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This week I decided to put my response to the Inspire Me Thursday prompt in my art journal.
The clock is a transfer that needed a little help (yes I forgot to reverse the photo before I transfered).
Don't forget to double click on image if you want a closer look.
I'm working more and more on altering my old journal into my new art journal. My journal spans a time frame from November 16, 1999 to May 31, 2004 and covers some of the biggest changes to my life. I'm not a "write an entry every day" kind of person so sometimes there were large gaps in the time line. It's been fun to read back through this journal and decide what should be kept and what should be covered-altered in fact.
Because it is now a "new" journal, I decided to alter the cover this week. When I bought this journal it was solid blue. Right away I taped the dragonfly card to the front with some copper tape and add a bit of text from a favorite poem. Today I added some more paint, ripped the paper a bit, and then added a bit more paint. And lastly I added the prompt to "Bee Creative."
Inspire Me Thursday's prompt started out as a bit of a struggle for me. I thought about building something with squares of paper from my stash of trash, but wanted to do something more....
So I decided it was time to do a little felting with a square of lace I had. My intent was to make a mouse pad-and it works great.
But then I wanted to do something more, so I scanned the felted piece into the computer, applied a filter and printed the resulting image. And then I had to add some text 'cause it just needed something more.
And then I started thinking what a lovely connect it was to have created a new fabric out of something that one of my great-grandmothers had most likely made and some roving that I had in my stash. And that I was connecting old skills with new. So I added a little more text and an altered picture of myself, because it just sort of seemed to belong there....
Here's the mouse pad before scanning:
I thought I might have to turn it over to the felt side to use, but the mouse moves nicely over the lace. Felting lace and wool roving together is something I want to do more of. I think it will make some of the more delicate lace in my stash more sturdy.
I know tabbies have a reputation for being easy going, but this could be called ridiculous....
This is the first fall leaf I've picked up this year. The first that caught my eye and said "pick me up and take me home."
It won't be the last as I'll be picking up leaves for the next couple months and will have quite a collection by the end of November.
It's so much cooler in the evenings, but I haven't quite felt the need to turn the heat on. For now I've added a blanket to the bed and I put on a sweater a little sooner than I would have a week ago. That first frost is coming soon though....
What did I learn about ATCs? That they are a great way to use up scraps! At least a "Half a Hundred Uses..." I'm thinking about cutting some of my larger scraps into 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 squares so that they are ready to go for scrap gathering.
I also learned they are a great way to experiment. For example, I 
decided I would actually draw something (imagine that!) so I looked around the room and drew a lamp I saw. Not to intimidating to think about drawing something little. I wasn't really very thrilled about it though, until I discovered the perfect text to go with the drawing! Then it made me smile....
This exercise also led to the first cat-art experience. The cat wasn't too thrilled about me washing glue out of her tail.
The last couple mornings I’ve heard a young man (late teens, early twenties maybe) singing at the bus terminal. He has a wonderful raspy voice. I don’t recognize the lyrics he’s singing, but they are nice. I noticed that he has earphones on so he’s singing along with something he’s listening to. I wonder, if he didn’t have the earphones on, would he still be singing?
Lots of good stuff hiding in this basket of supplies from the farmer's market (plus a little posy that caught my eye and a dahlia that was a gift from one of the vendors). With this, plus some things from my garden, my parents garden and some spices from the co-op I made:
*Tomato sauce
*Tomatillio Salsa
*Three fruit jam (sour cherries from a friend, strawberries, and raspberries)
I have peppers to roast and freeze as well but I didn't get that far....
I also did some sewing this weekend-finally decided to make a shirt with a hemp-blend fabric that I have. I've decided I really like hemp fabrics. Easy to sew and comfortable to wear.
Still reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and really loving it. I've been thinking a lot about what it means to eat seasonally, and what that would look like in January. Digging out something I've preserved won't be an in-season choice, unless we consider it the "season of canned goods!" I do think that it would be a better choice than buying fruit from out of state though. I'll confess right now, I will buy oranges at least once. It wouldn't be December without candied orange peel!
I'm still a bit amazed at the statistic that she gives about the benefits of eating locally once a week. I'm doing pretty good at consistently eating 90% local each week. I've decided I'm going to try to post one meal each week that is local and seasonal. So here's one for this week:
Veggie Taco! I need to come up with a better name I think. It's got potatoes (garden), cauliflower (market), tomatoes (garden), peppers (market), cheese (locally made, bought at locally owned grocery store), yogurt (made by me with local milk) and the tomatillio salsa I made. Oh, and the tortillas (locally made, bought at co-op). I really love doing tacos/burritos/wraps. It's very easy to be creative with them.
Here's my response to the Inspire Me Thursday prompt. The first part of the prompt was to pick a color that speaks to me the most at the moment. Such a hard thing for me, I love colors and really struggle when I have to choose one. I decided, though, to go with brown. I love the brownish tint that old paper gets, brown is the color of chocolate, and brown things keep creeping into my living room (which oddly enough works really well with the purple walls....). I think of brown as a very comfortable color.
As for my process, I tried something new with the watercolor-transfer process. I put a layer of brown paint on the watercolor paper before I applied the transfer. It transfered beautifully! The ink took on a slightly different color too. What didn't turn out so well was the bird. So since the original image had transfered so cleanly, I cut out the bird and glued it over the transfered bird. I played with the watercolors a little to see if the edges could blend in a little better and the bird got a little dark, so I used some white to make it stand out a little better. And then it just called for some text....
I'm not sure if I will get as good of results the next time I try wetting the paper first, but it's definitely worth trying again. What I've found with transfers, is that I just have to keep playing until I get results I like. Here's another transfer that I did of my new kitten. Here's Hazel:
