Before

I thought I should show before photos of all my girls. I stopped by Kinko's and made a few color copies of two of the girls. I thought I would try out different techniques on the same girl and see what happens. I have also started working on my house chunky book project and am happy with the way it is going so far. I will be excited to share them when I have made a little more progress.

Finally, after 3 days of sorting, I got to the bottom of the collage bag that Kelly donated to the studio at school. I was sorting all the goodies into focal points, background paper, and other embelishments. This sorting makes it much easier for little hand to find what they are looking for. As I was sorting I kept thinking I'd have to start journaling at school with so many iresistable paper choices! I'll keep you posted on what the kids make with them. Also, I can't even tell you how many of my 4th and 5th grades who have seen these portraits have said, "Can you do them with us too?" That's the part of my job that I love.

P.S.

See my blue haired painted girl journal page on Frenzy Stamper's blog! You can also see me if you scroll down to the post about the Friday Classes!

Grunge Round Robin

Even with Kelly in town I was able to work on the cover of my grunge round robin book as well as my two page spread. I finished them up just before bed last night and am ready to share them today. I added a clear acetate page to my spread with a three dimensional clear circular shape. When the glue dries I am hoping the circle helps make the face underneath pop. The glue has been drying since Friday night but the weather has been a little weird so it is taking forever! I am confident it will dry clear in time as it is getting a little better each day.

Tonight on our Tuesday night adventure Amber, Ayesha, Deb, and I went to Pedro's in downtown Glendale. We had to take Deb to the only Mexican food restaurant that we know of the Rod Stewart ate at in Glendale. She was thrilled! Afterwards we stopped for a scop of ice cream at Baskin Robins. What a treat!

Classes With Kelly Part Two

Day two and three of classes with Kelly Kilmer were great! Yesterday I learned tons of new journaling techniques and got lots of inspiration to get going on my new journal in the morning and in the afternoon learned how to use Caran d'ache Neo Art Aquarelle water soluble wax pastels for backgrounds and accents. (Sound fancy doesn't it!)
For dinner Kelly, Tristan, her mom, Jane, my mom Jane, and I all got to go to dinner together at Bucca Di Beppo in Scottsdale. While the side show (a.k.a. the huge party next to us) was very Scottsdale (a.k.a. very young, drunk, and hardly dressed) the conversation, when we could hear each other, and the company was a lot of fun!
Today I took About Face. A fun portrait class. I learned to mix flesh tones and to be brave with color. It was a fun and laid back class perfect for the rainy day it turned out to be. We had fun ordering in Baja Fresh (Debbie, I owe you $) and day dreaming about the classes we wanted to sign up for at Art Unraveled.
Taking classes with Kelly is always a treat! Her classes are fun and fast paced. I always wonder where the time went. She is generous with supplies. She even donated collage materials to my kids at school! And, if that weren't enough, the classes are so inspiring they keep me going for weeks. I am excited to read all of my handouts, which are more like giant idea books, and play in my new journal. (And, this is why you should vote Kelly Kilmer for president! HA! It just sounded like that kind of speech. I couldn't resist.) Lucky for me she'll be at Art Unraveled in August and back to Frenzy Stamper in October.

Classes With Kelly

Just an update on how things are going. I know some of you are reading this and thinking really? while others of you came to my blog in hopes of an update. I am having tons of fun! Yesterday I made a journal from and old book, learned tons of new techniques while painting half of the pages, and even started journaling. It just happened that the new issue of Artful Blogging arrived yesterday while I was at Frenzy Stamper. I have been dying to see it! Yesterday I also needed a few skeleton stamps that Kelly had out for us to use in class, a tiny clover stamp, some skull epoxy stickers, Heidi Swapps new mask letter alphabet, a new permanent ink pad (I fell in love with the Versafine pads in class. I had never tried them.) a pack of black Jelly Roll Glaze Pens (I had also never tried these they are yummy!) and a new type of glue stick that Kelly recommended.

Journal Pages

I have a few more journal pages ready to share before going off to play with Kelly at Frenzy Stamper. My round robin board book arrived a few days ago and I have started working on the cover. I am not sure if I will make any more progress on it this weekend because, did I mention, I will be off playing with Kelly? Anyway, I have so many projects going on now and I am excited about them all! Keep an eye out. I'm sure I will be posting pictures of what I get done in class this weekend.

P.S.

Did I mention Kelly is coming?