art journaling for kids

Tammy Garcia runs this great website about art journaling. If you don’t know how to get started or want to get inspired, go to Daisy Yellow. Tammy provides tons of ideas, tutorials and prompts. Here are two articles  Art Journaling for Kids|Tweens|Teens  and Art Journaling 101

playing with letters

I found these collages on my computer, but cannot find the source. Could they be by illustrator Serge Bloch?

a collage a day keeps the apple at bay

A collage a day keeps the apple at bay. I am a big fan of Martin O’Neills collage work. Here is his website: http://cutitout.co.uk/ He did an illustration series for the Guardian a few years ago, and I bought every issue just for the illustrations.

emergency compliment

A steady supply of emergency compliments to be used at times of great insecurity. They may come in handy sometimes. This one is for me. I always trip in front of everyone.

keep calm

I made these cards based on the now famous British World War poster “Keep Calm and Carry On”, which is in the public domain. You can read about the history here. Rip-offs have become something of a meme. Mail artist and brilliant typographer Keith Bates created the font, based on the original poster series.

keep calm and mail art

love respect and mail art

please do not ever feed trolls

 

 

The last one ‘please do not ever feed trolls’ may come in handy, when confronted with internet trolls appearing in internet forums. You are free to use it, whenever you feel the need.

rubber stamps and fonts by Keith Bates

Keith Bates – Rubber Stamp Mail Art. Keith Bates is a personal hero of mine. Not only is he a mail artist, but he makes beautiful fonts, including free ones, which I have been using. Check out the amazing type shop: http://www.k-type.com/

cat bounce

Do you crave some silly internet cats once in a while? Go to cat bounce for some instant cheer.

handmade tribal pictogram book

Do! A Minimalist Handmade Pictogram Book in the Style of Indian Tribal Art

This book published by Tara  Books combines so many things I am fond of such as 1) Indian tribal painting, 2) children’s books, 3) pictograms, 4) screen printing – all wrapped into one. So I just added a new category to my blog: a wish list!

Tara is an Indian publisher producing beautiful handmade books. Watch the hand production process of this book here:

via  Brain Pickings.

mark making

Very nice video on the fascination of mark making – what applies to children may also apply to adults and even the elderly. (I fixed the broken link.)

illustrations by Alain Gree

I am pretty sure as a child I used to have some books illustrated by Alain Gree, or even played with this memory game. I wished I could track them down. Looking at them just makes me happy. Read more here on Jane Foster Blog and about reprints in the Anorak magazine on grainedit. 

mail art memory map

Beautiful mail art by Bifidus Jones – Childhood Farm via MinXus-Lynxus.

writing on the wall

An interactive exhibition by Annie Albagli, held in the Commonwealth Gallery in the Fall of 2007 .

the forest of signs

found here: The Forest of Signs (Budding Artists – Detail) 2008.

The Forest of Signs (Apple Record) 2008 

The Forest of Signs (Brake) 2008 

 

postcrossing

I used to love buying and sending postcards, but with the internet, email etc. somehow  have stopped doing so. The last postcard I sent was to my grandmother, before she died last year.

Every summer I remind my son to send postcards from his summer travels to his grandparents in two countries and to us and he dutifully obliges. Everybody, grandparents on all sides, me and my husband are delighted. However, recently he told me, that even though he does send the postcards (usually after being gently reminded though a facebook message) he “does not get this postcard thing.” Why would anybody want to receive some random card with a superficial note, when one could send photos and phone, skype, facebook or chat instead?

I don’t know if I managed to explain it to him properly. In any case – for those who grew up without the internet, with telephone land lines, mix tapes and analog film – a card, which has been bought, written, stamped and mailed by somebody, and physically made its way across the globe is still something special.

A few days ago, I signed up with postcrossing.com – a platform in support of sending and receiving postcards from people all over the world. I posted my first cards, on to Belarus, one to Hong Kong and one to Germany and now I will wait and see who will write to me.

I am interested in vernacular creativity, the kind of things ordinary people get up to, the creative practices and processes and the way people connect and interact in creative ways. David Gauntlets “Making is Connecting” comes to mind.

I browsed the gallery of hundreds of postcards posted online, which people have mailed to each other through postcrossing. Yes, the postcards are sent through mail but can also be “collected” online. I particularly like the multiview tourist  postcards, which use the letters of the name place as a frame for images. Perfect combination of word and image! So I have picked a few from postcrossing.com to share with you. I would be really chuffed if I got one of those! I’ll keep you, ahem, posted.

See also the academic paper on postcrossing by Ryan Kelly  Understanding participation and opportunities for design from an online postcard sending community

And did you know, today is World Post Day!

color pencils

“Colour Pencils” by Jonna Pohjalainen on environmentalart.net via Handmade Charlotte.

This cheers me up immensely.

apples and oranges

The Comparison Art Print by Sarajea | Society6.

a river of words

Poetry River Craft | Made by Joel.

And many more lovely and inspiring ideas for making simple toys, printables and more by Joel.

a book of cards

“The Shufflebook … was sold at Museum of Modern Art’s store as a sort of (unbound) children’s book. The reader/storyteller is instructed to deal the cards that featured large illustrations and either a verb phrase (e.g., “slipped,” “got kissed”) or a noun phrase (e.g., “and my uncle”, “and 5 cows”). … The total number of the cards is 104.

The opening and closing sentence of the text on one special card says: “This is an anything book.” The text on the cover states: “There are over a million stories in this box. Shuffle the pages, lay them down and make your own story happen.” The text segments are written to combine into one very long (possibly run-on) sentence or several sentences. There is no text with capital letters and no punctuation. There are also 2 special pages with empty lines where the “storyteller” can write additional text …”

This quote and more about shuffle literature from electronicbookreview.com

via Grand Text Auto

one more book spine poem

from ruthhorowitz.wordpress.com/category/poetry/

mr printable

Printable Quotes Posters | Mr Printables.

Mr Printable offers a lovely range of mostly free (!) printable materials for children, flash cards, alphabet posters, maps. games, coloring pages, posters, paper dolls, and a small printable world to make out of paper. Very nicely designed and some very original ideas. I like these two posters too.

book paradise

The Art of Reading by Kay Kremerskothen

vineyard by Ruben.d

“Massimo Bartolini’s impressive green outdoor library titled Bookyard was constructed by the artist in the idyllic vineyard of St. Peter’s Abbey in the Belgian town of Ghent. It is part of the  Track art festival, and visitors are invited to take a book along in exchange for a small donation.” The first image and quote were taken from here : The Art of Reading by Kay Kremerskothen. More pictures here: Bookyard 

Shame about the fact that rain and snow usually do not go well together with books. This would be my idea of paradise, a library in the middle of an orchard.