ALTERED PLAYING CARD CHALLENGE

An art friend of mine is hosting a challenge on her blog beginning September 1.  See the button on the right-hand side of my blog for linking to her challenge.  Check out Claudine's blog for all the details on an easy way to end up with a deck of beautifully altered playing cards (52 in all) during a 26-month time period.  Check out her blog for all the info and giveaways.  Use an old deck of playing cards if you're into recycling - the wear and tear will only add to their charm!

 WEEK #1 - SAND AND GESSO YOUR ENTIRE DECK.  ADD TEXTURE BY DRAWING LINES, SHAPES, ETC. INTO THE GESSO BEFORE IT DRIES.  I ALSO ADDED COLOR WITH PASTELS AND ADDED ANOTHER GESSO LAYER - SOME WITH CLEAR GESSO TO ALLOW MORE COLOR TO COME THROUGH AND SOME WITH WHITE GESSO.  HERE'S A SAMPLING:

WEEK #2 and AFTER FOR 26 WEEKS - 2 CARDS PER WEEK FOR A DECK OF 52 CARDS:

HOUSE COLLAGE ARI AND JONAH STYLE

My grandsons were over last week for an art project - Ari is seven and Jonah is nine.  Ari loved cutting squares, triangles, and rectangles from various sheets of scrapbook paper which they each carefully chose to fit their color palette.  Yes - they each chose a color palette before choosing the papers.  Here's what they designed - we used 8 x 10 canvas covered book board along with glue sticks, colored pencils and markers:

Jonah's Colors

Jonah's (a.k.a. Donut) House Collage

Ari's Color Scheme

Ari's (a.k.a. Toast) House Collage

My Color Scheme

My (a.k.a French Toast)'s House Collage

We had a great time - I enhanced my the next day with rub-ons from Tim Holtz.  We used Pan Pastels on the skies which worked quite well.  I scanned the boys' artwork into my computer, reduced the size to approximately 4 x 6 using Photoshop and am going to print note cards for family members as gifts from the boys.  (The Color Scheme template was provided by Christy Tomlinson from whom I recently took an online course in color - I love her suggestions.)

FRIDA KAHLO POSTCARD SWAP

Here's my digitally "painted" Frida postcard for my swap partner.  After "painting" my Frida image and printing it on glossy photo paper, I enhanced it by adding some stamping using Stayz-on Jet Black ink - the stamps are from Michelle Ward - I love all her stamps and stencils!

Frida in Basic Black and Hot Pink