ARTFUL JOURNEYS - WEEK #11 "Color it Green"

Gosh, so difficult for me to make anything green, to wear green or to think green when everything is still pretty much brown and boring outside, not to mention super muddy. But thankfully we are getting much needed rain!  The weeds in my yard are green, and they are growing very well, thank you.  But it is too wet to mow. LOL

Our prompt at Artful Journeys this week is kind of a multi-parter:  Color it Green and use a brown paper bag or Saran Wrap.  

I have known about this prompt for months. Cogitated on it. Still nothing. Then today, when I was out doing my grown up thing, I started thinking about how cloudy and overcast it was, but oh! there! The wild sand plum bushes are blooming and oh, look! Over there, the Bradford Pears are blooming too.  Sunshine in the dreary gray sky.  That was it, my inspiration for this week's prompt.

I did take a couple of pictures of these early blooms for you.  Aren't we lucky?  Spring starts early, leaves early. So I take great pleasure in seeing the Jonquils popping up and all the early flowering trees showing us their "stuff" as Mother Nature shakes off the grips of winter.

I watch this patch of sand plums like a hawk, because the plums will be ready to pick in mid to late June, but I have to hurry or the dang deer and the birds get most of them.  They make the best jam you've ever tasted!

And here are some lovely Bradford Pear trees lining one of my neighbor's driveways.  In a couple of weeks, (barring no hail or high winds) these trees will be stunningly beautiful, but the blooms are short lived.

Okay, I have digressed, I know.  So let's get on with it now that I have shown you my inspiration.

My spread is created in my Canson Mixed Media Journal.  Background created with Apple Barrel craft acrylic in Sky Blue and Antique White.  I brushed on the blue and used a damp paper towel to smudge on and smooth out the Antique White creating a cloud effect.  I added a lightly primed large sun stamp to the top corner, hoping to give the effect of the sun trying to peek through all these clouds.

Then, in lieu of cutting up a big brown paper grocery bag (which I only had one and am saving), I dug out a roll of heavy duty brown kraft paper.  Using Dina Wakely's heavy body acrylics in Ruby, Turquoise, Magenta, Lemon, Tangerine & Cut Grass.  I painted some wide stripes on the paper, blasted with the heat gun and then cut into strips.

I then used straight and fancy edged scissors to cut out some circles of assorted sizes; some of which I "stripped" and "curled".  I formed these circles into flowers, added embellishments voila!  Flowers.

I cut a double strip of the green and cut a few hundred slashes onto one side.  I cut off about 1-1/4" and curled into like a tube to form a flower "base.  I cut some other ovals to make some "roses"

Assorted fancy edge scissors used

Lettering strips are 1/2" watercolor paper, colored with Peacock Blue Copic marker and lettered with White Signo Uniball

And the finished spread.  I was rather pleased with the finished outcome, giving me a little sunshine on these cloudy, rainy days.  And I did make good use of the green, right?  This way really way out of my comfort zone.  Nobody said the whole thing had to be green.....and y'all know I'm a rebel. So there.  (hehehe)

So go out there and do something outside YOUR comfort zone and be adventuresome.    Then be sure and show us your creations over at Artful Journeys!

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Here are some other things I have created recently that you may not have seen.

These ATC's were done for the prompt " Find Circles"

These ATC's were done for a prompt called "Button Day"

This is an ATC done for an Alphabet series of swaps we have going on now.  Lace was "dyed" with copic marker.

 These ATC's were for a collaboration project.  Tamie Wilson did the backgrounds, Shelly Recicar added the mesh and paper & wooden flower; and I added the sunflower girls and the saying.  This was a very fun project with a great team!

Easter-themed mail art swap with the prompt:  Easter Eggs.  The card on the right is "napkin" art that has been embellished and was included in the swap as some 'extra" love to my partners.

This is my final copy of another ATC collaboration project.  I did the background, CJ Messa added the adorable fish, rock (?) and brown sandy parts & washi, and Annmarie Killam added the bubbles and shell charms.  This was a great swap and the entire team did an awesome job!

This was made as a freestanding art piece on watercolor paper as a mail art swap. Our prompt was "HeART" art swap with Dylusions Inks, Dylusions blendable acrylics, stencils, washi, punch cuts, Staz-On stamp pad ink in Tuxedo Black and Adirondack Stamp pad ink in Stained glass.

I don't know if I showed you this one already or not, but I like how it turned out so much I'm showing it off again.  This was for a journal page swap with the prompt "Gratitude" and went to the multi-talented Delores Miller.  Dylusions spray inks, stained french lace, Vintage lady from The Graphics Fairy, colored with NeoColor II.

This is a tri-fold tip-in for my journal I prepared for last week's prompt at Artful Journeys. Made on an upcycled K-cups box; Dylusions blendable acrylics, vintage images from Pinterest; magazine clippings and a silhouette sent to me in happy mail.

So that's what I've been up to lately.  Thanks for stopping by and having a look.

Go out there, stay creative and as always, keep it artful!

~~Betty