Monday, December 19, 2011

Alcohol Inks....I luuuuuuurve them!

I love abstract artsy stuff. This is right up my alley. I used alcohol inks on glossy paper and just let the colors ooooze all together. I tilted the paper up and down to get them to blend. Really, I might be addicted. I could play with alcohol inks all dern day.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Karate chopping gingerbread men Christmas Ornaments

My daughter is a yellow belt in karate and she wanted to make ornaments for her instructors for Christmas. I used a gingerbread man cookie cutter and salt dough. After I baked them and let cool, I painted their Gi's and belts with acrylic paint. I love them so much...I almost hate to give them away!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Mr. Owl, How many licks does it take to get to the candy cane center of a candy cane?





I used Sculpey clay
(Ultra Light?? something like that, but I am sure the regular Sculpey would work just as well)
and then baked...and then let cool...and then painted with acrylic paint...
My Christmas tree loves it!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

solargraphy has taken over my mind...for real. I can't sleep.

This is the "negative" and the "positive" solargraphic image I made yesterday. I put my tin can camera loaded with b/w photo paper on a tree stump in my front yard and got a solargraph of the sunrise. The "negative" is what comes out of the camera, the "postive" is what I get when I invert the negative in photoshop (after I scan the negative).

Friday, July 22, 2011

A very dizzying art project

I have gotten a little behind in my posting, sorry about that- I am sure you are on the edge of your seat waiting to see the photos from al the supah-fly art projects we've been doing. We have had some of our "regulars" out on vacay, so I tried to include everyone in this project in 2 different sessions.




One of the kids did not want to paint his. I like it this way too.

From a 3 or 4 year old. I can't remember how old O is. Sorry R.

J's

E's

C's

I's. (and when she added those vertical lines, I was unsure about what it would look like. I love them !)

N's (totally different from all the others...no color mixing)

V showing us that she is left handed and that she loves to paint!


Anyhoo, We dropped some India Ink on white watercolor paper and blew at it through a straw (and then we all got a little lightheaded, so if you do this make sure to take breathing breaks). After our design dried completely we used watercolors to fill in the spaces between the ink. It made a very nifty abstract effect, and the kids seemed happy with the end results.

disclaimer: I did use a little photoshop on those project photos. I like to soften the edges a little, turn up the contrast in the colors, and make them look more layered. I think all of these would look really neat if printed poster sized and framed!!! Wal-Mart does it real cheap, and I will def get my own kids projects printed like that.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Goofy class and messy countertops...egads! (pics from flag project and Trees of Life project)


daddy helping

concentration




Trees of Life project...Gustav Klimt inspired




goofy class and messy countertops...



Tree's of Life...(made by children ranging in age from 5 to 37)


playing it cool. yo

                                                               



Rocky meets The Karate Kid




Woot! Woot! Flags are finished!!...and we also made beautiful "Tree's of Life"

I wanted the salt dough flags to be done in time for July 4th...so they could be displayed in the chirren's homes...or given to someone in the military....you get the idea. Anyway, the flags were painted with acrylic (the blue and white) and tempera (the red) paints -and after they were dry, I sprayed them with a clear coat glaze. (then I put the red strings through the holes and tied knots to keep the string in place. ShaaaZaaam! Project complete. I asked my kids if they liked the project...they both said "yes!"

The completed projects...those 2 on the bottom right show
what the salt dough looks like when it is dry but not painted.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Tip of the Day: Salt Dough Clay is.....salty. It is for kneading...not eating.

I would love to have a caption for each photo...but I haven't figured out how to do that yet...I think I am going to have to upload each pic individually to caption each one. Anyway, you get the idea...the chirren helped me make the salt dough and then made their flags...we will paint them soon. I will post pics of that part too... of course....


Sooooo.......I had my first art lesson playdate with some of my shorter friends, and as far as I could tell....it was a success. We made a rectangular shape out of the salt dough clay, and then made it look like the United States flag by making lines for the stripes and a section for the stars. After they dry, we will then paint the flags with red, white, and blue paint. For my own experimentation I tried tempera and acrylic paint to see which worked better, and I guess both worked well for the stripes, but I had issues with the tempera bleeding and mixing (even after it was dry) when I put my white "stars" over my blue background. Once the paint was dry, I sprayed the flag with a clear glaze to make it shiny! For the kids projects, I poked holes in the top of their clay flags before they dried so that a piece of twine can be used to make a nifty hanger for it.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

2 Peas in an ipod

(Just for the record, I am not a graphic designer.) My good friend and I like to sing (and I mean really belt it out) when we get together. She is much better at the singing part than I am...(I usually end up laughing at myself.) Anyhoo- so I made this little graphic for our new band name (we just came up with the other day) and I am going to make some t-shirts for us to wear at our next performance. I hope the iron-on transfers work okay.... 

Monday, May 16, 2011

Pencil Sculptures?

http://kronikle.kidrobot.com/pencil-tip-micro-sculptures-by-dalton-ghetti/
If the link works...it is a super cool (magazine?) site that has info about this dude that crafts sculptures on the tippy top lead part of pencils. It is frakking amazing. Take a looky see!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

That pear tree just HAD to go!

okay- So now that I have figured out how to insert images in my posts...I can slather my pictures all over this blog. Yipppppieeeeee!!!
and now for the pear tree story....
We moved into our house in 2001. The "landscape" people decided that a pear tree would look nice in our front yard...ugh...not a dern pear tree...I haaaaate those. They only look pretty for a week and a half in the spring and I really do not like their bland symmetrical shape...yuck-o.
So, I decided (10 years later) that I wanted it to be gone. The problem is that it is not a good feeling to chop down a perfectly healthy tree...so we (Mr. Brown and I) slowly...but...surely....killed it. Once it was decided that the pear tree was indeed dead, we were elated! I wanted Mr. Brown to make an artsy branchy sculpture type thing from the trunk and branches (still in the ground)...and have it stay like that in the front yard. He thought it was a terrible idea....but obliged anyway. I think it turned out wonderful...here are a few pictures I took of it last night.

Ever tied your shoes with your ear?



Soooooo....
Egads! Just trying to figure out this blog designing is making me want to stab myself with my number 3 pencil!
Bear with me while I try to figure out how I want this blog to look, mmmmk? I need to figure out how to insert my own images.......oh looky there...I just figured it out. I must be very smart.