Happy Mail Swap over at Artists in Blogland

Hello there.

Just a quick note to tell you that I posted about a Happy Mail Swap over at Artists in Blogland.  Join us in this fun exchange.

21 Secrets Journal Page and Link Love

My LINK LOVE is at the bottom of this post!

I am taking the 21 Secrets online workshop.  Since it started a few years ago, I've heard lots of people talking about it on their blogs.  Obviously, with a limited amount of free time along with a limited amount of disposable income, I have always been choosy about the classes I can sign up for.  I want to make sure I have the time to devote to the courses I purchase.

If you haven't heard of 21 Secrets, it is an online art journaling playground with 21 instructors giving 21 different video workshops.  If you don't keep an art journal, there are still loads of techniques that can transfer over into other art areas.  It is well worth the price.  I have only watched Cathy Bluteau's workshop so far and it was fantastic!  I love her artwork, and have always wanted to see her process.  The art journal page shown above was one that I made this week using the same process she does.  21 Secrets will be open until the end of the calendar year, so you have plenty of time if you want to sign up. 

I was debating whether or not to take an in-person painting class this summer, but it gets tricky with childcare.  I stay home with Daria all summer and do take her to daycare once per week for "me time", but the painting classes I really wanted to take did not work out with the times I had available.  So, I decided that I would sign up for 21 Secrets and then work through the video workshops on the days that Daria is at daycare this summer.  (I didn't get compensated to talk about 21 Secrets, but if you sign up through your favorite instructors' blog, they will get "credit" for your purchase.)

Share the Link Love

Daisy Yellow has set out a mission to share the link love.  List your favorite recent blog links and then join in the group at her blog.

1.  First, I'm really enjoying the Coffeeshop Blog.  She shares free downloadable Photoshop actions to transform your photos. Awesome!  I'm surprised it took me so long to discover Photoshop actions.

2.  One of the language arts/social studies teachers at my school has started her own photography blog.  She is very talented!  One of blog posts is about found poetry photography.  

This is also like Marit's found book Haiku poetry!  Marit is also the founder of Featuring magazine.  Our 4th issue is wrapping up shortly and should be finished in the next few weeks.

3.  I subscribe to a lot of blogs about.. what else, but... BLOGGING!  You can get a lot of good ideas from those pro-bloggers.  This article, 5 Keys to Writing Excellent Blog Posts, was useful.  

My next few links will be to elementary art teacher's blogs.  I subscribe to a ton of these and if you have children or ever play with children, these might be interesting to you.

4.  I really like the Lenkerville Art Room blog.  I recently discovered this one and I enjoy her "Friday Photos" posts... just snippets from the art room.  I might start that up on my own art teaching blog.

5.  Aren't these the cutest paper mache pets?  From Artolazzi.

6.  Colorful paper sculptures from MVM Art room.  I will definitely be doing this with my little students to use up our huge box of paper scraps!

Sharing with Art Journal Every Day, Glue It Tuesday and

Thanks for reading!  Best wishes, Marcia
Art is Basic website
My Art
Etsy Shop
Pinterest

Color this Quote: Art Journal Page

The top page was made for the Artists in Blogland Color this Quote challenge.  You can see at the bottom of my tutorial post how this background looked before I added all the extras.

Here is another completed art journal page BEFORE and AFTER.
The BEFORE was shown in my crayon transfer tutorial.

And here is the AFTER.  I added some collage, more paint and some pen work.

Sharing with Glue It Tuesday.

More good than bad in the world.

I shared this on my elementary art teaching blog, but I thought this was a good one. With so many bad things happening in the world, I thought this was a good reminder.

Peter Reynolds, author of the book The Dot, posted this on his Facebook page.

Art by Peter Reynolds

Art Journaling Exposed 2

I am very honored to share with you that I have an article in the Art Journaling Exposed 2 downloadable E-magazine from Cloth Paper Scissors.  I browsed through the issue last night and it has a lot of interesting articles and videos.  My article is titled "13 Great Layers for Art Journal Pages"

These are some of the pages in the article.

Art is Basic website
My Art
Etsy Shop
Pinterest

Cutting, Pasting, Painting and Doodling

"Art bring a little magic to an ordinary day."  The background was colored with bleeding tissue paper and some paint.

This is a painting of my daughter stuffed unicorn.. painted with watercolors and acrylic paints.

A random art journal page with drawings, collage elements, watercolor paint and tissue paper image.

Currently, I am reading: an awesome book by Jodi Picoult, called Keeping Faith.  It's about a girl named Faith who (after her parents split up) she starts talking to God and develops stigmata.  It is so engrossing.  Every book by Jodi Picoult that I have read has been amazing!






Links to Visit:

• I love these amazing pictures by Thomas Lamadieu!  From Doodlers Anonymous: " Thomas Lamadieu has been drawing in the space between buildings for his new series, SkyArt, and he's making us all look up again. Open spaces of blue sky replaced with drawn characters stuffed amongst the architecture. What's not to love?"
• Glue It Tuesday!  I love these link parties and challenges.  I always want to participate and I know that when summer comes and I have time off of work, I will be participating more frequently.

Thanks for reading!  Best wishes, Marcia
Art is Basic website
My Art
Etsy Shop
Pinterest

Polar Bear and Elephant Sketches

Oops!  Some black ink spilled on the polar bear's face.

Here are some recent journal pages.  I am soooo sick of the weather lately.  The snow seemed to last forever and now it has been rainy every day!  This journal page I made two weeks ago when it was still snowy out.  ick!

Manon is having a new blog feature called Paper Saturdays.  If you have not seen her cute drawings you definitely should check out her blog!

 

 

Detail of a cat sketch

Art Journal Every Day | Paint Party Friday | Sunday Sketches | Artists in Blogland | Image Map

Thanks for reading!  Best wishes, Marcia
Art is Basic website
My Art
Etsy Shop
Pinterest
  

Crayon Transfer Technique at Artists in Blogland

Hello.  I wrote a tutorial over at Artists in Blogland that is featured today.   I'm reposting here on my blog in case you missed it.  You should check out the group.  There is a lot going on over there:  Technique on Tuesday, Color the Quote challenges and Show & Tell Saturdays. 

And look!  My "Heart Speaks in Whispers" postcard is featured in the "I Have a Secret" Etsy Treasury.  Isn't that a fun treasury?

Crayon Transfer Technique

Today I am going to show you a very fun technique for unleashing your inner child in your art journal.  When I was little, I would use this crayon transfer technique all the time.  It was so magical to me.  I had forgotten all about it until I saw a blog post on a crafty momma blog.  Visit the Chocolate Muffin Tree to see what she did with her kids.

First, start by coloring a loose piece of paper in patches.  Color really hard.. use those muscles!  Regular crayons work just fine, but you could also use gelatos or oil pastels.

My daughter helping to color a sheet.

Page covered in crayon and oil pastels

Place your colored page face down on top of a page in your art journal.

Write, draw and doodle with a ball point pen on top of the paper.  Apply lots of pressure with the pen.  While you are writing, the crayon will transfer over to the journal page.

Writing on top of the paper.

When you lift the paper, your drawings and words will transfer.

I don't want to confuse you, but another way to transfer is to place the colored sheet face up in between two pages.  Draw on the back of one of the pages, and the crayons will also transfer (in reverse).

Here is what I mean:

Colored paper underneath.  Draw on top with pen.

Here are a few more examples of in progress journal pages with crayon transfers on them.

What to do with the leftover crayon-colored sheets?  You can tear them up to create backgrounds!

Thanks for reading!  Best wishes, Marcia
Art is Basic website
My Art
Etsy Shop
Pinterest

Spinning Journal Page and Sharing the Link Love

My favorite places to link up artwork and share are Paint Party Friday and Art Journal Every Day.

Hi all!  Here is a journal page that made using watercolor paints, an Easter doily, black pens, photocopies, ephemera and lots of white paint.  White paint on top of watercolor paints gives it that ethereal, hazy look.  The words were "found poetry".. snippets of text from the same children's book where I got those images of the children.

Spinning.. that about sums up the month of April.  I'm working on a lot of really "meaty" projects (can't think of a better word).  Projects that I am enjoying, but also there are so many parts to pull together for each of them.  The big project is completing our school yearbook.  The deadline is coming up at the end of April so I am trying to get all the loose ends tied up.  Then, we are also making artwork for the school auction at the end of the year... group pieces that will be framed.  They are turning out awesome!  I will post pics when those are all done.  We're also finishing up Student Council things and one of those big events is the end-of-the-year school dance.  Did you think it would be very difficult for a group of 12 middle school kids to decide on a theme that half of them don't hate?  We had a very long and humorous discussion about the theme.  I thought the neon colors theme would be fantastic but some of the kids vehemently opposed it.

Tammy, at Daisy Yellow, is having a Share the Link Love feature on her blog.

I do enjoy linking up to other blogs and articles I am loving.  Sporadically I will post 5 Fabulous Things I am Loving Right Now.  I include products, articles, books and artwork I enjoy.  For this post of 5 Fabulous Things I will include only blog articles to share with you.  Here is my entry for her challenge:

1.   To Parents of Small Children:  Let Me Be the One Who Says it Out Loud:  Yes yes yes!  I really needed to hear this!

2.  How To DIY Your Own Photoshop Brush:  This tutorial by Linda is very clear and seems easy to do.  I have not tried it yet, but this is on my to-do list for fun things to try this summer.

3.  You've seen the Cain's Arcade video right?  Well, a whole school decided to make their own cardboard arcade and here are the results.  Pretty fun!

4.  Tim Jarosz's beautiful city landscape altered and colored photos

5.  Blacksburg Belle's secret photo editing tool. 
I went ahead and bought some of the photoshop actions after seeing her blog post.  They make some really nice effects.  I'm still trying to figure out what looks best.