New layouts and some work in process

So I have been painting and sewing and scrapping like a fiend but I can't show much because the layouts are for DT stuff and the sewing is for a tutorial I am doing for the Year of Color blog in August but I can show you 2 paintings I am working on and a couple of layouts I will be posting for challenges today. The above pineapple painting was done a couple of weeks ago but I can't decide what to do for the background. It needs to be subtle so the pineapple really pops and I don't want to wimp out and just sort of do subtle washes of color around it. My DH suggested a subtle vintage looking map of Hawai as the background. What do you think? Any suggestions?

This next piece is quite larger (15 x 23) and is a mixed media piece. The tree was done by gessoing, crumpling brown Panera's napkins onto it, added torn pieces of funky papers, and painting with 3 colors of acrylic paint. The cattlea orchids are watercolor and there will be a third orchid to the right lower edge of the middle orchid. The current plan is to paint in leaves and a few stem/roots and then to use handpainted knotted ribbons to dangle down as the hanging roots. This is taking a while to do and hopefully I might finish it this week but probably not until after I return from vacation.

This layout is for the Category Stories challenge of what fictional character would you like to be. I have always related to Wendy in Peter Pan - she was a great storyteller, an excellent seamstress, and most important, she could FLY! I am able to purchase lots of older Golden books at the used book store for 25 cents, and I love to use them on my layouts. The striped paper and drama sticker are old, old Heidi Swapp, the polka dot paper is old Autumn Leaves, the brads are MM, journal card is not so old Heidi Swapp, and the little doodled flowers are from a magazine ad for Cynthia Rowley makeup.

This layout is for the Lotus Paperie challenge to use cut patterned paper - I cut the swirls from some old K&Co Amy Butler paper. I layered the buttons from my stash, the butterfly came from an RAK I received, and the vintage song page from an old children's song book I found at the used book store where I work. The photo is of my nieces.

My son is working on his graduate degree in Global Education and he will be leaving for Buenos Aires on Wednesday - he will be there for 3 weeks. I know he will have a fabulous time as he loves BA - he spent a year there in the 1999-2000 timeframe while we were in the Eastern Caribbean and Trinidad. I hope he brings me back some cool photographs.

Have a great week. I need to get busy sewing a blouse for vacation - have I mentioned this before? Probably. LOL! I got it cut out last weekend and the fabric has just sat there by the sewing machine so now I am under the gun and have to get busy or it won't be done in time.

Thanks for reading and TTFN!