Wednesday - Art Table Fun

 It's been an interesting week for me. Sometimes I do many things throughout the day. Right now I should be tweaking my website and adding things to the buymeacoffee.com site but I'm not. Plain as that.

I have found that with eye strain, working on anything longer than it takes to write this post is too much. I want to use my time creating rather than working on a computer.

Recently I watched another wonderful video by Laurie Richardson Haley on YouTube showing a way to make a little booklet with collage cards. Well, I certainly had to try that because I have many cards I could make into a book.

 

The next one will have all the same colored ribbon or material. I learned after I made it, I really didn't like all the different colors I used. My art is colorful enough, apparently. But it's successful in my eyes, so thank you Laurie! I made a video I'll share on Instagram and Facebook after this post goes live. Check it out if you're interested and use those social media sites.

 

 

Is it perfect? No. Do I love it anyway? YES!

I'm also continuing with getting my stickers and cutouts organized. I came across some odd painted papers, some doodled bits I had cut out. I decided to put them in with the sorting I'm now doing to get them sorted by color.

 

I emptied this white box shown above on the pink table completely. I still have two different sized boxes to sort through and put in the folders by color.

I took a lot of extra, unnecessary steps to get to this point but I guess it's how I had to work it out. I'm positive I can now use this system for all future stickers and cutouts I do.

I put, by color, everything on a piece of computer paper and then file it in the appropriate folder. When I want to use a few of the stickers or the whole page I'll scan it and cut them out. This keeps the originals I've found ready to be used many times which thrills me to no end! Unlimited fodder is a little slice of heaven!

Orange

 

I'm still working on the 30 day art journal. It might take a year but it will be 30 days of art in a book once finished. I used up the rest of my printer ink and scanned and printed out a few of my favorite pages to use in collage.

Turns out, I really do like the first page I did using my favorite word: "Awesome". It grew on me. LOL The flowers will get cut out separately and added here and there in journals and on cards as will the cute little doodle faced folks.

Shown above is a piece of computer paper and I took a lot of the painted papers pieces I didn't put into the color folders on it. This will get cut down and used in some way; probably on cards. I might add a few more embellishments to it with stencils and an ink pad as well as my favorite acrylic circles I like to do. I had tried gluing all the painted papers together making a large sheet, embellishing it (some are used here) then cutting it down but honestly this works for me a little better. I can make these often and file them in a folder and use them at a later time. This works for me. In the end that's all that matters!

 

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

If you'd like to support the artist go to BuyMeACoffee and buy me a cuppa. It's always greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. 👄💝 

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

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