Greetings everyone, I taught a two classes this weekend in which the students produced some incredible art. I would like to share with you some of the art from Sunday's beginning collage class at Palace Arts in Capitola. These pieces are simply amazing. Its difficult to believe these are all beginning collage artists. I find these pieces inspiring and hope you do too. Also keep watching my blog as I hope to have some of the samples from both book of drawers classes soon.
Greetings!
I wanted to share my new Book of Drawers. This is another sample for the class that I will be teaching this weekend. Yes that's a fly in the bottom right hand corner.
Many people ask me where I get my ideas. Often this question is difficult to answer. Many of my ideas seem to be bits and parts of different things. However with this book I can tell you that the idea came directly from the title of the book. This by the way is an excellant way to start an altered book if you have no ideas for a theme in mind.
The name of this book was Fly on the Wall. Just imagine what a fly on the wall hears and sees! I used a picture that I liked on the front of the book and made the cover look like peeling wall paper. To do this I used corrugated and real embossed wall paper. The ruined wall/peeling wallpaper look completely covers the book from front to back cover.
Above you can see the book with the Drawers open. 
Here is a closeup of the drawers. The peeling wall paper is continued inside the drawers as well.
"Fly on the wall. Hears all our secrets and sees all." 
Greetings everyone!
Its's past time for this post. I seem to be running behind time on everything these days. Anyway, the Altered Book Club met last week with our 8th swap offerings. This time I had Cindy's Book of Secrets.
The Book of Secrets was a difficult subject for me because I just don't have many secrets. I figure what you see is what you get. If I do have secrets then they belong to someone else and I don't have permission to spill those. I really don't like holding things like secrets, grudges or anger. They just get you into trouble. So needless to say after three and a half weeks of trying to find a subject it came to me that I do have one secret. This secret was not easy to present or easy to speak about.
My secret is that I have a secret world. My secret world goes with me everywhere because it's in my head. My world is populated with people and creatures out of books, poetry,movies or total fabrications from my own brain. In my secret world I am beautiful, special, have magic powers and many adventures. As you might have guessed I spend alot of time in my secret world. I am happy there. Because of my secret world I can think up Fairy Detection Kits and wild art projects. But also because I spend so much time in my secret world often I feel just slightly out of step with the "real" world.
"The doors of my mind open to a secret world rarely seen"
In the photo above, the two strong doors represent the doors of my mind. If you open the doors you can see my world below.
To create my world I decided to present it as a fold out in Cindy's book.
Here is a closer view of the left hand panel. In the front is the fae maid beguiling and sucking the life from her unsuspecting knight. If you look closely you will find another fairy in attendance. At the top of the page is a tribute to the dragon riders of Pern and the white ship bearing Frodo away to the west.
In this panel the central figure represents me (I always have long beautiful hair and wear Medieval clothing) I am surveying my world which includes a mermaid, Pegasus and enchanted castle. On the very right of the panel is the flying Ford Anglia from Harry Potter (Those boys are goint to be in so much trouble!)
In the right hand panel is my handsome warrior. I won't even go into the comments made about his rather large sword! Above him is Gandalf the Grey. And above everyone's favorite wizard is my beautiful fairy in her enchanted garden.
I think that this has been one of the most difficult collages that I've done. For the first time I actually had to construct a world in which I could fit in all of my favorite elements and still have them make sense. By "construct" I mean paint. Some of the world was painted before the collage elements were added and some of it was painted after the addition of the collage elements.
I have to say that I was gratified when most people thought that my world was a place that they would want to visit. I suspect that many creative people have secret worlds. How about you?
Greetings Everyone!
Yes it's time for a new class. For the next two weekends I will be teaching you how to make an Altered Book of Drawers. This is a fun and surprisingly easy type of altered book to create.
You can add pages to the front of the book for extra content or just use the entire book as a cabinet of treasures as I did in the book above. The original title of this book was Deadly bugs and Killer insects so I thought it was a perfect book for my Secret Life of Bees theme.
Here is the book with the drawers open.
A close up of the Gods hands holding my giant bee. Who doesn't love a giant bee?
Greetings Everyone,
I had a small but wonderful class at Scrap-It in Santa Cruz yesterday. I just had to show you some of the cards that my students made. Above you can see the Bird Boy. This card was really fun because the wings, crow and cat were all 3-D items. I particulary loved the cat with the bird in its mouth just watching that crow. Yum!
Look at this lovely cabbage baby. I guess they do come from cabbage patches.
And you've got to love bunny boy and his stuck up queenly sister. I'd laugh at her too!
These last two are my latest installments. Up top is Emily Squash. She is her parent's " little Pumpkin". And of course Aunt Emily and her lovely new Easter bonnet. And to my fellow artist Cindy McCool-Hey Look! Its a chicken. 
Greetings everyone!
After finding a stash of Cabinet Cards in January I have decided to revive an old class of mine. This weekend we will be altering Vintage Cabinet Cards. I love this class. I love the fact that I am creating a piece of art out of something that is no longer valued in its original form.
Many people might think that its disrespectful to put bunny ears on "Uncle Enoch" below. I do not. Uncle Enoch and his bunny ears make me and others smile and laugh. He inspires me and makes me want to be creative. In his slightly altered way Uncle Enoch lives again and is cherished instead of sitting at the bottom of some box at a flea market slowly deterioriating.
Who knows maybe Uncle Enoch would have laughed as well. I can only hope that when I am dead and gone that someone rescues my picture and values it enough to give me bunny ears!
Here are the details of my class this weekend:
Saturday March 12th
Location: Scrap-it in Santa Cruz
Instructor: Connie Andrews
Class: Altered Cabinet cards
Description: Don’t you love all those old cabinet card photos?
Using Collage, Rubberstamping, acrylic paints and various embellishments we will give discarded photos from 1800’s and 1900’s a second chance to be loved.
Items to bring: Paintbrushes and scissors. Feel free to also bring any special charms or decorative rubber stamps and dye inks that you might be dying to use.
Time: 11:00 to 3:00
Fee: $45.00
To sign up for this class please call Scrap-it at: 831 475-2380
Class limit: 5
You can see more of my Altered Cabinet cards below.
Greetings Everyone! Can you believe its already March?! High time to post my March schedule. The schedule below will include the classes at C.Andrews studio as well as my classes in other locations(see the end of the post). Ok-here goes!
Saturday March 5th
Instructor: Connie Andrews
Class: Personal Collage Icons
Description: Icon: 1. An Image: representation, a simile or symbol. 2. A representation or picture of a sacred Christian personage that is traditional to the Eastern Churches.
In this intermediate collage class we will be creating our own personal icons on a 10 x10 canvas. What images have deep meaning for you? Is it a person? A place? Or maybe an
Object? Even the ordinary can become sacred or symbolic of some deeper personal meaning. To accomplish this we will be creating our icons using collage images and small found objects carefully boxed into compartments using embossed and corrugated papers and texture mediums. To help create a unified piece we will then apply paint washes and finally a glossy topcoat.
Items to bring: A variety of paintbrushes, scissors, 5 of your favorite acrylic paint colors and 3 to 5 related images. Please make sure that one of the images is large enough to become your focal point. The images must be color copied or printed on a permanent ink jet printer.
Time: 10:00am to 4:00pm
Fee: $55.00
To sign up for this class please email Connie at: connie@isbjorn.com.
Class limit: 6
Thursday March 17th
Instructor: Cindy McCool
Class: All Occasion/Birthday cards
Description: When you need it do you have the right card or do you have to make a quick trip to the store and spend upwards of $5.00 to get one that says the right thing for the right occasion? If so then this class is for you. This month you will complete 5 cards for all occasions. Let's face it, your friends want to hear from you and a special handmade card received in the mail will always brighten their day.
Items to bring: basic tool kit, scissors, adhesives and a journaling pen all other materials will be provided.
Time: 6:00 to 9:00pm
Fee: $25.00
To sign up for this class please email Cindy at cindy@mccoolmgt.com.
Sunday March 20th
Instructor: Maria Ontiveros
Class: Art Journal Backgrounds and Embellishments (with optional workshop time)
Description Bring your art journal and learn some new techniques. We'll focus on a painted and scraped background and butcher paper collaged embellishments. Afterwards, you have the option to stay and play in your journal, with guidance and supplies from Maria. This class is geared to continuing art journal students.
Items to bring: Please bring your art journal, paints, brushes and other general art journaling supplies. Also, please bring any large punches you would be willing to share.
Time: 12:30 to 3:30
Fee: $25.00 Stay and play until 5:30 for only $5 more!
To sign up for this class please email Maria at: rinda1961@yahoo.com
Saturday March 26th
Instructor: Connie Andrews
Class: Altered Book of Drawers
Description: In this class we will be creating a simple but elegant altered book of drawers. Our altered books will become a special place that holds our secrets, found objects or treasured memories.
Items to bring: Please bring your altered book kit that contains: xacto knife, cutting mat, scissors, paintbrushes, matte gel medium and gesso. You can bring any personal collage images or items small enough to fit in a matchbox that I might not have. Otherwise I will have plenty of images and found objects as usual. I will also have books with me for you to choose from.
Time: 10:00 to 3:30
Fee: $55.00
Class limit: 6
Other Events in March at C. Andrews studio
Sunday March 6th
Open studio Altered Book Club work day
Description: You can work on anything on this day but the emphasis is on your altered book club swap. Come and work in the company of kindred spirits.
11:00 to 4:00 pm or whenever we decide to leave
$10.00
Sunday March 13th
Maria’s special event
All day.
Wednesday March 16th
Altered Books Club
Time: 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Fee: $10.00 per person
Also offered at the studio
Private studio time – This is for artists and art groups looking to rent studio space to work or to get together during the week-the times and fees are to be arranged on an individual basis. If you are interested in private studio time please email me at connie@isbjorn.com.
Open Studio- This is studio time open to everyone for only $10.00 per day. Open studios is available every Friday evening and on the weekends when no classes are being offered. Please note that to use the studio you must arrange this with me in advance. Just email me at connie@isbjorn.com and let me know you would like to use it. Open studio for the month of March will be on the following dates: March 4th, March 6th, March 11th, March 18th, and March 25th
More classes in March
Saturday March 12th
Location: Scrap-it in Santa Cruz
Class: Altered Cabinet cards
Description: Don’t you love all those old cabinet card photos?
Using Collage, Rubberstamping, acrylic paints and various embellishments we will give discarded photos from 1800’s and 1900’s a second chance to be loved.
Items to bring: Paintbrushes and scissors. Feel free to also bring any special charms or decorative rubber stamps and dye inks that you might be dying to use.
Time: 11:00 to 3:00
Fee: $45.00
To sign up for this class please call Scrap-it at: 831 475-2380
Class limit: 5
Saturday March 19th
Location: Art Max in Seaside
Class: Altered Book of Drawers
Description: In this class we will be creating a simple but elegant altered book of drawers. Our altered books will become a special place that holds our secrets, found objects or treasured memories.
Items to bring: Please bring your altered book kit that contains: xacto knife, cutting mat, scissors, paintbrushes, matte gel medium and gesso. You can bring any personal collage images or items small enough to fit in a matchbox that I might not have. Otherwise I will have plenty of images and found objects as usual. I will also have books with me for you to choose from.
Time: 11:00 to 4:00
Fee: $55.00
To sign up for this class please email Connie at connie@isbjorn.com
Class limit: 6
Sunday March 27th
Beginning Collage part 2 ****Note- Part one is a prerequisite for this class***** Instructor: Connie Andrews
Class Description: In this continuation of beginning collage 1, we will begin by creating 3 more backgrounds that get progressively more textured. We will then explore composition in more depth and finish our collages using all the tricks and techniques learned from both classes. Every student will get another collage pack of papers and found objects to use in class or take home.
Items to bring: Please bring paintbrushes and scissors and your instruction folder and collages from part 1, all other materials will be supplied.
Class times: 11:00 to 4:00pm Lunch break at 1:00
Fee: $120.00 for the series
Class size limit: 8
Connie-over and out !
connie@isbjorn.com
www.conniesdream.blogspot.com
www.isbjorn.etsy.com 
