Heirloom Pumpkin Patch

"Heirloom Pumpkin patch"

After having so much fun making my last batch of pumpkins, I decided to go with Wanda's idea of a pumpkin collage (thanks!), and this is the result.

I used the inner roll of brown cardpaper from the gift wrap i used on the weekend, and sewed it onto some heavy watercolour paper. Then I cut squares of canvas and sewed them to the background.

I drew up my three pumpkins, to make a pattern for the scraps, and made the nine pumpkins out of various paper scraps, including music manuscript, newsprint, rice paper, straw paper, some veiney paper i saved from a christmas gift basket, some sewing patterns and some cheesecloth.

Then i sewed these to the squares, all higgledy piggledy (i cant sew neat even if i wanted to anyhow).

I glued everything to a square of masonite (recycled from an old mirror frame), lightly burnt the edges of the watercolour paper, and painted both the showing masonite, and the watercolour paper cream.

I coated everything in beeswax, and embedded some vintage buttons Wanda gave me around the edges on the masonite.

I am so happy how this whole piece turned out, it was one of those works that i couldnt leave. I was thinking of entering it into the Cloth Paper Scissors Artisan Search, but as luck would have it, I read the fine print and the damn thing is only open to U.S. residents! Well pooh!

At any rate, I have a great new artwork to put up on my wall this thanksgiving when my Dad and his family comes over for the first time. Excited...YES!

Fall is here!

The weather is cooling off, the leaves are turning. Fall is Here. I decided to get my fall on and create some cute pumpkinny postcards. These are still in progress, but are they ever fun to make.

Eggtastic!

So here are my newest Easter postcards!

The eggs were made from layering scraps of coloured and metallic papers. I cut out the egg shape, gessoed them, and then added the black stamping. I then antiqued the edges to create some dimension to the eggs using sepia and black ink.

I made the backgrounds using the same technique as in the spring rabbits, watercolour pencil with crayon and fluid acrylics on top.

Again, i sewed the egg onto the background and then added some card to the back and sewed that as well.

Then i gel mediumed everything to make it post-safe!

On a side note, I sent the first batch of postcards off to people yesterday...So if you know me you might just be getting one in the mail soon!

Graffiti Bunnies!

These four postcards used the woven paper leftover from my "Spring Rabbits", placed on a 'graffiti' background.

I created the background first by placing several washes of fluid acrylic onto watercolour paper, spraying the wet acrylics with rubbing alcohol to add more texture and interest. I placed a layer of gel medium over the top, and then wrote, scribbled and drew over the top with crayons and oil pastels in contrasting colours. I scraped back the colour with a spatula in some places, and then added splatters of watered down black and white paint.

I antiqued the rabbit layers, with a sepia and then some black ink. Then, I sewed around the rabbit shape to attach the two layers together (except in Music-Bunny#1). Then i added the additional cardboard to the back, and sewed around it as well, securing all three layers together.

I then gel mediumed both front and back to provide a good seal and waterproofing.

I have an eggcellent series of postcards in the works right now...cant wait to share those next!

Easter Bunnies!

I have been channeling my inner 4 year old this past week or so, and have been doing some paper-weaving. I used the woven paper to make some Easter post-cards. To make these four, entitled Spring-Rabbit#1-4 , I started by weaving some sheet music and newspaper strips into the total size of the postcard. I then cut the rabbit shape out, and set the other pieces aside. Then, I made the backgrounds using watercolour pencils on watercolour paper. I went back over the backgrounds with a mixture of crayons, highlighter markers, regular pencils, and more watercolour pencils, then painted over the top again, using a mixture of fluid acrylics and regular acrylics.

On Spring-rabbit#3 I added some newsprint transfer, and some ink along the outer edges (for something different). I also sewed the rabbit to this one as an experiment.

I then inked the rabbits with distress inks, and hot glue gunned them to the backgrounds.

Because my watercolour paper was not quite strong enough, i sewed a rectangle of cardboard packaging (plain side out) to the back. The stitching provided a nice little frame for the bunnies.

I then gel-medium-ed the entire thing, front and back to provide waterproofing.