Joy

Like the First Day

colorful birds burst

from hidden places

among the branches

soar across the water

hover to savor 

and absorb

all that they see:

showering joy . . .

unbeknownst

to them.

Final days of 100 day project

Four flower-themed pages done in a mini-journal: mandalas, embossed and colored paper, wax crayon resist with watercolor. The middle photo has little experiments: embossing on white paper, red honeysuckle-inspired marks on paper. All done!

Week 13 of 100 Day Project - almost done!

Just one week left to complete 100 days of flowers & plants theme. Look closely and you'll see the Foxglove visual pun. I cut some stamps on eraser edges of leaves, flowers, a rain chain and path. There's a flower doodle pattern that I may try to translate into a band on my inkle loom based on the flower photo of Ajuga (Bugle Weed). Last of all a mini book I made with a video online, the 'Seaside Dreams' pages use flower collage, stamping, watercolor, and other little bits.

Week 12 of 100 day project

This week I was following along with making watercolor collage journaling cards, and a small journal, so I kept to the flowers theme of my 100 day project. I also learned how to add stitching to watercolor on fabric, and made a freehand floral mandala. In the middle is my homemade rose stamp on a scrap of black construction paper where I  tested out Sharpies' new paint pens - basic color set - they are very nice!

Week 11 of 100 day project

New wave, trellis and rose stamps, a card made from tissue box, card flowers, and a photo; mixed media leaves, an orchid flower made by tracing one that fell off the plant, a quick embroidered flower, stencil flowers done with different pens.

100 Day Project Week 10

Learned some new things and revisited others. Found out how to make packing tape 'transfers' - easy and fun (flowers at left and center) & 'preserved' some dry flower petals in packing tape 'buttons.' Learned how to make embossed images by hand using stencils. Filled some pages in mini-journals, and got carried away with my red ink pad and eraser stamps that I made over the previous 2 weeks. And the tiny tag was from clothing - my flower stamp in black with extra doodles is on the reverse.

Poetry Month Week 4 'Haiku'

the pages a reminder

of the mourning cloak gone now

to make room for spring

the still heron meditates

amid emergent grasses, the frog,

on the grass-stalk legs

Watering old purple

violets and pruning them:

who will return this care?

bee house lovingly

placed, nurturing on display: bee

went into a stone wall

a brook spills over

the rocks, red-winged blackbirds trill

until the gunshot

so many warm days

scuttled by cold winds’ days . . .

now the tree frogs sing

the spring hummingbirds

have returned to the yard but

what did that hawk catch?

daffodils tulips

dew and gray mists carry spring

but where is the sun?

Poetry Month Week 3 - 'Haiku'

reading of an escaped parrot 100 years ago

recalling one in a car 30 years ago

the bluebirds fly away

daylight fading

moments left for a short walk

flowers dangle bumblebees upside-down

bluebird duo flashes past

taking joy with them

the bright red feeder sways - -

was that the first hummingbird?

across a stroke of dusk magenta

dark clouds - tears of rain

streak the injured Earth

chilly winds tugging

a slender thread from now to past

meeting before, again

stocking up holding

tight just in case -

forgetting to see now

thinking too hard

about painting flowers

they wither under pressure

Week 9 of 100 Day Project

I may need to move into a third box -- had no idea that I could make so many little nature-inspired bits in 100 days! I went on a riff making tiny stamps made from very cheap erasers cut into 3 pieces each. They are printed on cloth, paper, corrugated carton scraps, or on top of gelli plate scrap prints. The little book shows a stamp that I didn't like at all until I tried rotating it and discovered I could make scruffy flowers and butterflies. Might just be one of my favorites now!

Poetry Week 2 'Haiku'

cold April - why the orange butterfly?

this belongs to summer

gray branches and chill winds

still the cardinal

sings spring

saving the memory

of red tulips -

smashing them onto page

skip the chores

wake the neighbors:

double rainbow

a storm past

still a fear

of wind in the trees

'The red thread'

to Swedes - ‘unifying element’

now frayed in so many places

even the squirrel knows

to gaze from its twig:

the robin sings

Week 8 of 100 day project

A busy week! A brown cardstock zine using some of my embroidered bluets on the cover. I cut 2 new eraser stamps and used them to make new masking tape 'washi.' Rolled flower petals between scrap paper to create colorful impressions (once the flowers went by). Fountain pen inches sprayed with water - made them look a bit like Delft tiles - I want to explore that more. And I used my older fern and flower bud eraser stamps with Ranger permanent black to dress up an old tee.