little frame cards I had on hand....and the little birds heads tucked nicely in between the rows.  

I added a little row of stitching around the frame to keep everything in place and help the card lay flat.

After looking at that project I did a while back....I'm auditioning some folded triangles with the birds to add a little interest. I like them....but I'll sit on it a day before I glue them in. 

I've done lots of projects using recycled materials....including the rolled paper project at the header of the blog. If your interested you can view some of the projects by clicking on the label "recycled magazines and catalogs" along the side of the blog.