I found two new collage books that I thought were pretty cool! If you know me, you might know that I love stickers! The first book I found is called the Antiquarian Sticker Book: Over 1000 Exquisite Victorian Stickers. (Amazon affiliate links have been used at no extra cost to you.) I made a video flip through of this book so you can see all the cool stickers inside. The next book I discovered is brand-new, just published. It is … Read more…
I was very excited to give a presentation on art journaling at the National Art Ed Conference, which had gotten cancelled due to reasons you can guess. I am presenting a similar presentation at the Call to Art Un-Conference, which is a virtual professional development un-conference going on now. You can watch the presentations for a week for free. Each day 9-10 new presentations are released. I wanted to give a big SHOUT OUT to the Blick Art, Nasco and … Read more…
I haven’t posted much lately because I’ve been focusing on other things– I’m in charge of the cookies for our Girl Scout cookie sales and that is like a part-time job! Also, I’ve been getting ready for my presentation at NAEA. If you are going to the NAEA conference, let me know.. I would love to meet up with new people! I have a lot of fun art journaling exercises prepared, including this one- using watercolor circles as a launching … Read more…
Good news! My proposal to lead a hands-on workshop at the National Art Education Association convention was accepted. The convention is from March 26-28 and you can sign up on the NAEA website. My workshop is titled: “Art Journaling for Personal Meaning and Creative Development.” Relax with art journaling and leave with multiple creative techniques you can use immediately in your classroom. Explore vision boards, collage, watercolor doodling, word play and the art of chance. I’m super excited to lead … Read more…
My students are making kindness bookmarks now when they have free time. These are some positive mindset affirmations and mantras that I wrote or collected. Great for kids! Great for art projects or art journaling! For a high resolution PDF copy, visit my TPT shop for a FREE DOWNLOAD: 100 Positive Mindset Phrases for Kids
Isn’t this graphic the cutest?! I am part of an Art Ed Blogger’s Network which is a collective of writers who blog about a certain topic each month. At the bottom of the post is a link to all the participating bloggers. The theme this month is about Summer Art. What is an Art Journal? An art journal is a visual diary… it is place for artists to express themselves using imagery, words, colors, patterns and designs. An art journal … Read more…
You may have heard me mention Pipsticks before. I love stickers. One of my dreams is to own a toy/craft/art supply/STICKER store. Who knows if that will happen some day, but I have always loved stickers! When I was a kid, I even made up a (short-lived) club called Sticker Maniacs. They are fun to use in art journals and to stick all over greeting cards. You’ve seen those toy unboxings on YouTube right? Today, I am going to do … Read more…
We recently had artist Sabrina Ward Harrison visit our school to give an artist talk and workshop with the kids.  Today I am going to introduce you to her artwork and life as an artist.  In Part Two of this post, I will share with you some of the amazingly diverse mixed media collages that the students made in response to learning about her artwork.  All of the artwork on this page was made by Sabrina. Her message to the … Read more…
I am excited to share with you the book A World of Artist Journal Pages. It just arrived in the mail yesterday and it is thick.. just full of inspiring art pages. And I am super excited because five of my art journal pages have been published in the book! I put together a video flip-through to show you some of the pages of the book. I have really low voice and my voice is even scratchier with a sore … Read more…
Another printmaking experiment for you! I bought some felt ornaments and sparkly snowflake decorations from Target on clearance. Valentine’s Day is also a good time to get decorations. Here is how I created the background shown below. Snowflake: Place the snowflake decoration on the page. Use spray inks to spray over the snowflake (I like the Dylusions Ink Spray, but you can also make your own by pouring liquid watercolor into a small makeup spray bottle.) Star: Use an brayer … Read more…
This summer, I have been working on creating a new PDF set of Art History Sketchbook Prompts. The first two sets have been very popular and there are so many artists I want my students to learn about. These cards are a great way for students to do some independent learning if they finish an art project early. This is set #3 of the Art History Sketchbook Prompts, with all NEW artists! These art history cards feature a selection of … Read more…
We went to Saugatuck, Michigan last week (bet you didn’t know that, because I pre-scheduled blog posts for that time. You really should be careful what information you give out when you are leaving town. You don’t want to come back to a ransacked house!) Anyways, we were gone for about 5 days and went to the Indiana Dunes and stayed in a cabin in Saugatuck. We went with my brothers, nieces/nephews and my parents. We had a blast riding … Read more…
I gathered up all of the art journals and sketchbooks I could find in my house (I’m sure there’s more, as they are scattered here and there.) Some are finished and many are in various stages of completion. Don’t they look yummy all together?
As art teachers our hands are covered in glue and paint all day. We are on the go and juggling so many different tasks. We definitely need our own creative outlet. We need time for ourselves… to play, to relax, to express ourselves. Keeping an art journal is a great way to de-stress. I am taking the 21 Secrets online workshop. Obviously, with a limited amount of free time along with a limited amount of disposable income, I have always … Read more…
I am very honored to share with you that I have an article in the Art Journaling Exposed 2 downloadable E-magazine from Cloth Paper Scissors.  I browsed through the issue and it has a lot of interesting articles and videos.  My article is titled “13 Great Layers for Art Journal Pages” These are some of the pages in the article. If you like art journaling, mixed media, collage and you would like to follow my personal art blog, you can … Read more…
