Background for My Art Journal

Playing with a background in blocks of color..

book page
gelli prints
tissue paper
acrylic paints

These are two examples for an art journal project I'm doing with my 3rd graders.  We used large vinyl letter stickers (that were donated to the art room) and cut them into shapes and lines.

After the shapes are stuck to the page, color in the negative spaces with watercolor paints.

Gel pen designs can be added to the top of the stickers.

I have a few fun links around the internet to share with you.

• My Modern Metropolis has a lot of intriguing modern art posts, including this one of amazing photos of animals congregating. 

•  These rainbow-tastic paintings by Saddo Jaddero

Art is Basic website
My Art
Etsy Shop
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I Needed to Make This

Well, not necessarily THIS, but I needed to make SOMETHING.  I've been worn out from the day-to-day routine of teaching and from things going on in my life... not in a bad way, but just tired.   I've been falling asleep by 8 or 9 pm every night, which is fine because it is what my body needs.  Sleep is a priority for me!  Without getting a solid 8-9 hours a day I will be crabby and not able to enjoy the day. 

Some of the supplies I used are:
a variety of acrylic paints,
paper scraps,

Shiva Oil Paint Stiks

the pink Sharpie poster paint marker from this set:

Watercolor paints:

At school, we are building an addition to double the physical size of our school.  The construction is right outside my window, which has been really fun to watch. We will have another art room when the construction is done, which is super exciting.

In order to connect the buildings, they will be knocking out our wall and making a hallway through our storage and kiln room.  (A new storage area will be built between the two art rooms.)  That will happen at the end of October or November.  At that time, the kiln will be out of service for the rest of the year.  So I am doing clay with all of my classes now.  That is 11 classes doing clay all at once in our small space.  There are clay projects everywhere!  It is crazy. 

Linking to Paint Party Friday and Art Journal Every Day
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Art Journal Hodge Podge & Links to Share

Here is a hodge-podge of art journal pages from the past few weeks to show you!  I really don't feel like I've accomplished too much.. just a lot of playing around. 

Of course, I've been surfing the blogosphere and have more fun links to share with you.  Scroll down to see some of what I think is inspiring.

Links to Check Out:

Don't Fall Into This Trap That Could Destroy Your Blog (such an ominous title!)

Today's Lesson:  Paint it Black by Belinda Fireman

Listful Thinking:  Using Listmaking to Motivate Your Spirit 

25 Free Crafty Fonts

Tinkersketch Challenge:  Draw Into Wet Paint

Art is Basic website
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Polyvore Collages

Collage by marciadotcom on Polyvore

Collage2 by marciadotcom 

I stumbled upon this fun website, Polyvore, where you can easily make a digital collage for inspiration.  A lot of people like to make mood boards or design boards for their homes.  I would use this to create inspiration boards for colors, fonts, marks and symbols and patterns I would like to use in my artwork.  

The site looks like it was made for compiling home and fashion products.  What do you think?  Have you heard of this website before?

Stamping with Legos

My Lego Stamping Example

At school, I taught a stamping with Legos project.  Place your piece of paper on top of a piece of felt (to allow some squish room).  Then, get your Legos full of black rubberstamp ink and press on the paper.  We also used game pieces from the game Perfection.  I lucked out and found two of these games at a garage sale this summer.

If the ink pads became slightly dried out we used Avery Carter's Stamp Pad Inker to add more ink to the stamp pad.

After the papers were dry, we used black pens to go over some of the areas that did not turn out dark enough.  Then we used markers and colored pencils to color.

Below are some examples from my students.. grades 1-3.  Aren't they fun?  Would you like to see more of my student's artwork on this blog?

Art is Basic website
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Bits and Pieces Collage

This was a collage I made in my art journal with bits and pieces over the course of a few months.  I added to it a little bit here and there.

Materials include:  doily, scrapbook paper and embellishments, rub-ons, postage stamp, magazine clippings, stickers, star patch, white paint and gelli printed papers.

I just love this little guy with his arms raised!

Do you like vintage Valentine's cards?  I found a whole huge bunch of them in a thrift shop and I have put some of them in my Etsy shop.   They are cheaper than other ones I found on Etsy!  Only $5 for a set of 6.  And because you are a loyal reader of my blog, I'm giving you a coupon code to use in my shop:  BackToSchool for 20% off your whole order.  I have a lot of other vintage ephemera, digital downloads and art in my shop!