Cabin Fever Handicraft

I have been collaging like a madwoman this week. I created all the prompts for Februllage 2026 as well as some extras in my grid journal. I’ve been working on some collage using suminagashi papers as well but I’ll save those for a March post.

A daily art practice has also kept me sane, in view of world events and some personal bad news too. But first, a bright and cheery beginning.

I’m not a fan of daffodils – their yellow is just too intense. So this collage was a good way to use up some of the yellows that sat unused for a long time. Simple bright circles and a muted background set the stage for the sweet illustration of a little girl. You will see a lot of illustrations from this children’s book in my collage.

This next one stumped me. I couldn’t get excited about toilet paper lol. I thought for sure I’d find a vintage ad for something related but no luck.

Baby butts were as close as I was going to get!

I enjoyed “Math” even if it didn’t turn out the way I wanted.

I have a lot of diagrams and math books to cut up. In fact I have too much to choose from. I wanted to add lots of layers but struggled with cohesiveness. The gentleman in the middle is no one in particular, just a man with a pleasant face.

Today I heard back from two opportunites I applied for and was rejected by both. One was an internship at a book arts conference and the other was a free seminar for artists wanting to learn to teach their art at workshops. I am trying to just put myself out there and try a lot of things so I’m not entirely surprised but a little bummed. I am still looking for opportunities to improve my art, get involved in the art community and find venues to approach when I’m ready.

Feeling a little dejected I only half-heartedly completed “costume”.

I love the image of the couple in the pea outfits and wanted to have them promenade down the lane. I think maybe it’s missing some contrast? I find when something doesn’t quite feel finished it’s because it’s missing some black to ground it. Maybe I’ll outline them in black and see if it helps.

I had a lot of fun with this one. I wanted lots of dirty, city textures and a bit of choas. I tried to make bird poop splatters but they blended in too much with the background. White would have been better!

For day 20 (Family) I went a very different route. I had a stash of old photos and thought a scrapbook layout would be a good fit. I selected some pictures of folks that looked to be related and arranged them on top of some vintage correspondence. I added asemic writing on each photo to tie it together. I really need to work on better lighting when photographing these…

I’m afraid day 21 (soap) is the only day I haven’t completed. It was the day we had to send my sweet yellow Labrador over the ole rainbow bridge.

So instead I’ll post a picture of her here (with our black lab sitting on top her) as a tribute .

I will add this, as a postscript.

Having to make the decision to end a life was very challenging for me. I’m very pragmatic and knew it was time but this time was different somehow and if effected me deeply. Then one day, several days after the fact, I forced myself to continue working on the next week’s collages. I was completely immersed, lost in the flow. It felt like I re-wired my brain back to it’s original state. I emerged, not healed, but soothed. The grief not so sharp. I relate this just to say that healing through art is real . It’s breathing fresh air, regaining perspective, finding some joy, some flow. MAKE ART. The power is real.