Easy Printmaking

Tonight we're designing our own rubber-stamps! We'll learn several techniques including the blender pen transfer system! (pictured below) and the upcycled cork stamp.

You'll need:
One sheet of easy cut or an eraser.
A newspaper or photocopied word that you can transfer.
A Speedball Linoleum cutter, and an ink pad or watercolor paint.

1. Take your newspaper word and place it face down on the blank stamp block.
2. Rub across the back with the blender marker, revealing the transferred word.
3. Pushing the cutting tool away from you, cut out the negative space around the design.
4. Ink and stamp. Clean up any extra marks that you want to remove now.

Have fun creating your own stamps for... decorating a scrapbook, journal, and cards!

For the cork stamper you'll need:

A wine bottle cork, sharpie, and sharp blade tool.
1. Draw your design... Simple is best
2. Cut out the negative space, leaving the positive space image as your stamp.
3. Ink it and stamp it!

Nature Prints

Leaf impressions are fun to make in Minnesota! We have so many big leafy trees and plants here to play with! I loved seeing the Ginkgo leaves that one of my adult students brought in...so beautiful!

Step one: clean the leaf with glass cleaner- I used Celadon Road Mint glass cleaner.
Step two: paint the leaf with ink, I used liquid watercolor and a spritz of glimmer mist. Place the leaf painted side down on to watercolor paper. Cover it with a folded paper towel.
Step three: print the leaf by pressing down evenly on the paper towel and leaf. Then carefully remove them to reveal the print!

Make a nature journal of your backyard flora... A greeting card... A change of season log... or ?
Have fun!

Choosing Colors...

Personal Palettes

140 lb cotton paper
Acrylic or watercolor paint
Paper punch / 2.5 inch circle
Brush

Cut watercolor paper shapes to paint, start with yellow (note cool or warm)
Then add some blue for yellow-green then some more blue for green. Now paint a blue (cool if your yellow was cool or warm depending..)paint the next circle blue. Add a bit of red for the purple and more red for the red-violet paint chip. Now paint a red circle. Add a bit of yellow for the red-orange color and more yellow for orange. There you go! Your own color wheel! To personalize your colors try to tint some with white or create new shades and tones by adding black or a colors opposite.
Have fun, and remember to mix colors so they fit the mood you're going for. It's a very intuitive activity. When they dry move them around and observe how the colors relate to one another. Find your favorite collections for future projects.

Explore wk 4

Hello!
Welcome to week 4! Designing rubber stamps and Fimo clay fun! Can't wait to see what you all make!

I so enjoyed seeing everyone play with paint last week! And I plan on posting some artifacts from that experience so we can all learn from one another :) ...fabulous results!

Did anyone take the altered book spark and run with it? I hope so! Post photos if you would :)

Did anyone run out and buy rubber fish? Hahaha! I can't wait to play again soon!
See you Tuesday night,
Willow

Exploring the Possibilities week 4

Hello!
Here we are in week 4 already!
I so enjoyed watching you all work last week on your color palettes and printmaking! And, it was great to see you take the materials available to the next level! That's what being creative is all about!
I hope to carve some time out of our week 4 muse: design and do more with printmaking!
And, I want to post some pictures of student work from week 3.
I can't wait to see what you all do with Fimo clay and Easy Cut this week! It's a rush to play with these materials with such a fun group :)
See you Tuesday night!
Willow

Blogging from my phone...

Hello! My computer is down this week... so I figured out how to publish blogs from my phone! However, I can't seem to edit "pages" so our class syllabus will have to be on the front page this week :)

Thanks for your patience!
Willow