Don't I live...

the best life?  I get to play with people all the time, and this past week was no exception.  Hosting a teambuilding playshop for the TAPS staff was a celebration of high jinks.  We played so much tag that my head was spinning by the end of the day - look at all of these!!

This group was ready to play from the moment they walked in the door.  

There were piles of deliciousness everywhere I looked, and the laughter was constant.  The ladies gave me the gears about all the ways I repurpose supplies but it really got bad when I asked them to save the hole-punch paper holes from their tags.  They thought I was nuts, but I got the last laugh; I used the ones they gave me on a tag after they left.

And because I was on a roll with the silly season, I followed that with a journal spread.

Thanks, my friends for such an enjoyable afternoon.  And if you're looking for a way to entertain yourself and guests for a few hours, why not book your own time? Call me at 250-428-2115 (or email windinn@telus.net and we can set a play date.

When this group plays...

...they play hard, and with spectacular results!  The TAPS workshop ended last week, and there were some crazily creative quilted collages completed (say that ten times fast).

Just take a look at these works of art!

Don't these pears pack a punch?

This apple was clearly grafted!

Such a serene landscape.

Hard at work!

Applicious!

These pears look fabulous floating over the Himalayas.

Pears POW!

Now there's a dream landscape!

Is that a pink worm?  I think so!  :D

Apple haven.

I'll take a bite out of that!

Check out that dragon!!!

I was amazed at the variety of colour and vivacity in these pieces - no two alike, and some amazing takes on our valley!  What a wonderful group of people here - they were a delight to play with each week, and I was so impressed at the engagement of the participants.  Helping each other, chatting, exchanging news and ideas, and generally keeping a sense of community is often challenging for seniors living on their own, but this program does it all.  Kudos to the organizers for ensuring there is a space in which seniors can remain so engrossed and absorbed in daily life.

Are you wondering . . .

. . . about that red cow?  I suspect you're not alone because I've had a few emails and messages about it.

In my initial post about quilted collage, I mentioned a failure (well, there were many more than one as I test drove the process of  'quilting' with Gelli prints).  I mentioned then I should add some red cows to it.

The initial collage of the local Skimmerhorn mountains, annotated in jest, looked like this;

did you note the two pieces sliced on the end of the above photo?  Well, I sliced to my heart's content, and rearranged the pieces like this:

 and this,

 and this.

Once I determined I liked the lines in the second version best, I glued the pieces to some cardstock and added a red cow.  The landscape is much happier now, and I had a great deal of fun with it.  I'm kind of hoping that we have some art 'fails' in the TAPS group so we can play with them there, too.

Now I'm wondering what you do with your art 'fails'.  I'm so experimental that I have a ton of them, and I'm always looking for more ways reinvent pieces.  What's your favourite technique?  Share them in the comments below and I'll do a draw on September 30 - you might win a fail of mine.

Yesterday...

...was round one of three at TAPS as we explored the possibilities of what I'm going to call Quilted Collage.  I'd prepared some examples of the kind of work we'd do, with four options for them to try.

Collaged pears from UFO net photo

Collaged Creston Valley Landscape from a Jean Henderson photo

Collaged apple from UFO net photo

Collaged landscape mostly invented

With a large stack of cardstock backgrounds in mostly solid colours, Gelli-printed papers and magazines for further collage fodder, we were well supplied.  I also provided a numbered template from which they could cut their papers. 

And didn't they tear into it?  

With scissors, glue, tenacity and a LOT of laughter, most of them managed to get about a third of the way through their collage.

That's pretty awesome because coincidently we have two sessions left in which to finish!  

I know I mentioned the need for a red cow in one of those collages I test drove and I will show you the result in a future post - keep your eyes peeled for that one.  In the meantime, I expect to show you some outstanding Quilted Collage work from this stellar group sometime soon.  Until then, I hope you keep playing and let me know what you're up to in the comments!

Back at TAPS...

...and loving it.  The theme this week was Crazy Creston, and it was another afternoon of laughter and fun.

I particularly enjoyed the camaraderie around the table as some of the participants worked together to create these wild and wacky collages.

It was obvious that they enjoyed not only the process but the results.

So many of them likened the experience of collage as a 'return to kindergarten', and they certainly looked like a bunch of happy children as they finished.

How this delightful woman managed to work upside down as her partner across the table gave her directions is beyond me!

 I'm loving that multi-storied building in this young woman's collage!

 Each collage had their own style and flavour,

and some of them generated a whole lot of monkey business.  See the two nearly nude men in this one?

It was a delight to watch them work and see their final results.  Unfortunately, I seem to have missed a few participants and their work in the photo-taking department.  Fire the photographer, I say!

I can see there's a strong possibility of repeat action on collaging - they all took to it like the proverbial ducks to water.

Naturally, I'm now (again) hooked on collage, and will be adding that to some of my journals over the next while.  It's such an ongoing inspiration to play with others, isn't it?