a little instagram love!

Some instagram pictures from the past month:

This is happening outside my window right now!

 How is one to get any work done?

 I am so happy the sun has greeted us

 often this winter and spring 

 which has been wonderful.

 So there still is hibernating

 but spring has shown its lovely face

 and blessed us with small bits of wonder

 and large bits of glory too!

 And even Anthropologie

caught the beauty in their window displays.

 But this has to be my favorite glimpse of the season

taken by my son in Lancaster PA.

Just read the sign...

Oh happy spring cat flattening catnip

without a care in the world!

MATS Bootcamp Poster

 Here is my submission to Lilla Roger's class

Make Art that Sells Bootcamp.
I am adoring this class!

 This month's assignment was to design a poster

for an upcoming art event in Brighton England.

 First we played around with lettering.

I haven't really done any since the 70's.

So this era found its way into my iPad design.

 Then I tried some freehand drawing and actually liked the different styles.

 I kept envisioning a girl heading to the gathering with all her art supplies

(yep that would be me--always over prepared)

and of course my corgi had to come with me.

Then I cut her out and scanned her onto a grid background.

 It went onto the iPad and the fun continued!
I added the British flag, 
a small photo of the Wheel, 
the Brighton Dome where the event will be held,
a photo of my yardstick, 
my paint palette,
and a stamp with a young Queen Elizabeth.

I then changed the font for the final picture at top.

Phew I think I am done.

Now on to some messy prep for some wood wrapped pieces

that will be loose and fun--

always need to do loose stuff after tight work at the pixel level.

The Bremen Town Musicians iPad Style

My students enjoyed hearing the story of

The Bremen Town Musicians,

and then we created our own stacked animals 

on the iPad.

They turned out pretty cute,

full of personality,

using different brushes for different effects,

cute critters singing under the full moon,

peaking through the curtains,

and even a nice ending.

So happy that these five wanted to take their time and do a fantastic job!

Newsletter signups--How is art like life? Good Question...

I just sent out my seventh newsletter about how life and art are similar.

If you would like to join and receive newsletters about once a month,

then sign up right there in the right hand column.

Yep that one...

there you go.

Well bust my Buttons!

This painting is a large one.

So it is filled with flowers and buttons

in honor of spring!

the 52 buttons are from my mom and mother-in-law 

and I love to think of them while I stitch them on.

It has layers of texture from joint compound and crinkled tissue. 

Tissue paper is such a great base.

Here are some closeups...

of details and lines rolled onto the painting...

and painted tissue and stencils...

and those buttons...

with 52 drilled holes...

all stitched in place.

"Well Bust my Buttons" will be going to artEAST Gallery in April
and hopefully will find a home ready to embrace buttons.

Jack and the Beanstalk, Tunnel Books and serious Cuteness!

 Time for Tunnel Books!

 We made fairy tale books in one class,

and gnomes and mushrooms in another.

The students were learning how to draw with layers in the Brushes XP app.

So we made a background and several inner layers as well as a front cover.

 Then each page was sandwiched accordion-style in between.

Here are some of their cute imaginary gnome, mushroom and village books.

I think I want to live in this house!

The trimester finished this week

so I figured it was time for me to show you 

some of the other goodies we created this fall and winter.

The kids love seeing their work on mugs

and here are some other pieces that were created

that make me smile!

I love drawing on the iPad with them.  

It is a great 'learning to draw' tool.

Hope we made you smile.

Questions--

just let me know.