Watercolor Series Complete

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The watercolor series is complete.  I really enjoyed working with different materials on the same background.  I did not look at previous cards when I worked; I just used the same ink color initially.  It is amazing to me how different the cards are, and yet they blend so well.  I actually considered yanking off the happy birthday tag and framing them together.  All this from a juvenile watercolor that I had folded in half, ready to toss into the nearest garbage.  There's a lesson in there somewhere.

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Gears (back right)

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Gearing Up

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This card is replete (love that word) with raised stamping.  I stamp the image with a slow-drying ink and quickly apply a clear embossing which is heated to a shiny, raised image.

I also enjoy working with rub-on decals, but alas, they seem to not be something available in the stores much anymore.  They are difficult to work with, in that they can tear easily and make it impossible to create a perfect image.  But that's why I love them so much.  Bring it on!  It's a rare smudge or rip or mistake that bothers me; rather, it adds to the charm.  I do however, insist on the perfectly clean and unmarred greeting card upon which the artwork rests.  I've been known to peel off artwork from a card that has a minuscule smudge.  So sue me.

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Sauer is Sweet

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For awhile, I was seeing just about anything as the potential mixed media fodder.  I was ripping apart envelopes, stealing stamps, tearing off UPS stickers, saving the tags from my new jeans.  Then my embellishments box started looking like the garbage bin, so I got rid of most of it.  Now if I want something like that, I just go into the recycling and find it.

This real UPS sticker did survive the culling.  I think it even has my zip code on it.  While I do love "real" embellishments, I also enjoy using really well-done fake ones like these faux vintage labels.  It seems to be the "in" thing to be using vintage stickers and such on mixed media art, so they are relatively easy to find.  I rarely buy them, though, preferring to come across the real thing in an antique shop or the trash.

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Number Two in a Series

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Watercolor paint is trying to wheedle its way into my good favor.  I keep denying it entry, but it is trying to convince me it has a place in my art (if not in my heart).  Maybe not in the traditional sense, with the obscure but beautiful renditions of a riverside town at sunset--but perhaps in an abstract backdrop way.  I do like its transparency.  And it does do lighter colors justice.  Maybe, just maybe, I'll keep an open mind.

I will call this number two in a series of four.  (Um, well, since I cut up my picture into four pieces.)  I'm loving the contrast of the dark ink against the lighter colors.  I'm also digging the piece of bark that my daughter and I heisted <cough> borrowed from a local botanical gardens.  It makes a lovely backdrop for my cards.  And a shout out to my mother for all the lovely gems she sends me.  The one on this card is a mother-of-pearl, I believe.  Beauty where there once was nothing: it all started with blank paper.

Author's note:  This one I knew would be difficult to part with, but it is easy for a favorite card to go to a favorite person, Aunt Penelope.

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I Suck at Watercolor

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I have determined that I really suck at watercolor.  Maybe it is because I really dislike not being in complete control of my medium.  Water is, after all, a free spirit.  Last year, I ran screaming from a watercolor class, and yesterday I stayed.  I painted.  I became depressed.  Then I left.  During the class, the teacher sat right next to me and created quite the lovely masterpiece, and my inner child (about age four) created mine.  As I walked out of the building, I actually had the paper folded in half ready for the nearest trash receptacle.  But then I realized that just like any bad--I mean incomplete--art that I had done, I can make lemonade with it.

So I went home and cut the watercolor into card size pieces and thoroughly enjoyed transforming my infantile painting into something really great. Here is the result, after inking, stamping, rubbing, heating, and gluing.  This one is up for public view, my first decent watercolor.

Author's note:  This card ended up going to my brother on his birthday. Keeping it in the family, I say.

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