It's Pinecone Season ~ a tiny tutorial

I love drawing pinecones. It's like drawing a puzzle. 
Start by sketching the exterior shape, and then placing the shapes. Work in regular pencil, lightly and loosely, to get the proportion and placement.

Once the pencil drawing is down, use a water soluble pencil like I did here (or a Tombow pen), and refine the drawing. Look closely at each detail to redraw shapes.







Once your drawing is done, use clear water to activate the water soluble pencil. Use a light touch, and try to leave the white of the page.




And don't miss another pinecone tutorial, this one with ink and watercolor.

I'll be teaching some new and some revived Sketching and Watercolor: Journal Style classes starting in January. ONLINE. Please go to my website and sign up to receive my newsletter (in the right hand column) to get the first word of my new online classes.

for Sandy Hook Elementary School

prayer flag ~ by Jane LaFazio

I administer The Prayer Flag Project blog. Join us.

Stencils ~ designed by me

Stencils! 9x12 stencils designed by me. Six designs based on my sketchbook drawings. You can see what I've been doing with them here, here, here, and here. You can buy my stencils in my JaneVille Etsy shop now. Buy 5 different stencils and get the 6th free between now and December 27. Mention '6th free' in your order.

more egg carton flowers

EGGcellent Flower Box ~ by Jane LaFazio

EGGcellent Flower Box ~ by Jane LaFazio

Looks kinda like porcelain, doesn't it?

EGGcellent Flower Box ~ by Jane LaFazio

EGGcellent Flower Box ~ by Jane LaFazio

Here's the tutorial on how to make flowers out of egg cartons, and here's another egg carton succulents. This was a little papier mache box from the craft store, collaged with book pages. Then I painted the egg carton flowers with off-white acrylic paint, and added a few beads in the center, and glued the flowers to the top of the box.

EGGcellent Flower Box ~ by Jane LaFazio

Santa!

I made these Santa topped cupcakes for my Mundo Lindo kids.

This photo makes me think of dancing Elvis-es! 

The photograph is me on Santa's lap when I was four years old.

Santa!  2010

Here's the Santa. I just photo-shopped out the background, print them on card stock, cut them out and tape a toothpick on the back, to create the cupcake toppers.

2010 Christmas card by Jane LaFazio

And this made me nostalgic for the other sketchbook pages I'd done at Christmas...of Santa

from my sketchbook 2006

from my sketchbook 2006

Christmas card 2006 ~ by Jane LaFazio

from my sketchbook 2008 by Jane LaFazio

Mundo Lindo kids and cupcakes!

Around the house ~kitchen towels to placemats

our kitchen table

I love cute kitchen towels, and wanted to do something more permanent with them. I found these artichoke ones at Crate and Barrel and made them into place mats.

I bought two towels, folded each in half, with batting in between. Then I free motion stitched around the designs, trimmed them up into rectangles and zig-zagged the edges. Easy, not rocket science, but I thought I share the idea it with you.

3 day retreat in Maryland with Lesley Riley and Jane

Blue Mountain Retreat Center, in Maryland

BLUE MOUNTAIN NATURE JOURNAL - Nature Sketching & Journaling in a Handmade Book with Jane LaFazio & Lesley Riley of The Red Thread Retreat

May 17-20, 2013 in Knoxville, Maryland This is one 3-day workshop where each day builds upon the next.

Day One: With Jane, we’ll wander outside, enjoying the beauty of our
 surroundings. We’ll gather flowers, fallen leaves and anything from
 nature that attracts us.
Jane will teach you (even beginners!) to confidently draw and paint in 
watercolor, as you chronicle your collection of nature. Then, we’ll look at
 our drawings and choose one to simplify and create a stamp.

day one

Day Two: We’ll continue with our nature theme, using our flowers, leaves, sticks, and gatherings to do some monoprinting on to our pages and then a bit of collage. We will monoprint on cloth for the covers of our journals.

day two

Day Three:  Lesley will lead you in creating a unique, expanding book structure in the morning. After lunch, we will continue with our nature theme, using our flowers, leaves, sticks, and gatherings to do some monoprinting on to our pages and then a bit of collage. We’ll compile our nature journals, weaving in twigs and rocks as we wish, and using red thread (of course!)we’ll bind and complete our Blue Mountain Nature Journal.

Register here.

Day three

JaneVille Etsy shop

I've got these cool paint brush/pencil/pen holders in my JaneVille Etsy shop for sale. Only 7 left!

They're made with my custom fabric (made from my watercolors) and you can buy my fabric by the yard here.

Along the Pacific Ocean ~ San Clemente beach

photo  by Jane LaFazio

photo  by Jane LaFazio

       
My friend, Pamela Underwood, and I went to San Clemente, CA, yesterday to plan and prepare for our Lavender Sage expressive arts mixed media retreat in April. (sorry, it's full, but we're planning another on the beach in February 2014 and in Taos, New Mexico August 2014)

photo  by Jane LaFazio

Go here to see how we created this labyrinth in the sand.

photo  by Jane LaFazio

photo  by Jane LaFazio

photo  by Jane LaFazio

photo  by Jane LaFazio

A lot of time and effort goes into the planning of an art retreat, but it's also glorious fun when research like this is required!

photo  by Jane LaFazio

Yoga Poses in Public Places