New Art Class

Hey friends.  I am going to be taking a new art class/life class from my fav, Christy Tomlinson.  Her link to her website is on the sidebar to the right.  I have been doing the pre-class exercises (not required) and they are not too bad.  I am really excited to learn new techniques, etc.  Now I only have about five classes that I am taking at the same time.  I hope to be posting some results here later.
If you are interested, go to http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fchristytomlinson.typepad.com%2Fchristytomlinson%2Fmy-living-canvas-workshop.html&h=EAQHULU7eAQGOnyJexB7CnZkYPThbZVyhP39V-xNijRrnAw
You will be able to read about the class and view some videos on what will be happening.  It is a 6 week course, but you have a year to do it.  Also, there is a closed group Facebook Page and the things that people have been sharing are amazing...and we haven't even started.
If you are interested in jump starting your creativity, you can't find a better class or group of people.  Hope to see you there!

Boys

I have been working on gifts for my 5 little guys.  The last day of school is Thursday and I will be giving each boy a canvas as a gift from me.  These are done on canvas board or panel.  I found the 4x4 at the Phoenix Art Supply when I was in ... Phoenix and I bought some.  And yes, I am that art geek who visits art stores on trips.  They are different than a stretched canvas in that there is support over the entire surface, so if you want to do a stamp, you will get a good image.  I did miss the added dimension of the sides of a stretched canvas though.
I had my patterns from last year, so these didn't take long at all.  Just mainly drying time which I used to get ready for the garage sale.  Good girl!

I put each child's initial on their canvas.  The triangles are a stencil.

The dog paw and the hand prints are stamps.

The peace sign, baseball and soccer ball are also stamps.

You would not believe how I had to practice to do boy's hair.  Lots of different colors there.

The straight black lines are from the bottom of a piece of flip flop that I put in ink.

Wind Swept Hair Girl

Here she is.  Not a very good pic, but  the best I could do in the light that I had.

I added some beads up in the corner and also in the lower corner.  Love the bird rub-on.

Here is her skirt.  Love it! 

Ok.  My new favorite stencil ranked right below the chevron one.  Not sure of the name, but I know that I bought it at ScarletLime.

So I finished this girl a little bit ago and I am actually working on another one involving seed beads and glitter.  I love this girl.  I call her "Wind Swept Hair Girl" and my favorite part is her skirt and shirt.  Christy Tomlinson's She Art 2 class used clay as dimensional objects on canvas and I loved it.  The designs in her skirt are made with stamps and some other objects.  I painted in some, used ink in some and then used Faber Castel pens on other areas.  I think that she is mine.

Your Living Canvas

I am taking an online class called "Your Living Canvas" through ScarletLime (see sidebar) and there are some leadership challenges to complete (optional) before the class actually begins.  This one was rather interesting.  We were supposed to climb a tree or otherwise go up high somewhere and see the 'world' from a different perspective.  I was going to go up into the attic of our garage and sit for a bit taking pictures.  Then, I remembered a cool experience that I had in Sedona over spring break.  My sister, my niece and I had taken a Pink Jeep Tour (fun!) that was just a little 2 hour ride up into the red hills and back.  We got out of the jeep at one point and did a little hiking.  I was madly taking pictures because this Iowa girl has never seen anything like the rough beauty of Sedona.  Our guide suggested that I go out on a ledge that he showed me so that I could get some cool pics of how the ledge opposite was actually two different rocks separated by a thin slice of air.  I wandered out, sat down (awkward because of my new knee) and started shooting.  The view was so different from what I am used to here in the Heartland.  After a few pics, I got up, narrowly avoided cracking my noggin on an overhead limb and got off of the ledge.
After we got back into the jeep and started down the trail, our guide pulled over and showed us where I had been sitting.  Whoa.  If I had seen where I was going before I did it, I wouldn't have done it.  I would have been too scared.  I was completely struck by that and the parallels that it makes in our lives.  Going out on ledges isn't really as scary when you are doing it as it is when you look back to see where you have been.  How many times have we said, "I can't believe I did that?"  Whether it is starting a business, going to school, becoming who you have always wanted to be, raising children, having children, I don't think that any of us would necessarily go out on those ledges if we knew how scary it was going to be.  Sometimes, not knowing is so much easier because there is no time to think, you just act and do it and move on with things.  Remember the ledge.

This is a picture of the ledge where I eventually wound up sitting.

This is the ledge where I took the previous picture.  I thought the little gap was so cool.  Our guide showed me how to get out on the ledge I'm on so that I could sit and get some great pics.

Yup.  Way scarier looking from the trail to the ledges.  They don't look quite as sturdy as they actually were from this angle. 

Pics to Come

Whew.  This has been a crazy last few weeks.  I have pics to post of my last girl and then some more from Kansas City.  I have some great news to share and some pics from Julie Anne's visit.  I promise that I will get cracking soon.  My goal is this weekend for sure.  So, stay tuned.