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Los Angeles Times

January 19, 2014

Lisa Flaherty

November 26, 2013

Just sayin'….  ;)   

 Lol!

Maybe this is just the recognition I needed to post more often. 

Here's a look at something new from me to cleanse your eyes from seeing that crazy layout again (Jeremy, once again, horrified that it exists on the interwebs. #sorrynotsorry):

It is a collage I made at an awesome class taught by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer at Studio Crescendoh a couple weeks ago.  I'm finishing up another in a series, and will share more soon!  

Thanks for stopping by!

He Eats Like a Bird

This is my son, Jeremy.

He eats like a bird.

I submitted this layout in one of the challenges during Cocoa Daisy's Fall Crop earlier this month, and
I won!!
 Happy Happy Joy Joy!!

Somehow the kid keeps growing.  He's 14 years old and over 6 feet tall!

The challenge was to use various types of stitching, including some specialty embroidery stitches.
 These bird footprints were inspired by a stitch called the "Y".  

He tells me, "I'm just not a food type of person."

I added these stamps on the back of my journaling card with one of the funny quotes Jeremy has been
known to say in response to our wonderment of his lack of culinary inclinations.

I'm waiting…perhaps impatiently….

Seriously.  I cannot wait.  I'm a bit on pins and needles about it.

I wonder if he will leave the nest with his little birdie appetite.

I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for my paper and embellishment choices. :)
Birds, feathers, the background paper echoing the footprints, a stamped nest and a clock for my waiting and wondering, the ruler as he grows, and the train schedule that mimics meal times.  High five!

This is my son, Jeremy.

And also, he hates this layout.  Just thought I'd better mention that.  :(
Luckily, I can still take him in an arm-wrestling match.
I tell you though, don't challenge him to a battle of wits.

He'll annihilate you.

Scatter some seeds on the ground and RUN!

Lol!

Have a great day!

Bunny Canvas

Our little bun-bun, Edward. *sigh*  We've been missing him, as he passed away earlier this year.  He was the best rabbit.  We loved having him hopping free about the house, and snuggling in like a pup when we'd eat dinner at the coffee table or settle in to watch TV.

I know you are resting in peace, little guy, except when you are happily bouncing from cloud to cloud
 or having your ears and face cuddled and petted by your loving angels.

I made this canvas for Remember When a few months ago, using some papers from Fancy Pants and inspired by this post on Pinterest.  

Various papers from the collection were cut into 1/4 inch strips, randomly chosen, and trimmed to size

Heidi Swapp Color Shine painted on the edges.  I think I use that stuff on almost every project!

Pierced holes and embroidered around the edge of the silhouette
sharpens the shape and adds a finishing touch

This was a super fun project, and a great way to use up scraps!  Thanks for stopping by and having a look!  Have a "hoppy" day! ;)

Monochromatic Poetry

I have this funky CD, Death By Chocolate that I bought on a whim at some point because of the band name and the cool album art.  Turns out it is a bit of a family favorite.  It's kind of 60's-psychedelic-lava-lamp with British spoken word and school yard chants and school book recitations(?).  But it's, well, smarter than that.  Very hard to explain.

The One Little Word this month is "Color" and I immediately thought of some of the short tracks on this CD which are titled with a color's name and then a monologue of objects and feelings about the color are listed.  It's quite poetic.


I thought I would do my own version, using the same colors from the album but with my own associations.  Knowing there would be a lot of handwritten words on the page, I opted to collage my title from letters cut from a magazine.  I think it also speaks to the seeming randomness of the poems themselves:  a bunch of unrelated words that together create cohesiveness due to the single color they conjure; the letters, all of various color, font, and size yet they come together to form words.

MUSTARD YELLOW

large envelopes

high school jackets

Pee Chee folders

#2 pencils

baby food and jaundice

Cowardice

rain boots

banana slugs

curried chicken

school buses and taxi cabs

flowering weeds

pollen, saffron, sulphur

Burning nostrils

caution tape

Yield

Slow

Bump Ahead

 SKY BLUE

cotton candy

swimming pools

worn denim

Mom's eyes

bubble gum ice cream

cartoon elephants

tropical seas

chlorine and clean laundry

toothpaste

robins' eggs, candied and real

Restful napping in a hammock

For a couple  of the colors, I couldn't think of enough items to fill the space I'd painted, so I just repeated my words to fill up the area.

ORANGE

sunsets

popsicles and Happiness

orange peel smiles

basketballs

pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns

carrots

kumquats

monarch butterflies

campfires and construction vests

tigers

orangutans

Fall leaves and Halloween

cantaloupe

San Francisco Giants

OLIVE GREEN

wallpaper and carpet

my teenage telephone

frogs

grass stains

damp forests

eucalyptus scented lotion

army men

dinosaurs

split pea soup

Frankenstein

spinach and herbs

concert smoke

Pop-pop's face after a roller coaster ride

I painted this face on a piece of deli paper placed over a magazine ad, loosely tracing the model's face with black paint.  Once collaged onto my background of blocks of color, perhaps you see that the idea was inspired by the CD's cover art.  

RED

ladybugs

fire trucks

cheerleaders

scraped knees

stop signs and stop lights

spaghetti sauce

Embarrassment

red cheeks

Kool Aid moustaches

Valentines

Santa's suit and Rudolph's nose

cherries

strawberries

Chapstick and cough drops

Passion

Anger

Love

Thank you for stopping by and checking out this creation!  Head over to OLW to see all the fabulous and COLOR inspired pieces by the designers and readers alike!  I'll be linking up to Friday's Art Journal Every Day feature on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog, too!

OLW #75: DO

Word Up at OLW this month is "Do".  And, to go with the theme, I decided to participate by just DOing the first thing that came to mind.

The Force was with me.  I thought of Yoda and his famous wisdom:

I stuck him into my art journal, and then scattered a few glow-in-the-dark stars across the page with the intention of misting over them, but I got a little scared of the reactivity with previous layers of color and water-reactive media that were already on the page.  This was a "Do Not" appropriate crossroad.

I love how the layers built up and that alphabet stamp. :)    

Instead, I pounced some acrylic paints atop the stars with a baby wipe, then used a white pen to better define their shapes.  

So, while this is sage advice from the great Jedi Master, as far as quotes go it can't rival my favorite from Bart Simpson:

"I can't promise I'll try, but I'll try to try…"

How's that for commitment? 

I'm off to make a Might Do list for today.  Lol!

And you?  For one, I'd head over to One Little Word and check out the awesome inspiration put forth and then join in on the fun!

Wishing you a wonderful and PRODUCTIVE Monday! 

No Worries

Today I'd like to share a couple projects I made inspired by another canvas-making technique from Alma Stoller's Mixed Media class.

I made these little shadow boxes from the lid of an ink pad, and added a soda can tab to the back for hanging.

I have a bunch of Worry Dolls in my stash left over from this project.  I was thinking about how far Jeremy has come in the past few years and how I don't worry about him or his future the way I did when he was younger.  So, what do worry dolls do if they are not given worries?  They chill out and relax!

The swing is made from a cardboard coffee cup cozy.
They look a little frightened, don't they?  Lol!  

This one I made for a friend's baby shower this past weekend.  I stitched up a "Mother's Work" heart pillow, too, to give her a place to hand over any worries--big or small--that come with being a mom.

I think I will make a little series of these scenes--worry dolls on vacation or something. :)  I am obsessing over putting a couple into a little canoe!

Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you a worry-free day!

Queen Bee

I'm taking an online mixed media class by Alma Stoller, and having so much fun!  I think it is just what I needed to get the ol' noggin jump started with some fresh ideas.

Alma's voice is soothing, the music that leads into each video lesson is lovely, and the techniques and materials she teaches with are resourceful, often recycled, and innovative.  She really speaks to my true heart.

She presents many ideas for making "canvases", surfaces to art on, and the first one I needed to try was making a stitched surface from magazine pages.

I gessoed over the page to prime the surface, then used a brayer to apply some green and yellow paint.  I had this song, "Honeybee" by Steam Powered Giraffe stuck in my head for a few days, and stumped over what to do next, decided to scribe the lyrics onto the background.   This lead to me looking for an image of a bee on the internet to collage on top.  I added some spray ink and gesso'd stenciling; meanwhile, those Googled links had me thinking about the plight of the honeybee and it's impact on the ecosystem.  "God Save the Queen," I thought, (queen, as in queen bee).

I stamped with StazOn ink on some scraps of canvas and stitched them to the piece.  The crown was freehand cut from a cardboard coffee sleeve and spritzed with Heidi Swapp's gold lame Color Shine (I love that stuff!)

I love the way this turned out!  It is the first thing I've made in a long time that I've felt a strong love for and had to find a place to hang up in the house. :) 

I'm looking forward to exploring more techniques in Alma's class!  

Thanks for having a look!