Collage Everywhere on T Tuesday

"Collage: an artistic composition made of various materials

such as paper, cloth or wood, glued on a picture surface."

I see them everywhere... even at McDonald's.  I drew 

the cup of water I was drinking because it had a collage of

images on it...and because of the circle design.

Joining Elizabeth today for T Tuesday's link up party.

Just show a photo or drawing of your beverage, and

you can join us for T, or coffee, or any beverage you prefer!

Week 31 of The Documented Life Project:

put a pocket on your page.

I used a vintage library pocket from a thrifted

children's book, and attached it to the scrapbook

paper background.

Because our cottonwood trees are dropping leaves

already,  (and the background had leaves on it)

I decided to put leaves in the pocket.  I had made these

a while ago (ok years!) intending to make a small book

from them, but it just didn't happen.  I wrote quotes

about August, and autumn on the leaves that are made

from scrapbook paper and painted paper bags. 

(These are not cottonwood leaves, by the way)

I've also been working on some art lessons

that are posted on-line by Derwent Academy.

Lesson 5 was painting in watercolor, wet in wet.

I usually paint lightly over dry layers, and over pen

drawings, so this was a little stretch for me.

This is loosely based on some Maple trees in 

our back yard...

Just a few weeks of summer left...I have been

hearing a few locusts along with the tree frog chorus.

I need to take more walks and enjoy the warm

weather while it is still here!

cottonwood leaves

Derwent Art Lessons

Derwent Academy has a series of

art lessons on-line. (click on the top Tool Bar

on the Derwent site to create an account)

 This is Lesson 4, Color and Tone-

Blending Colored Pencil.

Some friends recommended the class

because when you've completed the

six lessons, Derwent will send you a

 small set of their colored pencils!

Since I don't have any of the 

Derwent colored pencils, I used

Crayola brand colored pencils, and 

various brands that have accumulated 

over the years. They are not as 

intense in color, and the scan is a bit light.

Quote from this lesson:

"It's all about describing what's in

front of you by using different marks."

--Dee Cowell, Derwent Academy instructor

I was rather pleased with the outcome

of the sketch of the cockerel,

considering the image on the computer

screen was a bit difficult to see.

The border around the video obscured

the feet so I just had to 'wing-it!'

And the instructor shows how to 

layer color over each other for

more depth and variation. (not sure

if you can tell, but there are blue and

purple beneath the black)

A fun exercise!

ArT Journal Pages on T Tuesday

Week 30 of The Documented Life Project:

Make your page 'Smash Book style.'

I added bits and pieces of my week

into the collage, and scraps

of painted papers.

What do you do for fun?

I draw, paint, cut and paste in my journals!

I find it Therapeutic...

Joining Elizabeth of Altered Book Lover blog

for her T Tuesday link party.  Above, a detail

of a larger collage that incorporates  a green

tea package and a little sketch of a tea bag.

What do you do for summer fun?

•  ♦  •

Documenting Life with Art

Week 29 of the 

Documented Life Project:

Make a wish list. Draw or use

magazine cut-outs.

This tip-in page was a piece of

scrapbook paper in a bright yellow, 

and I decided to leave it 'as-is.'

I added magazine words, fabric,

Washi tape, assorted papers, 

doodling, and the quote

from a magazine...

It's not really a 'list' but that

may still happen on the spread

beneath the tip-in.  It's been

a busy week, so I kept the

page relatively simple.

Messy paint might happen later!

Linking up with Elizabeth

for the T Tuesday link party...

and sharing 'coffee art'

instead of 'tea art!'

I do enjoy a nice cup of tea,

but coffee is my daily 

Wake-Up beverage. This page

was completed at a Starbucks,

Barnes & Noble bookstore,

Mansfield, Ohio.

Yellow lily, Wauseon, Ohio.

The coffee travel mug and the lily

are all in a black hardbound journal 

with 8 1/2" x 11" pages.

Notes, drawings, collages, and

whatever else I can think of

may go into it. 

What do you put in your journal?

•  ♦  •

Re-Posting a Favorite: T is for Tuesday, Q is for Quilt

Elizabeth invited us to look for 'buried treasure'
within our T Tuesday posts of the past, so I
am sharing an old favorite about the quilt I
made for my daughter and son-in-law.

I began working on this quilt in the summer of 2012...

A gift for the newlyweds, which they'll be lucky to receive

by their first anniversary in 2013!  (They did)

When I'm working on a quilt, I am careful to keep my

coffee cup (or any beverage) far away from the quilt!

The pattern is called Merry-Go-Round,

which I completely hand-pieced, and
 also hand-quilted..

It has bright happy colors, and includes many fabrics 

from the bride's past:  vintage fabrics from the bride's

great-grandmothers' stashes, fabrics from clothes 

that I sewed for her when she was little, and many

fabrics from the numerous baby quilts I've made.

I set the quilting frame up in my parents' home, as 

they have a bit more room, and it gave me an excuse

to go visit them and quilt!

My quilting stitches aren't exactly perfect,
or even tiny, but I tell myself that it's
 part of the 'charm of hand-made.'

I do attempt to keep them uniform in size.

In the block above, the red gingham was a dress that

I made for my daughter when she was in grade school.

A couple of the fabrics are from my maternal grandmother's

scraps, and one is even from a guitar case that I 

made in high school.  Yes, a quilted fabric guitar case.

Weird, I know. But I liked it much better than the

black 'cardboard' ones that you buy.  (I used

pre-quilted fabric on part of that guitar case, wasn't up to

hand-quilting in high school! and no, I don't

 really play guitar any more)

The cable quilting designs are marked in pencil and

then stitched.  The triangle and rectangle shapes are

just 'eyeballed.'  So they aren't always perfect...

It's challenging to get your shoulders, arms and hands

to 'turn' in the right direction to follow the quilting design.

I find I have to pace myself so as not to get sore muscles.

Many quilters have their quilt tops machine-quilted these

days, but I really enjoy hand quilting.  I don't exactly know

how many hours I have in this quilt. At least 500 hours, 

at a guess.  If I kept an accurate track of how long it takes,

I might never make another!

Here's how I have my morning 'mocha' coffee...

to your coffee cup add 1 heaping teaspoon of cocoa powder,

a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla, sweetener to taste,

(I use any Stevia sweetener)

and a splash of fat-free milk.  Yum!

Visit Bluebeard and Elizabeth at

Altered Book Lover

to see what others are doing on Tuesday!

Perhaps they are having Tea on Tuesday,

instead of coffee, like me...

•  ♦  •

Art Journal Pages: Turtle on T Tuesday

We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant on the 

Fourth of July.  I brought along my art journal

to sketch while we waited for our food.  In 

theory, drawing would keep me from eating

 too many tortilla chips while we waited!  

Our food came so quickly, however,

that I had to finish my pen sketch after we finished

our meal, and my hubby had to wait on me.

When I started sketching the planter, I didn't

realize it was a Turtle, until we were leaving, and

I walked over to see the other side.  The people

at the nearest table thought I was crazy, I think...

The sombrero was black velvet decorated with

silver and white sequins.  I added the

drawing of the turtle's head from memory when 

I got home, as well as the Watercolors. 

So my Turtle is the T for T Tuesday this week...

We also went to a concert in a local park,

presented by our community band.  The musical

selections were all patriotic and we quite enjoyed

it!  It is almost as much fun watching the people

as it is enjoying the music...I think the attendance

of my nephews brought down the median age

of the audience ~ most of us were seniors!

After doing a web search, I believe the 
distinctive bark on the tree I drew is
a Shagbark Hickory tree.  There were a
few hickory nuts being blown down by the
wind that evening, but there were no
casualties, that I know of...

Above, this week's Documented Life Project

challenge #27: add a Crossword, Sudoku,  

or Word-Find puzzle to your page. Another

opportunity to go with a black and white 

composition that I enjoy! Collage includes

scrapbook papers (music & crossword)

magazine clippings, and my own drawings.

In keeping with T Tuesday, I should include

a photo or drawing of my beverage of choice,

even if it isn't tea.  Joining Elizabeth for

T Tuesday, and sharing a drawing of

my pink travel mug, in progress...

not sure what else to include on the page.

Something will come to me...

Patriotic Index Cards~ A Reprise

 Wishing everyone in the U. S.

a safe and happy Independence Day!

Reprise of Index Card art from previous years...

Documenting June on T Tuesday

Week 26 of the Documented Life Project:

Add a scripture or quote from another book

to your page.  I added another flap to my

tip-in page, in the shape of a woman's

profile.  The scripture is Romans 12:2.

The profile is taped with decorative (Washi) tape on the right

and is watercolored in black on the back side, with border

designs collaged onto the profile shape.  

On the left, collage "challenge yourself."

When all the flaps are opened, this is the spread

beneath.  Media included are gessoe, acrylic, watercolor,

painted deli paper, Sharpie pen, painted papers,

scrapbook paper, and a scrapbook flower sticker.

The flower on the lower left is a very pale colored

scrapbook embellishment sticker, which I outlined in

black Sharpie marker for stronger contrast with 

the background. The yellow flower is my own drawing.

Week 26 means the year is half over, and I am still

'in the game!'  Time does go by quickly...

Above, Keep Calm and Have Lunch with Art Friends!

A Smash Book collage page...

I had lunch with some fellow artists, and we had 

'show and tell'.  Isn't it funny how a term we used 

in kindergarten is still so appropriate?  I suppose 

there are more 'mature' terms for it, but we do

enjoy seeing what each person has been creating

and catching up on the lives of dear friends.

I hope you enjoyed some  tea (or coffee)

on T Tuesday, and make a visit to Elizabeth at

Altered Book Lover to see what

others are getting up to for T Tuesday. 

Perhaps you would like to join the party!  

The guidelines to link up

are very flexible:  share a photo or art work about

something tea (or beverage-related) or 

something related to tea, or even the Letter 'T'.

And just because it's going to be a 

sweltering week where I live...I'm including

a fun page I did a while ago...just to cool

things down and hopefully make you smile.

I suspect some of the beverages featured this

 week in the link party may be cold!

Documenting Life: Hearts and photos

Above ~ Week 25 of the

Documented Life Project:

Add hearts to your page.

I made color copies of some of

my art work, at 50%, and

glued them onto my page.

I did add some black line-work

on the copies to give more

contrast to the smaller images.

The background is a fluorescent

pink acrylic paint, and the border

is done with Sharpie pen.

I have succumbed to the 

Project Life scrapbooking style...

Since I had so many photos, and the

supplies were on sale at a local discount store,

I took the plunge.  I thought it would be 

less expensive to do one large scrapbook

for the year, instead of several small ones.

Above, a beautiful sunset that we enjoyed in 

February 2014, at Panama City Beach, Florida.

It's supposed to be 'faster' to put

together a Project Life page...

but I end up fussing over tiny collages

like the one above. I love the way it

turned out, but smaller is not

necessarily easier or faster...

the above card is 3"x4".

Do you document the

days and events in your life?