The "A Magical New Art Form" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Watching my granddaughter, Courtney, fill in the final pieces of one of the pages in her "Paint By Sticker" booklet.  The booklet is titled, "Paint By Sticker - A Magical New Art Form" and is much like a paint-by-number book that many of you might have tried in the past.  

Courtney is a sophomore at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia where she is majoring in nursing with a minor in health sciences.  She seems to always be busy with her studies and when she recently visited with us over the Thanksgiving Holidays, I noticed her working in a booklet, meticulously pasting these small, bright colored pieces in place.  Piece after piece taken off a page she had placed next to her as she sat on the sofa next to me.  I asked her what she was doing and she showed me something I had never seen before.  The procedure seemed simple, but the results are rather striking. Sheets of a heavier weight paper hold outlines titled goldfish, butterfly, cat, horse, etc.   Each item has numerous spaces that carry areas with numbers that are meant to match the numbers on the stickers that are all enclosed on another page.  

The pieces that are taken off the page and placed on the finished design.

Peel a colored piece and place it on the space with the same number. Then...repeat!  The "Introduction" page starts off by saying "It's fairly simple, actually."  Six tips are given. to get you started.  A few of the tips are: (1) The sticker sheets are assigned to each page by the thumbnail images in the top corners of the sticker sheet. (4) Place one corner of the sticker down and adjust from there.  Be careful, these stickers are not removable.  (5) For precision placement, use a toothpick or tweezers.  (6) After you complete an image, place a sheet of paper over it and press down with a flat surface, like a ruler or bone folder.  One of Lancaster, Pennsylvania's most famous artists, Chalres Demuth, has a unique painting that features the skyline of Lancaster showing water towers and rooflines of the industrial areas in Lancaster. 

Demuth painting looks very similar to this design Courtney did.

The design that Courtney completed looked very similar to the rooflines in the Demuth painting.  I'm sure that this new booklet is based on the paint-by-number booklets, but the designs seem to be more precise than the designs that require you paint inside the lines.  It does require precise cutting and placement, but anyone who enjoys taking their time could be successful.  Check out some of the designs and give it. Try it if you would like something different for a change.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.