Thursday, September 9, 2021

September Owl

 Hi everyone. 

I mentioned last week that I've been working on a journal about owls. Today's page contains this vintage owl trading style "card". I'm not sure what it would have been a part of or come from, but I received it a few years back in a package of bird images I bought off of ETSY. 

I am linking today's page up to 2 challenges. First to Wendy's vintage challenge at Art Journal Journey. Secondly I am linking my page up the this month's new challenge at Creative Artiste Mixed Media where the challenge is Anything Goes, but be sure to use a big selection of media.


I really like this page except for the all the little stamped leaves. They were the last things I added, and unfortunately, the page looks more cluttered now that they are there. Of course I also got carried away adding them( smile), but once I stamped them, it was now too late to take them off, unless I wanted to paint over those parts. Anyhow, I decided to keep this page as it is, so what you see is what is going to be.

My page also has some vintage style mini game cards. These were actually  printed on the back packaging of a set sold many years back. They weren’t meant to be used in art but more for the buyer to see what was in the package. In the package were 6 larger versions of these game cards. I thought theses mini ones would be useful one day, so I saved that back packaging sheet. For this piece I cut some of them off of the sheet and used them here.

I also added  (to my page) the bottom of a small paper bag with a blue design on it, a stamped September block,  a black paper circle as my game piece,  and this gold foil trim. I started with some grey paint and some black stenciling. These  felt sunflowers were something I found a few weeks back at Hobby Lobby (and luckily on sale 40% off) when I stopped to get a new tube of glue. I used  that glue and added the small plastic bead like pieces to their centers. I found the skeleton leaves in my stash. And then there was those stamped mini leaves. 

Don't you just love the felt sunflowers though? I thought they were a lucky find.

Speaking of flowers, let me share some flower photos with you today. First a quick story.

On my way home from the NY sculpture gardens at the end of July, my friend and I exited the highway to get some lunch in western Massachusetts. When we got off, we saw a sign for the Berkshires Botanical Garden, so we forgot about eating and off we went to find the garden.

 When we arrived a few minutes later it had started to rain, but luckily the gardens had a tea room where we could stay dry and also get a bite to eat. They had a photo at the counter of a cheese plate you could buy  that didn't look that good, but I figured it would at least tie us over so I talked my friend into splitting one. In fact we had a delicious ploughman's lunch with  various local cheeses, fruit, veggies, ham, pickles and a half of loaf of some homemade bread. It was certainly more delicious that most lunches we would have likely found. (And I wish I had got a photo of it too before we gobbled it down.)

 While we ate the sky opened up, and it poured. Also lucky for us, as soon as we finally finished our huge platter of food, the rain stopped and although wet and overcast, we could walk around the gardens without getting more than our feet wet.   Thankfully it didn't rain the rest of the visit. And to add a third charm to our visit, we got into the garden free as they were part of the same horticultural association as Bedrock Gardens, which are the gardens we each bought a season pass to back in the spring. Reciprocal memberships are great.

So here's some photos.

















Hope you enjoyed the visit as well as my art today. I'll share more garden photos another day.

Thanks for stopping by to visit.


19 comments:

David M. Gascoigne, said...

As soon as you include an owl, Erika, it has my stamp of approval!

Valerie-Jael said...

Hi Erika! Your journal page is wonderful, love all of the beautiful embellishments, and of course, the sunflowers are fantastic. I would have bought them, too! And the little leaves don't make it look crowded at all. The gardens you visited are beautiful, I would so like to have a wander around there. Do you know what those very unusual flowers in the third photo are? I've never seen anything like them. Have a great day, take care, hugs to you and your bees! Valerie

R's Rue said...

Beautiful 😍. Thank you for sharing

kathyinozarks said...

I Love your owl journal page Erika, and I love gardens after a rain-I think the colors are more vivid-thanks for sharing photos-hugs

Barbara said...

Such beautiful and unusual flower photos! What is the third photo of a very pink flower? I’ve never seen it before! Your page is great, especially the sunflowers!

Divers and Sundry said...

The garden photos are wonderful, looking like summertime. It's already fall here, so your autumn-colored owl and sunflower art fits where I am now :)

CJ Kennedy said...

Fabulous journal page. Just love those sunflowers. The Berkshires Botanical Garden is quite lovely. I wish I had the knack of knowing what to plant and where. Stay dry today

WendyK said...

Fabulous page, love owls, the card looks about the size of the old cigarette cards. I have a box full of my dad's somewhere. I must try to find them. It looks like a lovely gated you visited, it rained here nearly all day as well.
Hugs Wendy

Anne (cornucopia) said...

Fantastic artwork and photographs. I hope your weather isn't as humid as it is here in southern New England. Ugh.

Jeanie said...

I think you were living under a pink cloud to be able to have lunch timed just that way! The garden looks gorgeous. What town is it in? Rick's brother lives in Pittsfield. We usually visit in the winter but that may change if Rick stops doing the trade shows -- then we could go anytime!

Judy McKay said...

Beautiful canvas. Love the design and all the little details. Thank you for joining us this month at Creative Artiste. Have creative month. Judy DT

Iris Flavia said...

The page does not look cluttered - I disagree, it´s beautiful!
So much to see I was entertained a long time :-)
I might even like September now.
Who does not love sunflowers? (Well... I´m still a tad mad at the one that gave a bee that showed me it´s mad!)
Your lunch sounds... ohhhh hmmmm.
And that pink flower! Nature is... WOW.

Thank you, this was a great post (again :-)...)

Neet said...

What a lucky find those Botanical Gardens were - and the added pleasure of that delicious sounding Ploughmans is yet another bonus for your day.
Wow, those sunflowers really do give that page a "pop" and, as always, sunflowers make me smile. They are so sunny. (That sounds silly but I know what I mean).
I thought the tiny leaves were a pattern on the paper you had chose to use, so they didn't look over fussy to me. It's a lovely page full of things I like and the blue pattern on the bag adds interest to the whole page. Gorgeous owl.
Hugs, Neet xx

craftytrog said...

Gorgeous photos and your page is beautiful Erika! I was going to say that the owl card looks like a cigarette card, but Wendy beat me to it 😊
Happy Friday!
Alison

nwilliams6 said...

Owls and sunflowers are two of my favorite things so I totally love your page!!! The mix of cards, details, stamps,and texture are wonderful. Great garden pictures - wish I could visit there. Wonderful post, Erika!

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Sorry I am so late visiting. I have been sick for the past two days and I could barely get out of bed. Something I ate, at least that's what I hope it is. I'm marginally better today, at least.

I love the owl and the sunflowers. I also love the skeleton leaves. You did a great job and a wonderful entry for Art Journal Journey using Wendy's theme, too.

What a lucky find. and it's too bad you didn't have a chance to share your food platter, but I loved the photos of the gardens. I can see you modeling your own garden after what you saw there that day.

Meggymay said...

Lovely photos Erika and the sharing platter of food sounds good. I loved your journal page and the owl card, super for Wendy's AJJ theme.
Yvonne xx

Tracey@Hotchpotchcreations said...

I love the fussiness of this page Erika quite eclectic with it's arrangement, there's definitely an vintage vibe to all the ephemera and I adore those sewn sunflowers, I need to grow me some next year, tis on the to do list. So happy to see this shared @ Creative Artiste very much appreciated.
The gardens look fantastic, how i'd love that much space to grow what ever I wanted sigh, thanks for sharing those fab pics.
Hugs Tracey xx

Let's Art Journal said...

Wow, what a gorgeous page! Loving that owl and pretty sunflowers, they are such happy flowers and always make me smile 😁. Thanks so much for joining us at Creative Artiste! Those gardens look so amazing too, your photos are beautiful. Take care! Hugs Jo x