New Christmas Card illustration!!

I am so excited to reveal my new illustration for this year's Christmas card.

See detail below: (I draw the drawing with pencil, then color it digitally, mixed media) It includes the Scripture: "He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 Have a merry Christmas!!

New Print

I have created another frame-able piece of Scripture art. This is called Resurrection and it goes with 2Corinthians 5:17. Below is a detail.

(This was created in the style of a piece I made back in 2002 called Anchor, with Hebrews 6:19. I have almost sold 100 prints of it so far.)

Anchor detail:

Bed Canopy

Giving my now-4-year-old's room a makeover into a Tinkerbell room, I made one of those bed canopy things. From top to bottom, the things sewn onto a wire coat hanger circle are: an old tutu, a dress-up skirt, an old sheer dance costume, and longer pieces of new tulle fabric. I came across Tinkerbell ribbon, and I already had the embellishing flowers.

retro design

As an illustrator/designer, I was delighted to notice this cereal box's retro style! Anyone else see this yet? I wonder if this is exactly what the box used to look like... (btw can anyone guess the cap'n's first name? (i found out what it is on the back of this box) hahaha)

Art Camp for Kids 4 (tissue collage)

The last project we did in my week of teaching art camp was based on Eric Carle's work: Carle works with tissue paper; he paints strokes on it. So to begin, we played with tissue paper, creating third colors by overlapping two. (below) Then the kids planned to make either of my examples--a caterpillar or a ladybug. (or bee, butterfly or firefly) After drawing their bug with pencil, they painted what colors they needed, painted onto tissue paper: The next day they cut the pieces from the painted tissue papers that were now dry. And they assembled their bugs!: In this particular Carle book (below), he has a lot of lettering as well, which is what inspired the letter cut-outs and stories that we added. One of the best parts of the week is the reception for parents on the last day! Here is one picture of all their projects displayed! Thank you so much for visiting! Continued in next posts!

Art Camp for Kids 3 (fingerprint art)

Another project in my week of teaching Art Camp was based on this book above by Ed Emberley. We made our fingerprints and thumbprints into drawings, using stamp pad ink. After practicing dragons and lions, (below), we then made people with our fingerprints, (like this from the book)-- I had the kids make the fingerprint people be themselves, doing a hobby they like. Then they pasted their fingerprint self onto a chosen setting photo:

continued in next post!

Art Camp for Kids 2 (found object collage)

At my week teaching art camp we also made collage from found objects!

Two artists we looked at together were: G. Brian Karas (below),

and one of my favorites, Holli Conger (example below).

After sketching an idea, we began by choosing the "junk," and then arranging them...

And after they painted each piece, they glued them down!

Here's three more cute examples: a pig, a robo

continued in the next post!

Art Camp for kids 1 (stenciling)

This summer I have taught a couple weeks of kids' Art Camp at the Art Center.

Above is one picture of all their projects displayed at the end of one week! Below you can see some things we did together. I had come up with some great projects! The first of which was inspired by this book: Swimmy by Leo Lionni...

In Swimmy, Lionni made schools of fish by repetition of stamps, as below.

So the kids made their own repetitions by stenciling, either "fish in the sea," or "birds in a tree." Here are some of the kids' masterpieces! Continued in the above posts! Thanks so much for visiting!

good ol' paint

It was so nice to see you again, Messy Paint Palette!

I spent some time working with real paint! (I have been working entirely with pencil and computer for a while).

I made some textures on tissue paper, and more, for I am about to teach 6-8 year-olds at the Art Center... (more on that to come...)

You might be a budding artist if you...

You might be a budding artist if you play with your food. This was fun. Yes I did it, not my child. :)

Life Cycle in Felt 2

I made another life cycle set with felt. I already had made a frog, which is a puppet... The first portion of the cycle, the frog eggs, are a bundle of beads on felt leaves. Then tadpole, then tadpole with back legs, young frog with tail stump, then adult. (view my butterfly life cycle here)

Song bird Tshirts

Made a t-shirt for a little buddy of mine who is a song bird.

one of my daughters wanted one and I had her color it herself. a fun project!

Life Cycle in Felt

Made a life cycle set: the egg on a leaf, the caterpillar (using my centipede), the chrysalis, and the butterfly!

(view my frog life cycle here)

First Felt-ustration: Farm

I've always wanted to make an illustration using felt. I completed one for my nephew's nursery! His room has a John Deere Baby theme.

It was fun!

Hallway Pattern

I've planned on making this pattern on my hallway walls and finally did it!

A couple years ago I scoured Lowes for stencils and/or stamps that I had in mind and these were the only two I liked. Didn't know how I would end up using one or both. Figured out that they nested into each other a bit.

Viola! Ambitious is a better word than crazy. (finally got baseboard too, yippee!)