More Background Papers & ATC's

I have made even MORE background papers and ATC's, artist trading cards. It's so much fun and so addicting. I could do this part of the workshop, Week One, from The Artistic Mother by Shona Cole forever. It's great preparation for the poetry journals in Week Two as well as larger collage projects. The more practice the better. Right? This time the children joined me. Kids are just amazing. They are so free to create. In their minds there are no boundaries. We really enjoyed doing this together. We did the ATC's on my birthday. As you will see, they are budding artists.

Here's my new set of background papers. Some different and lighter colors. The red is my favorite. I went crazy with the stamping. I didn't worry about how the stamps looked or placement. I just let loose and stamped almost all over the pages with various stamps and ink colors. I used Staz On permanent ink pads. They come in many different colors. I also rubbed a different oil pastel color along each edge. I didn't try to match the colors. I just grabbed a different color each time. Very random. It didn't really matter if they looked good or not; they're going to be torn up anyway. You can make a lot of papers very quickly this way.

Here are my 16 year old daughter Kimberly of What to Wear's papers.

Here is another paper Kimberly did. This one she is framing for her room.

Here are the papers of my 9 year old daughter Emily of Super Stitches.

And these are my 7 year old son Martin's papers.

And here are all of our beautiful papers torn to bits as we work on our ATC's. Did you stop breathing? How could we do that to our beautiful papers?  Right? But one must do what one must do. These papers are fulfilling their destiny. They were not meant to be works of art in and of themselves. They were meant to be a part of something bigger. And joining together with other materials, they can be even greater than they ever could have been on their own. Something really beautiful and meaningful, a true masterpiece. And the same goes with our lives. We can do so much more when we join our giftings with those of others' and work together. And we can be used to encourage and lift others up along the way. We were not meant to stay independent and isolated. We were meant to make a difference and an investment in the lives of others. We all have so much to offer. And that's what this group, The Artistic Mother's Art Group, is all about. Isn't it.

Now for the ATC's:

I made two more cards and another ATC.

Here is my ATC.

And here are my cards. On one of the cards, I pasted the hearts on upside down. Oops. And it could have been such a nice card. It had so much potential. Oh well. That's all right. That's why we practice. We learn from our mistakes. I'll make sure to pay better attention next time. Won't I?

Here is Kimberly's ATC.

Here are Emily's ATC's. She did six! She plans to do a whole deck of playing cards. She's going to collage the backside because she still wants to be able to play with the cards. Practical art. Isn't she clever? Which of Emily's is your favorite? I would love to know. Do tell.

And here is Martin's ATC.

Aren't they all so sweet? This was such fun. I highly recommend having an art day as part of your or your children's birthday celebration. 

And then after all of that hard work, we went for a nice stroll around the neighborhood as the sun was starting to go down, waved down the ice cream truck, then went inside to have apple pie and cheese cake. What a great ending to a great day. You couldn't ask for a better birthday, just hanging out and enjoying time with the ones you love.  

And now I must start working on my poetry journal using what's left of my background papers. Wish me luck. I'll show you what I come up with tomorrow or the next day. See you then. Happy creating. Trudy

And The Winner of My Birthday Giveaway is.... & What I did on my Birthday

And the winner, chosen by Random Number Generator, of these beautiful cards I made using my background papers from Week One of The Artistic Mother workshop for my birthday giveaway is Mandy of Eight is Enough. She is one of the participants of The Artistic Mother Art Group I am hosting here on my blog where we are going through the 12 projects in The Artistic Mother workshop together, blogging about it and encouraging one another. (And we are still accepting  participants if you would like to join in the fun.) She is a homeschooling mother of 8. Fun and encouraging person. She also does beautiful layouts for her scrapbook pages. Congratulations, Mandy.

I would also like to say a big thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. And what did I do for my birthday weekend? The children and I did art most of the day. We made more ATC's, artist trading cards, and greeting cards from our background papers from Week One. Just more practice for making the poetry journal, our project for Week Two.

And on Sunday after church, our neighborhood was having a block party. We all met at the park at the back of the neighborhood. There were blowup slides and jumping things for the kids, hot dogs, music, frisbee, riding scooters and skateboards and face painting, etc. Another mom from the neighborhood who I haven't seen in a while brought several hula hoops, and I hula hooped. It was so much fun. I'm hooked. It's something I can do with the kids while getting in shape at the same time. I hadn't done this since I was a kid. So I was surprised when I was able to do it. The reason I was able to was because the hoops were of better quality than the ones you buy for the kids. They are bigger around in diameter. It makes a huge difference. So trust me, if you had one of these hoops, you could do it, too. She also showed me a few tricks. And she told about this website where you can take online hooping classes. Looks interesting. They have a section, I think under FAQ's, where they show you how to make your own hoops.

And here is a picture of my 9 year old daughter, Emily of Super Stitches, hula hooping with several at the same time. This was her first time she was successful with hula hooping. I told you, it's the hoop you use that makes all the difference. Emily has an awesome blog; so check it out.

I would also like to share with you that my 16 year old daughter has a blog as well called What To Wear. It's cute and fun.

And also for those of you who may not be aware, I also having sewing, fashion and style blog. So please look around and see what you think. Click here.

My Birthday & A Giveaway For You!

Hey, Everybody! Today is my birthday! I'm a young 45! I'm celebrating by giving you the present! I made two cards just this morning using my background papers from Week One of The Artistic Mother Workshop we are all going through together. I applied the technique for making mini-collages by making ATC's, artist trading cards, just a bit bigger. that I mentioned in my previous post. I made a view finder the size of my cards. These cards can be given away or can actually be used as part of another project, for example, a wall hanging. Use your imagination.

This giveaway is open to my followers only. So if you would like to be included, please sign up as a follower and then leave a comment letting me know that you are a follower. I will use Random Generator to choose a winner from those followers who leave me a comment. Please make sure that I have a way to get ahold of you. You will have one week from the time I have announced the winner to contact me to claim your prize.

So sign up as a follower and leave your comments now! You have until Sunday evening to leave your comments.

Mini-Collage Practice as a Warmup for Poetry Journal

Here are my versions of practicing doing mini-collages as a warmup before doing the poetry journal, Week Two's project in The Artistic Mother workshop. Shona of An Artful Life and author of The Artistic Mother has done a post about this with a tutorial. I really suggest you take a look at it because she goes into detail breaking it down into steps showing how to make and use a view finder in order to help you make the proper combinations. It's a very easy method and can be used on many projects.

I used my background papers from Week One to make these. The first two were made by tearing and cutting up strips of my papers and glueing them onto a playing card. The last photo is a greeting card. The same process was used. The papers were glued onto some card stock that was folded in half to make a card instead of onto a playing card.

Art Action Plan Sheet

I painted a couple of other sheets of paper with lighter colors and decided to use this one for my Art Action Plan sheets from Week One of The Artistic Mother by Shona Cole. I didn't stamp it or do the edges with the oil pastels, although it probably would have been a nice touch. Just good old paint over gessoed paper. I used the monoprinting techniques mentioned on Page 61 where you apply a couple of drops of paint, two different colors, on one half of the paper and spread it around with a rag or a brush, lay the other half of the paper over it, rub it, then open, then add a second color to the unpainted parts and blend.  I love the way it turned out.

 I then scanned it into the computer for future use as recommended on Page 71, Step 4. I also scanned in one of my other sheets to use for stationery. I'm hooked now. I don't think I can ever buy store bought stationery or To Do List sheets at the store again. I love making my own. This is very addicting.

I am so loving going through the projects in this book The Artistic Mother with all of you. There are so many great project ideas within the 12-week step-by-step workshop course and the book's message of how to bring creativity back into our lives, the weekly action plan to help us make the best use of our time and the tips on creating time and space in our lives for our art. I am getting so much out this book along with the support of this group being hosted on my blog, The Artistic Mother Art Group. You are all so encouraging, and I am really enjoying getting to know you and making new friends. Thank you for all of the wonderful comments on my previous post about my background papers that I painted.

If you are new to my blog and would like to learn more about this art group, please read my post about it here.

The Kids' Painted Papers & My Gessoed Papers

The kids have been so inspired by my being involved in The Artistic Mother's Art Group that they painted for hours a couple of days ago. They were also inspired by the work of Lance Cross, Abstract by Lance. You can see some of his work on the post I did about him. They were calling their paintings, Abstract by Martin and Abstract by Emily. It was so cute. 

The first two photos are Emily's, and the next two are Martin's. The next four photos show me putting the gesso on my papers. I gessoed colored card stock, white computer paper, junk mail, worksheets from an old Latin workbook, and some music sheets, which are not pictured. 

The last photo is a picture frame that Emily decorated with buttons. She has posted about this on her blog. She has a really cute blog with lots of fun things going on.

Also, Shona Cole of An Artful Life and Author of The Artistic Mother did a post on the rubber stamps that she uses and where she purchased them. I thought I would let you know in case you weren't sure what type of stamps to use when stamping your background papers. You can use any kind you like. This will just give you some ideas if you need them. She is also doing a giveaway on her blog. She is giving away a copy of the magazine Studios by Cloth Paper Scissors. Good luck. I hope one of you win it. 

I finished painting my papers last night, and I'll be stamping them today. I'll probably show you the pictures of them tomorrow. 

How to Keep Your Gessoed Papers From Curling

Thanks, Shona, for the photo above. 

Below is from an email I received from Shona Cole, author of The Artistic Mother. A couple of people have asked her about their paper curling as they gesso to prime. She wanted me to share her response with The Artistic Mother Art Group so that everyone can benefit from the information.

1)  THE PAPER WILL CURL UP A LITTLE AT THE SIDES THAT IS NORMAL...WHEN DRY, WHICH IS A SHORT TIME,  I PUT THE STACK UNDER A BIG BOOK OVER NIGHT.

2)  A LOT OF CURLING (IE. CURLING UP ON ITSELF LIKE A SWEDISH FISH IN LOVE) MAY BE BECAUSE YOU ARE USING TOO MUCH WATER...I USE ONLY A DAMP BRUSH AND VERY LITTLE WATER TO SPREAD THE GESSO. (IF YOU ARE GESSOING OVER WORDS ON JUNK MAIL AND YOU WANT THEM TO SHOW THROUGH, YOU WILL USE MORE WATER, BUT STILL NOT THAT MUCH... YOU WILL HAVE TO FIND THAT BALACE BY PRACTICE.)

3)  USE A WHOLE LOT OF GESSO. SPREAD THE GESSO ON THICK. IT IS NOT A WASH WHEN YOU ARE PREPARING PAPERS. YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE ANY PLAIN PAPER WHEN DONE (THE COLORED PAPER WILL TINT THE GESSO A LITTLE, BUT IT IS A SUBTLE EFFECT.)

4)  HUMIDITY CAN ALSO BE A FACTOR. IF IT IS HUMID AND YOUR PAPERS ARE CURLING, JUST STICK THE PAPERS UNDER A BOOK OVER NIGHT!

5)  THE TYPE OF PAPER SHOULDN'T MAKE MUCH DIFFERENCE, BUT THE LIGHTER THE PAPER WEIGHT THE MORE CURLING YOU SHOULD EXPECT.

6)  DON'T WORRY TOO MUCH. A LITTLE CURLING AND BUMPING IS NOT A PROBLEM. THE PROJECTS YOU WILL BE DOING ALL REQUIRE SMALL PIECES OF PAPER; SO YOU WILL BE CUTTING AND TEARING THESE SHEETS AND GLUING THEM TO THINGS. THEN THEY WILL BE FLAT!