Old tote becomes new...

Recycling, upcycling, those are popular words these days, and they should be!  I did my part yesterday by upcycling an old canvas tote bag.  I washed it, dried it, dyed it, and then embellished the front  with various fabric scraps and inspirational words.  The scraps were colored with acrylic paints and then let to dry.  I used my hands as paint brushes.  When all was dry I cut out pieces to please my eye, attached them together with fusible web on a panel of fabric the size of the bag, then stitched on top.  Machine and hand stitched with various colors and then attached the panel to the bag.  Voila, a nice bag for your art supplies, journal, or any other can't-live-without item(s.)

 

 

 I used a lovely teal dye and the bag was wrinkled and got this wave pattern.

Maybe recycle or upcycle something today??

Bad hair day under the sea...

Happy Independence Day!  Eat lots of water melon and cake! :)  I spent the day painting, the most fave thing in the whole wide world.  Came up with another mermaid, and here's the result:

 

This has many layers of paint and texture, and then I decide to paint it white and start over.

I did have the texture to contend with when I began on the face, but it added some interest to her features and to the roiling sea.  The sky is about as roiling, but what the hay, it's windy and sunny! :)

I forgot to post about when Horizon Magazine, the Magazine of Presbytarian Women offered me some good money to use one of my images:

 

Out of the blue they emailed me and asked if they could use one of my images.  Heck yeah!

 

The article is by Nancy Copeland-Payton, A Prayerful Sorting

 

My piece is a mixed media mosaic collage that I made a few years back, called Heart Path.  For a better view of the piece, you can check my Flickr stream.  There are lots of photos of my older stuff there if you're interested.  Anyway, the March/April issue was focused on Native Americans and the USA Mission Experience.  I was really impressed.  I've never heard of these people, or the magazine before.  I  knew about the Presbytarian church, but not what they had accomplished.  If you want to know more about the magazine, check it out at: http://www.pcusa.org/horizons.