By The Sea

I love vintage beach images! Those risque bathing costumes! And the wonderful umbrellas!

I decided to combine my love of these images with my love of sea green and turquoise.

Below is the progression of my collage. I began by painting the page with turquoise, brown and white acrylic paints. I then tore up strips of papers in my chosen color family of sea green. I used Mod Podge to glue these down adding in vintage photos among the papers. All of these images came from the LunaGirl panorama CD (I was working on my beach themed ATCs from my last post at the same time lol)

After staring at it for a while, I decided I needed another color, maybe a bit of red. So I added the strip down the center....and while applying the glue to the back, saw this wonderful text filled side (I really should remember to check the backs of my papers more often lol) Not wanting to miss out of this fun side, I took another strip, flipped it over and added the text along the right border.
I wanted the layers to sort of meld into each other so I used a palatte knife and swiped white acrylics all over the page.

Next came rubber stamps! My Fred Mullett 'Menpachi' fish stamp using a rusty red ink. I really do need to go get some more Fred Mullett stamps! I just love this fish! And the seashell stamp with text comes from Stampington and Company (Postal Shell) stamped in brown.

Now for doodling! I used black Prismacolor, Sacura Micron and Sharpie pens (why all different brands? Because I have different size tips in each lol) And I used a white Marvy gel pen and Wite-Out pen.

Here are a couple close ups. I outlined this girl with the white pens.

Here I colored the center girl and her umbrella with Prismacolor pencils. I wrote my text by hand (obviously) which I hate to do because my handwriting is so horrible lol But, unless I want to paint or collage over it, there is stays lol

I am still not sure if this is done. I keep thinking it needs something. Maybe some pearlized old buttons... we shall see.

Gardening, Doodling and ATCs, Oh My!

Am I the only one that finds it facinating the way peas with grap hold of something to balance themselves?

Below are some macro photos of my sugar snap peas.

A recent lesson in my Creative Doodles class had us finding our signature character doodle.

I am still doodling Mignonette (Minnie) Here she is using Prismacolor pencils on black paper.

I call this Urban Minnie. lol

And ATCs!

I am still in the monthly ATC swap at BadBabies. This month we have a challenge. Use the postcard below in your ATC(s). This card is a hotel at Cannon Beach, OR. I cut it down and made 2 cards.

I sanded the postcard to get rid of the slick finish and then rubbed Distress Ink all over. The 'bathing beauties' are from the LunaGirl panorama images CD.

Same treatment of the postcard. Here I stamped the girl with umbrella (Tin Can Mail) on white cardstock then cut her out and glued her to the card.

Gardens and Doodles

I told you I would share my garden with you. Here is my AeroGarden. I started my tomatoes, basil, petunias and impatiens in it. I managed to get the tomatoes out into the garden about a month ago but then it got cold again and everything else had to wait.

As you can see, it became very jungle-like lol I have to say though, it was nice having petunias blooming in the diningroom. :-)
Here are some of the tomato plants (they have grown at least another 8 inches since I took this last weekend. And we have garlic that is about ready to pick! Yippee!

I planted these sugar snap peas way back in March per instructions from the co-op. They didn't even come up until May! But now are growing about 6 inches a day. I just hope we get peas before the weather gets too hot and kills them off.

And I managed to get a bit of doodling done over the weekend as well. Our class assignment was to find our signature doodle. Something that we enjoy and can sort of get lost in...something we can doodle at anytime and just enjoy.

I used to use Tucker a my subject in lots of art projects. His distinctive markings made him fun to draw. Now we have Minnie. Being a tuxedo cat, black and white, although quite striking to view, can be a bit boring to draw at times. So, I instead am being inspired by her personality. She is such a diva! And I have never seen a more happy go lucky being on the face of the earth. She is just always happy and loves everyone and everything.

So Minnie is now my doodle inspiration (with bits of Tucker thrown in)

Minnie's full name is Mignonette so that is what I am calling these doodles. Here she is enjoying the flowers.

And my little diva just loves getting new toys (or in this case, a new hat).

Wishing for less work and more art!

I am still working on my Creative Doodles class....just not as often as I would like. I am averaging about 2 sessions a week. :-( But this is better than none....right? :-)

Here is a progressive photo of a collage and doodle piece. (I spared you the boredom of seeing each layer of paint and paper lol) We were supposed to be asymetrical...as if I am normally balanced! haha

The black swirls and 'leaves' were done in acrylic paint. Then I doodled all over with black pens and finally white gel pen.
Here we were supposed to draw with a eye dropper....now, I bought one to use for this class but darned if I can find it! So, for now I just used Chinese ink and a paint brush. Gotta find that dropper this weekend! I then added some watercolors and finally doodles with pens.

And in case you thought I had totally abandoned it, I did a page for my journal....using a papers and painted collage background. The woman is from the Stage Beauties image cd from Enchanted Mercantile. Lastly, I doodled the butterfly and added the text "On the wings of a Butterfly, My Dreams take flight".

It has been a very dreary, rainy spring here in the Pacific Northwest. So much so that our gardens are pretty much non-existant! My tomato plants are just teeny things! And my flowers are still in the seed pods inside the house and spilling out all over in hopes that it will warm up and dry out just enough that I can transplant them outside....and hope that summer actually arrives. I should take a picture of my poor flowers before I transplant them...my Aerogrow looks like a jungle! lol