Fabric Booklet Covers

Today I'm working on denim fabric covers for booklets made of painted scrap papers. The denim is from old jeans and I'm trying to get a nice frayed look. The pages will be randomly painted papers that are a byproduct of my other painting projects. Here are some pictures of the 'ingredients' that I am using.

Completed Collage

This collage took a little more time than some of my smaller projects. It was completed in multiple layers and a number of finish coats that took time to dry. This collage is on a 20 x 20 canvas panel. It includes a number of different papers, acrylic paint, and paint stained cotton yarn. I enjoyed making this collage and have already moved on to new projects. You'll see those later.

Collage Fun

I've discovered that making collages is an ongoing unexpected experiment. This is a photo synopsis of one I am currently working on:

Art in the Dark

What do you do when you have no power for a week? 

And it's 90 to 100 degrees outside...

Stay in the cool dark basement and play on an iPad or IPhone.

This is the photo I took of the derecho minutes before it took out power and hit our area. 

The photo does not do it justice. It looked like a wall of black clouds mowing down everything in it's path and that is pretty much what it did to our entire state. This was only 7:30 PM but it darkened the sky so much the street lights came on. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power all across the state, many for a week or more, including us.

But since my craft room and most of my artwork is done in the basement I had to find other ways to stay busy for awhile. I always have books to read or art apps to use on my iPad. Things are getting back to normal now and I am working on some new painting projects. I did recently finish a blue painted collage and have some other works in progress.

I also managed to do a little sewing and made these pencil cases.

And this cute little booklet.

Until later....

Stay Busy. I do!

Painting

I have been spending more time just painting little canvases (8x10) experimenting with color blends, techniques, and texture. I don't really have a theme or even a mood, just two colors that are inspiring me to play with them. These are some of my play creations:

Pages from my File Folder Art Journal

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get good photos of my art journal pages without scanning them. Simply photographing them doesn't always come out well. The colors aren't always true and I use gloss medium instead of mat medium a lot and those pages reflect the flash and don't photograph well at all. But I am posting the results anyway.

Pages 1 - 2

Pages 2 - 3

Pages 5 - 6

Pages 7 - 8

Pages 9 - 10

Pages 11 - 12

Pages 13 - 14

pages 15 - 16

Pages 17 - 18

Pages 19 - 20

Pages 21 - 22

That is about half of them and I will post the remaining pages later.

Time Flies

When you're staying busy. I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. My original goal was to try to post once a week. So this post is to catch up on some of the things I have been doing. I'm taking a little break from the art journaling and doing a few other crafts. See below:

Small crochet bags for Runes or other small treasures.

A mini weaving project that may become the cover of a small journal.

Homemade polymer clay Runes and matching cloth bag.

The File Folder blank book I made earlier this year finished with collage, paint and texture on every page.