Printmaking Color Wheels

Sixth grade art just finished a really cool printmaking project.  They made their own stamps by carving out printmaking material into a letter shape of their choosing.  The stamps were then arranged in color wheel order.  The secondary and tertiary colors were made by layering stamped color together to see how they mix!  We used ordinary Crayola markers as our ink.  I think they turned out pretty awesome.  See our whole gallery of color wheels on our Artsonia art gallery for this project.

Finding inspiration.

If you're in art class right now, you know that Miss Bruzzini is student teaching right now, so I end up having some extra time on my hands.  Most of that time gets filled with boring stuff that I need to catch up on, but occasionally I have some time to make some art!

I've been teaching myself to make little fun crafts and accessories.  The latest are fabric flowers - made from all kinds of fabric scraps.  The above flower I made out of crushed velvet, but I found that t-shirt material works best!

Today, I sat in the library for about 30 minutes and just cut t-shirt material.  I ended up with a ton of flower petals, so I have a lot of flowers to make! 

When I work, I prefer to listen to music.  I zone out with my headphones on, or when I'm at home, I have the radio or my iPod on in the background.  Do you like to listen to music when you work?  What kind of music do you like to listen to while working?

This is not my artwork...

 

...I didn't make this, but Mr. Leban did.  He has a project where students take logos and change them into their own names.  He showed me some of the really cool examples, but I hadn't seen the one he made until now.  Don't you think it came out cool?  Did you figure out that it's a spoof of the LEGO logo?  I think that's perfect for him, since we both love legos, both the toys and the video games!  Have you played Lego Batman, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, or Rockband?  I love them all!

I hope he won't mind sharing so I can use this image here at Sandburg too...!

QR Codes

Mr. Leban has been doing a lot of stuff with QR codes lately, so I feel like I'm not doing my part if I don't try it out myself.  If you have a smart phone (such as an iPhone) you can download an app that allows you to scan and read these little square jumbly pictures - otherwise known as QR codes.  I read that QR codes are Japanese-created bar codes, and that the QR stands for "quick response"

I made one for the art blog here that takes you to the Sandburg Art home page:

They're surprisingly easy to use.  Just hold up your camera on your phone to the code (yep you can do it right here on the computer screen) and the app "reads" the information contained within the code.  Sometimes it's just text, other times it's a link to a website or video or something else! (FYI - I use a free app on my iPhone called "i-nigma" if you're looking for which to use)

Mr. Leban and I are always on the lookout for QR codes.  We even found one on the back of a tag from a packaged tiny eraser - it took us to the website of the manufacturer!  Even though the website was in another language, it was neat to see how a company might use QR codes to get people to interact with their products more.

This year, Sephora used QR codes in their holiday catalogs!  Next to photos of products to buy, there were QR codes that (when scanned on your phone) take you to how-to videos or short commercials for the products.  I had a ton of fun interacting with the catalog when it arrived in the mail.

Have you spotted QR codes anywhere?

Personalize your holiday gifts & cards!

Just a friendly reminder that Artsonia is a great place to buy holiday gifts for family and friends while supporting your school!  15% of all sales at Artsonia go back to your school for purchasing art supplies to keep the program running.

(I am currently saving up to buy an iPEVO camera for the classroom!)

Consider sending personalized student art holiday cards, t-shirts, mugs, keychains, or even ornaments with your child's artwork on it!