Gearing Up

I'm doing a lot of this and that's; and have a lot of photos to share this week.

I did try my hand at acrylics in the paint journal. I took an old magazine ad and traced it. It's not bad but I will never understand why I use the colors I do. It's never a good choice but it's my choice.

I think the ad was for NyQuil. I did NOT do this guy justice at first! Look at the colors!! Yuck.

Final decisions were to lighten the face (looks much better), and to stop hyper focusing on his hand and just cut it out from my print out and use it here. The face isn't bad ... I haven't drawn a face in over a year so even though it's been traced, it's a win in my book.

I'm making collage fodder or working through stages with the things I've been making. For instance, the scrap paper on old receipts project that never ends. As I decide what to do with some of them, I might take what I have and add sticker phrases to them and maybe use my fancy scissors and cut them. Then they go back in a box as I try to decide where to place them. On a card? In a journal? As I make a decision, I continue to add scraps to paper. It has become a ritual, like everything else I do, to sit and add some painted papers, magazine scraps, etc to something.

 

This past week I spent time inking stickers that had a lot of white around the designs. These came from my cousin and I think she got them at Temu. In any case, after doing an entire day of inking around edges, some I felt just needed a grungier look to them and I put ink across the whole sticker making them grey in color. I like that. These shiny stickers aren't a favorite and every time I use them, I wish I hadn't added them before cutting out the white parts or doing something to them before use. Spending a rainy day inking all these stickers was exactly what I needed. I have two more containers I could do but might leave them until the next wave of low energy arrives. These don't take much to do.

 

I've got embroidery on my mind and although my fingers really don't like to do much, I am going to practice the stitches on an old cloth I have. I cut all the lace and stitching done on all the hankies I had belonging to my relatives. Lace is a fun thing to add to journals or sew on a card or tag. Many were filled with spots of blood or rust. While I don't mind rust, I couldn't tell which was which, so I tossed those all out.

I started a new collage a day book this week. I'm happy I've continued with it. The last square in the 2nd book was finished on my birthday and the start of the Autumnal Equinox. Woohoo!

 

Days 209-215 in the collage a day journal. I really enjoy doing these each morning!

I also finished my mosaic vase! I finally grouted it over the weekend. It's so pretty.

I'm practicing a little bit for the classes I'll be taking soon. I bought myself a month of classes through the Fodder School called the Challenge as a birthday gift to myself. I am going to have a great time watching others create in mixed media, take notes and do a bit of playing. I also have another class I signed up for, in addition to this one, so October will be very busy! Yay!

 

I finished up the tags I started a while ago, adding ribbon and/or jute to them as well as inking them around the edges. I have so many more to do. I like grabbing a box and deciding I'll do at least one thing inside that needs my attention. Then move onto another. Some of these tags are very small and will get stapled together and added to pockets in journals, I believe.

Right now I'm feeling the need to do some painted papers although I have so many. I don't use them as they are, so maybe doing some embellishments on them will help me figure out how to use them. And some, as I look at them and crinkle up my nose, will get painted over completely quite possibly. And I'm okay with that.

 

 As I did a lot of inking, I grabbed a piece of paper and used it to catch the extra ink. Little did I know when I finished that I'd have a work of art in its own right! Check this out!

Looks good enough to frame, doesn't it?

Enjoy your week!

Cindy,  EarthMotherMosaics - Mixed Media Art

Instagram: @artbyearthmothermosaics 

Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Journey

 

Being Creative When You Aren't Feeling It

I've got a cold so I've been feeling "less than" all week. I did a lot of this and that's but nothing real intense. I just didn't have it in me. I'm on the up side of this thing but still have it and so I'm writing notes, printing out things to work with and waiting for the energy to start creating on a daily basis once more.

I added a page to one of my journals using a nifty gnome print and when I put the envelope pocket on it, he disappeared. Oh no! I hadn't really thought it through, obviously. This page could have been left as it was, I suppose but what's the fun in that?!

 

I solved the problem by making a card for one of the pockets using the same print.

When I take the card out and place it just right, I can still see the entire print. Yay! The other side of this card was a vintage soap ad. Not sure I am in love with it but it's there for now until I do something else with it. Which I might.

 

When I made the other card that goes into the second pocket I noticed a few numbers. I looked them up to see what they meant in Angel numbers. And I wrote them on the card, circling the number.

 

The other side of the card has trees and mushrooms on it. Love those!

I took my scrap paper that I glued down to old store receipts and put them through the die cut machine making a nice array of flowers for my journals.

The silhouettes were so pretty I knew I'd have to do something with those as well. What I ended up deciding was gluing them down on a less than favorite painted paper. I think I'll make bookmarkers from these.

 

I also punched out circles and squares before gluing them down, getting a nice array of collage fodder.

More scraps!! Ahhhh! LOL 🤯

I used some stencils on magazine pages that had ads on them and cut them up a little bit. All will be added to the journals and I know am getting a nice selection of things to play with when I'm ready to do some journal pages. That makes me very happy. And I am having fun!
 

 

The second collage a day journal is almost completely finished! Next week I'll be starting the third one.

201-204 in the collage a day art journal. I'm noticing I'm only using the lines for the squares as a basic guideline now but not staying within them if I don't want to. What a rebel I am!

205-208 in the collage a day art journal. 208 has some of the scraps I shared above. I thought it was only fitting to add some of those awesome things to my daily journal.

I had been adding a flower or some kind of design from this little tray in the newest painted handmade journal daily until I got sick. I shared the process of creating this book last week. You can see it here: September 14, 2026. Now it's waiting for me to continue. The best part about these kinds of journals is I just do random placements of these things, then eventually go back and will add marks or paint or stamps and make each page a bit different. I can keep adding and changing each page, sometimes it takes a year. I'm okay with that.

These are the last few pages I played with until I needed a major nap. The top photos are tea and/or coffee stained painted papers. The bottom are roll offs from brushes and the gel plate. I'll probably do some mark making on these and other embellishments. I wasn't really feeling well by the time I got to these and I just grabbed whatever paint I had in front of me and went for it without much thought. This black, grey and yellow one ... what was I thinking?! Definitely going into the pile again to either be repainted or cut up in some way. I don't have a lot of dark papers so I suppose I should see how I can use it without painting over the whole thing again. Time will tell.

Enjoy your week!

Cindy,  EarthMotherMosaics - Mixed Media Art

Instagram: @artbyearthmothermosaics 

Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Journey

 

New Moon Activity or Lack Of ...

During the moon's cycle we humans ebb and flow along with everything else organic. For me, I notice a deep dive into the shallow end of the creativity pool. It always catches me by surprise ... how can I have so much energy to work for hours at a time one day and the next I can hardly pull myself out of bed?! I blame it on the moon.

When a New Moon arrives I find it's a great time to think about what I want to do next. Right now I'm feeling I want to stretch a little and do things not within the comfort zone but I'm not there yet. It's coming and it'll probably be drawing, most likely faces or people because I really struggle with that. My brain likes creating abstract art because I'm not strong at drawing. I'm good with doodles because they're abstract. Mine are, anyway. However, even with all the low energy happening at the moment, I did manage to do some kind of art every day.

While cleaning out a small box, I found this little handmade journal I started in 2022, I believe. And so one night I grabbed it and did a quick bit of art (the right hand side) with Pasca acrylics and Sharpie.

The prompts were: bubbles, an eye, fuchsia, ruffle. Seek, Gather, Create old prompts from a few years ago have made it, finally, onto my desk. The up side of cleaning out a box and thinking "what's in this?". I found the prompts list for 2 years! Every so often I'll grab it, I know, and find something to do from it. I especially liked this because the ruffles looked like bubbles and the bubbles under the eye looked like tears. Perfect for the sentiment: turn your troubles into bubbles.

WIP - the prompts were: bird silhouette (you'd think it would be easy to do but I failed in doing it and so I just glued it down instead), leaves, teal, a grid. Still have things to do on this, probably mark making or a quote or something. But I love the color and the paint plus stencil were done using a baby wipe dipped in paint.

 

193-196 in the collage a day journal

Clouds were the subject for this grid. Using only a few colors in watercolor and a paper towel, I played with the sky.

 

It was time to do a layered collage on a small wood panel. I ended up doing 2 because I love this technique so much. And I still have leftover papers!

 

2 layers down with a paint layer in between. Now ready for sanding, stenciling and a final black glaze.

After sanding. Love the layers peeking through and a bit of the paint in between can be seen.

The stencil faded a lot on this once it dried but I can see it and it's awesome.

Both are 4x4 inch. I painted the sides in black and have them hanging on my walls. I love the grunge!!

Handmade book using junk mail paper, brown packing paper and a few of my painted papers. The front and back cover has paper I made a while ago.

After stenciling and maybe a little mark making on some of these pages, I'll be adding the hand cut doodles I've got in a box. It's overflowing and so it's time to use them.

The one on the left is so pretty. One of my roll-off papers with gold metallic on it. LOVE.

The back cover.

I love how this looks already and it's just been painted so far!

Some stencils will be used in these pages. I don't really need more handmade journals but I really do love making them and using them ... so maybe I actually need MORE!

197-200 in the collage a day journal. Top right looks like a top hat!

A journal page I actually had a dream about. I have a few more things to add here but it's basically finished. These kids are scary ... having said that, it was a photo in the book and I left it and painted, etc around them. When I dreamed about some of the things I wanted to add to this page I got up before dawn, found all the things I was thinking about and then went back to bed. Ah the life of an artist.

Enjoy your week!

Cindy,  EarthMotherMosaics - Mixed Media Art

Instagram: @artbyearthmothermosaics 

Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Journey