Christmas in August

Walk into a cool evening

On a hot Monday, a cool winter night, from IO Stamps and reclaimed papers.

The idea of a square card piqued my interest.
Start with rectangle of midnight-painted paper. What next?

The Impression Obsession Birch Trees die, complete with cardinals, cuts too delicate for my clumsy ways. But wait. There's hand-me-down self-stick white paper on my shelves. Voila! Birch trees even I can manage. 

The wee red cardinals, cut from used watercolor paper, are turned over and colored red. The deer comes out of an old file card. (Turn it over and you'd find tenth grade history notes.)

The ground and sentiment  are scraps of notes, sheet music, and an old novel. Even the purple card-stock was hand-me-down. 

Next time perhaps the birch trees will continue into the purple. But I like the off-center composition. It feels like a window into another world.

Reclaimed art materials + Impression Obsession + the Holidays = inspiration on a hot summer day.

Dreamy day

Do you have those days that looked primed for productivity, that disappear in a swoon of experiments and ideas?

After three days of energy - so welcome after as many weeks stuck on the couch, I thought more intense sewing was ahead.

 But today felt like drifting downstream, paddle on lap. The notion of making my own images on fabric keeps turning over in my hands and head. Today's attempts varied from sentimental to autumnal.

Playing with stamps and brush on muslin

These were printed after a slow walk around the block in the mist with the dog.

Working back into long-ago dyed fabric, with acrylic paints

 I'll let them dry and see how I feel about them tomorrow.

Color, cards, and a tip of the hat

After a hot, productive day, I decided to take on Papertrey Ink's invitation to play with color in the spirit of Andy Warhol.  

 Inspired by the current state of my work table,

My work table tonight

I picked out a stamp from a set about art supplies:

Part of the set - Anyone know the maker?

The Papertrey video explains the steps well enough for even a slapdash person like me to follow. More or less. 

Sticky notes, printed and trimmed, mask the stamps. Painter's tape masks the grounds, one at a time.

Getting started.

 When I slipped up doing the backgrounds, the result reminded me of a shadow. So I repeated the effect in the other quadrants. A soft pink frame and a Papertrey wish finished it off.

Finished

 Lots of fun. Might just do this again tomorrow.