What to do With A Child’s Artwork: Tips and Tricks for Parents and Grandparents

If you are a parent or a grandparent you may be familiar with the joy of receiving a child’s drawing as a gift. In this case, you also know it can be a challenge to store the many scraps of paper covered with imaginative drawings and colorful doodles.

Here are some tips and tricks for preserving your child or grandchild’s art:

1. Create and Organized File System– Purchase a large binder and folders. Organize the folders by age and start filling them with your child’s artwork. Too many drawings to choose from? Consider purchasing a binder for grandma and grandpa as well. This way, you can divide the child’s drawings so everyone can enjoy them. A system like this will also serve as an organized record of your child’s achievements.
2. Turn and Entire Wall into a Refrigerator Door– Is your refrigerator door filled to capacity with your child’s artwork? Now you can purchase magnetic primer paint and convert an entire wall into a refrigerator door. This means your child can have an ongoing art exhibit in his or her bedroom.
3. Turn the Drawings into Placemats– Pick some of your favorite drawings and have them laminated. Make sure to have your child sign his or her name and include an age. The drawings become usable objects in your house and will make great gifts for family and friends. This is also a great way to help your children enjoy being creative.
4. Make a Photo Album– Photograph your child’s artwork and put it in an album or scrapbook to create a book full of childhood memories. Or, scan your child’s drawings and save them digitally. Then, send them off to a company that can turn the drawings into a one of a kind coffee table book.

Looking for a way to make your children’s art come alive?

1. Animate their Drawings– Gamefighters.com can animate your child’s drawings. Can you imagine your child’s creation coming to life in this way? This will get your kids excited about their art work because they get to interact with their creations in a virtual setting.
2. Turn their Drawings into Stuffed Animals– Child’s own Studio can take your children’s drawings and transform them into stuffed animals, which means your kids can create the designs for their own toys! These also make wonderful gifts for grandparents.
3. Show off your Child’s Art by Wearing it– Formia Design turns your child’s drawings into pendants and charms that you wear as necklaces or bracelets. You can showcase your child’s creativity proudly by wearing one of these pendants.
4. Hide their Artwork Around the House– Stick some of their drawings in books, magazines or even cookbooks. Someday, you may just find yourself pleasantly surprised by the memory you uncover. Your children will also be delighted to find their old drawings in one of their favorite childhood books.

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Baby Art Creates Dreamy Photographs

A familiar adage says, “A baby changes everything.” For one young mother, the birth of her baby also birthed a career in photography.

Finland native Adele Enersen was just another excited new mom taking photographs of her sleeping baby girl and posting them on her blog for family members to enjoy. Who would have thought this hobby could turn into so much more? Before long, her creative style of photography was drawing millions of fans. Her pictures were being compared to the work of baby photographer Anne Geddes. With such success, Enersen began looking for a book deal.

It all began when Enersen discovered her baby girl was a heavy sleeper — even at nap time. She slept heavy enough for Enersen to create dream-like environments around her and snap photographs.

This excited mother to baby Mila, who couldn’t tear her eyes off her sleeping child. She started to imagine what her baby girl might be dreaming about during the hours she slept so sound. Enersen’s imagination prompted her to start constructing the dream scenes around her daughter.

All credit goes to Adele Enersen whose creativity and imagination makes the dreams of children come alive. All of the dream scenes are created from items around her home. Enersen has a knack for manipulating fabric and for turning everyday items into elaborate sets. She has used stuffed animals to create forest scenes and found inspiration in clothing and pillows.

Enersen’s photographs of Mila have been collected in a book titled “When My Baby Sleeps” that recently became available for purchase. She never considered herself a serious photographer, just a mother enjoying her baby and trying to share her joy with friends and family. When at first she was overwhelmed with the popularity of her photographs she relied on that simple joy to be her foundation. She desires for her photographs of Mila to combat many of the negative things people are surrounded by every day. 

To read more about Enersen’s story, view some of her photographs of baby Mila, now a toddler, and to hear her thoughts about future projects visit:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45816601/ns/today-books/#.TzqG47EgcsI

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Candy Art: We Don’t all Have to be Artists to Create Art!

Being creative is part of being human. We naturally involve ourselves on a daily basis with the work of creating. From building a snowman in the back yard, to choosing the throw pillows to accessorize a room, humans are in the habit of being artistic.

Artwork comes in all forms. It is easy to believe that art revolves around those who have mastered technical painting techniques or individuals who can create realistic figures out of stone. However, art is far more present in our everyday lives. One never knows when they will be struck with an urge to be artistic or be driven by a desire to create.

Hannah Mendelsohn from Juneau, Alaska doesn’t necessarily consider herself an artist. However, her creations are receiving widespread attention from many fans. She doesn’t paint nor does she sculpt. Instead, Hannah Mendelsohn uses something you might have in your kitchen cabinet right this moment: M&Ms!

 Image courtesy of http://candyaddict.com/blog/2007/12/06/alaska-coffee-table-serves-as-canvas-for-mm-art/

Mendelsohn, 21, is a medical assistant by day and a candy artist by night. M&M’s are her medium for artistic expression and the patterns she creates are mind-boggling and stunning. She begins by separating the M&Ms by color into gallon size freezer bags and then she sits down to create a pattern.

Interestingly, Mendelsohn says that she doesn’t ever have an exact pattern or plan in mind when she sits down to create. Yet, as indicated by the image above, her patterns are reminiscent of beadwork and display the attention to detail found in needle work. Mendelsohn invests several evening hours a week to her M&M creations, which is to say that her designs are no small feat.

Hannah Mendelsohn has no desire to become a full time candy artist. She is sticking to her dream of becoming a nurse. However, there is a lesson to be learned from this woman’s desire to create. No matter whom you are or what you do for a living, you can still be artistic. You can still create.

For Hannah Mendelsohn the therapeutic practice of arranging M&Ms into patters has generated some stunning creations. This idle pastime, plus a little hard work and determination, has placed her in the exciting world of candy art.

Ideas to Turn Your Candy into Art

1). If you have children, using candy can be a great introduction to the world of art and creativity. While learning their colors and understanding patterns your children are learning how to express themselves creatively and artistically.

2). Use the sweets in your kitchen cabinet to spruce up your home! No matter what season it is or which holiday is coming up, a homemade candy center piece can be a festive and fun addition to a room.

3). Photographing your candy art is also a creative and often eye pleasing endeavor. Candy offers a variety of color options and how you choose to arrange these colors can produce interesting photography projects.

4). Don’t be afraid to let yourself be creative

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Do you love Cats?

Cats are great to use in Art! Aren’t cats cuddly, cute, calm, curious, playful, as well as finicky. Cats are among our most popular pets. They come in numerous breeds and coat patterns including Tuxedo (bicolor), Tabby (marbled), Calico (Tortoiseshell), Colorpoint (Siamese), and white. Photorealistic patterns of colorful felines in an assortment of poses and expressions are fun to enjoy painting and so relaxing! Some find cats even cutie! Cats can be found in different kinds of art where there are many great shots of them playing, staring, yawning, and just being curious.

I wonder if our cats know we love them? I know that my cat does. One thing that is for sure they make good companions and they are so sweet! My cat is very affectionate. I think that cats aren’t too much of a hassle to take care of. I don’t see people walking my neighborhood with their cat besides them.

Cats make it fun to paint! I love relaxing and painting cats on my Windows computer! I hope you do as well.

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The Healing Power of Color (www.segmation.com)

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As an artist, you are probably aware of the effects that different colors can have on your state of mind and emotional well-being. In fact, in a past article we discussed the psychology of color and provided an overview of how each color can impact your mood.

In this article, we’ll take a look at color therapy, also known as chromotherapy, and how you can apply the basic principles of chromotherapy in your art.

Color therapy involves using, or meditating upon, specific colors to help you find balance and harmony, both inner and outer. There are many forms of color therapy, such as:

• surrounding yourself with a color that represents characteristics that you feel are lacking in your life, to achieve balance

• immersing yourself in a color that represents characteristics, or states of being, that you aspire to

• using colors to “cleanse” your physical body and achieve physiological harmony (such as practiced in Chinese therapy)

While color therapy was once regarded as a New Age fad, today the effects of colors on a person’s mind, body and spirit are well-documented. Even commercial paint manufacturers recognize the connection; some offer a specific range of paint colors that are designed to promote healing and wellness.

To utilize the healing power of color in your art, you can create paintings or drawings based on specific colors to bring about a certain adjustment in your (or someone else’s) mental, emotional, or physical state of being. You can use a combination of colors to evoke a certain state of mind. Experiment with different patterns and compositions and take note of how the paintings affect you.

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Giotto di Bondone – Father of European Painting (www.segmation.com)

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Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267 – 1337), known simply as Giotto, was a Florentine painter and architect. He is now considered the first great master of the Italian Renaissance and the founder of modern European painting. Giotto’s natural and realistic style broke away from the symbolism of Byzantine art and was the catalyst that marked the start of the Renaissance.

Giotto was born in a small hamlet north of Florence. His father was a farmer and Giotto probably spent much of his youth as a shepherd. According to art historian Giorgio Vasari, the renowned Florentine artist, Cimabue, who was the last great painter in the Byzantine style, discovered the young Giotto drawing pictures of sheep on a rock. Cimabue was so impressed by the young boy’s talent that he immediately took him on as an apprentice. That story may be apocryphal but by around 1280 Giotto was working in Florence and by 1312 he was a member of the Florentine Guild of doctors and apothecaries, a guild that also included painters. He traveled to Rome with Cimabue and may well have worked on some of the master’s commissions.

Giotto signed his name to just three paintings. All other attributions to him are speculative and the unresolved controversy has raged through the art world for over a hundred years. Nevertheless, his work stands at the brink of a new age in art. He concentrated on representing human emotions, people in everyday situations, and capturing the human experience through his art.

Although he lacked the technical knowledge of perspective, he created a convincing three-dimensional pictorial space. His genius was immediately recognized by his contemporaries; he was lauded by great philosophers, writers and thinkers of his day, among them Dante and Boccaccio. Under Giotto’s leadership the old, stylized Byzantine art forms slowly disappeared from Florence, and later from other Italian cities. His freedom of expression influenced artists of the early and high Renaissance, and changed the course of European painting.

One of Giotto’s finest works is the series of frescoes painted 1304-1305 for the Scrovegni chapel in Padua, usually known as the Arena Chapel. The 37 scenes depict the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary and are considered to be one of the masterpieces of the Early Renaissance. The figures in his paintings interact, gossip, and look at each other.

From 1306 to 1311 Giotto was in Assisi where some art historians believe he painted the fresco cycle of the Life of St. Francis. Although the style of the frescoes is realistic and breaks away from the Byzantine stylization, the controversy is caused by the stylistic differences between the St. Francis and Arena Chapel frescoes. Documents that could have proved the origin of the commissions were destroyed by Napoleon’s troops when they occupied the town in the early 19th century.

Giotto received commissions from princes and high officials of the church in Florence, Naples and Rome. Most scholars agree that he painted the frescoes in the Church of the Santa Croce in Florence and although he never signed the Ognissanti Madonna altarpiece, the Florentine work is universally recognized as being by him. It is known that Giotto was in Florence from 1314-1327 and the large panel painting depicting the Virgin was painted around 1310. The face of the Virgin is so expressive that it may well have been painted using a live model.

Towards the end of his life, Giotto was assigned to build the Campanile of the Florence Cathedral. In 1334 he was named chief architect and, although the Campanile is known as “Giotto’s Tower,” it was probably not built to his design specifications.

Giotto died in January, 1337. Even his burial place is surrounded by mystery. Vasari believed he was buried in the Cathedral of Florence, while other scholars claimed he was buried in the Church of Santa Reparata. But Giotto left an artistic legacy that could not be ignored. His disciples, Bernardo Daddi and Taddeo Gaddi continued in the master’s tradition and, a century later, the artistic torch lit by Giotto was passed on to Michelangelo and Raphael, the great masters of the High Renaissance.

Giotto made a radical break from the Byzantine (abstract – anti-naturalistic) style and brought more life to art. Giotto primarily painted Christian themes depicted in cycles and is best known for his frescos in various Chapels (Arene Chapel, Florence Cathedral, Assisi, Scrovegni).

Our pattern set collection features many of his more familiar works including the Ognissanti Madonna, The Mourning of Christ, The Marriage at Cana, The Mourning of St. Francis, Crucifixion and Madonna and Child.

Giotto di Bondone

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The Many Different Hues of Blue

The Many Different Hues of Blue.

The Many Different Hues of Blue

The Many Different Hues of Blue.

The Many Different Hues of Blue

The Many Different Hues of Blue.

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Clouds are visible masses of water droplets which are suspended over in the Earth’s atmosphere. Clouds are classified in various groups depending on their altitude, structural appearance, and coloration. Cirrocumulus, Cirrostratus, Altocumulus, Altostratus, Stratocumulus, Stratus, Cumulus, Nimbostratus, Cumulonimbus, and Cumulus are the most common names given. Their coloration gives clues onto what they contain due to light scattering effects of water drops and ice crystals and the direction of the light hitting the clouds. Our set of cloud patterns will put you on Cloud Nine. We have many representations of clouds of various types photographed against cactuses, birds, bridges, shades, water, and grass fields. Several of the patterns are based on clouds images which have been artistically enhanced to give them a different yet, fun, and colorful appearance.

This set contains 23 paintable patterns.

On Cloud Nine

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