Paper Collage - A Successful Foray

I have never been very good at collage, but it's something I've always wanted to get better at and yesterday I finally decided to really try and make something good with this technique.  I didn't have a set goal or design in mind, I just started cutting and pasting, planning to see where I wound up.  I stuck to a colour family of reds and browns because I've recently learned to keep it simple simple simple when you are first learning something.  (I know, what a mind-blowing revelation at twenty two!) 

So, with no clear end result in mind I somehow came up with this piece that I have tentatively entitled, "Thinking About the Middle East."  I've never given something I've made a title before, but somehow I decided this needed one and that that was it.  It feels like a big step.

I think I'm going to mat it on black paper when I next get paid and can get some: I took a picture against my black desk to give myself an idea.

I really, really like this, possibly better than any stand-alone piece I've made in a long, long time, maybe ever.  I want to make more using this method and get even better at it.  I just thought I'd share with you what, according to me, turned out to be a wild success.

  Tonight I made a quick little craft project to prettify the little area in my apartment where I do my art.

This is my lamp:

It sits in the windowsill above my desk, very useful for Arting at night after the sun has gone down and no more beautiful sunlight comes in the window. 

Tonight, I was craving a crafty, simple cut-and-paste project that would also allow me to beautify my space and muck up my furniture. 

Behold!

I traced some bird silhouettes from the internet, using my laptop screen as a lightbox because I take good care of my things.  I transferred these to some thick, dark paper I had lying around (it was actually an old calendar page - I save all my calendars for pretty scrap paper) and cut them out.

Then I glued them to the inside of the shade with tacky glue and voila! 

I liked the effect a lot, and since my lampshade is four-sided I made more for each side so I can turn them around when I get bored.  

      I left one side blank, because it was my last one and I couldn't decide whether or not to leave it blank, or add another bird.  I'm thinking I kind of want a blue jay - those have always been favourites of mine.  What do you think??

I thought about moving this lamp into my bedroom and putting my bedside lamp by my desk - the look is just so cozy and relaxing!  But I think it's going to stay where it is for now; it's yet another beautiful thing I have made to decorate my workspace.

 

      And that's it for now!  I hope you are all having a fantastic Easter weekend!  

Thanks for reading, 

    Love Emily.

And We're Off!

I said this thing would go live January first no matter what, and here we are!  First goal of the year, acheived.

So hi! I'm Emily. 

In these pages, you will find craft projects.

And art pieces.

And comic strips, and cooking adventures, and outfits and room decoration and terrible photography and any other thing I happen to dip my head into without looking first, I suspect.

You see, I can't ever seem to settle on just one thing.  I want to try everything at least once, and I go through cycles of being completely addicted to one thing only to toss it aside for a new, exciting thing a month later. 

This would be fine, if I actually followed through on any of my projects.  But the sad thing is, usually they just wind up tossed to the curbside as I chase after some new, shiny idea.  Well, no more!

This year, I hope to use this blog to guide myself along some sort of path to seriousness.  If I start a project, I have to finish it, and I think being able to write about those projects here will help me not only finish them, but finish them well instead of half-heartedly.  Anything goes!  There are no themes where I come from; I just have to do whatever it is I'm doing WELL!   

And hey, on as little budget as is humanly possible would be nice too.

Welcome to 2012 everybody, and to my shiny new blog.  I hope everybody's years go amazingly!

Stay tuned for my first "real" post, in which I document the harrowing experience of refurbishing my old purse!