Weekend of Collaging

I decided to redo my collage with the bathing beauty. I did this in my small gluebook. Each page is is only 3 1/2 inches by 5 1/2.  The larger book that the other collages are in is 5 by 8 1/4. I like this one much better.

I also made an opposite page for the one I made last week. I used the cat as the focus. I like all these colors together.

Yesterday I worked on an art journal lesson taught by Hope Wallace Karney. I'm not as comfortable with journaling as I am with collage. I don't like my lettering so I think it looks like a child made it. Here  it is though. Hopefully I will get better at it.

 

More Gluebook

I'm loving my Artful Pages classes! Today I finished two more gluebook lessons. I really enjoy working on it but sometimes it takes me a while to find the images I want to use. I don't know how other people do creative projects but I often think of an idea and then can't find materials to complete my idea. It would be better if I used what I already had creatively but that would be too simple. I guess that's my inner need to make things as complex as I can.  This first collage is the one I struggled with the most. I kept trying to find something for her to sit on or just be grounded on but nothing worked so I am leaving her like this. I posted her to our flickr group and I hope the other artists will give me some ideas about it.  

In this next collage I started with the background time table that I thought was cool. (since it says Pittsburgh on it)  I also wondered if I needed more elements but the words on the pages seemed to be enough.

 I loved learning from Mary Green about the gluebooks and tomorrow begins the second week with a new teacher.  The second week is called "Musings on Paper" with Hope Wallace Karney. I've only done a small amount of art journaling in the past and enjoyed it so I am excited to see what she will be teaching. I'll be sure and let you see my work. Well... maybe I won't promise that just in case I don't do as well on it. I'm not as good with a pen as I am a gluestick. :)

Artful Pages

This is my first collage from my Artful Pages class. The first week of this class is about vintage gluebooks. In a gluebook you only use paper, scissors and glue and nothing extra like stamps or embellishments.

I've been wanting to make a collage with this photo of my mom but hadn't found the right papers but this time I was able to come up with the right combination of things and I like the way it turned out. I spent a couple hours tonight working on the next lesson but so far I haven't completely decided on a direction. Hopefully tomorrow I'll come up with something because the next lesson is Friday.     

More Collage Club

This time for my Collage Club I added some family photos. This first photo is my great grandmother, Ida. She is my father's grandmother. I printed it on my computer but the ink wants to peel off so the edges are a bit messy. I added some bling to her neck. I'm not sure if that is a necklace or trim on her dress but it screamed for bling so I drove to the craft store just to get that one little stone.

The lesson this time taught us how to make an interesting background using a combination of different papers and then covering them in different ways. Both pieces are basically the same. I used long strips of different papers and glued them down. They are both covered in gesso and I used acrylic paint on the second one and different stamps on both. The second picture is my beautiful mom on the right, along with her sister and her father. 

I am really enjoying this collage club!! I said I was going to sew again, didn't I?  I will....

 but first I need to go make another collage!

I Won!

I'm very excited because I won a contest put on by Jennifer Paganelli at Sis Boom. I won this beautiful book by Bari J. that is filled with gorgeous projects to sew. She even has projects in fabric collage which I must try since I love collage so much.

 How do you like my bouquet of flowers? These are one of the many downloadable projects on Sis Boom's blog this month. I printed them, cut them out and attached them to pipe cleaners with my glue gun. I tied them with a ribbon and used stickers to spell out my "Thank You" to Jennifer Paganelli for my great prize.  Thanks again, Jennifer!!  I love the book!!!!  ...and my flowers!

Homework

Here are two more homework assignments for my photoshop elements class. I'm not sure I did exactly what I was supposed to do but I think they look pretty anyway. These were two of my Valentine flowers.

This week I'm taking a free online Photoshop course. This is my first homework assignment. I took this picture last summer in Pennsylvania. In this lesson I learned some basics about Photoshop Elements and learned how to add text to a photo. Now, I'm really going about this in a backwards fashion since what I should be doing is taking a photography class before I worry about editing my photos. I just stumbled upon this course though so I jumped while the getting was good (and free).  The course is offered by Kim Klassen and it started yesterday. I don't know if you can still sign up but this is the second time she offered it so maybe she will have it again. I have to work on this really hard this week because next week it will be hard to keep up with since I'll be starting my Artful Pages class and I'll have a new Collage Club assignment. I love being so busy with creative projects.

Happy Valentine's Day

Random

Look what I found while chopping my celery today, a beautiful flower at the bottom of the stalk. I just thought I would share. Not quite a double rainbow moment but I'm pretty pleased with myself!

Collage Club

Today I completed two more collages for Mary Green's Collage club. This lesson was about positioning. On the boy collage I started with a background and chose elements to fit it. I struggled for a bit too long on this one. I had my idea right away about the little boy dreaming of adventure and wanting to leave school behind, but it took me all week to finally decide on where I was going to glue everything. In my second collage, I started with the little girl and had to find a background to suit her. I think I found just the right one. It's not that I had to rush to get them done but since I made that rule about not looking at the other members' work until I was done, it killed me that I had to stay away from our flickr group that long. Finally I can look!

Next week I start another class that I'm excited about. It's called Artful Pages, 4 Artists, 4 Ways.
A different artist will be teaching each week and I will be learning about vintage gluebooks, altered books and altered fabric books and also some art journaling. I can't wait!

Collage Challenge

Today I am entering my first collage challenge over at Green Paper. I've wanted to try this before but didn't. I would look to see how others went about it but found that just paralyzed my imagination. My new rule for my Collage Club and now this challenge is not to look at anyone's work and just see what I come up with on my own.  This works so much better for me because then I know it is totally my creation. Then I can enjoy looking at the other artist's work after I've uploaded mine. For this challenge, Mary provides you with three images. You then create a piece of art that uses at least a part of all three images. Here is what I came up with. I like it.