Vintage Valentine Collage

Guess what?  I actually managed to finish an artwork and blog about it!

Someone locally contacted me about participating in art show about LOVE and I thought this would be the perfect motivation for me to use some of the vintage Valentines cards in my stash.  Since that initial couple of emails I haven't heard anything else about the show, so who knows if it's going to happen or if that opportunity is gone.  Either way, it was a little kick in the pants to do something creative!

I used scrapbook paper cut into shapes, outlined in black doodles and white dots added.  Strips of tissue paper and paints were added as well.

These flowers on the right side were from an Instagram photo of a bouquet of flowers my husband sent me one year on our anniversary. 

 

A clown riding a pig?  I had to use this in my collage!

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Bits and Pieces Collage

This was a collage I made in my art journal with bits and pieces over the course of a few months.  I added to it a little bit here and there.

Materials include:  doily, scrapbook paper and embellishments, rub-ons, postage stamp, magazine clippings, stickers, star patch, white paint and gelli printed papers.

I just love this little guy with his arms raised!

Do you like vintage Valentine's cards?  I found a whole huge bunch of them in a thrift shop and I have put some of them in my Etsy shop.   They are cheaper than other ones I found on Etsy!  Only $5 for a set of 6.  And because you are a loyal reader of my blog, I'm giving you a coupon code to use in my shop:  BackToSchool for 20% off your whole order.  I have a lot of other vintage ephemera, digital downloads and art in my shop!
 

Index Card Art

Here are two more index cards for ICAD!

Don't forget to enter my Sticker Giveaway!

Linking to Glue It Tuesday

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Index Card Art

I love these index card artworks I've made.  Linking up to Daisy Yellow's lovely Index Card a Day art challenge.

You will notice that I used one of the stickers that I made from this tutorial on sticker making.

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Glue It Tuesday and Making Index Card Art with my Daughter

What happens when you give scissors, stickers, glue, crayons and index cards to a 3 year old?  

Daria had a blast creating Index Card art.   Cutting, coloring and adding stickers were the best part.

I made some index cards also for Daisy Yellow's Index Card a Day challenge.  

These cards are also perfect to share with Glue It Tuesday!  Check out the other fun participants in both of these challenges.

I have a question for you.  Be honest!  I just updated my header of this blog.  Do you think it is too busy?  Should I make it simpler?

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You Shall See the Beautiful Things...

I have been inspired by some of our summer events.  We went to several places this summer with carousels...  Disneyworld, of course.  The carousel was one of Daria's favorite rides.

We rode a lot of carousels this summer.  Our local zoo has a carousel, as well as a fun restaurant in our town called Ella's Deli.  If you ever visit Madison, WI go to this deli for lunch, it's a real trip!   Little Amerricka is a (little) amusement park only 20 min. from our house and they have all kinds of fun kiddie rides.  We went to all these places this summer and Daria had a blast riding the carousel at all of them.  Also, at Little Amerricka they have a cool little train ride.  I mean, the train is pretty small.  Daria loves trains (thank you, Thomas the Train).  So we go on the train ride and I expect the ride to just go around the park.  The train ride lasted 15 minutes and took us off to a farm area next to the park.  And there's ducks and cows and a peacock and sheep and all the typical little farm animals.  Then, as you loop around we see a ZEBRA.  I was thoroughly amused to see the zebra on the farm.  I was not expecting that.  The zebra made its way into my painting.

There was a book of children's fairy tales that I had where I cut out this text and used it in a previous collage.  I like this phrase and repeated it here with rub-on letters.

 Linked to Paint Party Friday, Artists in Blogland and Out of the Journal.

Cabinet of Curiosities #3-- Mixed Media Painting

This is a mixed media painting called Cabinet of Curiosities #3.  A series of paintings in this grid-like style is emerging.  I used a lot of acrylic paints, gel sticks, pan pastels, my own watercolor illustrations and random ephemera.  I am linking this to Paint Party Friday.

using watersoluble crayons/pencils

This is a bird painting.  I used watercolor pencils for the bird and then smudged it with a damp Q-tip.  The color splotches were made with watercolor pencils and water soluble crayons.  There are other collage elements and marker designs added.

Rest your Soul

Here is a small collage I made for the Inspiration Avenue challenge of the week.. using a damask image in your artwork.  It also fits the monthly Artists in Blogland challenge of "Soul".  I like using challenges in making art because it provides a focus or set of limitations that helps to come up with an idea.  Okay, so I *think* that is a damask stencil, right?  I hadn't heard of the term before but I was comparing the images provided to my stencils and I'm pretty sure that is a damask.  The colored letters below are old scrapbooking letters that I hadn't used and the black letters are these fun old rub-ons I had.  An penpal from several years ago sent me a HUGE package of ones she no longer wanted.  They are super old and the packaging must be from the 70's, but they still work. Also check out My Mojo Monthly.

A lot of people rave about Beth Moore. This is a book I read by her. Have you read any books by her? If so, what did you think?

 

Top 2000 Musical Blog Party

I created a few collages for Marit's Top 2000 Musical Blog Party.  In the Netherlands, they play the top 2000 songs (listener selected) from Christmas to New Years Day.  Marit challenged her friends to create art based on any of the songs they wished from the list.  Here a my choices.

 

- name of the artist: 4 Non Blondes
- song title:  What's Up? 
- what number the song is in the top 2000 list:  #323
- date of broadcasting:  Dec. 30
- your name:  Marcia Beckett
- link to your website/blog:  http://marciabeckett.blogspot.com

- name of the artist:  Red Hot Chili Peppers
- song title:  Under the Bridge
- what number the song is in the top 2000 list:  #54
- date of broadcasting:  Dec. 31

- name of the artist:  A Ha
- song title:  Take On Me
- what number the song is in the top 2000 list: #308
- date of broadcasting:  Dec 30

Pages

 This above page was made in August.. the end of summer.  

This page was inspired by Daisy Yellow's overlapping collage style. These were all items, including the picture of the woman, that I found in the hallway on the floor at the school I teach at.  The picture of the woman was from a napkin. 

Blue Sketchbook Page Collage

Finished Mixed Media Painting

Farmer's Market, 2011, Mixed Media on Canvas, 20"x24"

I'm testing out the movie feature on my camera.  Here is a movie I made about my sketchbook.

Happy Paint Party Friday! I've really enjoyed seeing everyone's art.

Index Card a Day Challenge

I saw the Index Card a Day Challenge, and then I saw someone else's idea to use a little notepad of cards which I thought was so cute.  I didn't want to go out and buy cards, so I had a little notepad that I am going to use up.  I doubt I will do one every day, because I am working on lots of other things, but I thought it would be fun to do a few cards here and there.  My first card is an "off the page" card.  I used collage elements, including a ribbon and some organza that lays off the edge of the page. 

Journal Pages.. before and after

 

It's interesting how writing can change the whole look of a collage.

This whole "art journaling" thing which has been a name coined for combining drawing and writing in a book format is very interesting.  It's like anything that can be turned into a market will be.  You can now buy "art journal" sketchbooks which are specifically designed for collaging, writing, painting.  (which the ones from Strathmore I must say are awesome.)  When artists started making artist trading cards, then a whole new market for that opened up, such as selling the blank cards, selling embellishments and papers and so forth.  It's just interesting.  I wonder what the next new fad will be in the mixed media art world. 

Personal Collage

I tried out the "cruciform" kind of layout.  First, I ripped and glued down a bunch of collage elements and the picture of Daria, my daughter.  Then I painted around the images with acrylic paints and gesso. I was inspired to try this format after looking at Jane Davies artwork.

Mini Collage

Made with patterned paper, watercolored paper and a watercolor flower on vellum.  The white spots were done with a white gel pen.

What to do with these....