MMSA green swap - outgoing

These are the 4 cards I'm sending in for MMSA's green swap.

Each started life as a gelli print glued to cardboard, then I added misc green things found in my endless stash or torn from a magazine.

I think I like the confidential one best. The squishy circle background was big bubble wrap pressed onto the paint before laying down the paper. Then I cut a few of them out and glued them on top. Remind me of kiwi fruit. Or lime halves.


Plenty of time to enter the swap if you're interested. Cards don't have to be in the mail to her until March 18th. 

free collage sheets

I made these for Karen at MMSA to use (or not) in an upcoming swap. Meanwhile, I thought if they appeal to any of you, feel free to download and use them however you like, except to sell. 

They consist of gelli prints, vintage photos, a receipt from 1915, an old tape measure, ancient button card, some wallpaper, some old airmail stickers, corrugated packaging paper, a few numbered wooden tokens, part of an old crochet cotton band, and a calendar page from 1920.

As always, if you make something with them, I'd love to see it.

Excel - it's not just for accountants

My apologies to those of you still under lots of snow with the prospect of yet more in your future, because this post is about the planting of my garden. Here in northern California, the danger of a freeze is past and so it's safe to plant all sorts of things right into the ground.

This year is different in many respects.

1. It's the 2nd summer in this house, so we know more about sun/shade/wind - the things that affect various plants in different ways.

2. We're starting many things from seed in our sunny kitchen window. If you want to eat at the kitchen table, you must cozy up to the two trays of peat pots with spindly little shoots straining toward the light.

3. Mr. OneWoman'sHands (let's call him S) is involved in a major way. Last year I did all the donkey work while he strolled around sipping Chardonnay, gathering peppers into a basket and commenting on how the tomatoes needed better tying up. (note: my garden was haphazard, overgrown  and messy but it produced like crazy)

Well, the tomatoes won't dare get out of line this year because We Have A Plan! This plan was drawn up on a spreadsheet in Excel, one foot to a square, labeled with what plant goes where.

S loves Excel in the way that some men love their car. He sees it as a tool that can be employed in many ways, not the least of which is laying out the floor plan of a wood shop or the planting of a garden.

A couple weeks ago, after endlessly occasionally consulting me about how much space such-n-such veg needed, he eventually emerged from his office with two sheets of paper which he proudly handed to me with a self-satisfied smile and the air of a job well done.

We took these plans with us this afternoon when we sallied forth into the back yard to Plant. I stood by holding pots of veggies while he measured (you heard me right) the distance from the edge of the raised garden to where the first pepper plant should go.

Scrape chips away, set pepper down in bare spot, smile at wife - next!

We laid out most of the garden in this fashion, then went back and planted. There are many more plants to come, plus another (new) bed for root veggies, which we didn't have last year.

(I may have missed dead center by a few inches here and there but I expect it will all grow anyway)

Feb postcard giveaway winners!

Remember these?

One of these cards made by me, plus a blank-except-for-the-gelli-print card, are going to these lucky ladies - LESA, MAUREEN, and JUNIPER GOODS.

Please shoot me an email (maugreall at gmail dot com) with your addy and I'll get them on their way to you. If you have a fave card, say so. I'll try to oblige you but no promises.

I think for the March giveaway I'll send out 3 selections of gelli prints. One full sheet of deli paper, plus assorted pieces from sheets of deli papers and phone book pages I've torn into already. Then you can make something fun at your end. Even if you already have a gelli plate of your own, my prints will be different in various ways. 


In fact maybe what the world needs is a gelli print swap. Huh? That sounds like an outstanding idea to me. Let me ruminate on it a bit...

Please leave a comment sometime in March to be in the drawing.

cherry blossom pink

A digital collage made for the Art Journal Caravan 2013. This month's stop on our around the world tour is Japan. I'm not a huge fan of Japanese art, culture, food, etc. Don't dislike it, it just isn't a country on my bucket list.

However, it has a lot of neat things going for it such as cranes, mountains, cherry blossoms, and haiku.

For this collage, I used 3 background papers from the March kit layered and blended in a variety of ways, then added the various elements.

I wrote the haiku which reads:

cherry blossom pink
sparrows soar in aqua sky
nature sighs softly

abstract gelli postcards

Figured you were getting tired of all letters all the time (I finally was too), so here's some postcards.

I started with gelli printed cereal boxes cut to 4x6, then collaged more gelli printed deli paper and phone book pages, dress patterns, and the tiny filter from a used Keurig cup. 

I didn't even know there was a filter in there, but we just bought a tumbler composter and coffee grounds is one of the things you can put in there, so after S brewed a cup, I ripped the top off and shook out the grounds. 


It looked like there was still more in there, so I scraped at it with a knife, then got real interested and took it all apart. There's a little filter that looks kinda like a small cupcake paper, and a small plastic piece that sort of supports the filter.

Anyway, I cut it up and used it on some of the cards. It's the dark semi circular thing. I like the crinkles in it even after I smoothed it out.

I used matte gel medium to stick everything down cause I've discovered that glue sticks don't hold very well on gelli prints. Don't know if it's the slightly rough texture, or the nature of the paint, or what, but I'm not taking any chances in the future and will stick with gel medium. Don't want all my bits falling off in the mail!

I had a couple random word strips from books lying on my work table (along with so much other stuff right now), and stuck them on two of the cards. I'm calling these done for now, altho once I decide who they're going to, I may add recipient-appropriate stuff.

LL201 lesson 5

What's this - my fourth post today? Can you tell my husband's out of town?? Haven't done a lick of housework so tomorrow morning will be a flurry of dishes, laundry folding/putting away, etc. 

Altho today I did repot the front planters with flowers, so that counts, right?

Struggled making this look like a collage. All the words are supposed to touch, and Joanne's sample is all filled in and co-joined, etc, while mine looks like a crossword puzzle gone bad. Too all-lined-up, altho looking at it small here in the post editor, it looks somewhat better. 

All the words are from a list of the most beautiful words in the English language. Love the way some of them roll off the tongue. Word candy.

But this is my 3rd try at it and I'm calling it a day and going up to read in bed with hot chocolate, a cookie, and the dog, and maybe the cat if she's feeling sociable. The bird's already in bed. Night.