a friend was intimidated and asked if there was an easy way 

to start painting on a tea bag.   here's what i suggested.

trace an image you like on white tissue paper.  i used

a mechanical pencil.

cut out the outline and glue it to the tea bag 

using matt medium.  this works on a larger 

canvas or journal page as well. 

 fill in as you would a coloring book.  here i used

paynes gray watercolor.  you can

embellish as much or little as you want.

i picked up an unused leather 

wedding album at a swap.

with square pages with gold detailing.

a perfect home or little painted tea bags, don't you think?

i am posting very late with the paint party friday party! 

thanks, guys for letting me come along this week.

start to finish...

i tried a celestial seasonings holiday tea.

it has a nice bright pink stain.  i rinsed

one bag and the pink disappeared!   this

bag has a hint of a face shape... or is it me?

i drew a sketch with a mechanical pencil.

then went over it with a micron pen.

i used bits of paper i made from rice paper,

stamps and acrylic.

did a bit of stenciling.

and voila.  

i am still smitten with the little tea bag paintings.  in fact,

in a few weeks i am meeting with a group of artists

who want to try them.   i have learned a few things 

about them from my daily paintings.

using watercolor without gesso gives 

a soft, old world look.  the watercolor absorbs into

the bag and once dried, the vibrancy softens.

a daily painting commitment does not allow 

one to hem and haw.  you just need to do it.

a  small palate knife and acrylic is very effective.

sometimes you can get a ghost image when painting

over another paper, especially when the paint or

watercolor is very wet.  i am going to work with it to
bring out the face.

i spent many hours yesterday looking for 

round tea bags, to no avail.  hopefully i will be 

more successful in the future.

i spent a few sunny days  in san ysidro,

along the central coast of california.  what 

a lovely little town filled with charming shops

and wineries.

 

happy valentine's day to all.

thank you for visiting today.  

your comments are 

welcome and appreciated.  

posting with friends at paint party friday.

i am in love with painting on teabags daily!

this is a collage of some painted in january

i primarily used watercolor and posted them

each day on instagram.  now there are a 

few art friends who are interested in starting to paint

these lovelies.  each teabag brand has a different in texture

and reacts in its own way to the medium.  for the most part,

i have  stayed away from acrylic until today.   it's all

an experiment and i will keep you posted

i am pleased and honored to announce 

that i am published in the current issue of 

cloth paper scissors.  

this is a way that i start a project when you are 

stuck or just want to dive in without making a big 

deal about starting.  also it is a fun

to do in a group.

posting the lovely artists at paint party friday.  thank you

to our hostesses kristen and eva

since wednesday i have looked outside to see

if i couple catch a glimpse of the planets

in alignment.  the last time this happened was 

11 years ago.  there has been an early morning

 cloud cover which has obscured the view ...

until this morning.  even with the full moon

i could see the plants!  they were so bright.

just the sight of all of them was thrilling.

look in your local  paper to see where the best place 

to catch this  sight in your area.  i think there

are a couple of days left.  

ps venus is like a shining jewel in the sky!

pss  a full moon always captures my heart because 

it reminds me of the night my son was born

my friend lorraine wanted to have an art day

to celebrate her birthday.  we decided to make gelli plate prints.

it is a great way to loosen up, try different colors and make papers for future art pieces.  

then afterwards we drew in journals and collaged our drawing

with the papers we made.  i used tissue paper, scrapbook paper, 

magazine papers, well, whatever i had in my ever growing stacks of

ephemera to print. my journal is a 1907 children's primer.

when i showed the journal to a group of artists 

i got the  comment that  i was defacing a book.  i like to think

of it as up cycling.  but i guess this is up for personal 

opinion.  another comment was that this girl always 

shows up in my work and wondered if i talked to anyone

about that.  i wonder, who would i talk to?

comments welcome :)

this week i also continue to paint daily on the little tea bags.

linked to paint party friday

with the lovely hostesses kristen and ava
and #artjournaleveryday 

journal spread

i used to journal regularly but have gotten away from it.

as one of the assignments in  katie kendrick's online workshop 

i collaged an image of one of my paintings along with other papers.

and intuitively added acrylic paint, marks with 

a graphite pencil until it felt finished.  

i dont know why i don't do this more often.  

it was fun!

i have linked this with julie blazer designs, 

5 top reasons to art journal