Paper Pulp Beads

Paper pulp made from newspaper and boiling water in a large kettle

Let the paper pulp sit for about one hour and then drain as much water as possible from the mixture. Next, roll the pulp into desired bead size using the palm of your hand.

WOW,  dinosaur eggs! Let the beads dry for about one week.

Once the beads have completely dried, you can paint them! I used some left over acrylic paint, but any paint will do (be resourceful!)

Again, let the beads dry....

Apply clear coating, such as the amazing modge podge! Lastly, drill holes to string the dino-egg beads. :)

Thank You Martha!

Happy Valentine's Folks! I love to bake delicious and nutritious (occasionally) deserts. This recipe is one I found by Martha Stewart. YUM-O. It's basically two sugar cookies with a dash of jam in between to make a tasty little cookie sandwich. Best flavor in my book was the apricot, but any flavor will suffice.

Buddha Shaped Pears...

Wow! Stumbled upon these today.. here is the article http://cakeheadlovesevil.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/baby-shaped-pears/ check it out, pretty wild art.

valentines

Recycled valentine's from some of my favorite people; made from: Newspaper, paint samples, card stock, watercolor,  and the amazing modgepodge!

New Space!

Over the past 2 years I have moved more than a handful of times. Needless to say my studio or simply space for creation has varied. Here is my newest. WOW check out that tool rack...my mind is spinning with all the  possibilities. I've never had so many tools at my disposal!

cabbage shoes

These little gems I stumbled upon here: http://feltcafe.blogspot.com/2009/07/wearable-art-by-nicole-dextras.html. They are designed by eco artist, Nicole Dextras. Cheers to her, these are quite 'delicious.' check it out : http://www.nicoledextras.com/

window farms

Today's inspiration: window farms. Stumbled upon this yesterday, very interesting. Check out the website: http://www.windowfarms.org/ I have done some hydroponics in the past, but only in a tank with fish. Has anyone else tried something like this, any advise?

Threadless T-Shirt Design Contest

This project I did with during my student teaching experience with the Graphic Design one class. I am not a fluent Adobe user, and I was honestly not very excited about teaching it, if that is you, this is the lesson for you! Check out http://www.threadless.com/ under participate--> submit designs. The students enjoyed the project and the opportunity to win a prize, money! A few things to keep in mind that I learned while teaching this for the first time: 1. make sure you school allows access to private emails because you have to activate you Threadless account to submit designs via email. 2. Make sure students read through "decline reasons" that comes in the kit you download to submit design ideas, very important! There are some design elements to watch closely as they are easy ways to get declined. I had to class create a list of t shirt idea themes to chose from. This was a good way to see what they are interested in. Lastly, I had the student their designs (2) and bring them to a large workspace where we did an informal critique to see what is working.. and what is not. (Basic critique topics focused on avoiding the "decline reasons": font size, t shirt color, concept, graphic size, number of colors, etc.) This was the most I ever heard the student talk, it was great, they basically led the discussion and fed off of one another, and we did catch "decline reasons" in some of the designs... can't enforce checking the "decline reasons" enough! If you do this lesson, post some pic's on your blog I'd love to see the designs!

SNOW. lots of it.

Winter storm warning in effect for the next two days here in Milwaukee... In between trips outside to shovel, some time to watercolor and brighten the day. No intentions, but to watch colors interact.