Welcome! I’m Carolyn Dube – This colorful journey is all about the freedom of play!
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The hardware store is full of potential art supplies that can encourage play. In this week’s Let’s Play video, the kindergartner in me came out to play. Which isn’t surprising because in the store, as I walked past the sandpaper, I just had to touch it.
That sandpaper got me thinking about chalkboard art…I love the look of chalk but hate dealing with the smearing. So I wondered if I could use sandpaper to create non smearing faux chalk art? The answer is yes!
How does the hardware store help me play? There is no wrong way to use it because I am already using it in a way that wasn’t intended by the manufacturer. As I played, my inner my inner kindergartner took over and just wouldn’t let me stop using crayons!
Now you’ve seen my play for this week, would love to see yours! Link up whatever you’ve been creating in the link party below!
Supplies Used: Kindergarten Writing stencil, sandpaper from the hardware store, black acrylic paint, crayola crayons, and a dye based ink pad. This month’s giveaway is a $50 gift certificate to Walmart.com because you can find all sorts of non art supplies there that work wonderfully for art play! Link up what you’re creating (and you get a bonus entry into the giveaway for sharing your play) or leave a comment telling something that you liked about one of the photos shared. One comment per person but you can link up to 3 images of your play each week! Giveaway closes Monday, April 4th at 8am EST.
New to Let’s Play? You can find out all about it, what and how you can share (and it is almost anything- it doesn’t have to follow the monthly theme and you do not need a blog!), how to grab the blog button, plus other info here in the Let’s Play FAQs.
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Want to put the button your blog? Just copy all of the the code from under the button.
Thank you Cloth Paper Scissors for letting me share all about play in the latest issue! I am honored to be in this issue with other artists such as Jen Cushman, Jane Davenport, Seth Apter, and so many more!
The article, An Art Journal Adventure, is all about being a tourist in your own studio. What did I play with in my article? A round Gelli Plate®, a stencil by Joanne Sharpe for StencilGirl, and an art journal.
When painting a large surface a large brush helps. But I didn’t have a brush big enough for a 12 foot floor cloth so I grabbed a household broom. It looks like a brush so why not!
Working this big requires a huge studio, which I don’t have. But I do have a yard so I took it outdoors.
After I had the cloth all blue and purple, I left it outside to dry. It didn’t look the way I expected…Oops. Once again, that Oops was an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly. I decided it called for some spray paints for a little more color.
Working on such large surfaces was a challenge to reach the middle without stepping on it and smearing wet/damp paint so I draped them over some cement walls outside. It was like a giant easel.
And I just went to town adding layers of colors and shapes with spray paints. I prefer these spray paints because they are water based and clean up is easier and it smells a whole whole lot less!
Should I put a hem on it? Sure. Should I seal it with polyurethane or something similar? Sure. But those all take more time and the drying time for sealing it is way longer than my patience at the moment. So, I am using it as is and someday will get around to finishing it.
I started to see a few shapes in my canvases and it just might be an upcoming Spark of Art-spiration in an upcoming newsletter. Not signed up yet? Just click here!
What are Sparks? They are downloadable papers full of color and pattern for your play. You can find out more about Sparks here.
And that painting in the far right…not done by me but by my daughter…she has way more patience than I do!
Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and you are helping me keep this blog and my videos ad free! Thank you- I don’t like ads any more than you do!
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