Wine Corks and Stamped Flowers

I brought my usual mixed media collection of art supplies to Mexico for a week of mission followed by a week of R&R. During the mission week I taught a workshop on the integration of mixed media art with thoughtful reflection (AKA Artsy Theology). I decided to leave my stencils and stamps for the group there to continue using as there are super limited art supply options in Los Cabos, Mexico. During my second week-when I actually had time to do my own art journaling-I had to improvise with materials since I had left most of them for the mission church to use. It was a creative challenge to improvise for an alternative tool or material after I'd reach for a favorite tool only to remember I didn't have it after all.


These beautiful yellow flowers edged the pool at the resort where we stayed for our week of R&R. After looking at them for several days I couldn't resist adding them to my art journal, so I made a stamp out of a wine cork (I'd given all my stamps away) and used watercolors to "ink" the stamp (I'd given away my acrylics and stamp pads). The combination made a lovely, soft rendering of this beautiful flower.
One end of the cork is a small circle for the center of the flower.

One end of the cork is the petal shape.