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

 

At the Art Table

These days, I'm doodling less but I'm loving my watercolor paints! Of course making painted papers with acrylics is also a large part of the week, even though I have a lot of painted papers for collage already to go and use, I enjoy creating the fodder just as much. I'm learning it's okay to enjoy the creative process just as much as enjoying using them in my collage art.

A few days ago I finally got myself some new fine liners, so I'll be doodling again as well as mark-making and am looking forward to it. I've missed them!

As usual, there's always something on the table. And by the time I write this, I'll have reached 100 days in the collage a day journey. I studied the book briefly, flipping through from day 1. Actually the collages I made are fairly uniform in the way I approached them: a few different colored papers and either cut or ripped to fit the small square almost always adding an embellishment of some sort at the end.

95-98

 I'd like to do another 100 days because now it feels like a habit I'd like to continue. It's possible I'll just start a new art book but maybe using a different approach or more papers per square or maybe make shapes within the squares.

The many journals I have are continuing to grow and I grab one each day and do at least one thing in them. I'm learning the more I do this, the better I am getting at my favorite art forms. It's true, practice makes progress.

Creating a grid work journal has helped me study composition

An old book turned into an art journal helps me learn negative space and I like it!

Making a book using brown paper packaging, junk mail, painted papers, book pages helps me play freely in any way I choose. Here, this particular page's background is actually from the brayer roller and paint brushes. It's so pretty.

Cover page of the brown paper packaging journal and a favorite Emerson quote.

Creating watercolor cairns - love doing these and try making at least 3 each week.

The Hardibacker boards (made of concrete on one side) are getting used for paint practice and I'm diggin' the results so far!

Playing with watercolor, acrylics and ink like a kid creates the funky looking designs that I am drawn toward (literally).

Doing one of my favorite techniques on this page: layering of painted papers, watered down paint then sanding it off a bit and adding more paint, stencil and some vessel shapes turns the page into a grungy look.

This page started out with a black background, I added magazine clippings in green but the yellow paint just created more yellow wiping out the green and so, I went with it - adding more yellow, gold, black, white and grey.

Another page in the brown packaging art book. This has small scraps of painted and embellished papers along with some affirmations. Feels very zen.

I still make cards - side A

Side B (love these circles!!)

Painted papers using stencils and an old credit card on the left, watercolor doodles on the right

On the left is an egg carton bottom, on the right a few layers of hand made masks both on the Gelli plate

Left side is a few stencils and leftover paint on medical exam paper, center is a rub off of another paper, on the right is the same egg carton paper shown above.

Putting stencils under medical exam paper and rubbing paint on it creates these interesting designs. Can't wait to use them!

Some of the stencils used to create the papers above.

 

 

Enjoy your week!

Cindy,  EarthMotherMosaics - Mixed Media Art

Instagram: @artbyearthmothermosaics 

Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Journey

A Fresh Week of Art Fun!

This is the last week for Mastering Mixed Media EXPO 2026. I have immersed myself into the world of creativity and watched intently as each artist sharing their lessons show their talents and playful way of approaching each piece. LOVE!!!

I have found I am more willing to wait this year to gather all the information I can from these amazing artists until the very end. I am imagining I'll have a lot of fun picking what I want to try and spend the joyful time to do it. That's exciting!

While I'm taking notes and saving documents to print as I'm ready to try a lesson after the classes are finished, I still have time in the morning to do a little bit in my art journal(s) or on a card. I broke my printer a few days ago but my daughter has one if I need to use it until I can replace mine. It's possible I won't replace it immediately; I'd rather continue with the Purple Palace Redo and keeping supplies handy for art.

Here's some photos of what I've been up to.

Side A - This card started in orange, pink and yellow, believe it or not. I just kept adding layers of paint and watercolor until I decided to stop. Sometimes being brave means taking chances, sometimes it means finding joy. I managed both here.

Side B of card above looks very much like a table with plates of food, maybe soup or coffee or crackers with a place mat or two. I especially love this because it came from a watercolor page I added embellishments to and then put aside thinking I might never use it. And here it is, being used and useful and part of a new series of cards.

 

Watercolor and ink

Tried circles but am not a fan, believe it or not of the circle grids. I prefer squares. But I felt I could, if I really wanted to, cut these out and use them in journals or on cards. I labeled them because I saw things as I did them with watercolor.

The 100 day collage project is still going strong. I'm on day 78 here. The formula is getting stale; I'm running out of fresh ideas to make the 3-5 collage papers look different or standout on their own. I do believe part of the reason I like doing this project so much is because I learn what I like and don't like. Maybe the next 4 I make will look entirely different. Or not. We shall see.

Side A - this card has the grid piece cut out that I didn't like altogether in the grid journal but thought I could use them in this way. I have found creating to be as exciting as ever and full of possibilities. This little card here is proof that if I don't like what I see, I can change it!

Side B - lots of butterflies are showing up right now in my art. I associate my Dad with butterflies, so I feel like he's saying "Hi" each time I add a butterfly to a piece of art.

Side A - A dragonfly with the words "Time to Heal". I like this little card a lot. The colors and how I did things from collage to stickers and doodling, etc. It all flows nicely.

Side B - I was going to make this little square a birdhouse with a roof but the bird landed before the roof was made and so, we can call it finished. This card too is a one that speaks to me. I like the playful feeling when creating these small pieces of art. It's addicting!!

Side A - That says it all, doesn't it?

Side B - this is a piece of a painted paper I embellished. I forgot to take a photo of the entire paper before cutting it up, but I put them back together and took a photo shared below. 

I cut out 3 pieces of this paper and am using them in cards. As you can see from the photo above this one, it's pretty nifty looking on it's own or as part of the whole paper.

Enjoy your week!

Cindy,  EarthMotherMosaics - Mixed Media Art

Instagram: @artbyearthmothermosaics 

Stay Peaceful and Enjoy the Journey