Collage Birds

hi from northern NY where it is sunny and 20 degrees (feels like 9)

as you will notice I am a terrible blogger, but this seemed like the easiest place to put the file for the birdies. it is also on my flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mjkcreations/. sorry I didn't know where to put the .png file for download.

hope you enjoy. mk

SEWN first project

hi from northern ny where it is partly sunny and 36 degrees (i'm not ready for winter!)

well, this is not really my first SEWN type project, but it is the first since i signed up for the class. i made a few previously and for the most part my guessing got is right. these are the group of papers i showed in my last post. they were made with a set color scheme of golds, oranges, browns, and burgundy. not exactly my normal choices, but i love them. i think it is because the leaves have been such beautiful colors and fall is my favorite time of year. so here goes with the results of my day

i cut a lot of hexagons and strips this morning and as usual i got carried away and have enough for several projects with tons of paper left over, lol.

this is a pic of the cover after arranging the pieces.

this is after sewing the pieces down.

this is the inside cover. i couldn't stand looking at the back of the stitches so i used scraps to cover them up.

this is the front cover. the edges ended up a little uneven and i had to trim them. since the papers were only tapped in place and not glued down i worried about the edges tearing so i put some duct tape on the edges. not really what i wanted but it does the job.

inside pages.

more inside pages.

back cover.

i'm calling this my "trash book" because all the pages and the inside layer that the cover is stitched to are pieces of paper that i have literally gotten from the trash or saved as i was unpacking cartons at work. they are all sizes and different weights. most are a grey chipboard color. a few are tan, and a few are white on one side. there are 8 papers in the signature so that gives a total of 32 pages. i am all fired up and ready to make more but it is time to stop for the day. i get up at 3:00am so i have to cook, eat and clean up early to get to bed on time.

mary

SEWN papers

hi from northern ny where it is cloudy and 48 degrees

well, as you can see it has been a while again. no excuse, just procrastinating. any way, i recently signed up for mary ann moss's SEWN class. as usual her classes are extraordinary.

it is forcing me to get out of my comfort box and be a little more creative. also, all of you who have already done the class and posted beautiful examples that are great inspiration. so, what fun i had making patterns and cutting them up for new projects. i tend to get stuck on one thing and go all out. i also like to work in a color scheme too.  i started with my watercolors and used a few colors i like, then i added more and pretty soon i had a color combination i liked. who knew i would like golds, oranges, burgundy, and grey together? i'm a reds/blues/turquoise girl (more on that later). then i just had to go get some markers in those colors. then i got out my acrylic paints and my gelli plate.

here are a few of my favorites from my playing. all of them can be seen on my flickr page at MJKcreations.

 

this one was my very favorite, i didn't want to cut it up. i love just looking at background papers, but i hate using them because i love them as they are. i finally made up my mind to just cut it, so i did. as soon as i got that first piece cut i realized i had not scanned this group of papers. #(*$&#(*&$.

 

 

this is one of my favorite marker pages. i like quirky, what can i say?

 

 

this page doesn't really fit the SEWN "pattern" idea. it goes back to traci bautista's Doodles Unleashed style of painting. i had to reset my mind to be able to do this kind of painting. i love it's quirkiness too.

 

 

 

i also like these two papers, one markers and one acrylic. if you like these and want to see more just jump over to my flickr site. thanks for visiting.

 

 

 

remembering past projects

hi from northern ny where it is cloudy, rainy, and 55 degrees.

i've been drooling over Mary Ann Moss's newest class Sewn since she posted the first tease pick of it. however, it won't be in the budget for a while (sigh............. hey, do you need class testers mary ann? ;)), but it reminded me of several other projects that i made a couple of years back inspired by MAM. i made theses shortly after starting her ROD class where i ended up with a huge pile of scraps on my desk (and that hasn't ended since, lol). mary ann's original post for these spiderwebs was here

this one hung in my window for over a year until it became really faded. i have another one, i need to dig that one out and hang it up. i love the way the light comes through the needle holes. (hmm, love that little mess up there where xmas decorations were hung before).

while i had piles of scraps i also made these. for the file folder i sewed the squares directly to the folder. for the journal i sewed the squares to another piece of paper and glued it to the cover of the composition book and covered the spine with duct tape. i still use both of these items and have made several more sets since then.

have a good day, mary

ICAD - days 5-8

hi from northern ny where is is cloudy and 55 degrees.

got my card for today finished and photographed numbers 5-8. i am still working through exercises from the collage workshop book by randel plowman. i have also challenged myself to use only what scraps i already have and that i can reach from my chair (with the exception of one box of art scraps and my tapes). that included several boxes and drawers. so you would think that it would be easy to collect items to use. it took me longer than it should because 1) i tend to use similar color palettes all the time (blue/green or white/tan/black). i really had to dig to find the pinks, some yellows and oranges (for the next couple of days), and some reds; and 2) i tend to make books so many of my scraps are what are cut when i size book pages, usually to 6x9. i did find a lot of pieces in the 3x6 range and i can make a couple of mini books from them, so that was a plus.

any way, here are my cards:

day 5 - turquoise

day 6 - green

day 7 - pink

day 8 - red (i liked this one until i added the doodling, so i added the black tape to try to balance it out but i still don't like it). the clearance is in reference to trying to clear out paper and stuff!

linking up to ICAD. thanks for stopping by and have a good day, mary.

ICAD cards

hi from northern ny where it is cloudy, windy and 61 degrees

i've been gluing once again, seems like that is just about my creative limit these days. don't have much motivation for anything else. but i am trying to keep up with aimee's glue it tuesdays and have also taken on the ICAD (index card a day) over at daisy yellow. also, i working through some of the exercises from randel plowman's collage workshop book. so i am getting a lot of bang for my buck, lol. here are my cards for day 2, 3, 4.

day 2 - using shades of white

day 3 - using black and white

day 4 - adding color to black and white

linking them up here: glue it tuesday week 12

have a good day, mary

ICAD 2013 (index card a day)

hi from norther ny where it is cloudy and 65 degrees.

for the past few years Tammy over at Daisy Yellow has sponsored an ICAD (index card a day) challenge. the challenge is to complete an index card with some type of art every day for 61 days (june and july). so, this year i have decided to join in and try the icad project. not sure if i can keep up for 61 days as my creative juices tend to come in spurts between dry spells, but i am going to give it a go.

when i looked around though i realized that i didn't have any index cards. one of the questions about the project was did it have to be on index cards and tammy's answer was "yes". i kept digging and spotted a spiral book of cards. but realized that it was not plain cards but rather "wild notes" from crayola. they have a special pen that you use to make the colors show up on the paper. while the idea is rather intriguing, it is also rather pastel, boring and bland. however, i used it for my first card show here (bonus, it fits the rainbow theme too, lol).

so, while index cards my indeed be cheap, they aren't if you don't have extra money. so.... do i cheat and make some cards from card stock or just use these for now? haven't decided yet, but i do like the idea of  making master boards (large pieces of work that are then cut up to use as smaller pieces). plus i like 4x6 rather than 3x5, just way to small for me. time will tell what i decided, but for this weekend, i forge on with what i have.

i am excited to see what all the other wonderful contributors come up with. the amount of real creativity that God has put on this earth continues to amaze me each and every day.

have a good day, mary