I did it! I met my 3rd scrapbook designer this weekend - Donna Downey!
Look, isn't she sweet. She hugged me like we had been long time friends. She was so fun and I left after my short 3 hours feeling so inspired. Thank you She Scrapbooks!
I loved meeting Tim Holtz because he too inspired me with his enthusiasm and creativity. Tim is all about "grunge" and the distressed look with inks, paints, sandpaper and so on. He likes to say "fun stuff" and I agree! I loved getting my fingers covered in ink. Tim also introduced us to some basic, rustic jewelry making and I loved that too!
I loved meeting Heidi Swapp because of her energy and because of her encouraging words. I love knowing that she's a mom and yet, with a supportive husband, she makes her busy, busy life work.
For those of you who have followed my blog since the beginning, I promise I'll try not to post the photo of Tim and I again (What is this now, the 3rd or 4th time? I just think he's such a cutie!) I would post my picture of me and Tomie dePaola except that was taken in the day of film cameras and I certainly don't know where that negative is. I do have the one photo posted in my classroom.And although, Tim is still my favorite, I have to admit, Donna is now a close runner-up. I only got to take one of her classes, but in that class I got to play so much with acrylic and watercolor paint. I finally learned the basics for my watercolor crayons. I feel terrible all these years how I've not let my young students "scribble". It's so fun! With watercolor crayons you are just applying pigment to the paper....scribble away! Then you add water...and lots of it if you want. Here are my very, very first pages, but oh still so much to learn. Wait until you see some b & w photos on these.
And speaking of little b & w photos, check out this little tip: know how you can get collage prints from Walgreens? Well, I know it's shocking, but you can cut those up and taa-daa, you instantly have a variety of small little photos you can use on pages in mini-books! I know Polly may never read this blog, but I'd like to give her a shout out for that little tidbit. Thanks Polly! (yep, some of you know who I mean - genius!)
On my art teacher certification exam one of my multiple choice questions was something about "Why do artist share their work?" I can't remember what my choices were, but that question bothered me for months - how could that be a multiple choice question?! Why artist share their work, or if they even do, is such an individual and personal thing. Well, what ever the reason, I sure am glad the artists above share their knowledge, talent and enthusiasm with little ol' me and I in turn get to share it with 300 little ones every week - woohoo!!! :o)
And, just one more thought for the week, this weekend our pastor shared many ideas with us, but the one that has stuck in my memory (and that ain't easy to do anymore) was this:
"God said to love people and use things, not love things and use people." If you are my friend or my family who are reading this entry tonight, please know that I love you and am so grateful you are part of my life.
Love you!!!!
Melle
At school our Primary art students are responsible for making the "thank you" cards for our volunteers for the Volunteer Reception at the end of March. Well, I've also had this idea to make note cards out of the students' artwork and then sell those. The above idea will be the thank you cards for the volunteers (mom, you get a sneak peak :) ) and then the note cards will only have the student art on the front (w/o the thanks in vellum). So, progress! I've also scanned about 20 pieces of artwork.
Above is a "peek-a-boo counting book" (just made that up) but it has a flap that the reader can open to find the item inside. So, this page had 10 dots, 10 stamped pencils and a photo of the students' 10 hands - cute? Hope it's not too obvious, but the watercolor background was just using up old sets we had that I just can't bring myself to pitch 'cause they still have some paint in them. We've made two books - one for the media center and one for "aftercare showcase" that is also at the end of the month.
and I created these bigger ones (5 x 7). I'm totally not happy w/ the ribbons I chose, but it was all I had on hand. I've emailed them to the "potential customer". We'll see and of course, I'll keep you posted. :o)
Okay, of to work on another book, this time a digital one of the students in aftercare also for the "showcase". Oh and still want to upload all that artwork I scanned to I can get the photos printed....
