Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Earth Day and Cloth Paper Scissors Challenges

Earth Day Challenge - Diva's weekly challenge #164

I'm really enjoying participating in these weekly challenges; it forces me to do something every week, and also post consistently on the blog :).  You can see this week's challenge and all the wonderful submissions from other participants here.

Because the challenge was for Earth Day, I decided to use recycled paper - used tea bags - and because the Earth is round, I went with the round tea bags.  I used Sakura gel pens, Inktense, and colored pencils.

The challenge for me was then to create nature inspired art with tangles.  Some are very obviously organic in nature, but I enjoyed using others which may not be so obvious.  I definitely could keep going, it was so much fun!!!


Top:
  • Left - Sedgling Forest
  • Center - Angel Fish Tree
  • Right - Isochor Flowering Trees
Center:
  • Left - 'Nzeppel Flowers
  • Center - Rain trees
  • Right - Tipple, Printemps, Amaze, and Flux Mountains 
Bottom:
  • Left - Aura-Leah Plant
  • Center - Flux Plant
  • Right - Eke Plant

Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine Reader Challenge

Cloth Paper Scissors is one of my favorite magazines; I absolutely love it.  Last year they had a challenge to create a mixed-media stitched square (6" x 6" - around 15 x 15 cm).  I decided to enter and submitted my piece below, which was then published in the January/February 2014 issue.



So, here is the finished piece and some of the in-progress pictures.  I hope you enjoy them.
Finished Piece

Finished Piece - close-up


Background - started with a piece of my husband's old jeans
and layered old book pages, stamped and drawn-on tea bags, gesso, and inks. 


Drew and stitched a tree, and then started adding flowers
Close up of the tree branches and flowers
In the end I added more color with Inktense as you can see in the finished piece and stitched it to a piece of felt.

It was so much fun to open up the magazine and see my art in it :)

29 comments:

  1. Thank you so much!! I did have a lot of fun!

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  2. That's a wonderful and inspiring idea - the teabags. They look so pretty.

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  3. I love your Earth Day collection - very creative. Thanks for sharing the Cloth Paper Scissors project as well. So nice!

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    1. Thank you, Susan! I really appreciate your comments.

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  4. Love your take on the Earth Day challenge - I especially love the Sedgling and Flux ones! And the CPS piece is gorgeous - it's no surprise it was published.

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    1. Thank you so much, Leslie; I had a whole lot of fun with both challenges. It was hard to stop :)

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    1. Thank you, Lily, I really appreciate your comment.

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  6. You did a great (and original) job on this Earth-Day challenge! Very beautiful, like the rest too.

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    1. Thank you, Anne! I had so many ideas for this challenge, but decided to go with the teabags :). I'm glad you enjoyed them.

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  7. Your work is so beautiful. You came up with such a unique way to do the challenge. And, I had to go run and find my copy of the CPS magazine. I am impressed. Wonderful!

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    1. Thank you, Jean! I'm so glad you enjoyed the challenge and seeing my entry in the CPS magazine :)

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  8. Wow, everything is amazingly beautiful!!!! Nice, nice work!! :0) Share Humanity

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  9. Marta. I think your teabag tangles are stunning. Thanks for sharing them with your lovely stitched piece.

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    1. Thank YOU!... for your wonderful comments :)

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  10. What an original idea. All of them are super and love the way they are arranged.

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  11. Very creative ot use the teabag paper. Look great.

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  12. Super, stunning and very original work, Marta! Axxx

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    1. Thank you so much, Annie; I really appreciate it.

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  13. Your teabags are beautiful. A stunning idea, and so well executed. I could look at them all day!

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    1. Thank you so much for your wonderful comment; I really appreciated it!

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  14. Dear Marta
    Your little works of art are beautiful!!
    I LOVE LOVE LOVE your piece from the magazine ... did you embroider those blossoms?
    ~ Diane

    http://www.dianeclancy.com/blog/2014/04/amanda-earth-day-challenge-entry/

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    1. Thank you so much, Diane!! You are always so supportive; I really appreciate it.
      Yes, the tree and the blossoms were hand-stitched; each blossom is a French Knot :)

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  15. Wow!! I've yet to try tangles on coloured paper and here you are using tea bags! They look great and perfectly suited to this challenge. Linda x

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    1. Thank you so much, Linda. It did take me a while to tangle on colored paper, it is different as the shading doesn't show as much, so I tend to use white as well. I did have fun with the teabags, though :)

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