Playing with Corks

Dear Liza,

We go through a few wine corks here, and it has always been a bit of an issue for me. I hate throwing things out, but aside from Auntie Bridgett making some really cool miniature tikis a few years back, we haven’t made use of them.

This problem found (one) solution the other day, as I was flipping through the Garden Journal I made for the second half of the summer. Auntie Bridgett looked over my shoulder and said, “You need to put some bees into all those hexagons!” I knew I could draw bees, or paint them. But wouldn’t it be cooler….

So I grabbed some of the corks and the Exacto-o blade and had at it. I started with a few bees (only one turned out) and played with them on the hexagon page. I learned a few things right away. First, ink is better than acrylics (which I should have known), and second, the ink I have isn’t totally waterproof. Also, a tiny bit of yellow paint really makes a difference.

So I kept playing, creating a love note to our favorite pollinators.

Then I cut two more stamps, a rectangle and a “O”, and played with them. For a moment, I forgot I was in my garden journal, and had to do some quick finagling to make the stamps “garden-Ish”.

Then I trimmed up the rectangle so it was thinner and pointy, and I liked it better. I had another page that needed a picture on it, layered some acrylics and then used the stamps to make a flower from the shapes.

I still have no idea where this is all going, but just being on the road is pretty neat!

Love,

Grandma Judy