One last fun art exersize for both child and adult

OK, I promise, this is it. This was one of the other activities in the 'art in the park' activity I did with my boys a few years back. They were given a white paper and a fine black permanent marker and told to do loopy or zigzaggy lines all over it, leaving some spaces between. Then they got watercolors and brushes and were told to fill in some of the spaces between the lines with color, whatever spaces and whatever colors they wanted. These turned out to be pretty cool looking. Again, I cut out the 'best' parts that had good composition and matted them with card stock for use on note cards.

In this case we used rub on words and the boys used them for teacher appreciation notes one spring. I think they turned out great. It looked like so much fun I did several sheets of paper as well. In a way, the black line is much like a zentangle string. In my case I did not fill in as much of the space as the children did, but left a significant amount as 'negative space'. The overlapping and interlocking shapes leave lots of room for color transparency and overlap experimentation. Having no formal watercolor training leaves me lots to explore when it comes to my paints.

The youngest boy did this one

These cards have been so useful as things to have sitting around ready to fill in when needed. A few rub on words can set the tone, or you can get the appropriate tone or season from the colors used in the card. I think the same large string technique could be used to incorporate both tangle patterns and watercolor to achieve a different kind of look as well.

This one looks like spring to me

That is all of the card talk I have on my mind right now. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday (for the US residents) and I will be back to posting quilting news and zentangle attempts next week!

I like to play with the 'temperature' of a range of colors

More card talk

It is no secret, kids love to make art.  I absolutely think they should be encouraged and praised for the self expression... but what do you DO with it all? I have a couple of walls in my house with arrays of inexpensive frames from Ikea that fit a regular piece of paper, with minor trimming, easily. That is where a lot of it goes. I have a few noteworthy pieces from school art class framed and matted in "real" frames. I have discovered another use for certain types of art... I have used certain kinds of art to make very modern looking black cards (for mailing as 'Thank You's etc). We had attended an "art in the park" experience and the boys were introduced to modern art and invited to splatter, swipe, roll and smack paint onto the backs of donated posters. They turned out great, but they were huge and some areas were more expressive than others. So, after storing them behind a bookshelf for a couple of years, I came up with this idea. I cut them up, somewhat at random, somewhat by eyeing what the best compositions would be and chose card stock paper to compliment the colors in the painting as narrow mats. With a little ink on the edges and some torn edges in a few cases to add interest they came out looking like something you might purchase at the gift shop in the art museum.  These are just a couple of examples.

On a nice white card with rub on letters as greeting if appropriate they make smashing cards that are a far cry from the ordinary. And each one is an original work of art!  I have since encouraged them to make this sort of thing for specific purposes. One Valentines Day I gave my 18 month old daughter pink, purple, yellow and red water color pencils and a sheet of watercolor paper. She had a great time scribbling. Then I gave her a wet kid's paintbrush and she 'enhanced' her art work. When the whole thing was dry I cut out freehand hearts from the paper, inked the edges, mounted them on cards and added stamped letters... Valentines for the grandmothers and great grandmothers from their favorite baby girl!

I think a lot of kids art work could be treated this way with great results. It might even teach the kids that sometimes it is OK, even preferred to send a snail mail greeting to a loved one rather than an email or a text. And don't even get me started on the need to remind them about the importance of thank you notes!

I have one more art/card idea to share, and then I will get back to the regularly scheduled programming of quilting and zentangling!

Don't you just love leaves this time of year?

I am mourning a little... the rain and wind of the past few days has taken a toll on the pretty leaf population in my part of the world. We had an excellent year for them and the maples planted around my property have finally begun to color up the way they should. With the hickory that grow here naturally it is a great combination... like summer sunsets that last for a few weeks.

I should have found time to do this craft with the kids earlier this year but we had an exceptionally busy fall and I didn't. A few years ago (pre child #3 who is now 3 years old!) I gathered some leaves while they were still supple and pulled out the craft acrylic paints and the vinyl table cloth and the boys and I went to town. We painted on the leaves and then used them to 'print' with and the boys used the leaves themselves as paintbrushes. They had a great time and made some interesting art. As always, when I do this sort of thing with them I have to make my own (so I keep my nose and influences out of their art!) I chose to print with the leaves on pre-made blank cards. These are a few of the printed cards I have left. I have used many of the best ones as greeting cards over the years.

An interesting thing happened when I had printed with the same leaf for a while... the older, drier layers of paint on the leaf would soften  from the wetness of the new layers and peel off when the leaf was printed with again. This gave a layered and ragged look I was not expecting (see the tulip poplar print below on the right).  I really liked it and there was no real way to 'control' the effect which made it exciting and organic, if not a bit frustrating at times. I think if I were to do it now I would use plain card stock 'blanks' cut to a size that would allow me to mat each print with colored card stock before mounting it on the card.

It is a fun way to make yourself some lovely greeting cards (somehow pretty fall leaves make for a  lovely condolence card) and celebrate the changing leaves in your town... and make the look last a bit longer too!

Come back and visit soon for another card making idea... this time with all that 'kid art' you don't know what to do with but can't bear to get rid of!