Photo Collage Design Work 1

Well, this was quite an interesting lesson for our MIP online class with Hilary!  I can't believe how much I learned 'what not' to do!  As well as 'less is more'!  I finished three collage design pieces and I'm satisfied with two of them and quite happy with one!  Now to go back through my pictures and start some new ones.



It's not like me to take pictures of foliage but I did that in the winter of  2017 when two of my buds (Sally & Peggy) and I walked around Sholom Park, Ocala, Florida ...thank goodness I did!

This was my final collage layout...after about 20 tries....less was more...I deleted so many different papers I was trying to use.  Taught me to not use so many!

I stamped the background piece from an arch stamp I made earlier this year.  Paper strip on right and bottom were painted earlier as well.



And the finished collage after adding pencils and crayons to enhance the picture.  This is 9"x12" and all paper.  Hubby really liked this piece.  He said it looked liked something that would be hung in a house.  Hmmmmmm

Now for the not so great but good lesson in collage/design work!

This was a  picture of a screen print I did our first year with Hilary.  I've like it and thought it would make a good whole paper piece.  The original print was 9"x12" but I printed out  3 pictures of it to 4"x6".

  Yes, I struggled...then just decided to go for it as is!  It might have turned out better had I just used one photo and made it 5"x7" or slightly larger to work with.  Another time!

Actually it didn't turn out that bad  once I added crayons/pencils, with exception of the background.    Really I think I used too many stamped/dyed/printed papers.

  Funny, but once again, Bob said he liked it!  Go figure!  Again 12" x 9"

I do remember taking a picture of this plant in the park.  I thought it was beautiful...so many different shades/colors.

So, first off I goofed by using an actual 'photo' print on the left instead of printing onto regular printer paper.  The right side is a photo transfer on to the paper.

Both of these photo bases were hard to add color pencils/crayons/etc. to vs using regular printer paper.

This is my finished piece with addition of color extending out from the photo's.  The background is a whole piece I dyed and stamped; left edge is remnant of a stamped feather and the leaf on top is printed onto a piece of repair tissue.


This was really a good exercise in collage design work.  Quite a struggle at times but a very good lesson!!

Now to create more!!!

Photo Collage - series 1

I am having lots of fun with this lesson from Hilary!  We are using transfer paper or printing out photo's to create collages.  We start with a photo then add to the photo using pencils...and before I show my first pencil collage, look what I bought!  Woo hoo!!!  These are Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and I love the colors.  I only had a set of 12, which didn't give me many choices.   Now I have lots of choices!!! These are perfect!

This was the photo I decided to work with first!

Addition of colored pencils

My next photo

I'm still adding some green to this one...and need to take a picture in better light.

This is a stand in our dining room.  My daughter gave me the flowers, I believe, for mother's day and the white bird was made by our friend in Florida.

Again, the colors don't look quite right so I may take these pictures over again.

This was my challenge piece for sure!  Yikes!

I still have some work to do on this one!

I put these on pages in my accordan journal.  The original pictures are 4"x6" so they fit on the pages just right and still allow me to expand as much as I dare!   What's up next!  Can't wait!

Stitched Collage 2 con't

A few weeks ago I posted on how I started on my 2nd stitched collage.  This was the stencil I cut out and fused onto my printed paper background. 


From that point, I stamped some leaf prints on top and finished it by free motion quilting only on the stamped leaves.

This was the finished piece...nothing exciting...so I decided to cut it up by playing with editing the picture of the finished piece. 

I sliced the original 9"x12" into two sections and attached to a white canvas.

   I used #5 Perle Cotton yarn and poked through the canvas using my handy, dandy thimble pad (you can see that post & link on how to make one here).   I knew that thimble would come in handy!  

It really worked!  I did punch small holes in the canvas and the paper stencil but it was so easy to push the needle/thread through vs struggling with pulling on the needle.













And this was my end result!  I'm quite happy with how this piece turned out and I like it so much better cut vs being a whole piece.  And now on to the next lesson which is photo collage!

Stitched Collage

My inspiration piece...combination of a greeting card and photo from a magazine on wall art.


I totally changed my paper collage from my last post!  I didn't like the blue veins but at the time it was a good effort to play with the design.  So back to the drawing board!

I liked the orange leaf but then started playing with some other papers I had printed.  This was a piece of fabric I tried for background.

I did audition different backgrounds and decided I liked this deli paper that I stenciled.  So I fused it down on a piece of batting and started to lay out different papers.

Still playing with papers and layout.

I liked this piece better before I quilted the background.  I don't use variegated threads often but decided to do just that...why?  Heck, if I know!









So this was what/how I ended up!  I'm not happy with the background quilting...but this piece isn't going anywhere other than in my sewing room with my other pieces from Hilary's online class.

10.5" x 12.5" paper collage

So on to the next collage!  Have an idea but they usually don't turn out or get me in trouble!  Guess we'll see!

I cheated and I'm not ashamed!

We're still working on creating designs, stamps, etc. so we can do crops from our designs as well as enlarge our crops to create a collage (paper or fabric)....well, this old gal is still in the "what the heck kind of design should I make??"  So I cheated and used two stencils I had to create a design! So there!  And I'm not ashamed at all!  HA

First up I used Setacolor paint and rolled on top of the fan stencil.  Then mixed in some black with the blue paint and stenciled on top of the fan strips.

This is the first crop I did.  I'm not really finished with it...I reversed the blue/black color so I'll continue with black to fill in the fan type strips.  I think!  Who knows!

Ditto with this one too.  Still not finished but they aren't that bad...

They look good beside each other don't they??  They're only around 2 1/2" x 4".  But if I enlarge them, I think they'll make a good design...well, I can dream can't I!

I like this design too.  I can see some good crops from it as well.  Actually, I really like the leaves in this one...so have a feeling I'll forgo above crops and concentrate on this one.  I do like geometric and leaf designs...so I need to start concentrating on that area and keep that as my theme.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

A few more croppings

Weather has been beautiful for a Michigan summer...yes, some days are more Florida weather so I stay inside with the AC on.  Other days, we've had the windows open with a wonderful breeze blowing through the house.  Those are my kind of days.  So when AC is on, I'm in my wet room playing with our MIP online lessons.

This was a drawing I did in May.

This is just a small 2"x3" crop that I was going to make into a stamp....still working on that one! 

This was a photo of the bottom of our deck wood.

And my crops from the photo above...again 2"x3".  Nothing fantastic but good practice at cropping. 

This was a deconstructed screen print I did last year.  I really like the design and even the colors in this piece.  Thought it might make a good crop!

Again, nothing really great other than I like the middle and last crop on the right. 

Good for making a stamp....

This was a crop from another small photo I cut from a magazine years ago!  Think the photo is in my journal but you get the idea!

So now to make some stamps from a few of the crops.  I have to go back into that mode of cutting out the foam stamps...a little less work than carving from rubber stamp but who knows what I'll end up doing.  Until then.....


I'm also binding off the 1st Beadkerchief knitted scarf...had to stop and not finish the beaded edges per the pattern because I'm using up the leftover yarn from my lace shawl.  Almost running out again...besides, this was a good practice piece for incorporating beads in a knitted piece. 

Playing with papers

With all the sorting we have been doing in Hilary's MIP class, we are finding papers that just 'need more' to make them useable.  So I played this weekend trying to do just that!  For the most part, I had success.  Here are a few of my efforts to enhance some of my papers!

I'm not really finished with this piece and the photos are flipped..but I think that's obvious!  The before is on the right!

Once I got started on this piece above I couldn't stop...and I should have...now I think they look like fish, if I turn them on their side!  HA

I was using Intense Blocks and some Neocolor crayons.

This one was simple...just a quick overdye but I think it needs some texture so perhaps some rubbings or stencils.

Oops...another one that I flipped...this is on fabric.  You can see how bland the piece on the right is.   Out came my glass plate and some black Setacolor to do a mono print!  I really like this piece.

The piece on the left was made using pastels and screen printing on paper!  I didn't care for my drawing...obviously!....so again I just did a mono print!  I love this one now!

Yep...I was going crazy with mono printing but it really worked!  The piece on the left was one the MIP group thought the little guy on the bottom left was a hippo (I think that's what they thought!). 
Anyway, isn't the piece on the right so much better!!!!







These are just a few other pieces I did...I didn't take  before pics...the 1st piece paper is similar in feel to deli paper.  It's larger than my deli papers but I don't remember where I got this from.  The pastel colors on the bottom were from using it as a 'wipe up' paper! 
Middle one was just a pale painted sheet...and the 3rd is a rubbing but I don't remember what I was using to rub with!

This was a fun exercise to do...now to "enhance" more papers!!  Our 2nd year starts in April and we'll be focusing on composition and design work.