Issue #2 of Featuring Magazine is ready for pre-order

The 2nd issue of Featuring Magazine is going to the printers.  It is ready for pre-order!

I am part of the editorial team at Featuring magazine and I'm so excited for the release of this issue.  In this issue, I wrote the article titled Mapping It Out, which features the art of Mary C. Nasser, Tofu and Karey Kessler. Each of these artists explores using maps in their own way to tell a story or to make a statement.  I also wrote the Featured Blogger column:  Tammy Garcy from Daisy Yellow guides her blog readers with tutorials, art journaling prompts, challenges, inspirational photographs and interesting quotes.

I love this gorgeous cover!

You can see several pages of preview at the website.  Visit this page to learn more about the 2nd issue.

Pre-order issue #2 in the store for a chance to win an inchie on the back of our next issue!

We will give away 30 inchies to readers who pre-order issue #2 before September 21.
These will appear on the back of our third issue.  On the 21st, we will draw 30 winners. Issue #2 of FEATURING will be released soon after.

Issue #1 is still available too... and remember:
Save money by buying multiple magazines at once.

Within Europe:
if you order two magazines at once, you save 11.2% on shipping costs.
if you order three magazines at once, you save 40.8% on shipping costs.

People living outside Europe:
if you order two magazine at once, you save 15.8% on shipping costs.
if you order three magazines at once, you even save 43.8% on shipping costs!

Do take advantage!
Combine your order with those of your friends or order different issues at once – and save on shipping costs.

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Submitting to Featuring magazine is a great way to share your art with the world. 

In the third issue

Inspiration for the THEME GALLERY:
SOUNDTRACK OF MY LIFE
take it literally or metaphorically
it's up to you, just be inspired

There are other categories (joint projects, creative spaces, feature articles) to submit to as well.

I have written the past two columns about a FEATURED BLOGGER.  I am open to suggestions for blogs you love, or if YOU have an artistic blog and would like to be considered for this column, let me know.   I am especially looking for unpublished talented bloggers.

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Take a look and see what some of the readers have said about Featuring magazine.

Quinn McDonald, author of Raw Art Journaling

Seth Apter, author of The Pulse of Mixed Media

Jill Zaheer, mixed media artist

iHanna, mixed media artist

Daisy Yellow's Interview with Featuring founder, Marit Barentsen

Grid Design for Sketchbook Cover

The 3rd/4th grade class used a grid format to design their sketchbook cover.  I am loving using grids in my personal artwork.  I am doing a series of grid mixed media paintings which you can see here, here and here, and oh yeah here too.  

To prepare for this lesson, I drew a 1 inch square grid on a piece of 8.5" x 11" piece of paper.  Then, I photocopied it for the class.  Here's a trick.. if you cut down construction paper to an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper, it can go in the bypass tray of a copy machine.  It took me several years of teaching to figure that out!  

Then, the students found the letters of their name in magazines and put them on the grid.  Then, they added designs and other magazine clippings to the rest of the grid.  There were a few kids who were resistant to the magazine letter thing, so I let them draw their name with markers.  I think it's important to let the kids branch off if they have a strong desire and vision to do something else. 

I find it easier to be creative when there is a set structure already in place.  That's probably why I'm drawn to the grid format.

Isn't this the cutest koala EVER!?

Featuring Magazine

Have you heard about Featuring Magazine?
In the Spring of 2012, an inspiring magazine will see the light: FEATURING.
FEATURING is a printed magazine that can be ordered online only.
FEATURING will appear as a quarterly publication.

I am pleased to tell you that I have been working on writing some articles for the magazine, and I have been accepted as a contributing editor for the magazine.  Writing for magazines has always been a dream of mine.  In fact, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a magazine writer for celebrity magazines.. lol. 

The focus will be mainly on art journaling and mixed media, but other types of art will be highlighted as well. FEATURING wants to bring a spectrum of art-related articles and stories. You will also enjoy seeing pages jammed with collaborative projects, glimpses of studios, interviews, background stories, layouts, paintings, photos, poetry and much, much more!

There are many people whose work stays out of the spotlight. These people remain a bit in the background, but in silence, they create amazing art pieces. FEATURING is especially interested in these artists – their work, their stories and their sources of inspiration. So ‘silent ones’…come forward. Let us know you are there and submit your work! It might end up in the magazine! Oh, and all you not so silent friends, we would love to hear from you, too. The more the merrier, we like to say.
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Right now, here is a way you can participate immediately and quickly!
We have a new, quick survey for you to fill out for the upcoming magazine Featuring, which I am a part of.  It only took me a minute or two to fill out.  It's about Etsy.com shops. Have you ever shopped there?  Do you have an Etsy shop?  We are going to write an article in Featuring magazine about Etsy shopping.  So, would you pretty please fill out this survey for us?

Stencil Tutorial

I love the look of stencils, but since I have a toddler I like the process to be easy and quick to clean up.  I need to be ready to switch gears at a moments notice :)  I've tried using spray inks for the stencils and paints, but this way I just tried seems to be an easy and neat way to make stencil prints.

Use rubber stamp ink pads.  I love this Color Box set with a rainbow of colors.

Each section can be removed.

Place your stencil on your paper.  Hold with one hand tightly, or tape in place.  Then dab the rubber stamp ink pad up and down on the stencil.  You can twist and turn the ink pad gently as well.

Finished stencil print.  The colors are vibrant and the image has good coverage. 

Art Camp Sketchbook

How many blogs do you follow?

Did you know google reader has a maximum number of blogs you can follow? Did you know the maximum is 300 blogs?  I reached 300 blogs that I'm following and had to cut some out.  So, anyone who doesn't post frequently unfortunately I had to stop following.  Google reader makes it so easy to follow blogs and get them in a nice straightforward feed.  How many blogs do you follow?

It is Spring Break now!  My baby Daria is sitting here coloring with crayons and eating pretzels.  She's trying to color with the pretzels too. 

And because an art teacher can't post a blogpost without a picture, here is a picture of one of my art journal pages.

What I did for this page, was take a colored photocopy of one of my previous watercolor paintings, then sketch a giraffe on the page.  Next, I took black acrylic paint and painted around the giraffe.  Then, using paint pens and oil pastels crayons, I doodled on top.  The white splotches are gesso painted areas.  Before it dried, I took a pencil and drew into the wet gesso to make patterns.

And here is a book that I recently purchased.
 
I really dig Sarah's artwork.

Fun Activity for Toddlers, Special Needs or just any child!

As art teachers, we often talk about how the process and the manipulation of materials is the main goal.  The product is nice too, but it's the process that matters.  That is where the learning occurs. 

I'm really excited to have my own personal little art student in my house.  I just can't wait until she is old enough to do even more art making.  Here is a really fun activity that my 18 month old loves to do:  making sticker and tape pictures!   I peel off the stickers and she arranges them on the paper.  It is really great for her fine motor skills to try to manipulate the pieces to stick down.  It is fun to watch her attempting to get the stickers off her fingers.  I bought some colored tape to use as well, which makes interesting designs.  Older kids would love to play around with this as well and special needs children could enjoy manipulating the tape to create pictures also.  I have a friend who used to teach students with low cognitive/fine motor skills and she would tell me about how the aides would work hand-over-hand to do projects with them.  This might be an activity that could be done in a classroom with students of varying abilities.  I'm thinking with children older than 2-3 years, they could arrange the tape to make designs, add paint and other collage images and doodle around and on top of the tape.  I will try it out as an extended "free choice" activity for early finishers and show you later what they come up with.

One of my favorite art journalers, Kelly Kilmer, uses decorative tape frequently in her artwork.