Junk to Journal: Floral Extravaganza

Have you been looking at your junk mail with artist eyes?  Here's another "junk to journal" to get your creative juices flowing.  Remember the lovely gold American Express (AE) multi-fold junk mail?  Don't feel bad if you don't remember.  Actually, I might not have posted this pic!  Anyway, it's got a little pocket on one end and the other end is basically tri-fold.  It also came with a fake (AE) Gold Card (like I'm going to use THAT!)  Actually I will be using it but not to make any purchases.  I'll show you a more creative use for that soon!

This junk mail made me think of an air travel ticket envelope so I flipped through my journal to see if I had any pages prepped that "felt right" for the job.  I came across a spread that felt really tropical to me and made me think of flying down to Sanibel and into those shades of pink, teal and yellow that I immediately associate with Florida.  Once I settled on that spread, my next step was to attach the AE junk mail with a

glue stick.  I then covered all pages of the AE mail with white acrylic paint.  After that dried, I began adding more yellow, pink and teal to all pages including the previously painted areas.  I wanted my new AE addition to look as if it had been a part of the spread all along.  Next came a change of plans.  I was tidying up a bit and came across a spring flower bulb catalog.  Of course, I couldn't throw it out and had to stop and thumb through the pages.  That's when my travel spread turned into a flower garden.  All those luscious blooms were going to look GREAT on my spread.  I would figure out the rest as I went along.  That's one of the great things about being creative.  There's always time to change direction and make room for new ideas that pop into your head!

                                      

It was time to cut flowers and begin arranging them on the spread.  I decided to add a few horizontal lines to represent a trellis and to add further interest to the spread. I also added some blue to the right hand side of the spread to accommodate a lovely blue blossom on the preceding page.  The blooms in the catalog were all so lovely I wanted to save them all.  (And I'd like one of each plant for my backyard, please!)

After I applied my flowers, I then added quotes about flowers. One of my favorites is from the great artist, Claude Monet, whose work has been of great influence to me.  "I perhaps owe becoming a painter to flowers".  I took another quote from The Koran: "Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul."  My final quote was actually taken from poet, Edna St.Vincent Millay's poem, "Afternoon on a Hill":

 I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.

Finally, I added my own thoughts on flowers:  "I have shared some of my deepest sorrows and greatest joys in the company of flowers."  And what became of the pocket?  I found an old deck of playing cards and used them as "dream cards" representing flowers that I would love to add to my garden!

I hope you enjoyed this installment of "Junk to Journal" and I hope it inspires you to transform the junk mail you find in YOUR mailbox!

You've Got Mail

As if waiting for cue, The Universe has dropped an extraordinarily luscious assortment of "junk" into my mail box. Just take a look at some of the goodies I've received in the last 2 days!

There are lots of interesting items in this batch of mail! I love the photo of all the street signs. (That's an invitation to a new gallery show) It's a tri-fold card and there are lots of useful words in a nice font included on both front and back.  The Lakeland invitation also has some good imagery (sheet music/comedy & tragedy masks) as well as key words such as "art".  Last but not least is the Lowe's advertisement.  The great thing about this are the discount cards.  They're almost the same weight as a credit card.  It's almost certain I won't use the cards at the store, but they have another greater use that I'll reveal in the next couple of weeks.  As a bonus, there's a lovely pot of flowers that's just begging to be collaged.  And what about the fork?  No, it didn't come in the mail, but stay tuned to see what part it plays in the creation of art.

Today's mail call was really over the top!  I can't believe what an elaborate marketing tool this is!  It was sent to my son from The University of Phoenix and it was encased in a VELLUM envelope.  There are 5 incredible pieces to work with here. (sorry for the glare)  I will show you more photos of this piece of mail in the weeks to come.  I could not have ordered a better junk mail kit.  Happy creating!