Art in Nature: Working with Snow

We have had a lot of snow this winter.

It reminds me of when I spent four years of college in Wisconsin.

The snow we had today was perfect snowman snow:

sticky and heavy but not wet.

My son rolled out one large snowball,

and I rolled another.

I shoveled the snow all around the area and kept adding it to the snowballs, packing it on in between shovel fulls.

Where we needed a bit extra snow, we made smaller snowballs rolled around,

and placed them on the...

dragon snowman.

I added a snow piece for the jaw and one for the top part of the mouth

as well as some eyes,

 Once we had the snow piled on in great heaps,

we packed the snow well in places where we needed it

and cut some of it off to help define the arms and legs.

For bigger slices, I used the snow shovel.

For smaller slices and carving, we used garden hand shovels.

 My son stuck with me most of the time.

I wanted him to help me, to build confidence that he can do things he sets his goals and determination toward doing.

It was great to see him see the progress and realize that he was a contributor to our fun sculpture.

 The girls helped us some along the way as well.

 There are many different snow sculptures that would be fun and challenging to build,

and clean up and storage is not an issue.

Do you have snow where you are?

Thanks for stopping by!

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Free Illustration: Vintage Snow Scene.

Hello, friends.

In my previous post of the Christmas Home Tour,

I mentioned a slate that I had painted using a scene from an old book that I had.

This is the scene above from a late 1800's publication.

I cleaned it up in black and white:

Here is an antiqued version as well.

It is such a great image, isn't it?

I just had to try coloring it in with my Copic markers.

Here are the markers that I used (for Copic fans who are like me and just want to know crazy details like this).

Here is the way it turned out:

The picture turned out a bit dark so I lightened it.

Here is an antiqued version of the photo editor fixes:

I liked it, but wanted a bluer version of it for a craft I was making:

I am making some Christmas cards with this image,

so I kept playing with it in different colors.

Here are the ones I liked best:

You are free to use any of these images as you'd like since the copyright was not in effect in the late 1800's.

I printed up small versions of these and glued them to magnet backing

and then Mod Podged the images.  That way when people get the card,

the picture can be removed and used on their refrigerator, if they wish.

In a day or two, I will show how to paint/draw a simple nativity scene,

like the one I did below on this magnet on a card.

Anybody can do it, so come on back if you'd like.

Thank you for stopping by!

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Art Lesson: Snowman...from a Cinnamon Snowstorm in Applesauce Valley.

This week I will share how to sculpt a snowman cinnamon ornament.

Here is the picture progress of how I rolled my snowman.

I added a pinch of dough for an arm and molded it in.

Every snowman needs a scarf.

(Be sure to work the pieces that are added well into the snowman so that they will not break off easily when they dry.)

Round eyes can be made into happy eyes by giving them a slight curve.

No stick arms for this guy, although I'm sure some tiny real ones could be stuck in to dry, if wanted:

here is his second arm.

He looked like he needed to be holding something,

so I gave him something festive.

Here he is drying in a line-up with some others

(I'm sorry if you have already seen these guys;

I'm just sharing this group for those who are new visitors because the creativity of this dough is endless fun!).

Building snowmen brings up a flood of childhood memories.

With this clay, anybody can build them,

no snow required!

Thanks for stopping by.

(In case you want to build your own fun creations,

here is the recipe I used:

Between 3/4 and 1 cup applesauce (not chunky)

1 cup of cinnamon

2 Tbs. white glue

If the dough feels too dry, add more applesauce; if it feels too wet, add more cinnamon (I put the fluctuating amount in the recipe by the applesauce because I found it easier to adjust that than the cinnamon: I had a limited amount of cinnamon to use).  Use cinnamon to dust the working surface and rolling pin.  I read that the more you knead it, the easier it is to work with/the smoother the clay will be.  Also, these will last indefinitely once allowed to dry thoroughly; or put in the oven on low to speed up the drying process).

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