Artful Thursdays - Embellishment Inspiration

Thursdays are about to become one of my favorite days of the week; because Artful Thursdays, from the imagination of Julie Collings, are all about just playing....something I haven't done for quite a while.Each Thursday, those who are participating will gather supplies, make something artful...anything...maybe something that has been percolating on the back burner for a while...maybe some fun technique that has been passed by...then, on Fridays post about.

Artful Embellishment No Pressure Collage

Sometimes when I'm rusty and the creative wheels are turning hard - I pick out a bunch of different little objects from the studio stash - book pages, playing cards, ric rac, lace, ribbon, buttons, jewelry, ephemera etc. and move the items around, folding them, scrunching them - kind of like brainstorming. I audition a lot of various little bits until I'm completely happy and love what I've ended up with. For me, this takes the pressure out of commiting pieces to a collage by permanently tacking them down, and somehow, I'm more free to experiment and find those combinations of lovelies that just feel right together.

Sometimes, like in this piece, I have a theme or color scheme or specific subject that I want to play with. No rules and no specific "end" in mind help me so much to forget making "something" and I'm able to "just make" something.