Happy New Year! More workshops added and a tutorial!

Hello creative peeps! 
I've added a few more workshops for you to ponder. for this new year..and...

I've been obsessed with printing...simple printing.....easy cleanup.... I now have an arsenal of stamps that I can share at my workshops for mixed media. I also use them for my clay sculptures. The ideas just keep coming in! 

For those of you who live in the southwest or who want to fly to the Phoenix area to get out of the snow I still have openings in my Prayer Flag workshop and my Handcrafted Vellum  Book workshop at Southwest Gardener. This shop is located downtown in a mid century cool building with a coffee shop/bookstore right in the same building....and you get a catered lunch included......what more do you need in life? 

So here's a little tutorial to get you rolling.....

I drew out my design on tracing paper and rubbed pencil on the back for a transfer. This print was designed for the San Diego Book Arts Society Collaborative series of projects. The link shows the last project called "Over the Moon" My painting is shown...the one with the cat...no brainer......This new project is a Postcard collabrative. Each artist designed images for a location in and around San Diego. I chose  San Diego Botanic Garden....no brainer.......

Each artist sent out the postcards to all of the artists on the list. I now have a group of postcards and will make a book structure to house them. I haven't come up with the concept yet......wait and see.......

I transferred  the image onto the  printing plate. Notice that the word is backwards on the printing plate......

Carving the plate...speedball tools are great for this...easy to use. 

Printing.....come to my workshops and see! I used open acrylics to print with....

 I hand painted each one with watercolors...40 cards....addressed all and mailed them out. These are the proofs...

Interesting note: there were 8 leftover cards that I mailed to myself from my hometown postoffice. I had the postal worker hand stamp each one for art's sake. 4 of the cards arrived back at my house the next day. The other 4 went to San Diego and back(50 miles each way) ..went through the machines which ripped part of the layered paper...and double postmarked over the hand stamp...2 had "Happy Holidays"as part of the processing

 .....ponder that for a while....