Friday - Painted Paper Fun

I watch a lot of crafters doing their thing on YouTube. I mean a whole LOT! They all inspire me to try new things and not be afraid to experiment and learn. I have the best teachers! I'm one lucky gal!!

Here are the names of some of my favorites people on YouTube (in no particular order):

Jackie Bernardi @PaintedPaperStudio, Catherine Rains (the one who taught me all about painted papers in January 2025 and opened up a whole new world) @catrains.artist, and Laurie Richardson Haley @BlackbearyForest.

 

I'm fairly sure they probably won't see this but I want to thank you, ladies, for teaching me such inspirational artful things with painted papers and collage. You are all rock stars in my life! 🌟 😘

In case you hadn't noticed, my focus right now is painted papers. I like to see how others approach the blank page with acrylics i.e.: art journals. Many use that blank page as the "first" layer, slowly adding paint, designs, drawings, stickers, pencils, doodles, etc. onto the paint once it's dry. Sometimes on paper, sometimes in journals. This is an exciting thing to learn because it really is limited only by the imagination.

I've learned the more I practice, the more I want to practice. The more pages I paint, the more I want to paint. And I LOVE the layered look. Putting at least 3 layers of painted papers over each other might seem like a waste but it really isn't. It's all part of a technique I've gotten quite fond of and use often. The photo below is a good example of a finished piece done on 4 inch wood (coaster size). I discovered this technique through Jackie Bernardi.

Embrace the glorious mess that you are.

I've only been making collage fodder since January of this year. It hasn't slowed down, I haven't lost interest and I haven't been distracted by much other than the normal distractions of other art that I do and it's now August. Pretty sure it's something I'm going to continue to do.

Here's some examples of studio life these days: 

Sorting painted papers during the beginning of the year while taking Catherine Rains' online class. How cool are they?!

Gluing pieces down in an art journal. Scraps never go to waste!

And here it is, the photo above, finished. I might add something else at some point.

Cutting out circles and gluing them together for an art journal or collage. I've been making shapes, mostly circles since I started making painted papers.

SO much to do here ... a full day of fun! Dot painting the black things on the top right, gel pen fun in the center right, cutting out shapes at the lower right, the envelopes on the left hold all the shapes I cut out for journals and collage pieces of art.

A page in my collage practice book using purchased printed papers found online. Kinda love the flower theme on this page.

When I have too much paint on the roller, I use a piece of paper, old magazine pages or book pages. At this point, adding designs, doodles and more paint from brushes and my fingers are added slowly (a few days usually) until it becomes an awesome piece of collage fodder. This is what I learned from Laurie Richardson Haley. Pretty cool, huh.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For some reason the photos I've placed here want to stay on the left side of the page. If I read HTML I'm sure I could figure it out ... but I do not ... so my thought was at least you can see them. And that's that!

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

Friday - Collage Art and Fodder everywhere!

Although I no longer do collage every day, I do it the most at the moment. Actually if I'm being truthful I have spent more time making collage fodder than actual collage art. I have to admit finding new things to try on the Gelli plate or just on a random piece of paper with paint is enticing beyond belief.

This is a piece of newsprint I use for rolling the paint off of the brayer - sometimes it is a work of art all by itself and got added to the art journal just as it was - looks like an abstract vase and flowers to me --- what do you see? 

Gesso on a piece of watercolor paper made it harder than normal. When I painted the landscape on it I thought it would make a good page for the art journal as a post card with some ink stamps and a small piece of paper that looked like an actual stamp.

Right now, I have a nice little system going for my collage papers. I just got a cart with rollers (shown at the bottom of this post) that isn't yet organized completely but will be soon. It has allowed me to move things from under the work table making room for the two boxes filled with collage paper split into Cool and Warm colors with a lot of other things in each box such as the sewed hankies I've painted and am embroidering. I thought I'd share some of my new favorite pieces of fodder and the painted hankies so far.

 Playing with string and paint within a book - such a cool design!

String and circles on the Gelli plate and some "ghosts" after adding a little more paint over the first designs of string and circles.

Another successful pull off of the Gelli plate reminds me of buildings! Cool!

Old embroidery by a beloved relative whose table runner it was sewn on had fallen apart, gave me the idea to cut them all out and add them to art journals and collage art. Preserving the art within the cloth in a new way. Under those are my own hand drawn designs and embroidered back stitching on old hankies I also painted. Will be added to art either in journals or part of a collage on something. Or both!

I finally managed to remember to get these cool little plastic organizers that comes in a 2-pack on Amazon for beads although I'm using one for my alphabet letters cut outs. I do believe the 2nd organizer will have beads or bead-like things in it for mosaics. It felt great to get these all sorted.

 

Next week I'll be using the time to do some promoting for my Etsy shop. I'm completely rewriting titles and descriptions at the moment and they all should be finished by then. I hope.

Remember to find something creative to do every day.

Don't forget to come say "hi" on one or all of the social media spots. See you there!

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

Making Collage Papers - Embellishments

When I have a good amount of papers that I've pulled from the Gelli plate or painted on junk mail or book pages, I sort them into Warm, Cool and Neutrals. Sometimes I find these papers are a bit boring or aren't really worth even a corner of the paper as they are.

Example:

Not much there I can use as it is. These kind of papers are put into a folder and I'll add something to it in acrylics at some point. 

Once the folder starts getting thick from papers, I sort them. I decide if I want to keep them as they are or paint on them.

Keeping this as it is. Even though it's muddy and a bit dark, I love the squares I did while the paint was still wet using the tip side of a paint brush.

Paint will go on this one. This was a test to see how many colors I could get by using a limited palette.

 

Most will get some kind of embellishments. I do love to grab a brush and some black paint the most and just mindless draw circles or brush strokes to it.

Love these!

 

There is a lot of prep work that goes into creating these papers. I really do enjoy taking part of the day and pulling out the future artwork to see what I can use to make a collage.
 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

Collage Paper Art

More collage papers! I'm making them all the time, almost daily, but what I love the most: each collage that comes through is slightly different. That's amazing. None are exactly the same. Similar to my mosaics, which is nice to see the comparison. All are unique!

Some fun papers I've made adding designs on the boring looking papers or ones that I'm not thrilled with as they are from a failed attempt at the Gelli plate. It happens ...

 

Here's some collage I actually did manage to make in between all the painting fun I'm having.

 

I struggled with this one. It's got a collage paper as the base in gold/yellow with a few metallic blue streaks in it, a doodle art sun, acrylic paint pen, mirror and gems. Not sure it's a favorite but they all can't be perfect. Actually none are but some come pretty darned close.

Probably my favorite at the moment. Really loving the colors here. More papers in these colors are definitely going to be made.

"Embrace Potential". Lots of circles in this one!

 

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

Making Collage Papers from Junk Mail

Almost daily I make some kind of fodder for collage. Lately, I've discovered junk mail can be painted and used for collage. This makes sense to me ... using things that was once one thing and turning it into something else. It's the philosophy I use for mosaic. I often say "everything has more than one purpose and can be reused as something else". Imagine my delight in discovering I can take all that junk and make it beautiful!

 

Almost all the paper used in these two pieces were done on junk mail I had started collecting. I am always looking for ways to use things I have. This is really awesome to me! I love it!!

Also, the crescent moon shown here was done on an old tarot card set I no longer used. I lost some of the cards and couldn't bare to toss them (remember my philosophy). I did cut up some for the journals but not all of them were journal worthy. Those that aren't going into art as is are getting used to make wall hangings or gift tags. These have turned out fairly nifty looking. I am certainly having fun finding new ways to use old things in collage. Woohoo!

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

Collage Papers Art

Every so often a paint combination comes together while making collage papers that surprises me.

The blue paper background is a piece of copy paper that I used to wipe off excess acrylic paint from the rubber brayer, paint brushes and tools. The effect is amazing. The paper for the dove was done on the Gelli plate using rice paper. I used a stencil to cut out the dove.

Sometimes it's fun to see what kind of design I can get by using plastic clay scrapers for potters. I thought some of the ridges would be cool used on paint. I was right!

Acrylics on rice paper. After I did the Gelli plate pull, I noticed it looked like my comfy bed.

Abstract, random colors looks a lot like one of my favorite spots in my room.

After letting this dry I realized it looked like the face of a tan and white horse. This was all entirely random and using bubble wrap and a few other odds and ends for the cool designs, the color combo turned it into something.

 

 

 

These are just a small example of how amazing making collage papers can be. Some are really not very good but there's a corner of one spot or something in the center of a page that looks wonderful enough to add to a collage.

This paper didn't want to come off of the plate and as you can see, part of it ripped. However, there's enough here to use for more than one collage. I try not to toss out any paper I do on the Gelli plate if I can help it. There's always a small piece I can use.

 

Enjoy the journey.

 Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

 

100 Day Collage Art Journey Update

At this writing, I am Day 44 of the 100 Day Challenge. So far, each square has been placed within a leather bound book. I'm not sure it will hold all 100 days but we shall see.

Here is Day 44.

I have almost filled two large canvas panels using the collage papers I put in this book. It's more practice that I feel I need in getting colors and shapes combined in a pleasing way. I also have found the use of acrylics enhances the collage but sometimes I overdo it. This is where the book comes in handy. I can see the progress and what I think I need to work on every day.

I love these panels. They're pretty nifty, huh?

 

Until next time ... Enjoy the journey.

 Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com