p.a.p.e..r.!

This is a page from my visual diary. You can see the embossed leaf paper (which I made from the paper from an expired cheque book) and the paper I made from serviettes and rose petals. While my computer was in the shop I had my birthday and DH gave me the most wonderful bunch of roses so I decided to re-use a few! Oh, I cut out a few birds eggs too!

Above: A selection from my paper experiments! The yellow paper is coloured with marigold dye and I'm pleased with it's intensity. I pressed a broken sheet of paper onto a green sheet to get the marbled edges. It also means it's green on one side and yellow on the other!

Below: These leaves are trapped inside 2 sheets of paper. I'm curious to see what happens to the leaves...will they decay without direct light or moisture? Will their organic-ness result in the life span of this paper being shorter than the rest?

This is so much fun! I just love the texture, the feel, the look of hand made paper! I am keen to do some ink/lino cut prints on some of my own paper and experiment with sizing it so it can be written on. I've bought the lino and already have cutters and ink so watch this space!

Dried petals

The marigold petals I put in my flower press a few weeks back came out really well. I was impressed with the level of colour they retained, especially after the much lighter shade I got from turning the petals into a dye. The top photo shows that I didn't take the time to ensure they weren't over-lapping when I dried them. I don't know what I thought would happen but I didn't expect them to stick like that! Most of them peel apart though:) It is probably just as well I didn't 'unstick' them because it was while handling them like this that it occurred to me that they would make a wonderful material for collage a nest with...a happy accident!

This weeks lensday theme is GROWTH. I've posted my entry here if you would like to see it.

Go well! Lisa:)

A mixed bag of collage (mostly!)

I thought I would share a few visual diary pages, the first one being the results of the marigold dye that I made with the kids. The first two samples shows the dye colour at 5 minutes and then 1.5hrs. Both were taken prior to boiling and there was no difference between the 2 shades. The middle sample shows the mix after it had been boiled for an hour (much stronger as you can see) and the last 2 is the dye 3 days after boiling. It lost it's intesity and developed an 'organic' smell so we watered it down and fertilised the celery plants with it! The brown paper is coffee dyed computer paper and only added to the page to compliment the yellow. If I were to do this again I would probably make sure I used the dye soon after boiling then cooling it as the dye was at it's richest then. I think it would be quite easy to over-power the much paler shade I got after several days. I will be interested to see what happens to the colour of my samples over time. I have saved some yellow paper for future collages!

Above: Marigold dye, coffee, gesso, recycled encylcopedia pages.

Above:Bird houses "zetti" style collaged onto a painted background in my VD.

Below: Painted page from my VD. Getting warmed up and practising an idea for painting backgrounds for my collages. Acrylic paint applied using a plastic credit-type card and bubble wrap. No brush:)

The Cherry collage below is for a recipe tip in swap. I wouldn't usually join a recipe swap but I need the motivation having a project where I am working with others can give me. This is a 12 month swap, a different food type each month and we each make 8 pages the same and recieve 7 different pages back. The recipe I chose is for a Chocolate-Cherry Fudge chosen because I wanted to collage cherries!

Recipe card 4"x4". Gold serivette, pink and cream card, cherries made from painted paper and magazine pages. The card is sitting on a VD page for the purpose of this photo!

Incase you want it to here's the recipe: 400g tin condensed milk, 400g chocolate, 100g chopped red galce cherries, approx 20 chopped pink marshmellow. Melt together milk and chocolate over a low heat, slowly mix in cherries and marshmellows when melted. Line a 26 x 16 cm tin with paper and pour in fudge mix. Allow to firm in fridge, cut into fingers and try not to eat all at once!