Inspiration and New Designs

As I've said many times. I just love the mail, it's my favorite part of the day. Aside from some letters to answer I had catalogs and this really caught my attention. 

I had been drawing and painting lots of branches and leaves and it hadn't occurred to me to use them on a doormat design.

Besides that, I had a bottle of tan paint that was drying out and needed to be used so this seemed like the perfect project for it.

At that point I decided to cover it with my favorite sort of vines an flowers instead if following the design in the catalog.

I couldn't quite decide which shades of green to use so I had fun and used them all trying out an assortment detail and liner brushes along the way. some worked better than others but I enjoyed them all.

When it dried shiny, I covered it with mat medium to cut down on the gloss and make it easier to photograph.

This is the finished piece. As you can see before I added the mat glaze that I had painted light veining on the dark leaves and dark veining on the light ones to pull the whole design together.

I plan to start this as a doormat like the catalog inspiration but there is no limit  to what sorts of other products I can put it on besides that.

Maybe a tote bag for the farmers market or the grocery store. Maybe even a bag to keep my garden supplies in (especially the catalogs and the seeds).

Maybe even a scarf or a hat to go with that...or socks...or just about anything. The sky is the limit!

Recycle Junk Mail, Grab some paint, Have some fun

I write to a couple of people that are really "into" cooking and kitchen things so I decided to use a few pictures clipped from a catalog that came in today's mail.

Of course I couldn't resist adding a few splashes of color to make it a bit more fun and interesting. There are lots of ways to make recycling fun, there's no right or wrong way to do it and since your materials are free there's no excuse not to experiment and see what happens.

Scrap Happy Projects for everyone

I just love "playing " in the paper bits here and challenge myself to use whatever comes in the mail to turn into that days out going mail. sometimes it's just in decorating the borders of letters I was writing anyway and sometimes it's in creating new designs for my stores. Most of the time I just make little cards for friends and send them out without ever posting them here. It just depends on the mood I'm in, the time available and what shows up to work with. For me, the combination of all of those things is what keeps it fresh and interesting.

I often send the originals out the same day too. People that don't craft find it interesting to see how the bits come together and there was a time when my letters would get passed around the nursing home as people tried to guess which parts I'd drawn or painted and what bits were glued on. Sometimes I'd make it really interesting and cut up some of my drawings and glue them together in different ways just to keep everyone guessing and make it more fun for everyone.

Inspire yourself with "junk" mail

I put this together with clippings from catalogs and ads and threw in a couple of fortunes from chinese fortune cookies for good measure. it was fun to make and reminds me of the things I want to focus on to make a success of things here.

Yes, I keep it in by the bed so that it's the last thing I see at night and the first thing I see each morning. So far it seems to be helping so it may be something that you'd like to try too.

I attached all the clippings to a sheet of paper with double sided tape and then put the finished collage in a frame behind glass.

Junk mail, ink and paint

After all the time I've spent with my real sunflowers this summer I thought it would be fun to play with a few different approaches to the subject while making my mail interesting and decorating a note card.

Even though the drawings and painting weren't great the project itself did good:
1. pulled the clippings out of the recycling
2. gave me something to post here
3. was good practice with pens and markers
4. decorated my stationery
5. entertained the gal I wrote to

Here are a couple of envelopes I painted as well.

White Horse Design inspired by Junk Mail

A few pages back you'll find pictures of this from other angles sitting alongside the picture of a plate I'd clipped from a catalog that gave me some of the ideas for the patterns and color combinations that I used on this horse.

Inspiration really is everywhere if you're open to it.

Inspiration in the "junk" mail

All of the clippings came from a cooking catalog that came in the mail today. They give me lots of ideas for patterns and designs so it's made painting this horse a lot more fun.