the invisible girl …

for my first page for Art Journal Journey’s (AJJ) September “Less is More“ challenge here I mentioned how using less instead of more is a BIG challenge for me…

I do my best creating when I am not thinking too much or following too many guidelines but I do enjoy a good challenge…

the words are from a Love poem from inside a chocolate wrapper and the Forget-me-not image is one I have wanted to use for some time now from The Graphics Fairy…

a bit of pencil scribbling on the tea stained background with a piece of cigar box paper for a border at the bottom…

my two page spread completed now I think…

I had to add one last thing to the lotus girl (I know I covered up those beautiful eyes!)…

thank you Art Journal Journey for another great challenge…

Paper Bag T …

it is always fun when I go looking for one thing and find other surprises along the way…

these small paper bags were pieces I had started awhile ago…

recycled paper bags, bits of fabric, lace, thread, paper, mica, tea cup image from The Graphics Fairy…

all they needed were a few finishing touches along with sewing down the sides and adding handles for hanging so they would be ready to tuck in a card or surprise…

sitting out on our back porch enjoying a cup of tea with some yummy (not too sweet) Oaten biscuits we brought home from Scotland…

here’s wishing you a Happy T on Tuesday with lots of little things to delight you again and again…

just noticed this is my 1,700th blog post = oh my!

‘Tea with Marie’…

my talented friend Susan created her first gorgeous altered book for a round robin in our mixed media art group…

you can stop by her blog to see her interesting post on how her book began here…

working on the plain French-English dictionary pages adding lots of layers and embellishments was such a delight…

I highlighted an old French ledger page from The Graphics Fairy with a piece of pretty German napkin that I rubbed with gold gouache…

tiny flowers from a vintage hat I collected decorate a French cocoa label also from The Graphics Fairy…

some French 7Gypsies tissue paper started the background for this page along with a piece of old blue velvet for the edge…

the oval portrait of Marie was from a free digital collage sheet The Graphics Fairy shared back in 2009…

 one of my golden flimmers and some delicate German scrap helped frame Marie…

white gesso, gold gouache, bits of my favorite gold patterned tissue paper, torn napkin, scraps of embroidered netting, pink silk rose petals (on the left page edge and behind Marie’s head) and a K & Company vellum border at the bottom helped put the finishing touches on my pages…

such a fun theme and a very beautiful book to work in…

the life of a teabag…

if you visit my Magpie’s Nest now and then you surely know about Kimmie’s Tea on Tuesday where friends get together and post about whatever strikes their fancy…

it might be about their favorite drink, travel, nature, art or life in general…

you just never know what you’ll find when you visit everyone which is a big part of the charm each week…

since last year I had planned a tea post showing some of my tea bag collection which is always growing…

but you know how life can move at warp speed sometimes so I never got around to showing you the photos…

I have used pretty silk tea bags like the ones above as “wings” with altered cutlery…

after removing the used tea I sprinkle it in the garden to help enrich the soil…

you didn’t think I’d throw that away did you…

the paper is great to rubber stamp on…

many of the Tea on Tuesday participants are especially creative and innovative using tea bags in their artwork…

 Judy Perez’ blog post is where I recently discovered a wonderful tutorial on how to print on tea bags…

I was delighted at how easy it was…

I held my breath the first couple of times and got very relaxed by the thirteenth or so go round trying some color images too…

with thanks to The Graphics Fairy for all of these lovely images…

pausing to print on a piece of paper that had separated our cheese slices…

surely you save similar things too…

the pretty purple background above was a gift from my friend Lisa as we were singing the praises of security envelopes and I had never seen a purple patterned one before…

each printing turns out a little differently because of the designs the tea makes on the tea bag and how it runs through the inkjet printer…

now that I know just how easy this is I will be doing more and I may try ironing the tea bags a little bit for my next go round…

getting out the iron never seems to be foremost on my mind…

thanks to the many inspiring people that visit and post in blogland making it such a special place to be…

I am really enjoying everyone’s excitement about my recent gelatin monoprinting which reminds me why I started blogging in the first place back in 2007…

being excited and sharing what you enjoy is contagious…

I am very happy you came to visit today…

you can visit Kimmie for lots of other tea stops here…

and lastly,

Eleanor Roosevelt has some of the best quotes…

this oldie but goodie was perfect to share today:

“A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt 1884-1962

                                                        OXO

the beating of my heart…

inspired by Dawn’s September art journal challenge…I decided to get busy…

I have been in a journaling mood lately…

jumping from one book to another and another in a bit of a creative frenzy…

my How It Works encyclopedia (1970’s) pages have been glued and paint scraped with just a few spreads completed so far…

each page measures approximately 10.5 x 8.25 inches (26.67 x 20.95 cm)…

the last thing I did in this journal was a farewell spread for  Wednesday Stamper here … still missing you Mittwochstempler!!!

Dawn’s challenge this month is to “add an inclusion (something stuck to the middle of a spread that you can see both sides of when turned over) or a tag” … as it happens I have had these pages in limbo for a long time…

imagine a scary face/eye and lips in that outline of the pages sticking out…

see where the nose would have been…

covering it with circle graph paper really helped things open up for me…

I used some Graphics Fairy and Tullulah images to create transfers with Citra Solv and tissue paper …

Love how those turn out each and every time …

quick and easy and dreamy…

I was very honored recently to be linked in Citra Solv’s Artist Gallery here …

on the left side of my spread I used the original that I made the veiled lady tissue transfer out of …

I am saving the actual tissue paper transfer of her for another project …she’s way off to the left in the photo above…

both pieces have a very nice look and feel to them …

the heart chart that I have running across both pages is from back in 2004 when I some heart testing done …

I guess it is my EKG (not 100% about that) …

glad I thought to ask for a copy…

here is a closer look at my inclusion …

a photo of our son Alex not quite two years old hauling a big plastic watering can around the garden popped up at just the right time and that is when my pages really became extra meaningful to me …

this was not where I thought these pages might go …

what a little nature boy he was …

my Mutti knit the hooded sweater he was wearing …

the dangling tea cups are free images from Dover … they added nicely to the open tea tag I glued onto the page…

I used the tea string to tie them on …

it will be fun to see what Dawn has in mind for her October art journal challenge…

Citra Solv Transfers on Tissue Paper…

here are some laser images that I used to transfer onto plain white tissue paper with thanks once again to The Graphics Fairy …

since trying Citra Solv transfers on fabric yesterday I knew I wanted to give the tissue paper technique a whirl too…

I photographed my tissue transfers on top of old atlas pages so you could see the sheerness you get even before gluing anything down…

the bees nest melted into the heavy blue painted card stock seamlessly…

I was excited to glue my transfers onto book pages and really like the way the text shows through…

I used Golden’s Matte Medium…

but any good glue stick would work…

I put the glue on the paper not the tissue…

much easier that way…

the Matte Medium does leave the papers with a fine finish and feel…

in reading more of the Citra Solv artist’s site I found out that when ironed the FABRIC transfers can be washed and bleached with no damage or fading whatsoever…

perfect if you were going to transfer onto a white t shirt I guess…

it bears saying again…

playing with Citra Solv is best done with lots of fresh air and latex gloves are a good idea too…

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WordPress slipped a little surprise near the top of my sidebar…

not sure why I even noticed…

maybe I was searching for something…

here is what it says:

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

I wish they would just make a blogroll that updates like most of you have on your blogs already…

I always have to check people’s blog lists to find out who has updated their blogs…

that really is the only thing I can see that WordPress could improve on..!

Image Transfers with Citra Solv

recently I had posted some of my 3×5″ cards where I used National Geographic pages that had been treated with Citra Solv for background papers…

finally I got around to trying the Citra Solv using laser jet images to transfer onto fabric…

I used a scrap of very textured fabric for my first transfer on the left…notice how lots of color was left on the laser paper on the right…

the variables are how much Citra Solv you use along with what kind of fabric you are transferring onto and how much you burnish the laser copy with the back of the spoon…

the black and white teacup transferred with a bit of a greenish tint onto the tea dyed cotton on the left…

it felt like I rubbed with the spoon for a good long while…

lifting and checking to make sure it was coming through…

as you can see the laser paper image on the right still looks good after using it for the transfer process…

overall I was pretty happy with the results…

the two girls above are freebie images and can be found here…

that is my transfer on the left…

this video tells you everything you need to know to get started…

a favorite image from Karen at The Graphics Fairy on the left transferred very nicely onto tea dyed cotton muslin on the right…

I found that doing the transfers smelled much much less than when I was treating the magazine pages with Citra Solv…

those saturated pages took months to air out in the garage…

I still worked outdoors but was able to bring the fabric pieces into the house after just a couple of hours…

there are some fantastic ideas and inspiration to be found here with lots to explore…

who knew a natural cleaning agent could be so much fun…

Happy September All!

… becoming …

my little wire nests are starting to pile up… so I thought I would put some to good use

small matchboxes make perfect containers for so many things

precious bird images from the always generous

Karen at The Graphics Fairy

a perfect home for my wire and bead nests … gel medium worked beautifully to glue them in place

“There is no knowledge of true being.  The world is fundamentally in a state of becoming.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

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I am entering my little matchboxes in The Graphic Fairy’s Brag Monday … pop on over and see the lovely offerings!