monoprinting & teaching the creative collective

For my last printmaking lesson with my 6th graders, I really wanted to try something a little different. In most of our projects these past 6 weeks, their imagery has been basic shapes (footballs, peace signs, flowers etc), their names or just their initials. I'm not looking for deep intellectual pieces but when they immediately resort to something familiar or simple it takes the aspect of play out of creating. Their willingness to play and experiment with a new medium and just see what happens is absent. Which is incredibly sad to see in a group so young! 

So I made them do monoprinting! Quick, abstract, instant results and pretty unexpected and uncontrollable results! Also to keep with Melyssa's Creative Collective and the current prompt, "Anything-Goes Art," it gave me an excuse to just play around with a medium I haven't worked with since college! Albeit, I just made some basic sample prints to illustrate how to do this project but it was definitely a nice break from my usual routine of watercoloring/writing/cleaning/binding repeat. 

And even better, I had everything I needed at home to make these quick little prints! 

Supplies:

• Saran or plastic wrap
• Masking tape
• Paints (we used acrylic but any paint will work)
• Paint brushes
• Assorted pieces of paper
• Optional: paper plates

1. Tear off a piece of Saran wrap and tape it to your table. If you have messy kiddos, use a craft table or put a table cloth underneath the plastic. A piece of tape in each corner should be good to keep it in place. 

2. Squeeze out a little bit of paint either in the corner of your Saran wrap or on a paper plate.

3. Paint across the Saran wrap, roughly the size of the paper you'll be printing onto. The thicker it is on the Saran wrap, the more paint that will transfer to the paper when you print. If you want to do writing, just keep in mind you will have to paint it backwards in order for it to be facing the right direction once it's printed. 

4. Quickly place your paper on top of the paint and push down evenly all over the paper. If you wait too long, the paint will dry and won't transfer to the paper. 

5. Carefully peel up the paper from one corner and see what you made! 

6. Wait for the paint patch on the Saran wrap to dry (it doesn't take very long!) or move onto a clean patch to spread more paint for another layer! You can also wait for your paper to dry or print immediately. If you print immediately, the colors will blend. Whereas if you wait, they'll be more like layers on top of each other. 

7. Keep repeating steps 3-6 until you're happy with your print! Then make another! Or three...

I LOVED watching the kiddos let loose and just play and make a mess. They were probably more productive today than all our other days combined! We did make quite a mess but the best part is that all you have to do is peel up the Saran wrap and toss it for clean up! Perfect! 

Have you ever tried monoprinting? Or have you done printmaking with kiddos before?

Amelia's baby shower invites

I think pretty much everyone has received their invite so it should be safe to share one of my most recent projects! My sweet cousin is having a little girl in January (maybe on my birthday!) and asked me to make the invites for little Amelia's baby shower. I loved this project! It was tedious printing so many cards and envelopes but it was completely worth it. 

The front of the cards have hand-printed ballet slippers and the envelopes have my signature blossom stamps on the front and back. Inside I incorporated some hand-written text and hand-drawn ribbons. I also made a little drawing of Amelia riding a giraffe (her nursery will be a girly jungle theme) for the raffle reminders. Such a fun project! And even better that Amelia's mama loved them too. 

summer printmaking workshop

I wanted to share a bit of the projects I made with my kids during my summer printmaking workshop with Arts Outreach. Like the bookmaking workshop, I used a lot of projects from previous workshops or lessons. Luckily, I had a really good group of kids and a much smaller class compared to last summer, so I was able to be a little ambitious with our projects! Our schedule for the week was:

• Monday: styrofoam box embossed printing
• Tuesday: linoleum and cork carving, and puffy paint/CD prepping
• Wednesday: printing day for linoleum carvings and puffy paint drawings
• Thursday: veggie printing, potato carving & making screens for boot-leg screen-printing
• Friday: print their screens on fabric

It was a hectic and messy week but it was really fun! Because of the dangers of carving linoleum with little kiddos, I didn't manage to get any photos from the carving day. Fortunately there were no lost appendages, so you really didn't miss much! There were a lot of reoccurring designs this summer, lots of Ben 10's, mustaches and I even vetoed the use of "YOLO" on one day. 

Chelsea: 1, Pop culture: 0!

weekly wishes 3

Week three of weekly wishes with the Nectar Collective and going strong! Ish... I got a little ambitious last week, not that that's a bad thing at all. Most of them are half accomplished... So a recap for this week, my goals last week were to:

1. Post photos of my "Adventures with Grandma and Grandpa" commission book on my blog and website. Check for the blog, but I haven't done the website yet. 
2. Clean my Etsy shop and list new items. I was able to deactivate a few listings that were really just taking up space. But I didn't list anything new because I forgot I have another market this Saturday!
3. Scan the results from my week of doodling and upload to Society 6 and Spoonflower. Check for Society 6, I think the flower pattern looks awesome! Spoonflower is still a to do... 
4. Solidify some ideas for my logo and brand...yes-ish...I have more ideas but still narrowing it down. I'll share these once I have something concrete or need some help deciding which way to go! 
5. Print on fabric for new projects! Yep! So happy I got this one done! The photo below is from my little printing session. It's all just experiments right now, I need to invest in some nice fabric ink but I'm loving the patterns I've been playing around with. 

So my goals for this next week are much less ambitious and really just kind of what I need to get done this week:

Prepare for my next market this Saturday and stay optimistic about it

The last one of these markets I did, it didn't go very well. I had a lot of fun and made some friends but it didn't have the sale results I had hoped for after all the work I put into it. I was almost tempted not to do this one but I figured since I already have all the inventory ready, I might as well. Hence the goal to stay optimistic this week too. So, hopefully this Saturday is a success! If not, I'll have a goal next week to list some awesome new things in my Etsy shop! 

Don't forget to pop over to Melyssa's blog and check out all the other link-upers this week! There are some lovely and inspiring people out there! 

adventures in hand-printing...

I love this little mandala!

I've mentioned it before so pardon me if it's a little repetitive but I really can't say it enough...I love printmaking. It was a daily routine in college, with 4 hour studios 4 days a week with additional hours after school and on weekends. It feels so good to be printing again! Albeit it is on a much smaller scale this time in comparison to the stuff I was printing at school but it is still so much fun. 

There has been a lot of experimenting and trying new ways of printing in a tiny space but so far it is all going really well. I feel like I have a MacGyver printing studio now between all the jerry-rigged materials and methods of printing. 

Since I don't have any inking slabs, I have been using my tin-foil ink slab method I found last summer while teaching my printmaking workshop. It's the best! One piece of tin foil taped down keeps all the mess contained to one spot and makes clean up so quick. Perfect for a tiny art bubble! 

Hand-printing with linoleum is also another new challenge. Before I had only used it for embossing so learning how to print with it is a completely new adventure. What I have found works best with my little tiny carvings is to essentially turn them into stamps! I've been dismantling old stamps I have and up-cycling some little plastic boxes and gluing my little leaves, arrows and feathers to them to make stamps. Much better than blindly aiming with the paper and hoping it lands in the center...

An old stamp base and the lid to a box of sewing pins! My favorite stamps...plus the clear plastic lid helps me aim!

I have also noticed I am not the best at making identical prints without the aid of centering marks that you have in Lithography. My aim is usually just a little off so I was having difficulties making multiples of the same card, which is a problem when I'm trying to make every card/envelope/sheet of paper count. The simple solution to that has been printing on butcher paper. I've been printing multiples of the same design on butcher paper then cutting the designs out and attaching them to the cards when they're dry! They add another layer of color but also guarantee I have a centered design and nearly identical products. YES! And it combines some of my favorite color schemes...

The printing on butcher paper has also turned into it's own project...I printed a TON of leaves the other day and covered some pages in their loveliness... these will become book covers for some mini blank books! 

Most of these new designs, books and cards I'm going to save for the Art Market in Santa Barbara next month but there are still plenty of others in my Etsy shop. I may also keep a couple for the sweet ladies that are participating in my Craft it Forward adventure (there's still one more comment spot left if you'd like to participate!) 

just keep printing...

Just keep printing... that's all I've been wanting to do lately. As a result of this reawakened love with printmaking, I have a plethora of pinatas of hand-printed/made cards! I've posted a couple peeks of them in past posts and if you follow along on Instagram you've probably seen even more. 

And now they're here! I'm selling them in sets of 3 and a couple individually in my Etsy shop...I hope they go over well, I really enjoy making them and I'd love it if they were out there making their way across the widespread postal world.

You can find them here in my shop. I should be adding some more sets to the shop over the next few days but I was too excited about them to wait any longer to post these ones!  

Some other awesome news! I will officially be participating in my first craft/art market!  (another thing I can check off the list!) You can find me at Whole Foods in Santa Barbara on May 11 for the Local Artist Market! I'll post more information about that once it gets closer. Huzzah!

This is my FAVORITE envelope in the whole world! I would love to see some gorgeous cursive inside of it for the address...

carving and printing...

I've been having the biggest urge to do printmaking lately. It's been years since I last printed anything...to be exact, spring of 2010 right before I graduated. That's terrifying and also saddening how long it has been. I loved my printmaking classes. Lithography and Intaglio with some wood and linoleum carving occasionally. So many hours in those studios and so much fun. 

On my list this year, I decided I wanted to start printing by hand. The other morning while I was swimming I was able to brainstorm some designs I want to carve and try out. This meant also salvaging linoleum bits from previous pieces (I'm so sorry 7 Deadly Sins!) to save some money. 

So far, I have only impaled myself once, leaving a lovely #3 U-gouge mark on my left index finger but I have missed this. A lot. Here's a peek at some of the designs in the works, soon to be in the Etsy shop and my little shops here in town. 

In other awesome news...Remember when I mentioned I had another Pearl Snap related item coming to my shop too? Well, they're here! GOLD PEARL SNAPS!!!! I think they're so ridiculously pretty! They're limited edition so snag some while you can (I already sold 2 pairs in the first hour of the listing being live, woo hoo!)

recycle printmaking with styrofoam boxes

The clean ink slabs...before the children descended...

I started a new after school workshop with Arts Outreach two weeks ago, Upcycle and Recycle Art! An entire class about what I love doing already! I'm so excited about this class, I've been gathering ideas for quite some time and I'm happy to finally be able to try all these projects with the kiddos. 

The first week with the kiddos we made/bound cereal box and paper bag notebooks. I was unable to get any photos from this project but it was a combo of this project I found for the covers/binding with my paper bag notebooks from last year for the insides. I chose this project to gauge the level of the kids...luckily I did too. Turns out my class consists of 14 kids, with about half of them being 6 or 7 years old...with one 5 year old. This isn't to say I don't have a very talented bunch of kids, because I do! This is a fantastic group. But...it does mean that there's a lot of kids that need help/assistance every step of the project...which makes my one hour with them very hectic and in constant motion...

So this week I wanted to try some recycle printmaking using styrofoam to-go boxes!  I may have looked like an absolute fool hauling around 3 dozen styrofoam to-go boxes but it was completely worth it. I was inspired by this post from Alisa Burke's amazing blog! She used scratch board for her project but I thought styrofoam boxes would be a perfect substitute. 

To make these, all you need is: a styrofoam to-go box, an exacto blade, a pencil or paintbrush, paper to print on and ink/supplies for printing (paint would work too).

Cut out the large flat square piece from the base and lid of the box, these will be where you'll be making the designs to print. Using a dull pencil or the non brush end of a paint brush, draw your designs on the styrofoam. The opposite end of paint brushes worked best for my kiddos, it was big/strong enough to make a deep impression but not pointed enough to poke through the foam. Remind your kids that if they want to write anything that it must be backwards ...which can be used as inspiration I guess...

My favorite from the whole day! 

Time to print! I set up ink slabs like I did last summer for my printmaking workshop using foil and tape but paper plates of paint with brushes would work just as well. Ink up the designs enough so that the whole thing is covered but not so much that all the grooves from the designs are filled in. Then flip it over, center it on the paper and rub evenly across the back of the foam. Then slowly remove the foam and voila! A print! We had enough time for the kids to print 2-3 designs and it seems like they really enjoyed it! 

Printmaking Workshop: woodcarving

I am terrible at documenting my art lessons. I was stoked to share my kids work and then had the disappointing realization that I had not taken many photos. The classes moved too quickly to remember to grab the camera. Since it was a morning class, the kids also took their work home in the afternoon, thereby stealing my opportunity to document it the next day! 
























Due to the lack of photos, I would like to try to recreate the puffy paint printing at home first so I can post more about that one. Fortunately I was able to snap a handful of photos on the woodcutting day! 


On to business!  Okay...Woodcutting + small children = a TERRIBLE IDEA (usually)
But, with the addition of fresh carving tools, small groups at a time and baby oil, what could have been a bloody bloody mess was actually a very fun day for the kiddos and me!

When I was at school carving on BC plywood, we all learned baby oil was our best friend. It made poor quality free plywood cut like butter. A glorious thing when you're carving a 6' x 6' chunk of wood! 

I had the same approach to working with the kiddos. Albeit they had nicer quality and softer wood, I still soaked their slabs in a bit of oil to make it a little easier for them to carve. I also did this to give our linoleum carving tools a smaller beating. Actual woodcarving tools were unavailable and too expensive but I was able to procure a few new linoleum carving sets. So even though it was a bit more dangerous carving with sharper instruments, with the combo of a fresh blade and baby oil, the wood cut smoother and the skipped along the grains a lot less. 

Just like the foam paper printing, it took them a little bit to grasp that the words needed to be backwards but once they transferred them to the wood it made more sense. Their images were pretty simple of course but it was still a lot of fun to see what they came up with. One little boy kept adding to his carving. By the end of the class his print boldly stated, "Jack is AWESOME!"