Christmas Collages



These are some collages, stamples, cards, and ATC's that I have created over the past few years for myself, Mrs.O'Leary's and for trade.  It is always fun to come up with new ways to use this time of year as a theme in my art...enjoy!

This series of collages was created using images from Artful Illusion's Artasia Print Sheets and Transparencies from Mrs. O'Leary's.  I love the layering of the tags, paper, corrugated cardboard and embellishments.  This was also one of my first attempts at stitching on cards.

(Artful Illusions Santa stamp)

Fun with tags and stamps and stuff! 

Santa stamp by Paula Best. Felt tree from Hobby Lobby.

Christmas card tags with the pup. 
She loves having her picture on the yearly card!

ATC's with felt angels from Hobby Lobby over core'dinatins paper.

Lately, I am having a slight addiction to the making of ATC's...
I love the collagee look of these!

These are collages on 5 by 7 canvas boards using image collage sheets from The Queen's Dresser Drawers.  I love the sweet expressions of the little girls, the house shapes, and of course, I had to use corrugated cardboard and RICKRACK!  I also used Martha Stewart's snowflake punch and the photo corner punch from Stampin'Up.

Hope you have enjoyed my Christmasness and found a little inspiration for your own!  You can also see more Christmas idea posts here and here.

Happy Holidays!

animal snowflakes

Here is my latest attempt at bulletin board art.  These animal snowflakes are created by 7th graders.  After practicing using patterns I have created, of a turtle, dragonfly, butterfly, and a bug, (the snowflakes not matted on black) they are challenged to create their own design.  The only rules are that their snowflake has to stay together as one piece, be radial symmetrically balanced, and be an interesting animal, creature, or insect.  For some it takes a lot of trying until they come up with an awesome idea, but working through the process is part of the challenge!  Once they create a successful idea cut from white paper, they cut it out of color text weight paper and glue them to black construction paper.

some sort of bug creature?

a profile of a dinosaur (there are 8 of them)

 I just love the "quiltie" look of it! 

a platypus



a penguin



Fun colors, fun shapes, fun art makes this time of year more...FUN!

Handmade Christmas Ornaments



fun double sided birds embellished with rickrack, felt and crystally flowers

Every year for the past 5 years, my Altered Artists group have exchanged handmade Christmas ornaments.  It is always a fun challenge to come up with a new artful idea each yearl  These are my contributions.



winged mannequin tags with house, sunflower, and heart button embellishment

pink and copper winged art doll

fiber nest with Tim Holtz metal word tag

paint strip and corrugated cardboard trees with rickrack and buttons (front and back)



OP ART

In order to keep students interested this time of year, I like to incorporate several Op Art ideas for them to choose from.  Here are just a few.  Some of them are my own ideas, others I have borrowed from other art teachers here and there. 
 I have also found many on Pinterest.  (Which I am slightly addicted to!)

Check out my Pinterest account to see more art ideas I have been collecting

(ok, hoarding!).

Wonderfulness in White...more puzzle art

This is the my puzzle that was altered by me and the members of my Altered Artists group.  My theme was "Whites" or "White on White."  It is awesome to see the variety in the results from each person and how neat they look altogether! 
 Below are a few closeups...

...white buttons by me...

...rickrack...by guess who...(you know I like me some rickrack!)...

...how lovely by Linda...

...bird house by Yolanda...

...collagee...by me...

...beady sprinkles by Andi...

...layers by Elaine...


Thanks to all who played...I had fun and love the results!

puzzle art

This fall, for my Altered Artist group, we have been busy altering puzzle pieces.  Each participant came up with a theme for their puzzle and traded pieces with everyone.  As they were finished, members revealed their creations, returning the pieces to the original owner.  Here are a few of the pieces I finished for the group.  Above is for Bonnie's theme "Black and White and Red Allover."  It was definitely a challenging theme, but it turned out to be one of my favorites!  Left is a piece for Andi.  She found people shaped pieces that link together in many ways.  I chose an art theme for hers.  This would be fun for the art room too!

Above and left are the pieces I created for Yolanda.  She chose Halloween as her theme.   I had fun filling the space with lots of spooktacularness by layering stamps, papers, and ephemera.      I love how her puzzle is coming together, I may have to steal this theme next time! 

Below is Nancy's piece.  She chose Golden Age of Movies as her theme.  I found this advertisement for one of Charlie Chaplin's movies titled  "Modern Times" and was inspired to steampunk it up!

I had a blast working with everyone's themes and it was a great challenge to fit

an artwork on an interesting shape!  I hope we get to do this again sometime!

a merry little steampunk Christmas

After having a blast mixing Halloween and Steampunk together, I thought I would challenge myself by doing the same with Steampunk and Christmas. 
Here are a few of my "stamples" created using Artful Illusion stamps. 
Above, Santa with a full load of gears (Tim Holtz Die Cuts) and snowflakes...

...a Steampunk Christmas tree made of gears and clocks and swirls and rickrack, oh my...

...a steamy angel in vintage browns and glittery reds...

...a snowman made of clocks, gears, and snowflakes...
...embossed in sparkly whites...



...a golden and copper hued steampunk girl with grungeboard swirl accents...



...and an old fashioned Santa all steampunked up...love his new hat!