Flower of the Month

Our monthly post from Susan.

Cow Parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris

Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge
where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.
'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, (1828-1882).

Anthriscus sylvestris, commonly known as Cow Parsley, Wild Chervil, Hedge Parsley, Queen Anne’s Lace, and Devil’s Parsley, is a common wildflower of the English countryside and is largely naturalized throughout the United States and Canada, primarily in the Northeast. It is considered a noxious weed in 46 states in the United States.

Cow Parsley is a member of the carrot family, Apiaceeae, and shares many physical characteristics with its relatives Wild Carrot, Daucus carota, (commonly known as Queen Anne’s Lace in the US), Poison Hemlock, Conium maculatum, and Fool’s Parsley, Aethusa cynapium.  All of these have white umbel flowers and fern like leaves. Queen Anne’s Lace (D. carota), is easily distinguished from the group with its purplish black “eye” in the center of the white flower as well as delicate green bracts at the base of the flower. Its leaves are of a finer texture than the more coarse Cow Parsley. In autumn, Queen Anne’s Lace is easily spotted in a field by its inverted seed heads which resemble birds’ nests. Cow Parsley and its poisonous cousins maintain the umbel shape as it displays its seeds.

Though once included in the diets of the Celts, all sources advise against collecting and using this plant for food, medicine or dye. Other plants are better suited for those purposes and are not easy to confuse with poisonous plants.

Enjoy the Cow Parsley you find growing in abandoned fields and along highways and country roads, but let it be. Collect (with permission) the Queen Anne’s Lace or Wild Carrot flowers for fresh bouquets in spring, and the seed heads for dried bouquets in autumn.

Thank you so much Susan for providing this blog post when you have been so busy with your son's wedding.

Don't forget to add your work using the linky below.

Technique Challenge

This month I've found two different Autumn/Fall projects you might like to try.

A Fall Tag pt 1

And pt 2

Or you might like to try this.   If you don't have time to make the box you could use the leaf technique with a tag.

Autumn Leaves pt 1

And pt 2

And an extra part to go with it.

I hope you enjoyed the videos.  Please share whatever you make with us using the linky below.

Recycling with Joanna

Another fabulous post from Joanna this month.

Gratitude Journal Made With Recycled Materials

By Joanna Grant

Hello again, artsy friends!  My submission for this season is another simple little art journal made with recycled materials and with a gratitude theme.  It seemed appropriate considering Thanksgiving here in Canada is the second weekend of October, right about the time you’ll be reading this post.

I decided to do a small, modular journal, one that would be easy to add more sentiments to as one wishes.  Again, I raided my stash of salvaged office supplies in the hopes of using up some more of that stuff.

I started with two small envelopes which would be the covers of the little journal.  They each measure 3.25” X 6” and I treated them with a variety of paint techniques.  Colors for this project include brown, red, orange and mustard yellow.

Using an old credit card I swiped acrylic paint around (in red, orange and yellow ochre) for the first layer (both sides of each envelope).  When the paint was dry, I took a brown stamp pad and smeared it all over both sides.  Notice my fancy terminology for these techniques – “swipe” and “smear.”  The next layer was a crackle pattern rubber stamp in brown, followed by all the colors used with various sized spouncers for the dots.

At this point, I focused on one side of the envelopes which would be the inside of the front and back covers of the journal.  I chose the seam side of the envelopes to be the inside of the covers.  Using some recycled acetate from my office supply stash, I went online and found a generic image of teasel (to fit this month’s theme) and printed a variety of sizes on a single sheet of acetate on my laser printer.  (My apologies to Joanna, I forgot to tell her about the change to Cow Parsley - however I think it's great to have something different!)

After cutting out the teasel images, I adhered them to the envelopes with heavy body gel medium.  The gel medium happened to be a gloss finish, which I don’t normally like, but it turned out great and the background “swipe and smear” techniques show through the acetate teasels nicely.

I debated for quite a while whether I should add some images on top of the teasels but everything I experimented with took away from the teasels so, for now, I’ll leave the inside covers as they are.

Back on the “outside” sides of the envelopes (the front and back covers of the journal), I carried on embellishing them with some large leaves cut from some of my own mono-printed papers, followed by some wooden flowers painted with copper Twinkling H2Os (shimmery watercolor) and further embellished with paper flowers and sparkly doodads.

When I was happy (enough) with the envelopes, I punched a hole in the center of the closed end of each.  The journal is held together with a binder-style ring so that additional pages can be added.

Amongst my salvaged office supplies, I also had an old box of heavy cardstock divider-type cards.  They came from a library resource center so I am sure they must have been used to divide card catalogue drawers or something like that.  Anyway, I couldn’t let them go to waste so I brought them home and often use them for tags.  Because they are heavy duty, I figured they would stand up well for this kind of project, knowing that, as the “pages” of this journal, they will be handled quite a bit.  The photo shows label on the end of the box of cards and a couple of the blank cards.

I used the good ol’ “swipe and smear” technique on several of the cards (both sides, building up layers of acrylic paint.

I also smeared some glitter glue in random spots on some of the cards for a bit of shine.  In all, I would say each card has about eight layers of paint and/or ink on each side.  I just kept adding to them until I liked the look. 

I punched holes in one end of each so that they could either go on the ring or have ribbon or fiber attached if they were going to live in the pocket of the cover envelopes.  Reinforcement stickers went on some of them for added support around the holes.

Now it was time to consider what sentiments and images I wanted to include on these cards as the pages of the journal. 

On the side of one card, I wrote in lime green dimensional paint the word “hopeful.”  The ability to be hopeful is something I am personally very grateful for.  It implies something wonderful and exciting right around the corner.

On the back of “hopeful” I used one of my little slide mount art pieces I had already made some time ago.  I love to alter and embellish recycled slide mounts and use them as small frames to showcase miniature art.  This one has a sweet vintage angel as its central image.  The slide mount is adhered to the card with white glue.  I did some scribbly journaling that reads, “I am grateful to know the wisdom of acting with grace in all things.”

To finish this card off, I added some doodly teasels that were overlaid with a light coat of metallic copper watercolor paint (Twinkling H2Os).

I used the same techniques for another of the cards that features slide mount art with a sweet pair of cherubs (stamped images).  I did some more scribbly journaling that reads, “I am grateful for the imagination and innocence of youth,” and again used the teasel images to finish off this card.

On the next card, I added another slide mount art piece.  Don’t you love the careless, over-the-shoulder look this vintage lady is giving us?  It inspired me to embellish the card with the words, “irreverence,” “élan,” and “humor,” doodled on washi tape.  These are qualities I am grateful to have.  They make life so much easier!

On the flipside of this card I created an homage to music, with the quote “without music, life would be a mistake” (Nietzsche).  Of all the things in this life I am grateful for, I think I am most grateful for the gift of music.  The flower is another monoprint cutout embellished with a sparkly doodad.  The lettering is done with a calligraphy pen on scrap paper.

On the last card of this series I used a slide mount art piece with a vintage image of a cat and the sentiment, “unconditional love,” that wonderful gift that our pets give us.

In this next image you’ll see two of the other flip sides, ready to go with additional gratitude sentiments.  For the sake of time to get this lesson to you, I did not finish them, other than to add the monoprint flowers with sparkly doodads.  I am thinking of adding sentiments about family and health, two other things I am very grateful for.

I may end up attaching funky fibers to some of the pieces.  If I do this, they will live inside the pockets of the front or back covers.  Here’s what they can look like:

I also have four more “pages” on the go (not shown) which I can add to the journal at a later date.  I like the flexibility of using the binder ring to make this journal modular.  It will be great fun to add to it over time.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little project and I welcome your comments.

Until next time …

Joanna

Thank you so much Joanna for this absolutely gorgeous project.

Don't forget to link up your work using the linky below.

And if you're interested in doing a month long Gratitude Journal challenge in November then have a look here.

October Zine

Each quarter we are making a seasonal Zine.  The information for the Autumn Zine is here with the September page.

And so to October.   Here's the starting point.

 I stamped the pear using Sepia Archival Ink.

I cut up the quote and inked it with Barn Door Distress Ink and stuck it down.  I used the Sepia Ink to stamp the month.

I look forward to seeing your October page.  Please use the link below to share your work with us.

Photo Challenge

In March I introduced this monthly challenge.  Each month we take a photograph on the same day, at the same time, of the same place.  How are you getting on with this challenge?

You choose a day or date and a place to suit you.  It could be taken from your front door, your back door, a particular place on your journey to work or on the school run.  It could be where you walk the dog.  Wherever it is, it needs to be a place you are at or near regularly.

Each month we take a photo and over the year we will build up a picture of the changes in the seasons.   If you haven't already, I suggest you have a folder on your hard drive where you keep these photos so you can find them at the end of our 12 months together.

If you upload them to the Facebook group please add the photo to your album or if you are new please make an album with your name and a suitable title.  Thanks.

There's also a Flickr group if you don't have a blog or a Facebook account.

I've added a linky for you to add your photo or blog.

Creative Date for October

Mixing it up a bit this month with this post coming earlier in the month. 

Julia Cameron in The Artists Way suggested the idea of making time for a regular creative date.   This idea is also picked up by Matt Tommey in Unlocking the Heart of the Artist.   

Judy shared this page with us: 101 Artist's Date Ideas.

I am suggesting that we should each make time for a creative date each month.  Ideally we will go out.  Go to a local museum, a local art gallery, go for a walk!  Whatever idea you have that will feed your creativity.

However sometimes it's not possible to physically visit those places.  So here's my idea for October.

Go to this blog at Elvie Studio and read the blog post.

Scroll down through the blog and you will come to a list of favourite places.  Click through to one of the blogs.  Do the same on that page - click through to another page.  If there isn't a list come back to the Elvie Studio blog and find another blog to look at, repeating this for as long as you wish.  Make notes of things that inspire you.  Make a list of the links to the blogs you went to and share them with the rest of us.

Of course blog surfing can use up time like nothing else can.  So you may want to set yourself a time limit - say an hour - or a number limit of blogs - say 6.  Choose what suits you best and 

have fun!

The month of October

October in the UK can be a really  dank and miserable month or occasionally we get an 'Indian Summer'.  There's some more information here about October.

There are some amazing bizarre celebrations listed for this month.  How about Virus Appreciation Day or National Mole Day - which isn't what you might think!   I think we should all celebrate Wear Something Gaudy Day on October 17th.

Our Flower of the Month is Cow Parsley or Queen Anne's Lace.  This is a change from the advertised flower.  I feel the seedheads give us more art opportunities.

This music in this video is quite haunting and melancholic with some beautiful photos.

Here are some extra Autumn items:
Printables      Pinterest Board

Here's your October checklist.

Art Challenge
Make a page inspired by the information or inspiration you have found here.

Don't forget to share your work with us all via the linky.