Door Decoration for Latin Class

This fall we had a door decorating contest and the elementary Latin classes won. Here is a picture of our winning door. The leaves and flowers all had Latin words on them that related to good character and kind and serving behaviors. Even the 2nd graders were able to participate. For winning, we got a pinata filled with candy and all the children got at least one swing at the pinata. My son helped, making sure the pinata was more difficult to hit by the older students.

Doodles Unleashed Glam Girl & Paint Party Friday

Here is my finished version of the Glam Girl from Strathmore's Workshop by Traci Bautista.

www.AlteredSchoolmarm.blogspot.com

I'm linking up with Paint Party Friday.

Doodles Unleashed Workshop & Pink Saturday

It has been a while since I've posted, but I've been making art just the same. Today I want to post a few of the pieces I've made taking the Strathmore Online Workshop, Doodles Unleashed, by Traci Bautista. The Strathmore Online Workshops are a series of three free workshops and this one has been fabulous. You still have time to join in. There are two more this year, along with this one. I did it last year and it was fabulous. And they are absolutely free! I am learning so much!

These are my first attempts, so I'm not totally happy with the results, but I've learned a lot. The best thing is the freedom to just play that is an integral part of the workshop. I have never worked on this large scale before, so that is also a huge learning curve. And another huge bonus is that I have convinced both of my daughters to "art" with me. That has made it much more fun and meaningful - spending quality time with my girls.

This is from Lesson one, "Playful Printmaking".

Close-up detail.

This piece is quite large (18"X24") and is done mostly with water color and ink. It is from Lesson 2, "Spontaneous Watercolor Backgrounds".

Another Try at Lesson 1, "Playful Printmaking". Work in progress.

I have done more, and will post them later. The last two workshops are making her "Stylized faces", which she calls "Girly Glam." Lots of fun!


I am sharing over at Beverly's Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound. Join in the fun and check out many wonderful pinks!

Heroes & Villains Altered Book Spread

In the altered book round robin I participated in, one of the themes was "Heroes and Villains". I chose to do Frodo and Sauron from Lord of the Rings.  I did a spread in my own book first and then did an improved version in the Round Robin book. The Round Robin book was really grunge board from Tim Holz and was the first time I had worked with it. The final pages were a bit wonky, but I like them.

 Frodo and his valiant hobbit supporters

The evil Sauron

The two pages side by side

I am linking up with Paint Party Friday this week, although a bit belatedly. If you love to look at fabulous art, go over and check out Eva and Kristin's blog. It is phenomenal!

Sailing Collage Art & Paint Party Friday

Below are the two pieces of art that I created for my daughter's apartment. I had wanted to try collage on a larger scale, so these two are 16x20 each, designed to hang side by side.

These are the final versions of the two pieces I made. Below I will show the intermediate steps. I used maps and music pages for the original collage, then added handmade paper, text pages and gesso.  Over top of all that, I painted with fluid acrylics. The sailboat and lighthouse were sketched and painted onto watercolor paper and then added with heavy gel medium.

It was a lot of fun and I will definitely do this sort of thing again. It was exciting to try a larger scale piece after working so long in books.

I am linking up with Paint Party Friday for the first time. I'm off to work today, but I'll be visiting the party later today. Stop over there and check out what everyone is up to.

Round Island Light House Altered Book Spread

I wanted to do a large canvas for my daughter's new apartment, so I decided to do a two-page spread in one of my altered books to get a feel for the techniques I wanted to use and how it would look. The following is my "mock-up" practice art for the larger art I ended up making for my daughter for Christmas.  I used collage, stamping, painting, and water color for this piece. The picture is modeled after the Round Island Light House at the entrance to Mackinac Island.

 Final Spread

First I prepped the pages with gesso and light sanding. Then I decopauged torn map pages and text pages onto the page.

Beginning to cover page with torn map pieces.

Completely covered pages

Page covered with gesso.

Painted with acrylics.

Final Pages

I decopauged handmade paper at the horizon to represent Mackinac Island and dotted a few buildings on the shore. The sailboat and lighthouse were sketched and painted separately on water color paper and applied to page using heavy gel medium. I then decopauged torn paper for the base of the lighthouse and stamped randomly on the picture with phrases that were meaningful to me.

I used this work as my guide for the larger canvases I made for my daughter. I'll be posting pictures of those soon.

I'm linking up with the Just Journals Link Party over at Marcia Beckett's blog, Dabblings.

Dabblings

Altered Book Round Robin - Vintage Gypsy

I have just finished participating in my first ever Altered Book Round Robin. I joined in with seven other participants from the Altering Without Limits (AWOL) Yahoo Group. My book theme was "Vintage Gypsy".  Each of us chose a theme and decorated our first page and the cover and sent them on their way. So this book is well-traveled over a time span of eight months and states from Arizona to Michigan. Below are photos of each page. I am so very excited and pleased with the final results.

Front cover

I textured the book cover with "Texture Magic", painted with Pearlescent Liquid Acrylic paint by Daler-Rowney, inked with brown ink to give a distressed, aged look, and then used rub-ons to embellish. I will go back and add more rub-ons and a title now that the book is back.

Front and Back Covers together

 Sign-in page on the front inside cover of the book. 

I collaged maps, painted with watered down gesso, and then stamped on the suitcases and lines. I like that each of our books had a place for each artist to sign in.

Instruction page

I used a tag inside an embellished pocket for my instructions.

This is my decorated page. 

I gessoed and decopauged a painted page, did some stamping and added an overlay on which I printed out a vintage picture of a gypsy. I then machine stitched the trim to the top of the page.

"Take Me With You" - Two-page spread by Sue Pierson.

This gorgeous spread was done by Sue Pierson. There is so much detail to this page. I don't know how well it shows up. She even has a tiny safety pin and charm on the bottom right page that says "Made with Love". Every detail is so amazing. The trim she added to the right side of the spread exactly matches the headband the little girl is wearing. If you click on the photo, maybe you can see more of the details.

"I See It In the Stars" two page spread by Linda Liabenow.

This is another wonderful page that is so colorful and intriguing. I love how she focused on the cards that gypsies use for fortune telling.

"Gypsy Life" by JoAnn Duplantis

I don't know if you can tell by the photo, but the background of these pages is a material that looks very much like riveted tin. So very cool. And I love how she added these two photos that look so very real. The one on the right is glossy and looks like a real photo. Notice the owl in the photo on the left! Awesome!

"Waiting For You" spread by Sandy Alsfasser
http://altered-artifacts.blogspot.com

This spread has beautiful layers, although I don't know how well the camera captures them. She has the rose leaves overhanging the book - I love that! She has wonderful dangly trim on the bottom that coordinates perfectly with my book cover. You can see the trim better in the photos of the Instruction page.

"A Gypsy Life" by Cynthia Chapman
Cynzplace

This wonderful spread has music sheets collaged on the background and three dimensional flowersl. It is so beautiful in real life. The photo does not do it justice. And I love, love the colors! The aged, sepia tones and the words collaged on the top.

"Raven's Call" by Wanda Smith

This is another gorgeous spread and I believe that the picture is torn from an old book. The poem she has added is perfect, along with the raven feather, the raven in the picture and the beautiful trim.

"Where Should I Go" by Terry Glover

This is the last entry and a very haunting one. The text is from a poem in a book called "Bury Me Standing" The Gypsies and Their Journey. I love, love the background and how she complimented her background with the existing page background.

Inside of Back Cover "Mailing List" and "Book Belongs To:"

I included a list with the names and addresses of all the participants. I read about doing this on a "How to" post about Round Robins somewhere, and I thought it was a great idea.

This is the last of the book. This was a super fun project and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves altering books. The schedule keeps you "arting" and the anticipation of what your final book will look like is wonderful. I must say that I was not disappointed. All of the ladies did a fabulous job!

I am linking up with Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday. Pop over there and check out other wonderful pink posts. It is truly a great Meme and full of wonderful people.

How Sweet the Sound 

I am also linking up with Just Journals Link Party over at Marcia Beckett's blog, Dabblings.

Dabblings