January Art Project: Stencils

I am at the beginning of my monthly commitment to work on a new medium or tool to create some ART.  Not that making cards (my regular past time in my studio) isn't art, but I have a pretty set way of doing cards, I know what I like and don't like, and messiness isn't part of my style.  So I want to use some mediums that allow mess and lots and lots of bright colors and exploration of creativity at its core.

Stencils have become the rage in paper crafting and multi-media art.  I find myself collecting stencils-- have been doing it since before it was the rage, when Martha Stewart went onto HSN with her paints and showed how you don't have to be able to draw to decorate all sorts of home decor items with just stencils and paint.  Ah, the appeal of easy home decor!!

My goal this month is to start playing with stencils and different mediums with those stencils.  I started with (surprise, surprise) paint, and I have moved onto Martha's stucco paint medium (which is kind of like a modeling paste in texture and thickness), and finally I ventured into Distress Inks and a sponge. 

This project is a work in progress.  I tried to use a jelly plate to print the background only to find that, shockingly, with no pressure from the center of the canvas, it won't print fully!  So I ended up pulling the mixed paint from the jelli plate and rolling it onto the background, which still had enough variation to make me happy.

I stenciled the stars first (Heidi Swapp 6x6 stencil), using a yellow/brown mixture of basic craft acrylic paint.  Then I added the Martha Stewart stucco medium with a Martha stencil.  I want to get back to it and color the raised stencil parts and add some more, but I haven't gotten there yet.  My boys like it the way it is, so it's living displayed in its half-done format, waiting for a few minutes and some pretty orange and pink paint!!

These are from a project we did in Big Picture Class's Play! workshop last week.  I didn't have exactly the supplies at home that they used in the in person class in Anaheim, but I made due with what I had.  I used a Heidi Swapp 6x6 stencil for the stars with Tim Holtz's Broken China distress ink and a gold Colorbox pigment ink.  I used a Balzer Designs stencil with Squeezed Lemonade distress ink.  I started trying to use a stamp for the rays, but that didn't work.  So the yellow stamp isn't quite as distinct as it might have been had I started there, but I didn't want to lose the cool stars, so I pretty much just stenciled on top and hoped for the best.   The pictures don't show it terribly well, but there is a hint of glitter on the canvas-- a happy accident of not having an entirely clean workspace!!

Happy Crafting!

Kim

Healthy Life, Happy Mom: One Stupid Thing Part 2

I know how to lose weight.  I have done it before.  It's a pretty basic endeavor-- eat less unhealthy food (and we all know what those are) and move more.  But as we all know, it is not easy, even if simple.  It takes time, it takes commitment, it takes education, it takes doing things that hurt and make us really uncomfortable.  Our efforts are frustrated by our other commitments, by our family's needs, by our friends' sabotage.

But mostly, it is hard because most of us truly don't believe we are worthy of it.  We have heard the story so many times in our head that this ONE STUPID THING trumps all else.  This thing makes us unworthy.

When our washing machine floods our houses for the 3rd time in six months (yes this happened to me), we feel stupid for not having gotten rid of the dumb machine after the first time it overflowed.  We pay the price of having to tear up flooring and throw out furniture that is too damaged and hassle for weeks and months with contractors and insurance companies.  We feel dumb, we pay the price, but we do NOT feel unworthy of fixing the problem.  We don't leave the warped wood floor and the mildewy chair and the smelly carpet because we feel that we were so very stupid to not have avoided the problem in the first place that we deserve living in a mess.  No, we clean up the mess and buy a new washing machine and learn from our mistakes.  Or, at least if we don't have the money to pay for all of the repairs, we do our best to fix it slowly over time, as we are able.  But we forgive ourselves.  We don't wallow in our stupidity and think that our mistake means that we are terrible people.  We are just people who make mistakes.

We, as women, have been sitting in the mildewy chair feeling ashamed of our mistakes for far too long.  We have continued to punish ourselves rather than fix the problem or at least release the guilt for far too long.  I have been sitting in the mildewy chair in a combination of guilt and shame, punishing myself for not having replaced the washer. 

One mistake (or three or a hundred!) doesn't require another.  I am beginning my 2014 with a resolution to get out of the chair (literally and figuratively!) and stop punishing myself for my mistakes. 

I am not on a quest to lose 40 pounds.  In fact, I have no particular weight loss goal in 2014.  What I want is to live a healthier life, a happier life.  I want, on a day to day basis, to be happy and feel beautiful, no matter what the scale says. 

So I am going to try a few things to see how they work towards the healthy happy life goal.  I welcome you to join me on my journey.....

Kim

P.S.  The pictures here were taken on my first morning walk.  I dropped the kids at school and went to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens and walked just for a half hour or so.  I wish I had had my camera, but my phone captured at least some of the wonder that came from just exploring.  Happy and Healthy... :-)

Color Me Crafty Projects for Kids: Art Journal

Color Me Crafty was the name of the children's arts and crafts classes I have been teaching.  My kids range from ages 4-10, and they are AWESOME!  They are open to new things in a way that we adults are not.  They will grow and experiment and not care about the results, so long as they have fun doing it.  Being in their space and seeing through their eyes while they create has given me perhaps the greatest lesson I have ever learned about art. 

My classes focus on joyful play, rather than technique building.  Which is not to say that I don't care if the kids learn something-- I absolutely do want them to come away with some new  skills.  But my goal has always been to give my kids a love of using their creativity, an exposure to the many ways that they can do "art" and a reliable, repeatable method of expressing their emotions.

Weeks 1 & 2:  Mixed Media Journal: Necessity as the Mother of Invention

For any who have worked with children, you learn that some kids pick up things fast (or rush, depending on the child!) and some are more meticulous or need more instruction or help.  Balancing the needs of all 8 or 9 of my students was always difficult for me, with differences of sometimes 20 minutes getting projects completed.

Until I gave them all mixed media journals.

The simplicity and genius of the solution is hard to explain.  But at the end of the day, kids just really like to draw.  They need some prompting for ideas of what to draw, but ultimately, they love to tell stories with their drawings.  I used their journals as just that-- storytellers that also gave them practice at one of the hardest skills they will ever try to learn.

I gave them weekly prompts, taped into their journals, so even if they missed a week because the project had taken too long, they were able to go back and do that drawing another time.  The kids had colored pencils and sometimes were able to use markers or paints.

Kids are used to drawing on single sheets of paper.  None of my kids had ever had their own art journal.  They loved it so much that they asked, week after week, when they could take their journals home with them.  I had given them an outlet that was all theirs-- that wouldn't be thrown out, that they could use to write or draw or dream in, that they could show off to their families and friends.

In order to make the journal more special than a random notebook, though, it's important for kids to make it their own.  And so we come (finally) to our first kid project....

Collage and the Journal

Supplies:

spiral bound mixed media journal (8"x10" or smaller)

1 piece of 60lb or heavier card stock at least as big as the journal

4-6  6"x6" pieces of patterned paper

glue stick

pencil

scissors

Directions:

1. Lay the cardstock paper on a flat surface and place the notebook on the edge of the spiral rings so that the paper is overlapping the three non-bound sides of the notebook.
2. Trace around the cover on three sides.
3. Cut out the cardstock cover.
   
   
   
4. Tear apart the patterned paper into smaller pieces.
   
5. Glue the pieces in place on the cardstock.
   
   
   
   

Personalize the Journal

Supplies:

Collaged (and dry) journal cover

Mixed Media Journal (from above)

pencil

eraser

dark marker

watercolors

scissors

photos (optional)

glue stick

clear contact paper

Directions:

1. Tear a piece of the mixed media paper from the journal.
2. Create name or monogram in bubble letters.  If the child does not know how to make thick letters, have him or her write their name/initials and then literally draw a continuous bubble around the stick letters.
3. Cut out letters.
4. Erase pencil lines.
5. Watercolor the letters, keeping in mind that it will be added to the collaged page.  Colors should be pleasing to the child when together.
6. When dry, glue letters and/or photographs on top of the collage.
7. Glue personalized collage onto the journal's cover. 
8. Lay out book cover in top of contact paper (keeping backing on) as done when measuring the card stock.  
9. Cut contact paper about an inch larger than the coveron all three sides.  
10. Cut two corners at an angle. 
11. Remove backing of the contact paper and line edge up with inside edge of journal (next to spirals) so that contact paper overlaps a small line of the cover.
12. Fold the top and bottom over to cover the edge of the cover.
13. Fold the remaining edge to create a clean cover.

And now it's time to draw and paint and create!