Alaskan Board Book

I was excited to use my recent trip to make a themed board book. I decided to use a spread for each place we visited. Our Trip was 2 weeks so I hope this works out. The cover was made from some paper I printed from a Traci Bautista artfest class. I will share what I have finished so far.










This spread describes our trip to Denali Park. I used some bark at the top and stamped Denali over it. There is the map to the park as well as a pic from the lodge we stayed in while there.



This spread represents the day we drove through the highways from Denali to Fairbanks then onto Chitina. The map shows our route and we saw moose along the side of the road. The road was so deserted, you could stop and no one way around to watch the moose.

Marbling

Recently I had Kim and Stacey come over for an Art night. I taught them how to do some suminagashi Marbling. I had learned how to do this at an Artiscape class. I had the kit I purchased with many colors and the necessary surfactant- photo flo. We Played around with this for awhile. I used this color in my tip in book (see below) for a background in the Art Noveau pages. I hope to use this in making some book covers with my middle schoolers.

To do this Technique:
You select two colors of the dye and one clear photo flo container. We used sumi brushes to do this since it is a Japanese art. After setting up the tray (I used an old clear plastic box frame that was about 1 1/2 inch deep) fill with water and dip each brush in random order that has the color on it. The circles are made as you keep dipping into the center of the water. After you have enough rings you slowly blow to disturb and make the design. It was really fun. I hope to do this with my 8th grade class this year.

An Altered Brown Bag Book

This was my first brown bag book. Even though the theme is off season. I finally have a blog to share it on.

This was the first altered book I did with a theme. I like flowers and gardening so I chose this content.

I used printed papers and stitching on the cover with a few pictures and labels. Two rings are used to hold the book together. I also stitched the signatures together as well.

My soul is sunshine in the garden

This spread is special because there is a pic of my daughter as a toddler (she is 22 now). I used corrugated cardboard silk flowers and brads. There is a pocket on the facing side made with cardstock. I love the tabs that change to flowers as you turn the book pages.

This spread had another pocket with a little book with a poem about daffodils.

The End!

This second spread utilized the end of the brown bag as a pocket with a tag peeking out. eyelets hold the pocket in. There was some planning needed so as not to show the holes through the other side.

Altered Brown Bag book

This is the middle of the book. Notice the tabs spell the theme of the book.

Whispering Birch

This was another art project on our vacation. We used the oil pastels again for the white of the trees and then pastel pencils to add details to the trees. The pastel pencils would go over the oil pastel unlike the watercolor . The flowers in the foreground are fireweed that is prevalent in Alaska.

Art Classes on the Cruise

This was a watercolor done on our celebrity cruise. The instructor had nice watercolor paper and decent paints. What I liked about it was the technique using oil pastels to resist the snow on the mountains. I had never tried it. I was taking notes so I could teach this short lesson to my 6th graders. We were supposed to do a whale tail or a whale.

Altered Book Tip In trade with teacherexchange

This is an altered book Tip In Trade with other Art Educators we did this summer. The theme was Architecture. I chose an Art Noveau theme. We had to send 5 spreads (2 pages) to the host and she will mail back 5 from different people. I sent mine in early since we went away on vacation. The deadline was Aug 16 , so I should get mine in the mail soon! I cant wait!

Here we are with our crampons on after hiking the Root Glacier in Kennicott

Some Gorgeous scenery on the drive to Chitnia

All the flowers were huge!! I'll have to do some painting.

Our whole family tries some Dungeness Crab in Hoonah

Alaska trip in August

We just got back from a wonderful trip to Alaska with 19 family members. We saw beautiful scenery and some wildlife. It was fun to go on excursions with different people and compare our daytrips. Here are some grizzly bear cubs and their mom we saw in Haines.