What I've Been Up To This Year--Creatively Speaking

 It's been a while since I've been here, but I'm always in my art studio every day--just neglecting my blog. I'm more active on my Facebook and Instagram pages, but I feel that I need to re-visit my blog here since it was my first venture on the web and I've met many online friends because of it.  I'll never stop blogging, just not as much.

So, what have I been up to--I've been playing with paint and collage and some assemblage (finding lots of great flea market finds too!)

I started out the year painting (my first love) with mainly acrylics and painting some of my favorite things (or animals in this case)...horses, giraffes, and elephants...in a whimsy style way...

They all ended up in barnwood frames that I collaged my painted papers on to like this giraffe--

I took that giraffe and put her on a cigar box--

didn't stop there--

I always enjoy making these boxes!

And this time of year, I will usually make some circus assemblages--here's just a couple of what I made--

When I make these I try to use mostly items that I find at flea markets, thrift stores, yard sales, etc (sometimes gifted to me too!) I'm always amazed at what I can find--it's definitely a 'treasure' hunt and you know the saying--"one man's treasure is another man's junk"--some people probably wonder why I get so excited when I find these things--but I know just where they are going to end up :-)

Some of my favorite finds from this year....SO FAR....

I can never pass up old cameras or photos.  Half the fun of making assemblage art, for me, is looking for my 'supplies'

So I've been busy with my little treasures (getting ready for my BIG show in October)--and here's a couple--

I call this one--Bird Watching

His and Hers

So, this is just a sampling of what I've been doing--I love what I do and so happy that I can do this every day.  I hope you can find the time to do what makes you happy--makes all the difference!

Till next time.....

New Mixed Media Art--My Step by Step Process

 I especially enjoy making art this time of year--I'm pretty much hibernating now with our nasty winters that we get here.  I'm not on a time crunch like I am later in the year so I thoroughly love the process of creating.  And  I also can take the time to stop and take photos of my art process for you to see and maybe  give you some inspiration to try this too.

Here's the finished piece:

This is a dimensional piece that was a bit time consuming but very fun to do.  So as you can see it's collaged with papers that I hand painted.  I love painting papers and it's somewhat of a warm up for me. I started out looking for objects in my studio that I could make marks with on paper--

And I like to paint  some textured papers also:

The one painted in blue is a textured wallpaper and the one painted in yellow is from an Etsy shop--HimalDesign --great hand made papers there!

After a fun day of painting papers--I have my palette ready for my art project--(the other papers were painted on 110lb cardstock that I get at Staples--office supply store)

So going into this project I knew that I was going to transform these 2 pieces--

The wood square is actually a cradle board that I got from Dick Blick--I just flipped it over so it could be used as a shadowbox.  And the wood heart frame I've had forever--I found it at Michael's and I'm pretty sure they don't make these anymore--it fits perfectly over this 8 x 8 cradle board.

The next part for me is fun--I look through my plethora of embellishments and vintage finds that I have everywhere in my house.  I like to make my story before I actually put the art together--

sometimes I find other objects as I go on, but the main theme will stay the same..

Next comes the paper collage part--

I made a template of my heart frame, marked a grid design on it, and numbered each piece, cut them and used them as pattern pieces for my papers that I wanted to collage on the  frame

Next, all my papers went on the different surfaces--

I like to use gel medium to adhere the papers and these papers are fairly thick with the paint on them, so I like to wet them down before I put on the gel medium--it makes them more pliable and easier to work with.  You could also use Mod Podge, but I prefer the gel.

So now everything comes together--

.....and don't forget the sides!   I  pretty much use E6000 for the gluing part and I nailed the heart frame to the cradle board.

I hope I've given you some inspiration to take some time for yourself to play--whatever your creative outlet is.  This was very fun and relaxing for me--great therapy for this time of year!

P. S. Right now you can find this piece is in my Etsy shop HERE