All About The Glue: Art Journaling

Happy Friday, Creators! I don’t know if you’ve been into The Dollar Tree retail store lately, but their game in the craft department has been brought! Look at all my goodies pictured here.

With all my new-found treasures, I created an entry into my art journal for you to see how each element inspired me. I listened to Mind Love, Modern Mindfulness with Melissa Monte during my walk this morning about your moods being a choice. There were a few points I wanted to remember, and a junk journal page would be perfect.

If you are unfamiliar with junk journaling, just do a quick search, and you’ll find dozens of examples. A junk journal page is adhering random/purposeful pages, images, or ephemera in a visually pleasing array. So here are the double spread pages constructed before I wrote my mental notes down from the podcast I listened to earlier in the day.

Double Spread in my art journal.

Notice the glue, Elmer’s Adhesive Spray Disappearing Purple worked pretty amazingly! I was shocked and wasn’t going to purchase it, but it was a buck, so what the heck so in the cart it landed. I love spray adhesive for big sheets of paper or magazine images, but I hate the mess and drying time. I did lay protective sheets, but it sprayed well with no clogging and cleaned up with water. My ability to see in the future is pretty weak, so I can’t tell you for sure if it will hold up in time, sorry.
Next, the clear cling stamps….what? Yes, these stamps get kinda pricey but more affordable than the wooden ones (shows my creator age, lol). So to see them at The Dollar Tree made my inner 8-year-old heart glow warm. I couldn’t tell any difference from the more expensive ones I have from Micheals.
The rub-off stickers weren’t the best quality and slipped around ALOT, but they are from TDT. I couldn’t find my favorite popsicle stick… which sounds sad…so I used a bone tool. No tools came with the rub off, but again, it was four quarters.

To keep this short, the books I found were an epic score, and my students will love seeing Jim Henson’s and Pixar’s drawings/notes.
Go check out The Dollar Tree and make it rain!!!

Save The Bees Print Now Available

So, spring 2020 may not look or feel like we all had hoped. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to force many of us to adjust to a “new normal” of social distancing, working from home, and a slew of other challenges. Nevertheless, if history has taught us anything, it’s that art and creativity cannot be quarantined. I hope you all are continuing to find new and exciting ways to express yourselves during this time. As for myself, I’m very excited to share with you one of my latest print designs. 

Supporting a Local Artist

Many of you asked how you could help my local business and myself during this challenging time. One way you can help support me as an artist and local business owner is to consider purchasing one of my “Save the Bees” prints. So far, I have made 25 prints and am offering them at $20 each (including taxes and shipping!) 

Whether you’d like one to display in your home or you’d like to purchase one as a gift to someone else, please reach out to me and let me know how many you would like and where you want them shipped. Each print is 8×10, ready to be framed, and mailed with a back board and protective sleeve. 

20% to Benefit Lincoln County Beekeeper’s Association

To help spread awareness and support for another local group, I am donating 20% of all Save the Bees print sales to the Lincoln County Beekeeper’s Association. This is a great local group dedicated to the well-being of honeybees in our area, as well as educating the community on beekeeping. 

Thank You!

I am so very grateful for each of you who have already expressed an interest in buying a print and to those of you who have already placed an order. Your support is and always will be appreciated, no matter what may be happening in the world. Thank you for supporting this local artist and small business owner!

If you have any questions about the Save the Bees print, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can connect with me through my Contact page, or through the Gallery 27 website.

How To Draw A Fox

It’s Funday Friday. So here’s a simple step by step instructions on how to draw a fox for kids. Adults can try it too.

Download Here for your free copy!

Who's Been in Quarantine the Longest?

How to draw Bigfoot using simple, step-by-step instructions.

BIGFOOT!!!

Just a little quarantine humor. You can download this free step-by-step drawing guide to draw your own creature of the forest.

Hope you enjoy! Share your pics in the comments below.

Reflexology for Kids

We are stuck in the house and my son is blowing through his online school work. We don’t want to rely on TV or video games to keep him busy. So I’ve come up with some lesson plans of my own. Lessons that he might not get in school or things he needs to learn from us already. This is the prefect time parents/educators.

So for health we are studying reflexology.

I did use online resources and have those noted to get the same information used. I’m NOT a reflexologist nor am I trained. This is just for fun.

Click Reflexology Lesson for the lesson and here for the template if needed.

Hope you enjoy.

The Elements

I am fascinated by all mythologies, fables, and urban legends. Curiosity is a component in which makes us human, after all. I was and am that child/person who asks a million questions and probably will never change. Are mythologies answers we still can’t reasonably answer or prove with science? 

I think what I love most about mythology is the imagination, skill, and talent it takes to evolve a good story that holds up for hundreds of years and has a message for humanity’s greater good.

Lately, I’ve been studying local mythology and folklore. It’s no surprise that most are connected back to religion or mythology. 

I decided to focus on the elements since they seem to be universal and kept popping up in my research. 

Historians believe that as early as the 8th century BCE, the idea of the four elements: earth, water, fire, and wind, was introduced to explain our natural world. The theory that all things or matter are from these four elements were the cornerstone of science, philosophy, and medicine for over two thousand years! Hippocrates developed a theory about the same four elements found in the body called “humors”. The four humors needed to be in balance with each other for a person to be well, both mentally and physically. Humors theory lead to zodiac signs assigned an element.  

We know now that this isn’t entirely true, but in a way, the four elements do align with the four states of matter that modern science has agreed on: solid (earth), liquid (water), gas (air), and plasma (fire). 

A philosopher, physician, and chemist name Paracelsus produced another theory of the elements. He believed the elements were elementals, mythical beings. 

He regarded them not as much as spirits but as beings between creatures and spirits, generally being invisible to mankind but having physical and commonly humanoid bodies and eating, sleeping, and wearing clothes like humans. 

Paracelsus gave common names for the elemental types and correct names, which he seems to have considered somewhat more proper, “recht namen“. He also referred to them by purely German terms, which are roughly equivalent to “water people,” “mountain people,” and so on, using all the different forms interchangeably. (Carole B. Silver, Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness)

At one time, many people believed this all to be true. How magical the world must have been at one time, where anything could have been possible. Or one may argue how incredibly dumb people were in our early existence. Either way, our history is fascinating. My imagination began to run wild with ideas. I’m not sure why, but I think of a woman when I think of the elements having a body. So I gave the elements a body with attributes I thought would be shared or assigned. 

This art is for enjoyment and not to be taken seriously. I had fun creating them just so I could tell this story, lol. I hope you enjoy!

Trio 2020

Thanks to Trio, Shari Smith, and curator, Liz McKay, for including me in the 2020 Trio exhibit. Trio starts with a book that’s given to a visual artist and songwriter. The artists write a song and create a work of art inspired by the book they read, fulfilling their TRIO. Each TRIO will travel to museums, galleries, and literary events throughout the following year.
It was a challenging and rewarding opportunity to create a work of art based on another artist’s work. The book I received was “Darling Girl,” written by the very talented Terry Watkins.
For more information about the Trio 2020 artists, check out http://shari-smith.com/trio-2020/.
“Darling Girl” is a powerful story of how a young girl sees the struggle of mental illness take over her mother and its effects on the family. You can purchase a copy on Amazon or visit the author’s page for more info, http://www.terryhwatkins.com.

Homemade Mac & Cheese Recipe

We are still home bound and I’m teaching Reily how to cook. I thought about this for a couple of days before opening “my” own school at our kitchen table. My mom never taught me to cook. Honestly, all the little I know came from watching my Great Grands during my summer visits. They taught me the southern staples like how to make bread, how to fry anything, and make gravy…essentials of (southern) cooking. The rest is pretty intuitive, motivation, and bravery.

Free Printable Mac & Cheese Recipe

I want my son to be self reliant and he needs to know how to cook. He told me the other day that he didn’t like “my school.” “Sorry…not sorry!” was my reply. Maybe one day he will appreciate my lessons. Plus I have a treat for you! I illustrated the recipe. Download and print the recipe here.

Hope you enjoy!

How to Draw a Bee in 10 Easy Steps

Happy Friday everyone! Times are kinda scary these days and I’m definitely feeling pretty heavy. I miss the gallery and my students most of all. And this week some of us have been pushed into a teacher role to our children. However, I refuse to cave in and give any more electronic time. So I created a fun little art challenge for the kiddos to help everyone out! Hope you enjoy.

You can download the PDF File HERE.

You can also download the PDF Coloring Book Page HERE.

How to Draw a Bee in 10 Easy Steps

What is Journal Junkies?

What is Journal Junkies is a question I get asked frequently, so I’ve decided to share a video of what we do in class and the topics we discuss. Art Journaling has been around for a long time and a friend of mine, Anastasia Boswell introduced me to this wonderful expression of art and love.
Art Journaling was the first class offered in my art gallery because the practice was so important to me. If anything, my JJ group is on my top ten lists of things I’m proud of and created. My group is consisted of some strong, courageous, beautiful, kind, generous, and lovely souls. I’m so glad they trust me as their creative guide every month and share their time with me.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vhIfduDSiQ]

 

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