Coptic Postcard Book

This was a practice project for my Art Journal I will be making to take to Artfest. I looked all over to find the perfect size journal with the heavyweight paper . I wanted something a little larger than a page and would lie flat. I decided to make my own out of watercolor paper and a Paste paper cover. (I will post when I finish) Anyway I thought it was best to practice first so I saw this great idea for a postcard book using the stitch I wanted to sew. This was from a great book called How to Make Books by Smith: http://tinyurl.com/yjsl5zd

This book was really quick and fun to do. Besides the directions in this book, I used a you tube video to help me as well. I glued two postcards together for the front and 2 for the back. Then created 6 signatures with 4 spreads. I would use a darker waxed linen thread to show up better on my journal. You use a kettle stitch to make the neat line down the spine. I had to take out the last signature because you sew the back cover and the last signature together so it ripped a bit. All the more reason to practice. If you have been wanting to sew a book , this is pretty easy. I have done about 3 or 4 different classes to try bookmaking. I find it relaxing and fun.

Fat Book Pages Finished!

I am getting so excited to be attending Artfest this year near Seattle Washington with 3 friends. One of the fun things to do is to make pages to be included in the Artfest Fatbook. Each person makes one page and duplicates for how many people participating (53 this year) We mail them off to the hostess who binds the book with one page from each Artist. What a great remembrance of the trip! Anyway our theme this year was FairyTales. I chose the three little pigs and did a collage of this scene. Here is a picture of my finished fatbook from 2007. This was the last year I could attend the event. I can only go when my school has spring break since it starts on a wednesday.

Christmas Tree Zentangle

This is my latest Zentangle project. I created a tree and made cards for my volunteer helpers in my art class. I drew with .5 micro pens on watercolor paper and then scanned and duplicated on my computer. Finally I priinted onto 80 lb watercolor paper.

Dead Sea Fish Collage

I created this collage from a photo I took on my trip to Israel. This was on of our meals near the Dead sea. The fish was Tilapia.
I used various textures of different papers: wallpaper, magazine colors, starbuck bag to simulate the color. I tried to add darker shades to give value. This took forever but was fun to do. I painted my canvas with the color I intended to collage as a guide.

Watercolor Leaf Collage

I started with a Watercolor painting from traced leaves. I used salt and splatter textures. Then I added texture and shapes with fibers, tissue paper, mulberry, and string paper. I just love all these fall colors this time of year!

Wool Felting

This was another class were we stated with merino wool (undyed on the bottom) and layed colored wool on top to form our design. With agitation (bubble wrap) and soap and hot water we felted all the colors together to make a piece of art. You can use this to make a purse or case for my sketchbook. When it is felted you can cut it and it wont unravel.

Monoprints with Serge

I had the privilege of taking a class with Serge who is a professor at UNC in his expertise of Printing. The type we did is Trace Monoprints. We learned how to properly ink our plate and used different tools to draw our design on the plate. Then we ran the plate through his press to get a Ghost print. We used oil based ink that cleaned up easily with vegetable oil and Simple green spray. We immediately could add color with watercolor. So much fun!

Collage in a Box

I just came back from a great conference in Breckenridge where I was able to take 10 different classes in art! How great it that?
This was a collage in a box I made in relation to an artist Joseph Cornell. We looked at lots of his work and then set about cutting a frame in our box and covering the outside with Gesso. We covered the inside with papers, wood, objects,shells, sticks, whatever to represent our dreams or our passions. Some objects I included were music for my singing, travel globe, acorn and shell from my home in NJ shore.

The Art of Baking Bread

This Summer I found that I was allergic to things with gluten. (gluten-free) And since bread is one of my favorite foods I had go learn all over again baking bread with gluten free flour. This was very difficult because usually they are hard as bricks and the high altitude makes is even harder to get the recipe right. I was given a new breadmaker for my birthday and today was the first loaf of bread that actually came out decent. I bought a Zojirushi BBCC-X20 that you can program especially for gluten free baking. This is a raisin bread loaf that was yummy.Here are some bagels that I made. They were rye flavored and tasted great. I got the recipe from the current issue of Healthy Living.

Tryptich Book and altered photos

This was a book I made from a class I took in Fort collins by Kelly Kilmer. It was alot of fun to make the book and then paint the pages with different techniques.

Its called a Tryptch book because it has three sections that fold in.

Another part of the class included altering photos. We used sandpaper, stencils, paint, glitter and other items to change the photos and make them interesting. I mounted them in my book I made.

The best photos for this seemed to be ones of a large closeup of single objects. Kelly brought some photos of hers we could use. Here are some of the pages.

I would like to try this with my photography class this year with the photos they take. Sewing the book will be a little challenging but I think they can do it. Last year we sewed a book and they did well with it.

Making Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

This is one of my finished invitations. I used thin watercolor paper and drew some flower outlines with ink. Then I filled them in with some watercolor. I mounted this on some peach cardstock. This is her wedding color. Now I need to address the envelopes and buy some nice stamps.

My Glorious Garden

Being from Colorado we hardly ever get rain in the summer and by July everything is dead and looks like the sahara desert along the road. (Unless its sprinkled) This year we have had SO much rain that I am so proud of my garden this year. It has been fun to watch it bloom and grow. Here is my front porch with my waterfall I made myself several years ago. I have to take out the pump every winter since it gets so cold and I readjust the rocks every time. I keep adding new shrubs around the waterfall as we tear out the ugly evergreens that take over. All the planters I put together myself. Even my clematis (on the far left) keeps on blooming. Its amazing what some rain will do.

Collage on Foamcore

Here are some close ups of the long panel.

We had another Art night Last Friday and we worked on an unusually long collage on foamcore. First we trimmed it to the length and shaped the top. After laying out our images we glued them down and painted around them. We added another color and some other papers and text. Then I blended the colors together with Carand'ache crayons and wrote some description about the theme which was Travel. Lastly we hot glued a ribbon and did some splattering. Click to see the detail.

Prague has all the Art Museums in the Architecture

I loved going inside all the churches and seeing the beautiful decor and art inside as well as outside. This is Tyns church. Beautiful Gothic Style.
The Castle is in the background. It was set on a hill. St.

This building shows the Art Nouveau Style that is prevalent in Prague. Beautiful!

Back from a Wonderful Trip

This is the first stop on my journey to a small village , Pisek, in the Czech Republic. We sang in the public park, visited high schools to tell about america and practice their English. We visited and sang in a nursing home and attended a women's club. We helped the women practice their English and hoped they would attend the church at Elim. This bridge is the oldest in eastern Europe even older than the Charles Bridge in Prague.
This is a pen and ink sketch I did one morning of the old bridge in pisek. I added some watercolor when I got home. The bridge had lots of stone sculptures all across the bridge.



Here is a pen and ink drawing of the Garden Tomb where Jesus was believed to be buried. This was a beautiful place full of flowers. We had communion here with our church group on Sunday.

Teaching an Art class

I taught a class in South Denver with some of my artist friends. We used watercolors and masking fluid to transfer a roman column or some did a cross. After rubbing off to reveal the white watercolor paper, we colored with markers and watercolor pencils. Then we added different collage pieces. I was trying this out to teach my 8th grade next year.

This painting used a transparency as the last step.

Beeswax collage

I learned to make this at my artiscape workshop by Lisa . We used small 6 x 6 canvas and covered with text and images we chose. Next step was to cover with beeswax. Then we added color and mulberry paper with crayola crayon. Then we added pressed flowers. I did a tissue overlay for the archery details.

Belgian Binding 2 Step Book

This was a book we made at my workshop. We started with paper and bookboard so we made the whole thing. No cut outs ahead. As a result, this class ran 6 hours and we still didnt finish. I had to google to find the directions. The inside is a really neat binding you cant see from here with spider stitches I think she called them. The outside consisted of 3 pieces and you had to move the waxed linen on top and on bottom to catch the inside signatures as well. I enjoyed this binding but the instructor was very unorganized and had no handouts to help us. I dont know if I could make it again. The size is 5 x 8. We covered the front and inside with gorgeous papers from the European paper shop.

More Artwork from my Workshop

I finished this in Ohio on my workshop with Zana. We took 4 pieces of illustration board and used spray watercolor with templates for the texture. Then we collaged and stamped and put them together. I would like to try this with my class using watercolor paper and botanical leaf prints. I will perfect this over the summer. I liked adding extra pieces like a photo covered puzzle piece, torn and painted paper and some metallic touches.

Watercolor architecture collage

This was a collage I did at my artiscape class. We started with a drawing of a roman column of our choice . After drawing in pencil , we went over with masking fluid. Next we sprayed liquid watercolor in our choice of colors. After rubbing off the fluid, we used markers and colored pencils to add color to the now white column. Lastly various paper, wood and other elements were added and rubber stamps to finish the piece. We used illustration board for the background but I would like to try with watercolor paper and tape to a board first. I plan to try this with my 8th grade next month.

Queen Altered Book Spreads finished!

This is a new altered book I started from an online blog class. It has been really fun. 100 people signed up to participate and each week we have to post pics and info about each lesson. It keeps you working and creating to keep up with the class. We are on week 4 now.

This background was a credit card technique where you smear different colors.

We made a color wheel and tried some sgraffito.

Happy Easter!

Today it was raining and snowing during the drive home for our Easter service . Our choir sang and we had a good turnout of umbrellas this morning.

Age of Innocence ATC

This is an atc I made for an upcoming workshop called Artiscape in Columbus. I used a skyline of NYC and framed it with strips of map of the area. This theme is from the movie "Age of Innocence" that takes place in NYC. Lastly I added some wire art on top with some sead beads. I am so excited to go in 2 weeks. I will be taking classes in belgian book binding, Zia's soul map collage, architectural collage, and encaustic canvas collage. I will get to stay with my daughter who lives nearby and explore the sites of Columbus.

Skagway altered board book-Alaska

This spread represents the day spent in Skagway. This was the town where the people headed to the goldrush from. We took a walking tour with a ranger and learned about the city. Top right is a colored pencil sketch I did of the street. We also went to Haines a neighboring town that had a ferry to take you. We got on a bus and drove to the eagle preserve for a boat ride. We saw a few eagles but the best was a mom and 3 baby cubs by the river catching fish. We got pretty close. There were flowers in haines the size of dinnerplates. They were amazing!!

Art Journal

This an art journal I made from papers printed using paper towel. This was from a Class I took from Traci Bautista. We used stencils and textured wallpaper, wooden shapes to make the prints onto paper after we saturated the paper towel with liquid watercolor. We assembled 4 signatures of our hand printed paper and sewed them onto the cover which was made from the paper towels collaged on front and back. Traci has a great DVD Retro Rags that explains the whole technique. My 8th graders loved making this project and I made one too. It was fun. This time my book came out much better and I was able to sew the book straighter and tighter. I look forward to a class Im taking next month at Artiscape- Two part belgian binding.