Mixed Media

I choose a bright sunny photograph to work with that I captured this past summer at a local fair grange exhibit.

Opened another photograph of a field of wildflowers and earthy undergrowth for interesting texture. Converted the photograph to black & white and applied the sharpening filter to bring out more texture. This photograph is the background layer.

I then made a new layer by dragging the top photograph of yellow flowers onto the background layer of texture, and played around with the blending mode and the opacity until I was happy with the texture shinning through the top layer.

I was pleased with the final piece and thought let’s add a bit of daily affirmation: ‘believe in your dreams.’

This was great fun give it a try. Enjoy!

Stay well my friend and have a sunny blessed weekend!

I had started this collage a couple months ago and it just wasn’t working for me. This morning I pulled it from the reject bin and worked some magic. Now it hangs in my studio on one of my inspiration boards. I’m loving the beading. I think I had more fun tackling this project the second time around than the first. Never throw anything away, just tuck it a side and bring it out another time and let the magic happen.

I also finished a new page in my gardening journal which I’m pretty pleased with. This journal is where I keep all my gardening notes and landscaping ideas, another fun project.

Today life is good and creatively productive hoping your day is as well!

Stay well my friend!

I should have been on a flight to Florida at 6:30am yesterday morning, but Mother Nature didn’t want to play nice and blanketed the east coast in snow, so I had to reschedule for Monday morning. The crazy is there’s only about 2” lying outside the door as the sun warmly fills our studio. It is what it is, whether it is today, or Monday, so be it!

All of this is of no importance really, but it did make me lust for spring in a big way. So the creative muse gave me a challenge to make a garden journal to scratch all my gardening notes in. It wasn’t like playing in the dirt but it was a fun project.

This is my first handmade journal I’m still working on it here’s the front cover:

Words from a magazine “Create a haven of beauty peace nature,” and stamped off the bush growing out of the heart is happiness, family, love, health, hope and faith. Below the heart reads “as a way to save what is too often lost.”

Inside front and back covers is the art work of Georgia O’keeffe from a 2008 calendar. I found her provocative colors of nature inspire for a garden journal. Between the front and back cover are twenty-five sheets of 40lb water color paper all bound together with two eyelets threaded with Indian hemp strung with earthy colored beads.

I will be keeping this one for myself and plan to create a few more in the upcoming weeks.

Stay well my friend and Happy Valentines Day!