It's written in the stars and drinks

 

UPDATE:  I'm having trouble leaving comments.  I keep gettin "Failed to Publish." If you don't hear from me right away, that is why!!

It's once again time to join Erika our host this month at Art Journal Journey.  By now you may know her theme is RED.

Today's journal page is entitled "It's written in the stars." I've included a few detail shots, too.

Besides the fact these are faces, which means I can join Nicole and her Friday Face Off, I am also paying homage to Black History Month.

This entry is all about layering.  I started with a sheet of red dotted scrapbook paper, over which I layered a sheet of red paper with the white swirls and stars.  To that I layered flowers from an old calendar over a piece of washi tape.  Next, I added the three TH paper dolls.  I tried to write the words using my white gelli pen, but the words didn't show on the paper.  It was at that time I wrote it using my new pink Posca pen.

 

I also decided to join Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date (TADD) since it features Drinks this week.  Here are a few I have shared in the past.

  This was taken before I got my new porch.  I am drinking from one of my favorite mugs, Taylor and Ng. Not sure what loose leaf tea I was drinking, but you can see the tea ball in the ashtray that is NOT used as an ashtray.

  Speaking of Taylor and Ng, I am drinking red raspberry tea while tying some sage so it can dry.

  Since we were on the subject of Taylor and Ng, I love these even more now that I know they are considered collectors items.

   Although I couldn't get this image to enlarge, in the heat of summer, there was loads of time to dye paper, fabric, and gather tea bags for art. Of course, iced tea was usually on the menu.

For Thanksgiving, I always bring out my Grandmother's Old Curiosity Shop china. I use it from Thanksgiving through Christmas. The copper I will use any day of the year.

I called this Homage to my Grandmother.  The glass of tea and the pitcher (which looks surprisingly blue in the photo) belonged to her.  The quilt top was one I found in her stash after she died.

  Before my craft room table got cluttered with lots of tools and supplies, I actually served tea in here on occasion.  I was drinking Red Rose English Breakfast tea, a product that was originally sold only in Canada, although beginning in the 1970s, it became readily available in supermarkets in the US. It is a "fair trade tea." Red rose tea comes in a bag and I fixed two portions. One is in my carafe, the other in a plastic container. Both were sun tea and are now quite dark. You can see the ice cubes are melting from the heat of the day.

   The tea in the container was for making art.

I put the tannins from green tea to good use when I rusted fabric.

  Of course, you know I love my coffee.  However, here I am dyeing fabric using instant (YUK) coffee.

Here I dyed paper using coffee.

  I use my grungy mug when I work in the craft room or outside.  It has a lid, so there is no chance I will mistake it for dirty paint water and it keeps the elements out of my coffee, too.  Yes, that is coffee in my mug.  I use my red metal straw for everything at home because my neck doesn't go very far backward due to my birth defect which is similar to arthritis.  I was also trying to generate interest in having a Rolodex swap.  Seems there was no interest.

  I altered playing cards by covering them with tea bags.  However, the original idea had been to honor coffee.  It turned out, there were playing card pages that honored both tea and coffee. 

  I think this says it all!

  This was for a black and white challenge.

   I thought I would mix it up a bit by showing the free water I got at Autumn and Art, a juried art fair I attended in September last year.  I shared photos I took on Friday Smiles several weeks in a row.

I have coffee in my altered books.  That is some of my rejected handmade paper (made by me) I used for the background.  

  Another coffee spread in one of my altered books.

Here's another spread in an altered book.

This is from my food and drink altered book.  My friend Halle sent me the blank book.  I love French Roast coffee and cream so much, I had to make a two page spread in my altered recipe book. I think the reason the women look so haggard in the left photo is because they are drinking disgusting Maxwell House coffee! There's no substitute for good coffee ground fresh with each pot.

Then there is this unfinished Coffee altered book (AB).  When your altered book is not complete, it helps to keep it as flat as possible.  For my Coffee AB, I covered it with a bag from Mexico that originally had coffee beans in it.  I wasn't crazy about the coffee, but loved the bag.  That was why I chose it for this cover, along with a copper nameplate I stamped with  the word "Coffee."  If and when I choose to create more altered pages in this book, the cover won't get in the way.  

Granted, I have photos of me drinking buttermilk, egg nog, hot chocolate, and one beer, but I won't bore you with those.  Instead,

  here is tea (my drink/art) and my meal contribution, consisting of strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, and honey dew.  It's the perfect meal in my opinion.  Sorry I couldn't get it to enlarge.

Thank you for your visit today.  Bleubeard and I are thrilled you chose to drop by.  It means more than you know.  We will also be hanging out at Art Journal Journey and Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date (TADD) today and Friday Face Off tonight, so we hope to see you at these blogs, too.