“Discover a purpose that gives you passion. Develop a plan that makes you persistent. Design a preparation and motivates you to optimize your potentials. Do it because you love it!”―
Mixed Media Art by Stephanie Hopkins
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“Create things you wish existed.”
This passed weekend I made a few art journal pages and made some new Artist Trading Cards. I added elements to four of them. Saving the rest to embellish later. I used papers I painted and stenciled the backgrounds. I have a few scraps left over from the paper that I’m going to use in a other projects. The journal pages will be featured later on.
I meant to get some reading time in but that didn’t happen.
For shame!
I know.
Stephanie Hopkins
“Animals are such agreeable friends. They ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.” ― George Elliot
Another sneak peak project of my 30 Day Mixed media Art Challenge. I created these trading cards by using my painted papers and playing cards from the Dollar Tree. The ephemera is by Tim Holtz.
Painted ATC by Stephanie Hopkins
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(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie.)
Here is another sneak peek of a few new projects for my 30 Day Mixed Media Art Challenge. These were a lot of fun to make by just taking cardboard from a used memo pad to create embellishments. I painted and doodled on the chipboard, then cut our images. Here are two that I completed and will use the others soon. You don’t have to have all the latest and greatest supplies to craft. Use what you have and you will find it will challenge your mind to be more creative. –Stephanie Hopkins
(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie.)
“Just because you take breaks doesn’t mean you’re broken.”
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This weekend was a time of reflection and chilling out with a good book, TV and creating art tags and journal pages. Saturday morning, I cleaned out stuff, Goodwill run to unload of stuff, did some paper-crafting while watching The Mummy for the thousandth time and watched a couple episodes of Instinct. I have a tote bag with journal and art supplies that I can take with me wherever I want to journal. I don’t like to confined myself to just one space. On occasional, I do switch things out of the bag for variety. As you can see in the slideshow, this tote is a bit full at the moment. I look forward to the day when I can take my tote bag again to a coffee shop or a friends house and create. If you want me to do a slideshow on what’s in the bag, please let me know! By the way…What is your favorite scene or line in The Mummy? I have lots.
On Sunday after Church Service in the morning, I created two new tags using my collage paper and a painted paper I made a while back. In the picture of the brownish tag you can see the glue still drying. I have a lot of fun making these tags. They are perfect to do when you don’t want to work on bigger projects.
I read quite a few pages in, “I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes” and wow, this story is intense! I am taking my time with this one. If you like spy thrillers then I highly recommend you pick this one up. The book has 612 pages to be exact.
This week I will be sharing two other recent art projects, a cover crush and possible a book review. Have a great weekend everyone, be at peace and stay safe. -Stephanie Hopkins
About the Book:
A breakneck race against time…and an implacable enemy. An anonymous young woman murdered in a run-down hotel, all identifying characteristics dissolved by acid. A father publicly beheaded in the blistering heat of a Saudi Arabian public square. A notorious Syrian biotech expert found eyeless in a Damascus junkyard. Smoldering human remains on a remote mountainside in Afghanistan. A flawless plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity. One path links them all, and only one man can make the journey. Pilgrim.’
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(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie.)
A sneak peek at one of my projects from the 30 Mixed Media Art Challenge I am doing, I love how this turned out! I might use this for a center piece on a collage project. -Stephanie Hopkins
“When you are lost, you have the chance to be found.”
(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie.)
Yesterday I decided to craft on the back porch. It was an absolutely beautiful day and the screened porch is surrounded with big lush Maple Trees. I am starting a new altered art journal book and I decided that for this project I’m going to use my painted papers and most of my hand-made mixed media embellishments for this project. I am using a few things from Tim Holtz and the Dollar Tree. Painted papers are one of my favorite mediums to use. These papers were made with left over paint, distress spray stains and inks from other projects. There are so many fun art projects you can make with them as I have blogged about before.
After I finished my pages and was getting a bit to eat, my daughter called me and asked if she could use my printer and get some canvas from me. She asked about Fluid Art and we got to talking about it. I gave her the old pouring medium I had left over and gave her instructions but then we decided to play around with it straight away. I did not want to use my good paint for this experiment so we went down to the basement and dug up some old clumpy acrylic paints that has to be years old. They came out pretty good for having to used art supplies. We had a great time and it was a treat to hang out with my daughter. -Stephanie Hopkins
(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie.)
On May 12th I started a 30 day art challenge of using black, white and pink stains, paint and ink for background colors. I want to see how many creations I can come up with just using those combinations. I’ve created quite a few journal pages so far and will be working on other art projects with this challenge.
Below is a sneak peek of just a few that I’ve made and at the end of the 30 days I will be doing a slideshow of all the art I created with this challenge. I left a lot of free space on a few of the pages to write down some thoughts, quotes, my poems and bible verses.
Stephanie Hopkins
(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie.)
The premise sounds intriguing, great title and I love the cover design! Adding this book to my to-read list -Stephanie Hopkins
A beautifully crafted story breathes life into the cameo character from the classic novel A Tale of Two Cities.
France, 1788
It is the best of times . . .
On a tranquil farm nestled in the French countryside, two orphaned cousins—Renée and Laurette—have been raised under the caring guardianship of young Émile Gagnon, the last of a once-prosperous family. No longer starving girls, Laurette and Renée now spend days tending Gagnon’s sheep, and nights in their cozy loft, whispering secrets and dreams in this time of waning innocence and peace.
It is the worst of times . . .
Paris groans with a restlessness that can no longer be contained within its city streets. Hunger and hatred fuel her people. Violence seeps into the ornate halls of Versailles. Even Gagnon’s table in the quiet village of Mouton Blanc bears witness to the rumbles of rebellion, where Marcel Moreau embodies its voice and heart.
It is the story that has never been told.
In one night, the best and worst of fate collide. A chance encounter with a fashionable woman will bring Renée’s sewing skills to light and secure a place in the court of Queen Marie Antoinette. An act of reckless passion will throw Laurette into the arms of the increasingly militant Marcel. And Gagnon, steadfast in his faith in God and country, can only watch as those he loves march straight into the heart of the revolution.
Today I’m highlighting one of Cas Holmes art books about creating art inspired by place, space, objects and more…Below I share a link to her website and I highly recommend taking a look. Her work is extraordinary and expressive with each stitch and collage. I could spend hours looking at all the detail and escape in the story she tells. -Stephanie Hopkins
Stitch Stories: Personal Places, Spaces and Traces in Textile Art
by Cas Holmes
The events of your life, from local walks to exotic trips, can provide endless inspiration for textile art. This inspiring book shows you how to record your experiences, using sketchbooks, journals and photography, to create personal narratives that can form a starting point for more finished stitched-textile pieces. Acclaimed textile artist and teacher Cas Holmes, whose work is often inspired by her life and the journeys she makes, helps you find inspiration through your own life and explains how to record what you see in sketchbooks and journals, which can often become beautiful objects in themselves. She explains how you can use photography, both as documentation and as inspiration, and sometimes incorporate it into the work itself, along with found objects and ephemera. Throughout the book are useful techniques that can be harnessed to add extra interest to your work, such as methods for making layered collages, how to ‘sketch’ with stitch, and advice on design and colour. If you want to create beautiful, unique work inspired by your life and travels, this is the perfect book for you.
About the Artist:
Cas Holmes was born in Norwich, U.K in 1960 and graduated from University College of Creative Arts in the mid-eighties. For thirty years she has traveled, taught and exhibited and is renowned for her use of ‘the found’. Her many-layered, atmospheric pieces have been shown and collected around the world. She received a Winston Churchill Memorial Award and Japan Foundation Award for research into paper-making and textiles in Japan.
Since 2005 she has run courses for the Edward James Foundation at West Dean College as well as continued workshops in the UK and overseas. She works to commission and has pieces in the collection of the Museum of Art and Design New York, Rochester Cathedral and Arts Council England.
More recently, an Arts Council Award led to research in India and subsequent exhibition. This led to a Pride of Britain Award by the NRI Institute for excellence in her field.
The Found Object in Textile Art is her first publication for Batsford.
You can see her profile and work HERE
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