So Many Art Journals ...

 So little time...*

This is the finished page I made dedicated to my Dad. It took a long time to realize writing something here just wasn't going to happen and so I allowed Maya Angelou to do it for me.

Just a bunch of grungy painted papers ... my favorite!

I discovered I can add water to charcoal and get a wonderful smeary look. Paint, charcoal and ink too all on one piece of paper is so satisfying to do. I can grab anything and just go!

The week was a blur of activity and messes in the best possible way, in my life, anyway. When the "what if I tried this" thought happens, it becomes a big blur and that's okay by me.

Taking junk mail envelopes and creating pockets for journals is a great way to do something while streaming something in the evenings. Especially when I have tired eyes. I really have a lot of junk mail saved, so it was past time to cut it up and start using it.

The most fun I have is grabbing scraps of either painted papers or papers I've used from books and use them for these pockets. For me, the thought that all papers will work on these things, either when I make the cards for inside the pockets or a journal page, is very freeing. I have no restrictions and if something doesn't quite work and I don't quite love it, I'm actually okay with that and move on. Sometimes if I really get bothered, I'll cover it up or cut it up but I never throw anything away. I have learned it's all a lesson of some sort and so I try to see what I've learned before moving onto the next.

 

This is a great example of taking pieces and putting them altogether. I ended up fussy cutting the bird on the branch and putting it in the center of the envelope. I'll share that below (see photo under the doodle).

Numbers 165-168 in the collage a day journal. This book is almost full!

A small handmade journal page. Still practicing making butterflies.

Watercolor attempt #2 of the same photo came out better and has made it into the watercolor practice book. I really love making clouds and have learned THAT is why I did this photo more than once. Now that I am confident with how to make clouds and water reflections, I can use it in future watercolor paintings I attempt.

Having some fun with AI ... I wanted to share with a few family members how long my hair was and then saw this background and color combo taking it from my comforter on my bed, it seems. I'm okay with that and really love it.

I took one of the cement boards and decided to start painting. Right now it looks like the game "Twister" but it won't look that way once I'm finished adding collage to it and maybe gluing some stuff and things to it as well. Time will tell.

Filling in pages of the art journals with the envelopes and cards I've made is actually very satisfying and takes very little time. The hard part was creating the envelopes and painted the papers and truly ... that wasn't hard at all.

Cutting out these little tabs was something I saw a YouTuber do. It's part of an envelope that was left over after cutting out the part with the window. I grabbed some printed papers and added it to the thing and use it to keep my place in the book as I'm working. I'm sure I'll make more of these because they are very useful!

As a diabetic, I have nostalgic times when I think I could just inhale all of these donuts and not feel like I'm going to throw up or have my blood sugar raise to a scary number. Since that's a possibility, instead, I grab the next best thing: a photo in a magazine and then add a little bit of another photo of a pink one with sprinkles and collage together and come out with a fun art page. No raised blood sugar happens but the satisfaction of creating an interesting page in my journal does.

I put some painted papers on a folder that didn't have a protective plastic cover on it and so the papers stuck to the cardboard in an interesting way. Normally I use them until they fall apart and actually add plastic wrap to them so I can continue to use them but this one was kind of neat looking and so, I made it into a journal cover and will probably paint on it a little more to give it a new look. I put two signatures inside and it's ready whenever I am to add things to them.

Doodling still happens but it's a bit slower at the moment because my eyes aren't always willing to work late into the night. I mostly like to just rest them after working at the art table for long chunks of time. However, this guy is in a 9 x 12 inch pad and because I decided to practice some doodles, it's become valuable. Once it's finished it's possible I will take it out and cut it up into cool looking shapes for collage. 
 

The finished envelope with the fussy cut bird within a journal page. 

 

Numbers 169-172 in the collage a day journal.

 

 *NOTE: The blog today as I write this isn't liking it when I try to add text to the photos and so there's an explanation under each. It might look a little different but I get the info out and that's really all I wanted to do.

 

 

Enjoy your week!

Cindy,  EarthMotherMosaics - Mixed Media Art

Instagram: @artbyearthmothermosaics 

Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Journey

 

There's Change in the Air

Because I'll be concentrating on my health with a surgery or two in the coming months, I've decided to make an online change. Besides, it's getting closer to the cooler months when I'm busier with personal things and not much social media is done, often I stop writing in the blog but that might not happen this year.

I'll definitely be changing directions a bit with my social media presence. That is happening mostly due to the odd PM's wanting to purchase a practice page from an art book I shared or something that clearly says under the photo that it is for my own personal use. While it is flattering to be asked about a piece of art I've done, I know it's not from "real" people and therefore it's not gonna happen. Having to tell all these "people" the same thing over and over means no one reads the fun blurb that's at the top of my page or my blog OR they just see this one post randomly (thanks so much, FB). I'm not interested in that. I'm retired from selling and spending more time telling people no these days has become easier because I'm doing it more often. Getting tired with it all.

So let's be clear: I DO NOT DO COMMISSIONS, I DO NOT SELL MY PRACTICE PAGES IN MY ART JOURNALS, I DO NOT SELL ANYTHING ON ANY SITE. I ONLY DO ART FOR MY ENJOYMENT AND A FEW FAMILY/FRIENDS I'VE GIFTED TO.

That might help clarify it. 🤣 

However, by the end of August, I'll be deleting my Facebook art page and just keep my personal profile. That one is open to friends only and I won't be accepting many new friends, if any, at this time. I'm looking to simplify in order to spend time, while I can, with my art.

And so, if you want to continue to read my blog if you like it enough to want to read it each week, join it here and get it in an email; I believe that's still an option. I'll still share it on Instagram so if you use Insta, you can catch it there as well.

And now ... onto the fun things I did last week in between uncomfortable conversations with strangers. Sigh.

Voorhees in watercolor. Not bad but honestly my vote goes to the collage I did the week before using this same photo.

I finished up the Summer Creative Retreat which was wonderful. 68 classes in 6 days. Whew. I didn't watch them all but I definitely came away from it with respect for the show's creator and awesome artist, Peggy Dean. I want to thank her for hours of inspiration that is ahead of me using not only her teachings but those of many of the artists who shared their talents.

This is a fussy watercolor I did using an example from one of the classes. The day I painted it, I wasn't feeling well but was determined to do it and so ... forging ahead, I went for it. I'm not loving it but I really love those clouds and the reflections of them off of the water. So easy to do too. I know I'll do that again very soon. I want to attempt this photo reference again when I'm in a different frame of mind and see if I can find the love. If nothing else, I'll do what I can to make peace with it.

 

 Cutting up doodles to make a few art journal pages was so easy and relaxing. Not to mention FUN!

I had thought I'd paint around these or doodle more and/or different things here but as I glued them all down I saw beauty just as they are. Even a few smiley faces. :-)

157-160 in collage a day journal

161-164 in collage a day journal

I'm making envelope pockets from junk mail for my tags and cards to go into journals. I used a photo of my Mom when she was a little girl for one "window" and a fun Halloween one from my mom's siblings as newlyweds glued to the bottom of another. So cute!!

Grid work at least once a week gives me a chance to try new things. This past week I grabbed some ink stained papers in colors I love with sparkles too and some leftover doodles from the project I shared above. Kinda cool!

And STILL had a little bit of the doodle page left so I had to make a vase with some awesome leaves I printed from the Mastering Mixed Media EXPO.

Tried making cats using funky looking shapes. Tee-hee.

Nice totem pole!

Dialogue from "It's A Wonderful Life" with my Grandpop getting ready to lasso the moon. I don't remember which magazine I got the photo of the girl from but it seemed to fit here.

A dedicated page for my Dad who passed away in 2024 at 91 on August 8th. Normally I write in the journal before adding the stickers but I sat and stared at it for a really long time and knew it was okay to share it before I got some words written. I probably won't share what I write anyway but I will eventually be able to write something.

Taking some old photos I had on my computer from some unknown source (I think a few years ago??) for a project I never did and glued them down on watercolor paper. I am going to try my hand at embroidering around the people or maybe doing some cool embroidery right on each person somewhere. TBD

I had a few cut scrap papers sitting around and thought it would be fun to stamp, stencil and ink them up. I spent a good long time doing these because I enjoyed it so much! More below.

Enjoy your week!

Cindy,  EarthMotherMosaics - Mixed Media Art

Instagram: @artbyearthmothermosaics 

Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Journey

August - A Difficult Month

While many find the promise of fall exciting as I used to around this time of year, now I see August as an emotional month. I promised myself this year I'd go lightly with my thoughts and emotions; accept them but not dwell on them. It's only the beginning of the month and there's a lot to get through. Hopefully by the end of it, I will have created a lot of art expressing how I felt to help me get through it.

For those not aware, I lost my Dad, Mom, Grandmother and most precious kitty all in August. Not the same year, thank goodness, and not in that order, but still a month filled with emotions. I have decided I'd focus on one thing each day in this month to honor them and I'll be starting that this week. I foresee a lot of butterflies in the making!

Tiger Swallowtail visiting our thistle. When I saw it I thought: "Say Hi to my Dad!"

 

Numbers 149-152 in the collage a day journal (another 4 are below)

I finished this up in all black and white. I do love this stencil!

I took a piece of junk mail (a small catalog) and cut it in half, glued the pages together and did collage on them. Eventually I cut them so they were large cards and put a binder ring at the top to hold them. These are a few of my favorite pages below.
 

Grid work last week was focused on quirky butterflies. Fun!

Numbers 153-156 in the collage a day journal

Taking mostly clothing tags and making cute cards and tags to be added to journal pages.

It started with beet juice. I swear it's true. I added my favorite watercolor ink sprays to it once dry. So beautifully grungy!

Medical exam paper soaked in beet juice and stamped with my handmade styrofoam stamps.

Look at the size of the paper I'm using for the eyes. It's just like the way I approach a mosaic. The smaller pieces gives me the best result. Finished collage shown below.

"Mister Pink Nose" - Voorhees in collage

The layering begins below in this art journal. This has glue resist, paint and pieces of papers so far. It won't look like this soon!

"Imperfectly Perfect" with watered down acrylics, stencils and ink.

"Create fearlessly: dream relentlessly" - continuation of page above.

I'm taking a free online art retreat that started on Saturday. Some of the classes I can't take because I don't have an iPad to use the Procreate app or it's in relation to sewing which I'm not really into but the watercolor and mixed media classes I'm enjoying quite a lot.

I'm still fighting with watercolor. Sometimes my art looks awesome, sometimes ... not so much.

I'll share next week, if I feel any art I've done will make the cut. Stay tuned!

 

Enjoy your week!

Cindy,  EarthMotherMosaics - Mixed Media Art

Instagram: @artbyearthmothermosaics 

Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Journey