More Art Journal Pages

Art Journal

I've been busy since school started, but managed to complete this 40 page art journal for a Swapbot swap. I started with an 11" X 15" pad of 140 lb water color paper. I cut this into fourths and painted with a mixture of teal and dark green to get the perfect shade of teal. Next, I splattered the pages with brown acrylic and used a piece of bubble pack to paint the ivory "dots". Boarder papers are mostly Basic Gray and the people, flowers, butterflies, fish and sea shells are printed from creative commons on Flickr, free collage pages on Flickr and Dover samples and CD's. I've always printed collage pieces on card stock but accidentally printed several pages on copy paper. With color ink being expensive, I decided to try to use these pages. I LOVE the way these thinner pages glue down. I use tiny, very sharp scissors to cut the images out, "cropping" parts I don't want to use. Then I use a good quality glue stick (UHU usually) and completely cover the back of the cut-outs (lay the pieces on an old magazine page - when it's completely sticky, turn the page to a clean fresh place to glue). The copy weight paper almost melts into the background and you can hardly tell where the pieces are overlapped. Next I printed the sassy sayings out in MS Word using my favorite font and cut most of them with decorative edge scissors. When the glue has dried, I begin the ink work. I use lots of different type pens (paint pens, professional grade poster markers, different sizes of Faber Castell PITT artist pens in black and sepia). This is my first attempt to bind with the Zutter binder and it turned out okay. I got a couple of the rings a little out of circular, but the pages still turn, so I'm happy.

I finally got some of my student's journal pages saved to my computer. I was surprised at how talented some of my kids were! I can't wait to try this with my new class this fall. We tied poetry into our art journals. Jaysley's poem is a diamante about her grandmother and mother.

New Look!

Hope everyone likes the new look. My son is launching a design company to help those who are computer illiterate (like me), or just to busy, to jazz up their blogs, web sites, etc. so I received a "make-over"! I'll post more info on his company soon. He is a 28 year-old who has to work from home due to degenerative disc disease and arthritis, so if you know anyone who might be interested in a make-over, have them check out my blog for more info!

I have a million art journal ideas buzzing around in my head and can't seem to get to any of them! I've joined a group that meets once-a-month to swap ATC's, along with joining too many swaps at atcsforall.com and swap-bot.com. I just keep seeing too many interesting swaps and can't help myself! Today's post are the 4 ATCs for the "Wake up and smell the coffee" swap at act's for all. I'm working on Button Fairy's, a 2 color/5 technique chunky page challenge, and Marie Antoinette chunky swap. Pictures to come!

New Chunky Pages

School's out, my classroom is packed and I'm finally free to create!!!!! (Except for the days when the grand kids come to visit :) - the 8-year-old loves to make art journal pages, so he & I play in glue & paint!)More journal pages to come soon along with more collage sheets. I've also got some great pics of the pages my 4th graders made to share, so more to come soon!

New Journal Pages

Wheeewwww! School is almost over - just 6 more days. I don't know who is more excited - the kids or me! We've been working on art journals in our class. Here's a picture of some of the kids. I'll post some of their pages soon. I have some very talented artists in my class!

I've been working on lots of chunky pages for swaps, but have managed to finish 2 journal pages. I'm really enjoying the Zetti style pages. I've just got to figure out a good way to organize all the magazine pieces I'm cutting out! When I figure it out, I'll be sure to post. I'm not the most organized person in the world (alright - I wasn't born with the organization gene at all), but I can't work in complete chaos. I hate spending time digging through the piles on the dining table to find that perfect piece that I just saw a minute ago. I have cleaned the dining table, it's Memorial Day and the kids & grand kids are coming over, so I figured unless I wanted toddler bbq finger prints all over my pages I'd better put things up. So things are a little organized, but I know I need to find a better way. Any one out there with a good solution for sorting and storing all the strips I've cut for boarders, thumb shaped pieces, triangles, and so on? I've got the heads, bodies, arms, legs and accessories all organized in sandwich bags, but all the rest is in a pile in a box. I'll have to give this some thought.

I have the same problem at school. I would post a picture of my desk, but I'm too embarrassed. I've just discovered a new book by Debbie Diller called "Spaces and Places". It's about organizing your classroom so at the end of the year it only takes 1 day to pack everything up so the cleaning crew can wax the floors. It usually takes me 2 weeks. I have too much junk. Debbie suggests working on one area at a time & purging. It's working well at school because I have so many duplicate copies, out-dated stuff, and stuff from when I taught kindergarten years ago. Purging actually feels good! At first I was very reluctant to throw stuff away, so I put extra copies in a box for my students to take home this summer. Believe it or not, so 4th graders still like to play "school" during the summer. I'm also giving a lot of the kindergarten stuff to my daughter who is an assistant director of a preschool. Other stuff has been sent to recycle and some actually ended up in the trash. My father lived through the depression and was a certified hoarder, so it's been hard not to follow in his footsteps. The feeling of being able to find stuff in my classroom outweighs the fear that I am throwing something away that I might need. If I haven't used it in the last year (or 2 or 3 years!) then I really don't need it.

Now, if I can just apply this to my art area. The problem is that in art, everything is usable :) I know, I'm hopeless - hee hee. Seriously though, any solutions to storing all the little bits and pieces, please share.

Chunky Book Pages

The end of school is near & hopefully I'll have more time to make art!!! I have been making chunky pages for swaps on swapbot and atcsforall. Lots of fun - the 4" X 4" page size is quick to complete. The Mother's Day page is more my usual style, sort of vintage and pastel, but I'm really loving the bright colors, inks, paint and wild creatures I'm working with now. Here's some of the pages I've been doing.