Sunny monday

Bright sun and warmth on the hills, a day like this is a gift. I worked in the garden this morning, a lot of cleaning to do at this time. Flowers blooming everywhere one looks.
White violets.

My favorite photos are close-ups, especially close-ups of the hearts of flowers and the complicated heart of hellebores fascinate me i acknowledge.

This camellia, perfect mandala.

I can't resist to share this quote from Eckhart Tolle :"Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature. The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in the evolution of human consciousness." E.Tolle  A New Earth

I realized recently that i never showed you the stamps i make with foam, they are very easy to do  and i use them in many works.
I first draw my pattern on paper then transfer it on the foam with tracing paper. I cut the pattern out  and lastly glue it down on foamboard.

I don't create only animals or vegetal stamps. I like to make abstract patterns too.

I use them a lot in an altered book where i express my love of animals and nature.

If you want to give a try at handmade stamps, mixed media artist Tracy Bunkers published an excellent book  some years ago: "Print and Stamp" 52 ideas for handmade, upcycled print tools"
where she shows how to print and stamp with ordinary stuff we have at hand: rubber bands, garden knilling cushion,paper clips... My next step in creating handmade stamp is to teach myself how to carve them. More to come!

I send  you peaceful thoughts friends, may you be well and at ease. Namasté

#ARTifacts

End of february, it's time for a post about ARTifacts, Seth Apter's project that will last during the whole year.
I am done with the box that will hold the files i use to document my creative life . Last month i showed you the first steps of the transformation of the cardboard box, here is the result:
Front :

Back

I used handmade stamps and metallic paints. Below, the file and the tag where  i write about my creative experiences of the month.
 First, january file .Front cover

The insides

The january tag 

For february i used the same system of file and tag, but i added to the file some photos i made during the month; some landscape pix and others of the sewing project of february, small hearts i cut in white fabric.

For the technics, i used collage, Masking Tape, inks and metallic paints.
Back cover

February tag

I really enjoy documenting my creative work and i noticed it  has an impact on my inspiration and i tend to procrastinate less since i began to work at this project.
Seth Apter posted on his blog photos the participants sent him. If you would like to see the pictures it is here. You won't see my work, i haven't sent him any pictures yet because the box was not finished.
I am a bit of a slow worker.
May you be peaceful and at ease.

30 Day journaling Project

11th of february already! It is time i show up and give some news  of what's going on on the norman front. After a quite difficult month of january with some personal stressful issues, february began softly and brought its lot of solutions and happy endings and even some nice surprises (sigh of relief!) including , guess what?......Some snow! Rare enough in this part of the world to be seen as a real treat! Of course it didn't last  but anyway, i had the pleasure to discover the field blanketed in snow this morning and it made my day.

This year i registered again to 30 Day Journaling Project by Lisa Sonora. Every day some prompts arrive in my email box  to ponder about ; it is an excellent way to avoid the blank page anxiety and at the same time  taking a moment every day to answer one or more of the prompts can create a discipline . To do so i made myself a small book .

This is the front cover, made in an upcycled book packaging. It ended more busy than i wanted but i like it anyway. techniques used: Stamping,collage : dried flowers, images from old book and some drawings . Gesso, acrylic paint and inks for the background.

Front cover with a handmade "ribbon". I like to make "ribbons" with strips of an old white bed sheet. In general i put paint and stamping on them but this time i sewed just a line of black stitches, the cover was busy enough.

I made the signature with a paper lightly  yellowed with age and in the corner i pasted birds photocopied in black and white; i made pale copies and used colored pencils to give them an ancient feel  not visible on the photo  alas.

This is the back cover.

In case you would like to join in, you can still do it and here is a link to an excellent blog post by Lisa Sonora "How to start journaling- 3 things that make your writing easier".

I hope you're having a nice week end where you are, thanks for visiting.

.

#ARTifacts

ARTifacts is Seth Apter's new collaborative project, here is his definition:

"ARTifacts(plural noun): a collaborative project for 2017 documenting adventures in Art." 

You will find all the details here

When i read Seth's blogpost about ARTifacts i knew it would be a great opportunity to focus more on my creative work ; through documenting i realized i would probably find momentum more easily and would tend less to procrastinate. And curiously it corresponded to an idea that poped-up in december wich consisted in creating kind of a mixed media book of the year where i would take notes about my creativity.

Couple of weeks later, i abandoned the idea of the book for a box and some old cards; the idea is to use two upcycled cards to create a small file  for each month and in this file i will add some pictures of my monthly creations and a tag for journaling.Here are some pictures of the process:

The very beginning, a cardboard box and old cards about plants.

After some layers of black gesso:

The old cards before and after: on the left  a card before sanding and on the right  a card after sanding.

The front of a card in process: I sanded the card then inked with different colors and collaged squared paper and Washi tape. 

This is the inside of the card: i pasted paper i had sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer inks  and some Distress inks.

. When i pondered about participating to ARTifacts, i knew i had to find a way to keep going during the whole year, so my rules are clear: "make it simple and use only the techniques i like most" and i think that if i stick at these rules, i shouldn't have to much trouble staying in the flow.

I love this project, THANKS Seth  Apter!!!

Handmade book

I am fascinated by handmade books, especially the small formats. One of the things i like more about handmade books, is the possibility to upcycle stuff to create them. I began one, couple months ago, with what i had at hand: the covers were made with an Amazon book packaging and the images were among  scraps on my desk. The result is quite strong because i was in one of my black/red and white phases.
This is the front cover, the circle is cut in wrapping paper.

Below, inside of both back and front covers.

This last picture is the back cover.

The dimensions are 12X15 cm, not the smallest book i have done but a comfortable size for me to work with. There are still some blank pages in it, let's see if i can fill them up during this year.
I wish you a lot of good moments of creative work.