Landscape and Sunset Collages

 After a much longer than anticipated break from crafting I have finally been back in my studio and done a little bit of creating.  These collages are a great way of getting back into it and I really enjoy working in this very small format - they are approximatley 2" sqauare. I randomly picked the subject and colour out of a jar I have on my desk, and landed up with 'landscapes' and 'orange', which led me straight to sunsets!

I am linking up with Sarah over at WOYWW this week.

Silver Pendant and Garden Landscapes

 Happy New Year!  We've avoided the snow thankfully but it's been windy and cold so I've been staying warm indoors and getting a little bit of crafting done. 

Before Christmas I made a silver pendant as a Christmas present and also another one as a commission from a friend of a friend, so as the kiln needed to be fired up it seemed a good idea to make a couple of pieces for myself too!

I forgot to photograph the first two pieces what with so much going on - I was just relieved to get them finished in time and boxed up! However, I've just finished polishing this one for myself and I'm pleased with how it came out.  I would have preferred a slightly different stone to the white Moonstone on the left but that is all I had in my stash that toned with the Labradorite and Hematite.  It was taken from a mould of a rough concrete surface and is chunky at about 4cm wide.

And for something completely different I've been playing around in my sketchbook with little landscape collages.  I started with watercolour bases and am just adding bits as and when I feel like it!  I have no idea how they will end up but it's all about the process - they are relaxing and enjoyable and are feeding in to my current obsession with garden landscapes! 

I'm linking up with Sarah over at WOYWW. 

Little Landscape Collages

 I have finished (I think!) the little collages I was making in my last post.  They are part of the garden landscape collages I've been working on in my sketchbook and I really like the colours in these.  They are loosely taped into the book and can be removed easily if I want to work on them again - which I'm undecided about at the moment.  

Christmas is nearly upon us and I'm all done - cards made, decorations up and presents wrapped, not a lot else to do now except sit back and relax!  

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a happy, crafty New Year.

I'm joining Sarah over at WOYWW

Lanscape collages II

 These landscape collages are a continuation from last week's post where I randomly picked the words 'landscape' and 'brown' from my prompt jar as a starting point for a series of collages.  I decided to carry on with the theme and use up some of the papers I had made, this time working a little bigger and marking out 6 squares in my sketchbook instead of 9.  I think I might work into these a little more but will wait a while and think about it!

I worked these directly into my sketchbook and at some point during the process I decided to work both vertically and horizontally - I wanted to move away from the horizontal horizon line in each one.  However I think individually or paired up  some look better rotated.  Below are the collages as made in the sketchbook and   above are the pairings which include the 4 rotated ones.

I am linking up with Sarah over at WOYWW this week.

Mini Grid Collages - Landscapes and WOYWW

It really has been a struggle lately to find the motivation to be creative - I've had a lot of other things going on and and my studio has been sadly neglected.  However I decided to use my little pot of prompts and this set of mini collages developed from the theme of landscapes and the colour brown - two prompts that so nicely went together!  I have a feeling I'll continue with this as I enjoyed the colours so much and have an awful lot of left over home made papers!

 

I'm linking up with Sarah for WOYWW this week.

Garden Shadows

 I've been working on a few mini collages based on shadows and shapes around my garden at dusk - always one of my favourite times of the day in the summer.  My garden is on two levels and has steps to the top garden but also lots of smaller steps from one area to another, little walls, and lots of paths - a great variety of shapes and textures to work with! These little collages are approximately 2 inches square, and after staining the backgrounds I added hand embroidery and collage papers, finishing off with gold leaf which I discovered is very tricky to attach to fabric!  

 

I'm linking up with Sarah for WOYWW this week.

Collages and Stitch

This week I've been keeping the creativity going and out of the prompt jar came the theme of Samplers and the colour Orange.  I chose to do a different embroidery stitch on each little collage square, and I'm using bits of dress pattern and some vintage embroidery transfers that I've had for absolutely ages! Still a few squares to go, and in case anyone is wondering what the sellotape is for, I use it to hold down the threads on the back when starting and finishing, instead of using bulky knots.

 

 My prompts are written on different colours of paper to depict themes, colours and techniques.  I haven't used the technique prompts yet, they are an extra help if I feel uninspired!  I know a couple of people have wanted to know what my prompts are so for anyone interested here are the lists.

Themes: birds, tree houses, seasons, landscapes, maps, text, gardens, samplers, beach, shadows.

Colours: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, neutrals, pink, grey, turquoise.

Techniques: tissue paper, wax, metallic, stencils, teabags, stitch, watercolour, pastel/chalk, photographs, die-cuts

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week

Mini Collages

I have recently been making little collages and have found them very enjoyable to do and also quite addictive.  To get myself organised I decided to make some grid stencils.  It's something I was taught to do in an art class many moons ago at college, and it's a useful way of displaying small samples of textiles, textures, techniques and so on.

These are A4 and fit my sketchbook perfectly - it's neater and quicker than trying to approximate the grid squares or re-measure each time. I made several different sized grids and the effort it took to work out the measurements and cut them out is more than worth it!

This week I picked the words 'Maps' and 'Turquoise' from my prompt jar and have spent a little time each day putting ideas down onto the collage grid.  

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW

Kickstarting Creativity!

 Making small collages for the last couple of weeks has been a good way to kickstart my creativity.  However, sometimes I struggle with what to do with the blank piece of paper in front of me - so I've come up with a prompt jar.  I've written colours and themes on different coloured paper squares and I can dip in and get a starting point for my next collages.  I've thrown a few 'techniques' into the mix as well in case I'm really stuck!

This week I picked out 'yellow' and 'tree houses'.  The combination didn't exactly thrill me and I was tempted to re-pick, but that's not really in the spirit things.  I also felt week one was a little early to give up on the idea, so I went with it and started enjoying myself!

12 little squares being worked on - a mix of home made collage papers, some wrapping paper and a few old postage stamps thrown in - and a bit more of an emphasis on ladders than I was expecting!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Mini Grid Collages

 I decided to try and kick start some creativity this week by creating a grid of 6 little collages.  I was recently inspired by Angela (@Felix the Crafty Cat) to make my own collage papers.    It's been fun and quite addictive - I'm already planning my next lot of collages! 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Collage - Layered Tissue

 This week I have had to clear my desk from the ghastly mess of rubber stamp sorting that I was doing last week in order to concentrate on ATCs.  Once they were finished I made a quick collage using the next prompt in The Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman.  This one is using layers of tissue paper.

I used some very old Gestetner paper I had in my stash - anyone else remember using the old Gestetner machines before photocopiers came along?  I think I'm showing my age!   I also added a strip of acetate across some of the collage - that's the reflection showing in the photo below.

I'm off to mess up my nice clear desk and do some more stamp sorting, but before that I'm joining in with Julia over at WOYWW.

Finger Paint Collages

I've just finished off two collages that have been hanging around half finished since October.  The prompts I've been following are from The Collage Workbook by Randal Plowman.  This prompt was all about adding finger painting to a collage.  

And now on to the absolute disaster that is my desk this morning - it's very unusal  for me to have anything on my desk as I always clear away as I make - but yesterday I decided to use a stamp for an idea I had.  Despite the fact my stamps are all catalogued and can be found by drawer number and then inside the drawer by a specific box number, the stamp I wanted was missing.  I couldn't find it anywhere so decided to have a combined search and sort out of all my stamps.  This is drawer 1 and I have a small pile of stamps 'to go' by my radio and an overflowing box of stamps that I don't know if I want to keep or not but will probably let go.  I can forsee regret in the future!

The catalogue pages are bottom right and new pages are being made with tiny stamps that I never bothered cataloguing in the past - after all if I'm doing this ghastly job I might as well do it properly!

I'm joining in with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Frosty Seedlings Collage

 I surprised myself by finishing the page I started last week in my sketchbook.  Still working on the winter garden theme and loving it!

    Some detailed shots... 

   ... the photo on the left shows 'Frosted Crystal' Distress embossing powder - I just love it's matte texture - so frosty!

I've also done some little ink doodles with a view to using them in collages.   These are currently on my desk, along with stencil brushes to be put away and the sketch book that should be back on it's shelf!

Some photo collages with the doodles for my velvet moth photography blog - the MakroTex challenge theme this week is 'collage'.   

I'm joining in with Julia over at WOYWW this week, a great place for seeing what other people have on their desks at the moment.

A Messy Desk!

 A bit of a messy desk this week - I haven't managed to finish anything and horror of horrors I actually have pushback!  The shells at the back have been pushed out of the way while they wait for me to varnish them, and some gentle collage making has been going on.  I say gentle because the tennis elbow in my right arm has now be joined by a frozen shoulder - they certainly make crafting challenging!

And on that note, can anyone please recommend an accurate guillotine - I always use a steel rule and a Stanley knife but that is just out of the question at the moment and it seems 90% of my crafting requires cutting straight lines!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Buddleia Card and Book Collage

 

I've achieved quite a lot since I last posted considering we had my step-son and his family visiting from the USA last week.  

I've completed another collage using the prompts in The Collage Workbook - it was all about using bits of old books - which was lucky, as I have loads!  

 I also had to make a sympathy card and I found this Buddleia stamp set in my stash that I'm sure I've never used ...

 ...and I've been gold leafing some prints too!  

Housework is next on the agenda! 

But before that I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW for the weekly desk hop.

Word Collage and ATC Swap

  This week I've made another collage for my journey through The Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman - for this one I had to use one word only in it and not a lot else!

In my newly reorganised studio I've 'lost' a sepia pen, two bottles of epoxy resin and a small office date stamp - each has been put in a convenient, logical and completely different place to where they used to live!  I am resisting buying more as I know that as soon as I do they will resurface!  However, despite having no sepia pen I've managed to start a new collage!

This week has also seen more happy mail - a beautiful ATC and card from Sylvia, it arrived more quickly than I thought and I love the little extras - thank you so much Sylvia.  That leaves just one ATC due and I have a horrible feeling it's probably been lost in the post but I'm keeping my fingers crossed it might still turn up.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.

Typography Collage

I made this a couple of weeks ago, continuing my journey with Randel Plowman's Collage Workbook - I had to find a word or phrase and work it in to the collage, so I got out my old typewriter, found some old book scraps and set to work!

I then made some backgrounds for the ATC swap next week followed by some 'extreme gardening', tackling the brambles, ivy and next door's Leylandii that are trying to take over the garden.  The end result of all this hard work is tennis elbow! Not nearly as innocuous as it sounds!

Despite this I'm planning on taking part in the swap and will definitely make a few extra ATC's for anyone wanting to swap, especially now that I already have the backgrounds prepared!  

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW

Deconstructed Collages

A couple of collages this week, still following the challenges in the Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman.  Well one collage actually.  The top one was started in December - I got stuck and left it. This week I decided to stencil the word Paris over it.  Instantly regretted it.  I made a pig's ear of the stencilling - a rookie error, the stencil wasn't taped down securely.  But also it was accidentally upside down (I really should have known better!).  So as the requirement was to deconstruct a collage and peel layers away I deconstructed it and re-made it using bits of the first one.   What a palaver for something I'm not overly keen on anyway - they say it's the journey don't they!

I know I keep banging on about my recent big clear out - last week was a Logarithms book I was thrilled to find and this week it's floppy disks - remember those!  We found a box of about 400 in the loft and went through them destroying any that had personal info on - it left me with a lovely little pile of springs and some odd metal pieces.  I don't really know why I'm keeping them at all, but they were irresistible to me!

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week.