Irish Spring Collage

Ok, I realize that St. Patrick’s Day was last week, and while I’ve finished the Irish cheese and soda bread, I can’t get the green theme out of my mind. It probably doesn’t help that today it is raining here, which also makes me think of Ireland and vividly green grass.

For my latest sketchbook collage, I found this lovely image of a castle among the green grass and decided to incorporate more shades of this springy color into the composition. And it only seemed fitting to include the large scale four-leaf clover into the collage.

New Collage Challenge

Earlier this year, I started my collage challenge. The goal was to create a collage a week. Well, we've all seen how that has gone!

So, I decided to create another collage challenge for myself for the rest of the year. Instead of forcing myself to create a random collage each week, I will assign a different theme to each month to keep me on track and inspired.

This month the theme is SPRING. March is a month with so many beginnings. For me, it starts out on the first with my birthday. Then there is daylight savings, the day when we set the clocks ahead and are greeted with longer days and more hours of inspiring sunshine. This is followed by the actual first day of spring, when everything is new again.

My ode to spring this week consists of cheery pink tulips and bright yellow butterflies, because to me spring is all about the rebirth of nature and all living beings. What does spring mean to you????

My New Muse

Over on Creative Perch, I've started writing a column about being everyday creative. The first week of my challenge I was supposed to make creativity my religion and come up with a ritual to honor that commitment.

I decided to incorporate my weekly collage making into my ritual of celebrating creativity. But first, I needed a muse to inspire me.

I found an image of an actual muse, "Seated Muse" to be exact. It's from a family guide at the Walter's Art Museum, where I visited earlier this year while on a brief trip to Baltimore. I placed her to the side with a mystical background and plain blocks of complementing colors to the other side.

Hearts Galore

I am in a Valentine’s Day mood, so I went through my beach glass collection and was surprised to find several hearts. I decided to photograph them in the shape of a heart on some lace printed paper.

My favorite one is the little blue one. I am thinking of turning it into a jewelry piece. Any ideas on what it could be turned into?

Drilled Beach Glass Pieces

This afternoon I learned how to drill beach glass and drilled close to 10 pieces! Drilling beach glass is so much different than wrapping beach glass, which is why I hesitated learning it. I don't consider myself an overly detail-oriented person, so wrapping was just fine with me.

After taking a beach glass drilling class last fall, I still felt apprehensive and decided to continue wrapping. Then a friend offered to teach me properly. I must say with a little more practice I could be drilling small pieces and sideways, but for now I am just happy to have drilled a hole without breaking a single piece. Ok, I did chip one of them though!

Another New Collage

Can you believe it? Another new collage completed. Although, I already fell off the once a week wagon, I am happy to report that I am back to my collage schedule. Last week I simply had an unplanned blip in my schedule.

This collage was inspired by a black and white image of a house from my collection of art postcards. I worked the other colors and visual textures into the collage as a contrast to the stark house image. I also found a "Do Not Enter" sign that I thought was funny because while the background makes the house look cozy, the flat black and white image looks almost ominous. You like?

New Year, New Collage

With the new year already underway, I decided to splurge a little and get a new sketchbook. The old one was great, but I wanted something with thicker paper and spiral bound, so my collages would be easier to photograph and share with you.

I'm committing to a collage a week, so wish me luck! Above is my first one. It's an ode to the snowy start to the year but is filled with cheery colors to remind me that spring is just around the corner. Enjoy!

We Have a Winner!

A big and hearty congratulations goes out to our giveaway winner....Shannon.

Thanks again to everyone who entered. I enjoyed reading all of your comments and learning how the holidays inspire your creativity.

The winner was chosen by random.org.