Happy Holiday Cereal Box.................

I have been very busy playing............with art as usual..........I decided to make a canvas out of a cereal box.....I learned this technique from an online class I am taking called "21 secrets"
the teacher is Alma Stoller......just LOVE her...so creative.............I was inspired by her work and wanted to try my own cereal box canvas......

I grabbed an empty cereal box, some decoupage an a old book....

an got busy covering the box.........

when dry I applied some white paint and some of my favorite colors......

wasn't sure what I was going to paint but just knew I wanted it to be bright and cheerful for the holidays.....

I think when you just paint and really don't plan it out the magic begins.........

as I was painting I decided that this will be a gift for a dear friend........

so I wanted to make it special ..............

I love to paint and when dry outline with my sharpies......

I used paint, markers, glitter, and sharpies to fill all sides of the box.........

 

I loved playing with this project and can tell that I will be making many more of these canvas.....

thanks Alma for a fantastic idea......

my students watched  me making the canvas in class and they were so interested .....and they wanted to learn this technique.....I am always trying to teach them the importance of  recycling and how to use it with their art......... so this is the perfect project .....

I love that this project is made from recycled items...a little paint and creativity...

             
                               HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!

Holiday Window Design

I was so excited to complete this window display for a dear friend.  Her Name is Carol and she owns "U Frame It" https://www.facebook.com/pages/U-Frame-It-Custom-Picture-Framing/359058862028 Frame Shop in town.  She is such a sweet lady and always a pleasure to talk to.  We have been talking about her window displays for years...... She said that she needed some help in the design department.... and I was happy to help......since she has always helped me with mat board donations for my school to helping me with framing some of my own art work.  It was time for me to repay all of the favors she has so kindly helped me with.....I worked for the display department in Macy's for years and couldn't wait to get started on this assignment.  I offered to help design the window and she finally took me up on my offer.........I drew up a few design ideas and she picked one that she liked and let me run with it..... I love when people let me do my thing............

I didn't want to spend a lot of money and I wanted to use things from her shop.....so my drawings were enlarged and cut from mat boards and foam core. 

I free hand drew my sketches onto these boards and used my favorite good old "sharpie markers" and paint pens to add the details....I hot glued buttons, googly eyes, pom poms, fleece for scarves, and all the elements together. I cut out snow flakes and made paper chains all out of holiday scrap book papers.

I "LOVE" how it turned out. Carol said it is the best window she ever had and the best in the shopping center.....I am so Happy that she LOVES it and happy to help a dear friend........

 

Learning a NEW craft.....................

I had a very interesting day at work today...I am a middle school art teacher and had the pleasure of learning a new craft......from a young paper artist from China who came to share his craft with my art students.  His name is Li Wong and he is 23 years old and has been traveling around sharing his amazing talent with the students in our district and also near by towns.  He taught all 5 of my classes today and the students and I were amazed at how easy he made this unique craft look.

He gave us some information about the history of the art, and shared some of his beautiful work.

He talked to us about the special paper that he uses and that  all Chinese paper cutting is done on a special red paper, that feels a bit like fabric.  He said that they use red paper because it is the color for good luck.

I was so proud of  my students who listened so well an enjoyed learning a new art form.....

It was amazing how quick Mr Li could cut a piece of art like this....only a few minutes from start to finish.

He taught each class a  different pattern.

We learned so much and we were so happy to have such a talented young man come to teach us for a day....

Mr Li said that he learned how to paper cut from his Grandma when he was 6 yeas old and that for the last 17 years he as been practicing......

well we were impressed!!!

I shared some of my papers with Mr Li, and of course it had to be PINK.....

this group of students learned  paper snowflakes, and as you can see they were not a bit shy in front of the camera, I could barely find Mr. Li....... 

Mr Li was so kind, and so talented and kept giving me all his lovely samples...I was a Happy gal...He noticed a purple glitter owl I had sitting on my desk and I offered it to him in return for all my paper gifts and he was a Happy guy.

 Happy to meet such a talented young artist and so happy he came to visit with me for the day.  I have a new found art form that I can't wait to get started on....

Enjoying challenging myself at the Art Alliance of Red Bank New Jersey

I haven't posted on my blog here for quite some time....Have been very busy as usual, but was so sadden by "Super Storm Sandy" and all her devastation that it was hard for me to post things when so many have lost so much....
I have been keeping myself busy trying to inspire myself for the art  challenges at the
Art Alliance. I joined in Sept of this year and so happy I did.  I have  met some very interesting and talented artists and have seen some interesting work.  I love coming up with new and interesting art for each months challenge.
This months challenge was 100 square inches....... 
 I wanted to think out of the box, and thought instead of boxes I would figure out the square inches of circles and make a mobile instead of a flat piece of art. I am an art teacher and have  a lot of smart math teachers friends who I asked for some help with my idea for this challenge.

my friend Marge let me use some of her class supplies, she found the area for each circle...and then I started to play ...and I tried to figure out  how many circles I could use that would add up to 100 square inches.....I wanted to make the mobile as large as possible so I thought I would remove some of the centers in order to make a longer piece....... 

then how to make the circles???hummmmmmm....  my friend Carol owns a frame shop and she cut the circles out of mat boards for me on a fancy cutting machine, all I did was give her the  dimensions and before you know it I had several perfectly cut circles...... I have some great friends......I am a LUCKY gal!

so I got to the fun part...painting wonderful crazy color combinations.....

 

I wanted each circle to have all the same vibrant colors with different patterns and designs....

well here she is finally hanging in the gallery.....another artist was also quite fond of these great colors and painted a wonderful piece  hanging right next to mind......looks like they were meant to be together........

it was so  nice to see people out to support the arts.....

if you haven't been to the Art Alliance you really should stop by.......you may want to consider joining if you have a desire to create......

this is my lovely and talented  friend Grace next to her 3 beautiful angel designs......I just love her.......always so happy, positive and up beat, .....

we had live music from the amazing  Phred Morris.....

and  one more little piece I had in the show is  my "Let it Snow" mixed media painting......

                                 Hope you find something interesting to do with your talents........