Art Conferece

So, I just got back from Art conference last weekend, and I am drowning with ideas!! It's a great and frustrating feeline, becauase at the moment I do not have time to sit down and create many things. I did create a few examples at the conference, which is so helpful!

I started the tree weaving project this week with my fifth graders! I had previously found the lesson plan, but couldn't find enough branches to use. So this past week I spent 45 mins. in the woods looking for branches we could use. I did find enough!! I am so excited about this project. I can't wait to post my kids examples!













My 1-6th graders are all doing a Picasso unit right now, but later I think I will have my fifth and sixth graders do the Elements of art project as you see pictured here.












Another project that I can't wait to explore with 6th grade. This would be a good transition into color theory after studying the elements of art.

Photography

I had someone ask me to put some of my photos up, which was a good idea since I stated how much I enjoy photography in my profile. So here goes, I have uploaded one photo taken a few different ways with my camera, some with flash, some without, some in automatic setting, and some where I have adjusted myself. Let me know which one you like the best, and later I will comment on my favorite photo!

OWOH 2011 Winner!!!

Ok, so to be fair I had 169 posts, so instead of writing all the numbers down and drawing a name, I had my husband pick a number between 1-169. He hasn't even looked at my blog- so I hope that seems fair to everyone!! The number he chose was 97!! That blog post was written by Nichole of BeadWright!!! Congratulations!!!

I had such a blast working with the event, and adding new blogs to follow!! Thanks everyone for stopping by!!!

-Katarina

Cards and Catch up Time

I have finally taken some pictures of some of the things I have been doing lately. First, I have been taking a card class weekly, and have taken four classes so far. The first class I took was flower themed class.

The lavendar card in the front has a secret message!! If you pull the ribbon at the right, the flowers stack up and it reveals a quote. While creating the card on the back right side I used the cuttlebug machine- for the first time! I am now in love with that machine!! It can do so much!! The embossed pattern was applied to the paper and then a sander was used to remove some of the paper color to reveal the white core of the paper. The woven card in the front left was a new concept to me as well. The weave was very easy. A template was given to use, and we cut on the lines. The card was folded in hald first, and small line cuts were made, a long one and thena shorter one. These cuts went up and down the length of the card. When finished cutting, the card had triangle shaped slits when opened and every one one was folded down. One note would be to make sure your cardstock used for the main part of the card is reversable, or at least colored on both sides!

The following week the class made friendship cards.

My favorite of this set is the one with the chick!! I really like the clean graphic type layout. The salmon and red card used embossing with clear embossing powder and ink to create a written quote that was just a little darker than the paper! I loved this idea. I have embossed many times before, but never with clear ink and powder. I had no idea it would show up as it did! I also learned of a new product by stampin up- a clear embossing liquid. This product is great because it doesn't dry out like stamp pads do.

I can't wait to start giving these away!

One World One Heart 2011

Hi, I am Katarina McCleary. I currently live in Missouri with my husband and two cats. I am an art teacher (though I have taken the current year off), and love anything and everything about art itself. I get bored easily so I dabble in many different areas of creation. I guess you could say I have a very eclectic style. My main focus right now is scrapbooking and card making, but I also love photography, jewelry creation, and journaling.
I also love to travel! The most enjoyable part of traveling is taking photographs of all the new surroundings. I am constantly looking for an artistic way to shoot my photos.
I am fairly new to the blogging and scene, and am trying to find out what works for me as far as keeping up with my blog. My current goal is to blog once a week. I really enjoy reading others blogs and getting inspiration and ideas from them!
I am very excited about the opportunities that One World One Heart has made for all of us bloggers!
My door Prizes for OWOH 2011 project are handmade journals. These journals have lines for writing on the bottom half of the paper and the top half is unlined for drawing! These are great for creating journaling. The journals themselves were store bought, but they have been covered by myself. I will choose one winners each winner will receive one of the following journals. If you will I will contact you and find out which journal you would likee.




The contest is open to all bloggers!!!
Please Leave a comment with an email so I can contact you! If you follow my blog I can find you that way as well.
The Winners will be announced February 17th on my blog!! Happy Blogging!!

Cards/regrets

Ok, so I am going to start this post with the regrets part! It didn't take me long to neglect my blogs already!! My excuse- I just moved an entire house and am still in boxes and just have been so busy working two jobs and such! But I hate excuses, so I am going to try to keep up with this blog much better this year!
I again find myself with time- My husband is in training again, and again I find myself without a job, so I am going to try to be creative, and accomplish some things for myself!

Now, on to the fun stuff!! My first creative endeavor was to create some examples of cards, for a class I am going to teach on base in March! So the example you see here is my first example, and right now the only one I have. I had two other cards that I liked better for the class, but I have taken them to be on display at the Arts Center on Base for my class, so for now it will have to do. The second card for the birthday cupcake stamp in my opinion was better than this one. It was all brown, tan and blue. The icing was a beautiful carmel color and the candle and the cupcake paper was blue. The second card is a safari card using flocking on a zebra, giraffe, or chetah print stamp on the left side. The card also has a monogram paper letter in lower right hand corner. I love the fur texture with the stamp, it goes together really well. The final card (that I have yet to make) uses embossing powder and tombo markers on a stamp.

The green birthday card was created by stamping the cupcake stamp with black ink on white watercolor paper. Next Tombo markers are used with a water brush to create the color on the stamp. The stamp that I used was created by Clear Dollar Stamps, an online company (they may have a store as well) based out of Kansas. I started picking up their stamps at a scrapbooking convention and I can't stop buying them!! I love it!! They also have a blog that shows how to use the stamps and markers. Here is their blog: http://www.clearlyistamp.typepad.com/ check it out!!

Getting Creative Again

Wow, it has been so long since I have created something. Toward the end of school I created some cartoon examples for my elementary students, but I really haven't created anything besides examples for 6 months to a year!! That sounds so long long when I put it down on paper, so I am using this post, blog and a challenge to get back into the swing of creating and being creative! Now is the perfect time!! I have no job, my husband is living in another state in Air Force technical training, so I have found free time and didn't really know what to do with it. I have really wasted it the last couple of weeks, and haven't really accomplished much of anything. So, I have begun following a blog called "Run with Scissors." In June, the author Janel started a 30 day sketchbook/journal challenge and I have decided to start that challenge tomorrow! I will be posting my examples, and hopefully other artworks will be produced by the inspiration I have received from the challenge!

My goals from this blog:
1. Link it to my etsy account
2. Establish followers
3. Find like blogs to inspire
4. Sale some of my items on etsy
5. Establish a creative outlet and journal to document my creative journey
Well thats alot to start out with so I will leave it at five goals for now! I am really excited to begin blogging again!
-Katarina