that artist woman

Valentine Box Dioramas

2012-01-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. I have a Design Team post up at the Hive on how to make these adorable Valentine Dioramas.

Lots of opportunity for creativity here and quite different from your usual Valentines.

If you are interested in the "How to"why not check it out.

See you soon.

How to Make a Heart Book

2012-01-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

I was busy today working on lots of new art projects....most are still drying but I thought I'd show you this Heart Book.

I apologize for the dark photos but unfortunately in Winter we have very short days~~...I'll try to get some natural light photos tomorrow.~~

See Below

I love shaped pages and any shape that is symmetrical works well with this application, pumpkins, apples, fir trees, snowflakes, etc, etc.

NEW PHOTO

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- thin cardboard or chipboard
- heart template
- assorted papers
- glue
- scissors
- paint
- colored paper
- hockey tape
- embellishments
- needle and thread

PROCEDURE:

Trace out a heart on thin cardboard. This will be your template when cutting out your pages.

You can make the heart any size you want.

Trace and cut hearts out a variety of papers. I used vellum, wrapping paper, painted paper, book pages, wax paper, etc.

You need at least 10 hearts to make a nice book. Fold them in half, they should all fit nicely together.

You want to bind these papers together separate from the covers.

I'm using thread but you could sew them on the machine or use a stapler. Just make sure the binding runs along the fold line.

Now you want to make your front and back cover. Cut these out of thin cardboard or chipboard. I wanted mine quite a bit larger than the heart pages.

Paint or add color/decoration to the inside of the covers. I'm staying with my heart motif.

You might want to outline where the heart pages will be when planning your design.

Turn the covers over and set them side by side. We are going to join them together with hockey tape which makes a great binding. It's very flexible, easy to use, and widely available.
Leave a little gap between the covers.

The gap helps the covers move freely when opening and closing.

Take a piece of hockey tape and tape the covers together (leaving the gap in place).

Trim off the ends of the tape with scissors.

Press down on the tape to make sure it is stuck on thoroughly.

You should be able to open and close the covers quite nicely.

Now you can finish the covers. I went with paper but you could use fabric or paint.

I measured out a rectangle of paper slightly longer than the length of my covers.
Coat with some glue, leave the fold line free of glue.
Fold your cover paper in half and put into place, close the book so you leave slack in the fold line, let dry folded.

Open the book and put some glue where the heart insert is to go.

Put the heart pages in the book. Pull them up a bit in the middle before the glue sets up. This enables the book to be fully open.

Now you can leave the heart pages as they are....use them to add text or illustrations but if you are not adding anything to them here is a tip to get them to fan out nicely.

Starting on the first page add a little glue to the top of the page, turn the next page gluing the tops together.

Now put a little glue at the bottom of this page and then turn and glue the next page to it.

Keep up this alternating pattern, gluing top then bottom thru all pages.

This will give you a nice honeycomb type effect like those tissue decorations we have all seen at showers and weddings.

Add text. I used the computer and then added some color to my words.

Glue your words into place and now embellish as you see fit.

I added a few sequins and some more hearts.

That's it.

Wood Houses : Art and Poetry Project

2012-01-18T22:54:00.000-07:00

This is a project that I came up with a few months ago. I used it at Christmas time for the Grade 3's but you can use it anytime.

It's a house that also has a poem incorporated with it.

Mine states:

" My House
Is warm and snug
full of people I love
and a DOOR
to shut out the
world"

(I think I was a little stressed at the time)

The kids had a great time making them and it was fairly easy to execute.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- piece of wood 5 inches high, I used 1 1/2 X 3 1/2 timber ( or 2 by 4's)
- saw
- sandpaper
- acrylic paint
- wax paper
- white paper, colored paper
- pencil crayons, fine sharpies
- tacky glue
- thin cardboard or chipboard
- Mod podge
- a poem printed out in computer text or hand written

PROCEDURE:

Now the timbers I bought were 8' long. My volunteer carpenter (thanks Mr. B) cut them on an angle in 5" sections. He cut a 10" piece and then cut into 2.

You get 19 houses for each 8' timber.

I had the kids sand all the edges. They loved that part.

We wrote their names on the bottom in sharpie.

I then had the kids paint the houses with acrylic paint. No need to paint the top or bottom.Place each house on a small piece of wax paper.

The kids tended to paint the front first and then we set them upright and turned the wax paper so they could reach all the sides.

Let dry.

Take your cardboard or chipboard and cut out a roof. We used rectangles that were 4" by 2 1/2".

You want a little overhang at the sides.

Paint one side of the cardboard.

Let dry.

Now we will work on the windows.

For the Grade 3's I made up a sheet of windows for them.

This way they could do their drawings and then cut out the windows.

The top windows were 1"x1"
- the big front window was 1.5"x1.5"
- we had a back window that was 2" by 2.25"
- and 2 side windows that were 1" X 1.5"

Using pencils, pencil crayons, colored paper and fine sharpies the kids made little scenes in the windows. For the Christmas houses there were a lot of Christmas trees and decorations as well as family members. Make sure you don't use washable markers as they will smear when you go to Mod podge the house.

Glue windows into place. Make sure the top windows are about an inch down from the top edge of the wood so you can see them after you attach the roof. The door was a rectangle cut from a piece of colored paper with a door knob drawn in.

For the roof cut little shingle shapes out of colored paper and glue into place starting with the top row. Stagger each row so it looks like real shingles. The kids also drew in some of the shingles with a white gel pen to mix it up a bit. Attach roof to the house with tacky glue. You want the back of the roof flush to the back of the house giving you a nice overhang in the front.

Print out or nicely hand write your poem. Cut out sections and glue into place on the house. Finally Mod Podge the whole thing for a nice shiny finish. If the windows wrinkle a bit don't worry everything will flatten out as the Mod Podge dries.

That's it. The grade 3's wrote a short sentence starting with "My House at Christmas....."

I can envision a nice Valentine themed house.

See you soon.

In the Style of Rene Magritte #2

2012-01-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

So we are still looking at Surrealism in Grade 6. The students did my usual lesson on Magritte last year in Grade 5 but I thought we would try another.

Here is our version of "The Large Family" 1963

and this is the original.

This is my favorite painting of Magritte and always leads to wonderful conversation regarding the symbolism.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:
- 2 sheets wc paper
- green painter's tape
- disk tempera in blue, yellow,orange,white and black
- paintbrushes
- kleenex
- scissors
- white pastel or pencil crayon
- Dove Template 1, Dove Template 2 or create your own
- tacky glue

PROCEDURE:

Take your wc papers and tape down to your art boards with the green painter's tape.

While the paint is still wet use a kleenex to lift off clouds.

Let dry.

On the second board begin painting your background.

Add some blue, orange and yellow. Leave the top white as well as the bottom.

Add some black now. At the bottom you want to fill in with black for the water but leave that white horizon line.

Go over your sky colors with a black wash including the white at the top.

At the bottom add a few waves in the water with white tempera or gauche.

Let background dry.

Turn your cloud paper over and sketch out the flying dove. Now with Grade 6 I will be asking them to create their own Dove. I have included a template (see materials list) for those of you who want it.

Cut out your sketch.

Now to make the head look separate from the back wing you may want to use some white pencil crayon or pastel and strategically place a cloudy mist.

Glue into place and let dry with a piece of wax paper put on top of the surface and then a large heavy book placed on top of that.

That's it. Magritte used his cloud landscape in several other paintings that your students may enjoy recreating or coming up with their own compositions that draw upon his work.

See you soon.

Giveaway Winner and Create With Me

2012-01-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry I meant to do this yesterday. I had a total of 81 entries for the "Drawing and Rendering THE FIGURE In Black And White And Color" by Doug White.

I used Random.org this time and got.........

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2012-01-15 15:22:13 UTC

# 46 belongs to PERIWINKLE PAISLEY who wrote:

Jan 11, 2012 04:49 PM

Glad to see you posting again! I could definitely use this book since I started a 'person a day' drawing project!

Thanks everyone for entering!

I also just wanted to let you know that my son Jeff and I are featured in the current issue of "Create With Me" by Stampington Publications.

It's always a thrill to see your work in print!

See you next week with more art projects (back to work!) and a couple Valentine ideas.

Take care everyone.

Welcome Back and Giveaway

2012-01-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

Well I'm back after our amazing trip to the UK visiting London and Bath as well as Stonehenge. It was very busy as we tried to cram as much sightseeing as possible in and I had absolutely no time for all the sketching and painting I wanted to do. Here is a picture of St. Paul's which I have painted before. The early morning sun came out for about 2 minutes and the whole cathedral seemed to glow.

Here is an old sketch I did of the same view.

We have been home for a few days, kids are back in school, and I'm taking a few days to settle back in, clean the studio after the Christmas whirlwind, and plan out the next few months.

I have to show you my favorite purchase from the trip. London had more scarves, scarf/hood combos, hats and mittens than I have ever seen, this coming from a Canadian where we spend at least 7 months of the year bundled up. I have never seen these wrist warmers. Of course we have all seen the fingerless gloves with or without the flap to turn them into full gloves but I always found them too fussy. These are so simple and my new best friends (especially with -15 this morning).

They are just a knitted rectangle about 10" x 7" that is then sewn into a tube and then a few stitches are added to tack in a 1" pocket for your thumb. Now how easy is that! Put them on before your jacket and you are quite snug and your fingers are free. A great knitting or crocheting project for January.

On to the Giveaway. "Drawing and Rendering THE FIGURE in Black and White and Color" is a new book by Canadian artist Doug White. I was given the chance to review this book and pass along a giveaway copy by Vantage Press.

First the details:

- soft cover
- 8.5" x 11"
- 130 pages
- suggested retail $24.95 US and $27.95 CAN
- published August 2011

This book is set- up like a student guide from a Master Drawing class. It contains 43 exercises to work you thru not only the basic mechanics of drawing the figure but also how to develop and refine your style.

Some highlights include:
- excellent use of proportion calculations
- exercise #5 where you practice the elements of the face 20 x each at 3 different angles (this is a serious book not just a casual read)
- tips on using yourself as a model to practice foreshortening, etc.

- 3 exercises specifically on clothing and fashion drawing
- the Box Method which has you create your own ruler to measure out a box on your page. You then use this ruler to help you create a composition of the figure contained in this box. I can already see the practicalities of using this method to teach the kids at school.

Figure drawing is one of those areas in which artists continually have to practice, refine, and repeat. In fact most artists will continue to attend a figure class (where able) throughout their career. This is a good alternative where you can work through the exercises and then repeat. I plan on working thru all the exercises as increased Figure work is my (as usual)#1 art resolution this year!

So if you are interested in winning your own copy of this book you have 3 ways to enter:

- leave a comment on this post
- email me at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca
- like or comment on this post on my Facebook page

The draw will be on Saturday Jan 14 so you have until Friday 11:59pm to enter.
This draw is open to all Canadian and US residents.

Good luck everyone and hope to see you soon with more art projects from you know, that artist woman....what was her name again?

Happy New Year from London

2011-12-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

Well it's officially 2012 in London and I just thought I would show you a few photos from the past few days.

Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace

Some treasures from the British museum.

Wall painting from the tomb of Nebamun.

The Portland Vase.

Head of the horse of Selene from the Parthenon. Way too many pictures to show you here.

The Painted Chapel in Greenwich.

and for all you Tudor fans the site of the original home of the Tudor palace and birthplace of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Mary I at Greenwich.

Two of the ravens at the Tower of London.

Some graffiti at Beauchamp Tower at the Tower of London site by a prisoner.

And finally the view of the Tower Bridge from the wall at the Tower of London.

That's all for now. Wishing you a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2012!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2011-12-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

So it's been a busy 2 weeks but today is the last day of school.

Here are the Pastel Resist Madonnas Grade 3 made.

Grade 2 did the Family Snowman portraits on canvas. I can't show you those because of all the last names. Grade 5 did their own version in clay. I can show you a couple as the names are harder to read.

Last week the kiln began having thermostat problems....big headache!, but we were able to rescue our projects. Luckily all the bisque fires had been done.

Grade 6 ended up painting their Poinsettias with acrylic instead of glazing and I think they turned out great!

Grade 1 made their Angel plates.

I don't have a picture of the Nativity Plates by Kindergarten but they turned out great. We modified the design a bit, just going with the Baby Jesus in his cradle with lots of stars. It was easier for them to construct and very successful.

Grade 3 made wooden Christmas houses that are based on a house idea I presented at the last ECEC session.

I'll post the full tutorial for you in January. Again a big success!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and all the best in the New Year!

I am off across the pond and my next post to you will be from London. I hope to share some of my photos with you during the holidays.

Take care everyone.

Chiristmas Inchies Version 2

2011-12-20T15:53:00.002-07:00

Well here is the second set of Christmas inchies in traditional colors.

Please click on picture to see larger.

Remember each square can be easily be made into a larger project all on it's own.

I did all the backgrounds first.

- red paper, green paper, white paper

- then paint 3 squares, green , red and white glitter

- then I used plastic wrap on one, stamped on white circles with a pencil on another, and added a metallic sheen to the last one

Square "1 Christmas Tree:

- red painted background
- triangle cut out of green painted paper
- trunk is little rectangle from a book page
- little gems for decoration

Square #2 Candy Cane "J":

- green painted background
- cane cut out of white paper
- painted or colored red stripes
- little bit of glitter glue

Square #3 Holly:

- draw on little musical notes with sharpie or cover inchie with sheet music
- cut holly leaves out of green paper
- add veins to the leaves with green marker
- use eraser end of pencil and a little red paint stamp in some circles for berries

Square #4 Christmas Lights:

- paper is painted with white glitter paint
- using fine sharpies and markers draw out lights

Square #5 Christmas Wreath:

- red painted background
- draw on a "o" with glue
- cut little squares of tissue, crumple and stick on glue
- add embellishment

Square #6 Poinsettia:

- green painted background with piece of plastic wrap placed on it before drying
- cut out petal shapes from assorted red papers
- little gems added to center

Square #7 Santa:

- green paper background
- cut circle out of brown paper
- cut hat out or scrap of red felt
- glue on mini pompom
- glue on googly eyes
- pink pencil crayon on cheeks
- add scrap of white fun fur for beard

Square #8 Bird in Tree:

- cover background with circle stamps from pencil eraser in off white paint
- paint or draw on silver tree branches trying to form that "Y"
- I used a punch but you could just draw a bird for the tree
- add a little glitter snow

Square #9 Gingerbread Man:

- red painted background
- cut out gingerbread man out of brown paper
- add details with white gel pen and sharpie
- add a few sequins

That 's it your done. Mount on black paper and add to your growing collection.

I find myself doodling out more and more inchie designs. They are getting to be addictive.

Hope you give them a try and we will see you soon.

How to make a Christmas Angel

2011-12-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

I have another post for the Hive today on how to make this great Angel using Activa's Rigid Wrap.

You can check it out here:

Christmas Angel

Last Friday was our Christmas craft Day at school. A big thank-you goes out to all Moms, Dads, Grandmas and Grandpas who helped!

I really appreciate it and we could not do it without you.

I'll have another post for you tomorrow.......here is a sneak peek. That second set of Christmas inchies, finally!

See you then.

"We Three Kings" Christmas Craft

2011-12-13T22:45:00.002-07:00

Here is a new Christmas Craft I've put together for our annual craft morning at school.

"We Three Kings"

It's a quick and easy project for one of our 12 craft stations.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- 3/4 by 3/4 cedar trim (nail strip)
- sandpaper
- felt
- acrylic paint in flesh tones
- fine sharpies, white gel pen
- tacky glue
- assorted embellishments
- glue gun, optional

PROCEDURE:

I bought my cedar trim at Home Depot. I purchased a bundle which was about 24 - 4 ft long pieces. That was plenty for the 150 kids who will be participating and cost me around $1.25 per 4 ft piece.

I then had a volunteer (Mrs. B's husband) cut all the pieces.

For each set you need a 4" piece, a 3" piece, and a 2" inch piece.

Sand the ends slightly.

You then want to paint one end of each piece a different flesh tone.

Let dry.

You want to cut a rectangle of felt for each King. We are using green, red and blue.

The rectangles should be shorter then each trim piece so the faces will show and long enough to wrap completely around the piece of trim.

Put some tacky glue on one side of the felt. Lay your trim down in the center and then wrap.

The seam will then be at the back.

Using fine sharpies and white gel pens mark on the faces. I prefer them with the eyes closed but I'm sure we will get lots of different expressions on Craft Day. You can color in some hair but it will only really show up on the sides of the heads.

Now add the crowns. Use what you have. I'm using some wired mini garland, gold brocade trim and a gold snowflake that I cut in half. Glue into place. (all from the Dollar store)

Add the presents. The kids are using little presents cut off some garland, a gem embellishment, and some little glittered styrofoam balls. I found all of these supplies at the Dollar store.

Finally glue all your Three Kings together. We will be using glue guns on Craft Day (operated by adults). This just makes it go faster so the kids gave a completed craft to go into their bag.
That's it.

A quick and easy Christmas craft.

See you next time.

How to Make a Christmas Birdhouse Ornament

2011-12-06T21:59:00.001-07:00

So here is a good ornament project. The inspiration is those old birdhouses that are made out of tin cans.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- paper roll from toilet paper or paper towels

- paint

- glitter glue

- small twig
- tacky glue
- scrap of white posterboard
- white glittery pipe cleaner
- pencil
- scissors
- gold thread or ribbon for hanging
- little piece of garland
- embellishment, I used some red wired berries

PROCEDURE:

Take paper roll and flatten one end.

Now you can just glue it closed but I sewed mine, I like the look and I'm too impatient to wait for the glue to dry!

Determine which side will be the front and fold over the top. You don't need to glue this place right now.

Using a pencil draw a circle on the front.

Cut this out with scissors. I poke it with my awl to get it going.

Paint the roll. You can brush on some glitter glue for some sparkle.

Now glue down that fold using tacky glue. Use some clothespins to hold in place while drying.

Trace out a circle on your scrap of posterboard that is slightly larger than the paper roll.

Cut out.

Glue on to the bottom of your house.

Let dry a bit.

Poke a hole beneath the cut out circle.

Apply a little glue to the hole and stick in your small twig for a perch.

Poke a hole thru the fold and add a thread or ribbon loop for hanging.

Add some garland and embellishment.

Take a white glittery pipe cleaner, form into a circle big enough to fit on the bottom of your birdhouse and glue into place.

Add some text if you want. I typed out "Home for the Holidays" on the computer and printed it out.

Attach on house with glue.

That's it.

You can add a bird if you want but I like mine just the way they are.

Hope you give it a try.

How to Make a Christmas "House" shaped Book

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

I introduced this "House" shaped book project at my last conference.

Here is a Christmas version.

I have been playing around with books alot lately. Trying to find ways to make them more interesting, ways to make the creation of a book more like an art project.

Here I utilize 2 front and back covers (one for the roof and one for the house). The neat thing about this "house" book is that it can stand up on it's own, like a house for display. Very cool!

Inside you can put in as many pages as you want, whatever type of paper you want. It can be a story, Christmas poetry, photos, whatever you wish.

So let's get started:

MATERIALS REQUIRED

- cardboard, I used corrugated for the roof, chipboard (cereal box) for the house
- book pages, scrapbooking paper, or colored paper
- glue
- scissors
- paint
- pencil crayons, gel pens, sharpies
- glitter glue
- white paper for pages
- jump rings, 15mm
- hole punch
- Mod podge for sealing, optional

PROCEDURE:

Take your cardboard and cut 2 pieces 4" x 5" and 2 pieces 3.5" x 7".

These will be the front and back covers.

Paint one side of each piece. Pick contrasting colors for your roof and house.

Let dry.

Take some colored paper, scrapbooking paper or whatever you have and cover the other side of the cardboard.

Place the roof piece on top of the house piece, line up the tops. Make a little mark with a pencil where the bottom of the roof is on the house piece.

This will help you put the windows, etc. in the right place.

Start making your door and windows. I like to have a nice frame around mine. So it looks like the door frame and the window sills.

I cut out either the window or door and then glue that shape onto the paper I want as the frame. I then trim with the scissors.
For example here is my black door glued to the white paper I want for the door frame. I did not show any white at the bottom.

I then glue it to my house. Using a white gel pen I add a house # and a door knob.

For the windows I sketched out some details in pencil and added color with paint or pencil crayons.

Using a fine sharpie I outline a few details in my windows.

I then add some glitter glue that I brush on.

As I've said before I always have the kids use a paintbrush to apply glitter otherwise they just put gobs and gobs on!

Do the same for the back cover.

For the roof I cut a few shingles out of colored paper and glued them on.

Because this is a winter scene I also cut out some icicles out of white paper. You could also use white felt.

I then added some white paint and glitter for an icy snowy roof.

I used my gel pen to draw in some more shingle shapes.

Cut some pages for your book just slightly smaller than your house cover.

Punch 2 holes into your front roof. I then take a pencil and mark the subsequent pages and punch holes in them as well. I'm trying to get everything to line up together.

Take 2 jump rings. These are 15 mm, the largest I could find. I found these at Wal mart, 90 rings for about $3.00.

The rings are aluminum so they open quite easily. I start with one hole and then put all the covers and pages on in order. Close up the ring and then do the other side.

Finally you can add a title to your house if you wish. You can also apply a sealer like Mod podge to your covers to make them more durable.

That's it. Now that you know the basic construction for these "house" books I'm sure you can think of other ways to use them.

I'm sure there's someone in your family that would love one!

See you soon.

Nativity Canvas and Giveaway Winner

2011-12-02T16:22:00.001-07:00

I have a featured post on the Hive today about how to make this Nativity canvas.

I've had a few readers ask for suggestions on how to adapt the Nativity Plate project. Not everyone has access to a kiln so this project is for you. It uses air dry clay. I used Activa's Plus Modelling Clay.

It came together quite easily and with air dry it's much faster as you only have a 24 hr dry period.

Please check out the Hive for my full tutorial.

On to the giveaway results:

I had 123 entries, (whew, that's alot of little tickets to make up), for the Pick and Draw game.

The winning entry is #17 on my email comments who is:

Janice M'Lot from Ranch Park Elementary who wrote:

"Would love it for my class! Thanks for having such an excellent blog! Use it all the time!"

Thanks everyone for entering.

It's 2 weeks from today that we will be having our annual "Christmas Craft Day" at school.....150 kids, 12 craft stations, all morning long!

I find I get a little scattered this time of year. I want to post all the craft tutorials as well as Christmas Art projects so rather than keeping any sort of schedule you'll just find me posting as I go, sometimes twice a day! Welcome to the Christmas rush.

see you very shortly,

Christmas Inchies and Giveaway

2011-11-28T22:25:00.001-07:00

So I've been getting these emails....."Where are the Christmas Inchies?"

So here is my first version. I also have another one I'll post next week in traditional Red and Green.

This one has a bit of sparkle to it and unfortunately that doesn't show up so well in the scanner.

You can click on the photo for a closer look.

The How To is coming up but first......

I was contacted by Children's book illustrator, Rich Davis, about his drawing game for kids,
Pick and Draw.

He sent me a game to try out with the kids and is also sponsoring this week's giveaway. Pick and Draw is a card based game that you can play alone or with a whole classroom of kids.

Because it's a game it works well as an icebreaker and helps kids gain some confidence with drawing. It's also a great way to fill in those extra 15 minutes or so. My kids had a blast! Stay tuned to the end of the post for the giveaway details.

Back to the Inchies:

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- 9 small squares of wc, cardstock, or heavy sketch paper, we use twinchies 2" x 2"
- paint, dark blue, light blue, white, silver and gold
- old book page
- yellow pastel
- photocopied sheet music, shrink down a bit on the photocopier
- glitter glue
- white gel pen
- scraps of gold foil (candy wrappers)
- foil or metal duct tape
- silver doily
- white felt
- black, light blue, and dark blue paper
- black and blue sharpie
- small gems and assorted embellishments
- glue
- old tooth brush or old paint brush
- scissors

Like I always say with Inchie projects just adapt and use what you have, it's amazing what you can come up with.

PROCEDURE:

I usually start off doing all the backgrounds first.

On one square color it a bit with the yellow pastel. then paint it with some gold paint.

Take one of the squares and glue it to the old book page, trim away the excess. Do the same thing with another square and the sheet music.

Cut a square out of the light blue paper and the dark blue paper. Paint a different square with the light blue paint.

Paint another with the dark blue paint.

Paint one silver. You can also add a little silver paint to the sheet music square.

Add some light blue paint to your book page square.

Finally take the last square paint it with the dark blue paint and then sponge on a little of the light blue. You can also add some stripes.

For the snowflake square I used a punch I had but you can use a large sequin or cut one out of white paper. You could also paint or stamp one on.

I used the light blue cardstock square. Splattered on some white paint with an old toothbrush.(you can just use a paintbrush)

I also added some silver glitter glue.

I always use paintbrushes with glitter glue and paint it on otherwise the kids will put gobs and gobs on and it will take forever to dry!

Taking a skewer or the end of a paintbrush dot on some white paint.

Glue on a little embellishment if you have any (piece of ribbon, sequin, gem).

For the mitten square, take the silver painted Inchie. Add some glitter glue to the square for more sparkle.

Cut out 2 mitten shapes from the dark blue paper.

Add some decoration to them with the white gel pen.

Glue into place and then draw the string with the a blue sharpie or marker.

Take the Inchie you painted dark blue. Cut out a star shape from some gold paper, foil, or like me a candy wrapper.

Glue onto background, add some glitter and a star sticker.

For the candle square take the sheet music Inchie.

Cut a little candle out of blue paper or use paint/colored pencils or markers to draw one on.

Make a flame out of yellow paper and a candle holder out of metal tape or foil. I used a little sticker I had for the handle.

Outline it a bit with fine sharpie and add some glitter to the flame if you wish.

For the Angel Inchie take the dark blue paper square. Cut 2 little wings from the doily. Glue in place.

Cut a triangle from the white felt. Glue in place. Cut a circle from some scrap paper. Draw on some eyes and a mouth. You can add a little blush with a pink pencil crayon.

Glue in place. For hair I used a small piece of wool and then a gold thread tied in a circle for a halo. Use whatever you have on hand.

The present square uses the light blue painted Inchie. Cut a small rectangle out of white paper. Glue on some ribbon or paint it on with the gold paint. Add a scrap of tinsel wire for the bow.

On the gold Inchie I glued on a stocking shape I cut from some blue painted paper I had in my stash.

I trimmed it with a small piece of felt, added a loop with the blue sharpie and painted on a little glitter.

The snowman is my favorite. I cut out a snowman shape out of white paper. Glued it to the blue painted book page. Cut a little hat out of black paper, drew on some arms, eyes, and a smile with a black sharpie and then cut a carrot nose from orange paper.

On the last square cut a bell shape from the metal tape. Add a gem for a clanger. I added a little piece of ribbon and some glitter.

That's it. 9 different Inchies, each one can easily be a large art project on it's own if you wish. I was recently at a school that did my Fall Inchie project only they made only 4 squares and each one was about 4" x 4". It was awesome!

Back to this week's giveaway. If you are interested in winning a copy of the Pick and Draw game you need to enter by:

- leaving a comment on this post
or
- send me an email at
thatartistwoman@shaw.ca
or
- like or comment on this post on my Facebook page.

Enter by 11:59pm Thursday Dec 1st/11 and I'll make the draw on Friday Dec 2nd/11.

U.S. and Canadian residents only.

Good Luck everyone!

Picasso Mask Study

2011-11-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an art study project that will take a few sessions to complete but is very rewarding.

There are 2 parts to it. Constructing the mask and then after careful observation creating a painting influenced by the design elements of that mask. With a class you can have students reference their own mask or that of their classmates.

Before starting spend some time discussing Cubism and the work of Picasso and Braque with your students. This particular art project looks at the early stages of Cubism, (almost more expressionism).

With Cubism, we are experimenting with form, stylistic distortion of form, and we are looking at the viewer's perception of that form.

During this early work you can see how Picasso was influenced by his interest in Iberian Sculpture and African art. (see Demoioselles d' Avignon, 1907)

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- balloon
- paper towels
- white glue
- water and recycled container
- wax paper
- scissors
- paint, acrylic or tempera
- wc paper or heavy sketch paper
- resource material (African mask images, Iberian sculpture)
- pencil

PROCEDURE:

Take your balloon and blow it up to the size of mask you want.

You can tape it to an old yogurt container if you want to assist in the drying process as well as making it easier to maneuver while constructing.

Cut up your paper towel into strips. Mix up your white glue with some water (1 to 1 ratio) in an old recycled container. Place some wax paper on your work space. Start constructing your mask. Put some strips into your glue mixture and apply to your balloon. Cross the strips over one another. You only need about 2 coats here. We only need 1/2 the balloon covered to make a mask. Every once and a while add a dry strip to soak up extra moisture as well you can soak up all that excess glue mixture on the wax paper. You want your mask to be moist not sopping.

You can add some details to the face by adding rolls of paper towel and applying eyebrows, a nose, as well as lips if you wish.

Leave upright to dry. Here I placed the cup I had taped to my balloon into another old yogurt container. You might have to put some weight into the container to keep that balloon upright.

Let dry.

When dry pop the balloon. Take a pair of scissors and trim away the excess strips to get a nice edge around your mask.

Take your mask and paint it with either acrylic or tempera. Try to incorporate design elements you saw in your reference material.
- African masks
- Iberian sculpture

Once the masks are completed you want to work on your painting. Tape down your wc paper or heavy sketch to your art board.

Using your own mask and/or ones by your classmates pick out specific design elements (lines, shapes, colors) and add these to your composition. Draw it out in pencil first. You're not looking to replicate the mask here only pull out elements that interest you and place them in a new arrangement.

Display your masks and paintings together.

Give it a try, it's very interesting to see what features or elements the kids focus on.

Inchie Books and Giveaway Results

2011-11-18T12:14:00.001-07:00

You already know that I love creating inchies with kids but did you know you can turn them into a little book.

Kids love miniatures and inchies make perfect little miniature books.

Here is a mouse one.

and here is a Thank-you one. A Thanksgiving inchie book would be a great project for all of my US readers this weekend!

MATERIALS REQUIRED:
- inchie squares, mine are twinchies (2"x2")
- jump rings
- little hole punch or awl
- scrap of cardboard
- paint, pencil crayons, whatever you have on hand
- any little embellishments, googly eyes, fancy papers, sequins, etc.
- tacky glue

You can make your inchie squares out of any paper. I tend to use wc paper as I like the heavier weight.

Cardstock or posterboard works well as does manila tag.

I cut a whole bunch and put them in a ziploc bag so I always have squares ready for when the mood strikes me. At school the teachers have a folder pocket filled with hundreds of inchies I cut (using the paper cutter) ready to go.

Take a cereal or cracker box and cut an inchie for the base of your book.

You can then paint it or cover it with paper glued to it.

Now you probably want to write the text to your book first. This helps you figure out how many pages you need and what the illustrations will be.

Because the inchies are so small you might want to type it out on the computer first. Font size 10 - 8 works great.

You then can cut the sentences or words out and glue on your pages as you go.

Illustrate your book using all kinds of different techniques. Check out my past inchie posts for ideas: Valentine inchies, Fall inchies, Halloween inchies part 1, part 2

Once your inchies are completed you need to punch 2 holes on either the top or the side for your binding.

I have a little press punch but you could also use an awl. I punch the title page first and then use it as a guide. I'll put the next page under it and put a pencil mark thru the holes so I know where to punch on the next page.

Those of you who make jewellery will know what a jump ring is. For the rest of you jump rings are wire rings that are split in the middle. You can easily pull them apart and then close them together again.

I found a value pack at Michaels for about $3.50 that gave me 250 jump rings. You want a large size. These are 10mm. Walmart recently had some really large jump rings, 20mm, which work really well on larger book projects.

Open up the ring and starting with the back cover put on the pages. I find it works best if you do all of one side and then the other.

Close up the ring and there you have it. A cute little book any child would be thrilled to make!

This is just a few of the pages from the mouse book. .

Well onto the giveaway.

I had 82 entries for Noah Scalin's new book "Unstuck".

The winner by random draw was:

#21 in the comment section, Cindy McDannel, who said:

I love your blog... keeps us fresh with new ideas! Thanks for the chance to win this book! It looks really great! ~Youthful Expressions Studio (Cindy)

Congratulations Cindy! It's a wonderful book.

Thanks everyone for entering. I can't believe all the gracious comments...you guys are spoiling me:)

Hope everyone in the US has a great Thanksgiving and I'll see you next week with more art project ideas.

How to do Blackout Poetry and "Unstuck" Giveaway

2011-11-16T07:08:00.001-07:00

For this week's giveaway I want to introduce you to a book called "Unstuck" by Noah Scalin. I was sent a copy to review by Quarry Books and I am truly amazed by this book. You can check out his website "Make Something 365".

Inside you have 52 projects or ways to get you to start being creative. Things you may have never thought of before, interesting ways to do things, and great writing/art prompts.

When I was putting together my "Writing and the Visual Arts" session with my colleague Kim McCullough we kept going back to this book saying "Oh we could do that, or that , or that". In the end we only talked about Blackout Poetry which I have done many times. The point is every one of the 52 ideas in this book can be used as a basis for a larger art project or as a quick creative exercise for your classroom.

I have a waiting list of teachers at school wanting to borrow this book so you know that's a good sign!

Here are the particulars:

- soft cover
- 240 pages
- 9.25" X 6.25" or 23.5 cm X 16 cm
- suggested list price $19.99 CAN but I found it for just over $15 at Chapters
- publisher is Voyageur Press

Here is one of the projects that I can envision as a larger art project. You could pair this with any subject in your curriculum by selecting words on that given topic. (for example Bears in Grade 1).

The kids come up with an Acronym to go with one of those words. (using our example lets say PAW: Powerful Animal Wrestler)

They then create an art project to go with that Acronym like a poster promoting Griz the Wonder Wrestler appearing in his next bout. They can also springboard this into a story about how maybe Griz is tired of the wrestling life on the road and just wants to retire to the mountains. You get the idea....and now you know why Kim and I were so excited by this book.

So this is the page that describes Blackout poetry. I have done this type of project a lot and it's one of my usual exercises that I do with teachers when I'm conducting a workshop.

Don't limit this to the higher grades, early educators can do this exercise as well you just have to adapt it. Your goal maybe just to:
- get the kids to circle any word they recognize and base the project on that
- or maybe to try and circle the letters in their name
- or how many letters of the alphabet they can find
- or focus just on one letter (find the B's)

So here is a blackout poem I did on a paperbag book that was a project at a recent conference.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- old book pages, you can photocopy these if you want. I try to select a book appropriate to the age of the child
- cardboard or canvas, a mount or substrate for your project
- pencil and fine markers
- white paint, (tempera, acrylic, gesso)
- paint, pencil crayons, pastel, etc. whatever type of medium you want to use for the kids to produce their illustration
- Mod Podge for sealing (optional)

PROCEDURE:

Find some old books. I love to use old Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Bobbsey Twins books. They have great paper! You can find these at garage sales, used book sales, discards from the library, they are everywhere.

I also like these books (see photo) or old reading texts. You can easily photocopy pages that you want to use over and over again. You can also enlarge the print.

Cut out a section of print at random.

Read through the print and circle in pencil words to make up a poem or sentence.

We always start in pencil because as you ponder you might come up with something better.

When you have settled on a good poem go over the circles in fine marker.

Take your white paint and paint over the text except for the words you circled. You see how with young kids you may want to enlarge the text here on the photocopier!

It's a nice effect if you allow the words to show thru a bit, it reveals the process to the viewer.

Let dry.

Now using the white space draw an illustration that goes with your poem.

Using your medium of choice add some color to your drawing.

Mount your poem to your background or substrate of choice. Here this was the title page for a paperbag book. A larger piece you may want to mount on prepped cardboard or even a canvas (they're on sale this week at Michael's!)

Finally you can seal this mod podge if you wish.

That's it!

Honest to Pete.... I picked this page at random and was able to come up with...."Don't be scared, be trusted"

Pretty amazing what you and your students will come up with.

So if I have perked your interest in this book why not try and win your own copy.of "Unstuck" by Noah Scalin

You can enter by:

- leaving me a comment on this post
- sending me an email at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca
- liking or commenting on this post on my Facebook page

This contest is open to US and Canadian residents only.

You have until Thursday Nov 17/11 midnight and I'll make the draw on Friday.

Good luck everyone!

P.S. Those of you in Canada, I mentioned that framed canvas was on sale at Michaels, perfect for the Snowman Portrait project! The 10 pack is on for $14.99 that's $1.50 per student, great deal, I can't even make them by hand for that! (good quality canvas as well)

See you soon everyone.

How to make a Teotihuacan Inspired Mask

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here is one of the projects I presented at my conference sessions. It's a papier mache mask based on an ancient Teotihuacan mask.

I find it artistically interesting because of the use of a mosaic on the mask, that's not something you see everyday.

Here is a picture of the original. This project was part of my "From Primitive to Post Modern" session. One of the advantages to this project is that because it is based on an ancient mask that is showing some decay or wear, the mosaic does not have to be fully finished.

Museo Preistorico ed Etnografico
Pigorini, Roma

There is also a paper version I'll show you how to do at the end in case your are not up for papier mache.

Before I start with the "how to" I have another featured Design post on the Hive right now that you might want to check out. the product I'm testing is Aleene's Paper Napkin Applique Glue and I show how to make this Star Wars book bag.

MATERIALS REQUIRED: Papier Mache Version

- a cardboard box
- mask stencil that you will make
- paper towels
- newspaper
- tape
- white school glue
- water and a recycled container
- black paint, tempera or acrylic
- red and green tempera paint
- copies of archaeological maps, #1, #2
- white paper, posterboard, or bristol
- string
- red beads

PROCEDURE:

Take a piece of paper (8.5 X 11) and fold in half.

Draw out 1/2 of the mask shape including an eye and mouth. Use the fold as the middle of the mask.

Cut out your stencil.

Take your cardboard box and tape your stencil on the side utilizing the corner to run down that middle line of your mask.

Trace out the shape and then cut from the box.

By using the corner you build in the angular shape to the mask.

Roll up a piece of newspaper and tape into place for the nose.

Using a 1 to 1 ratio mix up the white glue and water into your recycled container. Cut some strips from the paper towels and begin maching the mask.

Try to overlap the strips in a criss cross manner. You only need about 1 to 2 coats here.

Now you may find you cardboard starting to sag a bit, losing that angular shape due to the moisture so prop it into shape and leave to dry. Should only take about 24 hrs.

To add an extra layer of meaning to your mask print off copies of the actual archaeological maps of the Teotihuacan site. (check google images)

Paint these with the green and red tempera paint. We will use these papers for our mosaic.

Let dry.

In the meantime paint your mask black.

Using posterboard, wc paper, or bristol tape in sections of paper on to the eye holes.

Paint in some eyes on the paper. Lots of room here for different expressions.

Take your red and green paper and cut into strips and then into squares.

You don't want them to all be the same size.

Make sure to keep about 1/2 a page of the red paper in reserve.

Start gluing your mosaic into place. you can follow the design of the original or come up with your own.

Take the reserved red paper and cut into long skinny triangles. Apply a little glue on the back and roll onto a pencil or knitting needle starting with the wide end.

This will make some beads for the necklace.

When you have a few beads tape a string under the jaw of the mask on one side.

Line up your beads, (both your handmade ones as well as some pony beads and/or buttons).

String these onto your piece of string and then secure the end on the other side of the jaw.

Finally you can add a coat of Mod Podge if you wish.

MATERIALS REQUIRED: Paper Version

- black paper
- pencil and eraser
- red, green and white tempera paint
- copies of archaeological maps
- glue
- white pencil crayon
- white paper
- black sharpie, pencil crayon,

PROCEDURE:

Take a sheet of black paper and trace out your mask shape in pencil.

Using the white liquid tempera paint, paint in your eyes.

Start gluing on your mosaic design.

With paint, sharpie, or black pencil crayon color in your eyes.

When the mosaic is dry cut out mask. You can add some detail with the white pencil crayon if you wish.

Glue to a contrasting background.

That's it.

In the Style of van Gogh: Remembrance Day Painting and Giveaway Results

2011-11-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

This is "Field of Poppies" by Vincent van Gogh 1890.

As a Remembrance Day art project I wanted Grade 3 to try and recreate this composition.

This was the sample I used for the class.

Those of you who attended my ECEC workshop on "From Primitive to Post Modern" will recall my comments on teaching Impressionism to kids.

The difficulty with painted art projects is that the kids get so intent on those dabs of paint that often you lose the composition...it's gets away from them. You can try this method to help keep it together.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- disk tempera paint (blue, green, yellow)
- powdered tempera paint (blue, green, yellow, white, red)
- containers to mix up paint in
- water
- paintbrushes, art boards
- wc paper or heavy sketch paper, even white cardstock will suffice
- reference photos
- pencil

PROCEDURE:

Take your wc paper and tape off onto your art board. My initial sample was quite large when I realized it was probably better for the kids to only focus on a smaller sized project. (8 x 10)

Show the kids reference photos, discuss Impressionism in terms of art history, the idea of a fleeting moment or that visual rush of movement. (i.e. spinning round in a field). Discuss the way van Gogh used brushstrokes and heavy paint texture to achieve that movement.
I had the kids draw a horizon line and then asked them to draw another line in the ground section to create 2 meadows.

Then using the disk tempura I asked them to paint a wash in each section. Blue for the sky and green and yellow for the meadow.

Let dry.

Mix up your powdered tempera. You want it quite thick and using small brushes get the kids to add those dabs of paint on top of the now dry wash. I asked the kids to vary their brushstrokes so that the kind the used for the sky, say sideways, was different from the brushstrokes to represent the grass.

I also asked them to clump their brushstrokes. I was trying to prevent them from creating just a pattern of dots. This needed to be reinforced as they would get into this repeating action of just dabbing. That holding back so there was some negative space on the paper proved difficult for some of them.

The poppies were added last. I also asked them to place a few green dabs in a line in the sky to represent those far off trees. Let the paint dry.

Finally we added trunks to our trees using a fine sharpie. Mount on black paper for final presentation. That's it. I'm hoping to have more pictures of the final student results for you later today.

On to the giveaway, I had a total of 56 entries for the "Crazy for Cake Pops" by Molly Bakes.

After a random draw the winner was my 23rd email entry which turned out to be Rhonda who emailed me yesterday and said:

"Love your posts! Would love to win book and begin making cake pops with my daughter! Thanks, Rhonda"

Thanks everyone for entering! Due the holiday on Friday I probably won't be back till next week with more projects I featured at the conference and of course new holiday projects as Christmas is creeping up fast. See you then.

Book Review and Design Post on the Hive

2011-11-07T09:44:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! I know it was quiet last week on the blog but with the ECEC Conference and an unexpected cold I was swamped.

First off I have a featured post on Creating the Hive you might want to check out. I have joined their Design Team and I am having lots of fun trying out new products and designing projects to go with them. If you like the looks of these Gnome Santas visit the Hive for the full tutorial.

Next up, I was asked to review this little book. I know it's a baking book but each creation is like a tiny "delicious" work of art and I knew the kids would be all over this.

As usual I will be having a giveaway draw you can enter to win your own copy.

"Crazy for Cake Pops" by Molly Bakes is a soft cover cookbook with 50 cake-on-a-stick designs.
- 156 pages
- 6.5"X 9" book (16.5cmX 23cm).

My daughter and I spent a few nights oohing and aahing over the designs trying to figure out what we would make.

In the end in honor of "Movember" this month we decided to make the Moustache pops.

We used chocolate instead of candy melts (an alternative that Molly also recommends).

Although we may have lost a little definition in our shapes due to this change my 2 boys had lots of fun wearing their moustaches and eating them too!

Can't wait to try out these adorable chickens!

and who wouldn't want a Monkey or a Giraffe pop?

All in all we had a great family afternoon creating the Moustache pops and even more fun eating them. The recipe turned out just like described in the book and although with my cold I couldn't really smell or taste (for that matter) anything the rest of the family gave it a big "thumbs up".

So if you are interested in winning your own copy of "Crazy for Cake Pops" by Molly Bakes, please enter by:

- leaving a comment on this post

- by sending me an email at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca

- or by commenting or liking this post on my Facebook page

I will make the draw on Wednesday November 9th, 2011 so you have until midnight Tuesday. US and Canadian residents only please.

Please check out the Hive and I will be back soon with details of the projects I presented at the conference.
Take care everyone.

Review and Giveaway copies graciously provided by Beth Cook Publicity.

In the Style of Friedrich: Spooky Trees

2011-10-31T06:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Halloween everyone! I have been waiting to do this post....Caspar David Friedrich 1774-1840 was a German landscape painter often thought of as one of the key artists of Romanticism. I often present his work "Monk by the Seashore" when teaching open composition. Today we are looking at his "Abbey in an Oak Forest" which shows his atmospheric use of light and his great "spooky" trees.

Using Friedrich's work as inspiration you can create a great spooky scene in very little time. Perfect Halloween art project.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- yellow construction paper
- black washable markers
- water
- paintbrush
- black disk tempera
- black paper
- small scrap of repositionable contact paper, optional
- glue
- scissors

PROCEDURE:

Using your black washable markers draw out your spooky trees. Although I was adding parts of the building here it actually looks better if you just concentrate on the trees.

If you have some of that contact paper lying around trace out a circle. If you don't have any don't sweat it you can add a moon with some yellow paper later.

Apply to the area where you want your moon to be.

Using plain water brush over your trees. Just enough to moisten.

Immediately your trees will begin to bleed and distort...perfect!

Let dry. It won't take too long and don't worry if your paper starts to ripple, that's what you want.

Using the tempera disk paint mix a really watery black. Paint in the horizon line as well as the dark sky. Leave mostly yellow in the sky near the horizon line.

Paint right over top that contact paper sticker.

Let dry, will only take a few minutes.

Remove sticker. If you didn't have any contact paper now is the time you can cut a circle out of yellow paper and glue into place.

Cut a spooky house out of black paper and glue onto your paper.

You can some details with a fine sharpie if you wish.

That's it...a very easy spooky scene. Check out this website for more of Friedrich's trees.

Hope everyone has a great Halloween!

In the Style of Louise Bourgeois and Giveaway Results

2011-10-27T16:03:00.001-06:00

Before I announce the winner of the 2 books I thought I would introduce 2 new art projects based on the work of Louise Bourgeois, a sculptor known for these huge "spiders". (titled Maman) For her they were a nod to her mother, who like a weaver held things together, "was deliberate, neat, clever, patient, indispensable and as useful as a spider"

Incidentally these projects were inspired by the "Let's Make Some Great Art" book by Marion Deuchars which we are giving away today.

My kids are quite intrigued by them and they kinda fit with Halloween.

The first project is a painting / pastel resist.

The second project is a papier mache model of "Maman".

First Project:Paint/pastel resist

MATERIALS REQUIRED:
- wc paper
- pencil and eraser
- disk tempera or wc paint
- paintbrush
- oil pastels
- eye dropper
- fine sharpie
- reference photos of Ms. Bourgeois's work

PROCEDURE:

Tape down your paper to your art board.

Sketch in a horizon line and then start adding a city skyline. You want to get the buildings quite small to allow lots of room for your gigantic spider.

With oil pastels go over the outlines of the buildings, add some windows and a few details.

Paint in your sky.

Paint in your buildings. We used a grey wash. The pastel will resist the paint.

Then paint in the ground.

Mix up some water into your black paint to get an inky consistency. using your eye dropper suck up that paint and place it where you want the body of your spider to be.

Using a thin paintbrush pull the paint down to make a squiggly leg. You don't want it too perfect here.

You can scrumble it a bit as you go. Scrumbling means twisting and turning that paintbrush as you are applying paint.

Let dry and then you can add some details. My boys were insistent upon giving the spiders red eyes and having people reacting to these large spiders walking thru their city.

Project 2: Papier Mache Spider

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- small paper plate
- wire
- hockey, or masking tape
- 1/2 of a white pipe cleaner
- paper towels cut into strips
- white glue, recycled container, water
- paint

PROCEDURE:

Take your paper plate, turn upside down and poke 8 holes with a sharp pencil. Space them out around the edge.

Cut 4 pieces of wire about 14 or 15 inches or so. Starting with 1 piece thread both ends into 2 of the holes.

Turn the plate over and twist the 2 ends together. Then take your hockey or masking tape and wrap around the ends. This just keeps those sharp ends from poking anyone.

Repeat this with the remaining 3 pieces.

Take your 1/2 pipe cleaner and wind amongst the wires at the top forming the body of the spider.

Put some wax or parchment paper down on your work space. An old plastic bag will also work.

Mix up your glue and water into your recycled container in a one to one ratio.

Using the paper strips, dip into glue mixture and start winding around the wire. It helps to start at the top and work your way down. It also helps immensely if you always wind in the same direction, (that way you don't untwist the last strip you just put on!)

Cover the plate as well.

Put in a warm dry spot to dry. Ours dried in about 24 hrs.

Paint with tempera or acrylic.

There you have it a large "Maman" coming your way.

So on to the giveaway for:

"My Even More Wonderful World of Fashion" by Nina Chakrabarti and "Let's Make Some Great Art" by Marion Deuchars.

I had 126 entries,( comments, facebook, emails) whew!.... and the winner chosen by random drawing .........

........was 57 in the comment section (not counting doubles) which works out to be
Juise: who said

"What fun looking books! Thanks for the chance. :) "

Juise, if you could send me your shipping address at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca
I can arrange to get those books out to you (lucky duck)!

Thanks everyone for entering and don't despair there will be another giveaway very soon.

That's it for now, make sure you try a "Maman" spider. I am absolutely swamped getting ready for the Early Childhood Education Conference in Kananaskis next week. I'm presenting 2 workshops so hope to see you there.

This is what my workspace is looking like these days!

later

Book Reviews and Giveaway

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000-06:00

My 2 friends and I would like to introduce you to 2 new titles from Laurence King Publishing, graciously provided by my friends at Raincoast books.

"My Even More Wonderful World of Fashion" by Nina Chakrabarti, is great for all those future Project Runway candidates.

Soft cover and over 200 pages of prompts to get you drawing and designing your next "fashionista" collection.

"Let's Make Some Great Art" by Marion Deuchars is also soft cover and full of prompts, techniques and art history. Lots of art projects in the making here.

I really enjoyed the artist profiles and accompanying projects.

So if you are interested in winning both of these books please leave me a comment on this post, an email (thatartistwoman@shaw.ca ), or a like/comment on Facebook.

You have until Wednesday 11:59pm and the results will be posted Thursday. U.S. and Canadian residents only. Good Luck everyone!

2ZTHAQ7QQUK4

Halloween Jumping Jacks

2011-10-20T18:32:00.001-06:00

I've been meaning to post another "jumping jack" project for some time. It seems to fit the Halloween theme so here we go.

I made up 2 versions for you.

Nothing like an art project you can create and then play with.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- templates, PUMPKIN, FRANKENSTEIN
- this cardboard, like a cereal box
- scissors, pencil
- gesso
- paint/paintbrush or pencil crayons, felts, crayons, any medium to add color
- paper fasteners
- string
- bead for the pull
- hole punch
- embroidery or crochet weight thread and needle
- ribbon for hanger
- Mod podge, optional

PROCEDURE:

Using templates trace out pieces onto your cardboard and cut out.

With really young kids, (Kinders), I have taken the template and just glued it onto the cardboard.

If you want you can give your pieces a coat of primer or gesso.

When the gesso has dried add color to your "jack". Decorate with any medium you want, you can add embellishments like googly eyes.

Now you are ready to string your "jack". It looks more complicated than it is and once you've strung one you can do it in minutes.

The holes on the template are just guidelines. Put the upper arm into place behind the body piece. Have it sticking straight out and using the hole punch, punch holes thru both pieces.

Now if you want a nice strong puppet you can give all the pieces a coat of Mod podge after you have punched the holes, wait until dry and then assemble.

Slip in a paper fastener. I'm using the large ones like we have at school but you can get a whole range of sizes and colors now at the craft store.

Bend down your ends, keep it pretty loose. Sometimes I cut the ends down with the nippers if they stick out too much.

Do all the joints in the same fashion.

Take your crochet or embroidery thread and thread your needle. Make sure the puppet is is a relaxed position, arms and legs down. Now starting with the upper arms push the needle thru the cardboard, placement is important here, it's the little circle marked on the templates.

Tie the string off and then thread to the other arm. You don't have to make it super tight but there shouldn't be slack in the line connecting the arms.

Do the same with the legs.

Take your string and tie a knot in the middle of the thread joining the arms.

Pass the string down and under the thread joining the legs.

Holding the string down loop it around and tie a knot in the middle of the thread joining the legs. You need to make sure there is no slack between in the string between the arms and the legs.

Test the mechanism, if it's not working unknot your string and try again!

Tie on a bead for the pull at the end of the string.

Tie a loop in a piece of ribbon and stick to the back of the head of your puppet.

Hang them up or just hold them and you're ready to make them dance.

See you soon for another great giveaway next time.

Halloween Cat Art Project

2011-10-17T11:56:00.000-06:00

Here is another Halloween art project. It's 3D with the cat sitting out from the pumpkin background.

Very easy to make and makes a nice display for those Halloween themed bulletin boards or at home. Make a small one with the ground equal in size to the pumpkin and you have a pop up card.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- black cardstock
- wc paper (14x12 or so)
- pencil
- tempera disk paints
- glue
- scissors
- white pencil crayon
- templates, Cat BODY and Cat HEAD
- colored paper (optional)

PROCEDURE:

On your wc paper or heavy sketch paper fold up the bottom 2 inches.

Flatten out again and sketch out a pumpkin shape using the fold line as the bottom of the pumpkin. You want the pumpkin to be as big as you can make it on that paper.

In the bottom 2 inches draw a few leaves keeping most of the bottom paper.

Using your tempera disk paint, liquid tempera or wc paint add color to your sketch.

Using the templates trace out the cat body and head onto black paper. Use a white pencil crayon so you can see it.

Cut out.

Now you could use colored paper to make your eyes, nose, and inner ears or you can paint them on scrap wc paper.

Cut out and glue into place on your cat head. Using that white pencil crayon again draw in the whiskers and mouth.

Following guidelines on the template fold body and head.

Turn cat head to the back and apply some glue on the lower part of the tab after the last fold line.

Stick it onto the back of your cat body so that the fold lines match up.

When your pumpkin background is dry cut it out.

Fold up that bottom 2 inches on the fold line you've already made.

Apply glue to the back of the cat and the bottom inch that is folded up.

Do not put any glue on the tail above the fold line or on the head.

Stick onto background matching the fold lines of the bottom 2 inches of the background and the bottom of the cat.

That's it!

Now that wasn't so hard was it. If you find your cat sagging a bit from the background you can add an extra strip of posterboard along the bottom fold line in the back for extra support.

See you soon,

Halloween Inchies Part 2 and Giveaway Results

2011-10-14T10:11:00.000-06:00

So this is part 2 of the "inchie" post and at the end I'll reveal the winner of the "How To Be The Best BubbleWriter In The World Ever" giveaway.

For the Spiderweb square I used a twistable white crayon as a resist. You can also use oil pastel. You draw in your spiderweb design on the white square (I know, I know, white on white is hard to see but if you angle it in the light you can see the sheen of the crayon).

Paint it with purple tempera and your spiderweb will instantly appear.

Draw in some spider legs with a sharpie and then add a blob of black paint for the spider. With the kids I think I'll use a Q-tip to make the spider.

For the cat square I cut out a rounded triangle out of black paper and glued it on, used a sharpie to make the ears, cut out eyes from yellow paper and used the sharpie again to mark in the pupils. Glue eyes on. I used a white gel marker to make whiskers and then glued in a small yellow triangle. For really young kids you could base it on basic shapes and have them pre cut.

For the group of ghosts square I painted the background purple. I used some white labels and cut out some ghost shapes. Stick onto your square and then draw in the eyes and mouths.

For the beetle, (Beetlejuice) square paint a oval and let dry. Taking chalk or pastel, color around oval and smear.

Add some details with (you guessed it) a sharpie......man I should have bought stock in that company ...mod podge too!

For Frank I painted a square purple, let dry and then cut out a pocket shape from old green painted paper (it pays to have that painted paper stash!) . Glue onto square.

Then I cut out a rectangle from black paper and cut a spiky hairline (with young kids those decorative scissors work great for this), glue on to googly eyes. I also cut 2 little squares from my metal tape, you could use sequins or stickers. Add a mouth and that one is done.

For the owl square I painted it orange and let dry. Using my stamp pad I stamped a thumbprint.

Punched 2 eyes from white paper and glued those on. Color in pupils with you know who (Mr. Sharpie)!

Add a few details (feet, wings, tuffs) and glue on a yellow beak. I should of done 2 as there was room.

There you have it all 12 squares. Inchie Twinchie mania is taking over the school. If you set this up as a center in a corner of your room you will always have a free time activity ready to go. I am cutting inchies by the hundreds for all the teachers. Give each child a ziploc to store them as you go and in no time you'll have collections to put on display!

On to the giveaway......I had to do this draw the old fashioned way as I discovered I couldn't rely on Facebook to give me a timestamp for each entry over there, go figure. So out of 108 total entries (comments, emails, likes) the winner is

Jane from Out of the Crayon Box who was the 15th comment on the blog and said:

Awesome! Teaching an early appreciation of fonts! I am sure my 4th graders would be very motivated by this one. Count me in.

October 11, 2011 8:29 PM

Congrats Jane! it is an awesome book and I know your students are going to love it. Thanks everyone for entering and there are more book giveaways coming so please enter again. That's it from me now, must return to school so grade 3 can finish painting those Batiks. See you next week.

Halloween Inchies Part 1

2011-10-13T06:00:00.000-06:00

Well I just can't seem to get enough of these inchies or in my case a "twinchie" as I make our squares at school 2" x 2", just easier for those little fingers.

Now normally I only do a 9 square composition but I threw in an extra row in case you don't want the "BOO". Remember each one of these squares can also be a large art project....you just might need to alter it a bit.

As always you can click on the picture to see larger.

I'm dividing this "How to" into 2 parts (it's just too big) so check back for Part 2.

I always start an "inchie' project by doodling out a plan. Once I have an idea of what I want in the squares I fiddle with it to make them interesting to create.....it then goes thru the assembly line process at school where I'll change things based on supplies we have on hand or how independently the kids can manage the process.

MATERIALS REQUIRED: Remember use whatever you have, these are just suggestions

- wax paper
- black and red sharpies
-repositional contact paper
- 2" x 2" squares of wc paper or nice drawing/sketch paper
- tempera disk paint
- Black liquid tempera
- masking tape
- googly eyes
- black crayon
- colored paper
- glue
- white labels
- tissue paper
- buttons
- letter stamps and stamp pad
- white crayon or twistable

PROCEDURE:

For the Mummy square I first took some masking tape, ripped off strips and stuck them onto the inchie. Work on top of a piece of wax paper.

Using some watery black tempera (disk) paint over your square.

Wipe off the excess.

Trim off excess tape from edges, glue on 2 googly eyes, and draw in a mouth with a sharpie.

For the haunted house square first paint a background (graded wash) in stripes of color staring with yellow, to orange, to purple. Let the colors mingle a bit.

When dry drop in a bead of black liquid tempera paint at the bottom.

Using an old credit card or gift card scrape the paint up creating a spooky looking building. Add a bit of paint to the bottom edge for a horizon.

When dry you can cut out pieces of colored paper to glue on for windows. Use a fine sharpie to add a nice roof line to your house as well as a tree.

This project is similar to the Halloween Silhouettes.

The pumpkin square has a purple background, just paint it in with some tempera disk and set aside to dry.

Take a piece of white paper and using a glue stick glue down strips of colored tissue.

Cut out a pumpkin shape and glue this on to your purple background when it has dried.

You can add a green stem. Glue on 2 button eyes an a mouth.

The "B is for BAT" square is just a B stamp with little bats drawn in in sharpie.

For the eyeball square I cut out a sticker from repositional contact paper and stuck it to my square.

Paint yellow and let dry. The contact paper resists the paint.

When dry remove sticker.

Paint in a green iris and black pupil. Add some red wiggly lines for that "bloodshot" look.

For the other "O" I printed off some Halloween type words from the computer.

Glue inchie on to paper, I like to make mine titled. Trim off excess.

Using a crayon make that other "O".

Well that's part 1 check back tomorrow for the "how to" on the rest of the squares.

You have until midnight tonight to enter the "How To Be The Best Bubble Writer In The World Ever" book.

See you tomorrow.

"How To Be The Best Bubble Writer In The World Ever" Review and Giveaway

2011-10-11T16:46:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a relaxing "Thanksgiving" weekend. I know I did, spending my days reading and collecting maple leaves for the Leaf Banner Project I started with Grade 1 today.

I thought I'd start things off this week with a review and giveaway.

"How To Be The Best Bubblewriter In The World Ever" is a new book by Linda Scott. My friends over at Raincoast Books supplied me with a copy to review and another for one of you lucky readers to win!

First the facts:

- 72 pages, 8.5 X 11
- soft cover
- suggested retail is $14.95 US or $16.95 CAN but I found it on sale at Chapters for $12.88
- has worksheets and projects for you to complete included

Now on to the fun stuff.

Linda shows you how to make 36 different alphabets ranging from "Hairy Monster" to "Space Invaders". Very cool and I can envision lots of projects already.

She also includes pages for you to make your own cards, party invitations, bookmarks, comics, signs, etc.

Within an hour of receiving this book my kids were already fighting over it.

My 13 yr old used it for a poster she needed to complete for homework, my 11 yr old was writing "space invader" everywhere and my 8 yr old wanted to fill in every blank.

I was especially thrilled by the 8 yr old who is struggling with penmanship at school. The fact that he wanted to practice printing styles floored me.

He even took the book to the cabin this weekend to get a little more "practice" in. ( a Mom's dream come true).

So on to the giveaway, if you are interested in winning your own copy of "How To Be The Best Bubblewriter In The World Ever" leave me a comment on this post or email me at: thatartistwoman@shaw.ca

You can also comment or "like it" on my Facebook page as an entry.
(see Facebook button on sidebar)

I will make the draw on Friday, Oct 14th so you have till midnight Thursday.
This draw is open to US and Canadian residents only.

Good Luck everyone.

Plaster Leaf Prints

2011-10-04T17:20:00.000-06:00

Here is a plaster leaf print project that is very easy to do with dramatic results. I posted a similar one 2 years ago, Salt Dough Leaf Prints.

With plaster the results are very quick and you don't have to bake them for 2 hours.

Grade 6 cast their prints today and I have a troop of Cubs completing their prints tonight.

ooooh such Fall loveliness!

Don't let plaster work intimidate you it's really pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- small squares of Burlap
- Plaster of Paris, (I buy mine at the Hardware store by the carton or the bag)
- old yogurt container for mixing, or 2 , or 3,
- stick or old spoon, I use a chopstick
- newspaper
- water
- a really nice leaf, not dried out but still pliable
- some acrylic paint in Fall colors
- Mod Podge, acrylic medium, or white school glue

PROCEDURE:

Gather up all your supplies.

Cover you work space with an old vinyl tablecloth, art board, or newspaper.

If your leaf is thin and tears easily it might be a good idea to apply a thin coat of Vaseline on the back of the leaf. This will ensure it releases from the plaster.

I use an old yogurt container for mixing my plaster. After I mix and pour I let the excess set in the container and then crunch the container a little. The old plaster just flakes off and I can then throw it out and reuse the container for the next plaster project.

If you are pouring for a class or making alot of these have several containers so you can continue to mix and pour while the excess plaster is setting up in the previous container.

Lay out some newspaper. Put down your squares of burlap.

Have your leaves at the ready.

At school I did this with small groups calling up 4 kids at a time. The rest of the class worked on painting Frescoes.

If you have never used plaster before do a little test batch to get your feet wet.

Mix up a small amount of plaster. I use a disposable drink cup to pour the dry plaster into the container and then add your water. It's 2 parts plaster to 1 part water but to be honest I don't measure any more. You'll learn to get the feel of it as you go.

Mix frantically to get it nice and smooth. It will be like thick buttermilk in consistency....keep mixing when it becomes like yogurt start pouring.

Pour out onto the burlap. Pour out the 4 or so you are doing and then go right back and shimmy the burlap a bit to flatten it and release the air bubbles.

Place your leaves into the plaster. You want them face up with the veins and texture side on the plaster.

Using your fingertips lightly press those edges down and make sure the whole back surface is touching the plaster.

See here is a leaf cast where a portion of the leaf wasn't touching leaving that gap.

Let the plaster set up for about 10 - 15 minutes and then peel back the leaf to reveal the print.

If some leaf bits remain just go back and take them out.

Here are the Grade 6 prints in process.

Let your plaster set up fully. Let it dry for a day or so.

Fray the edges of your burlap a bit for a nice look.

Now you might just want to leave it white but if you want to add a paint wash you need to coat the cast with a thin coat of Mod Podge or acrylic medium first. You could even use a thin coat of white school glue if need be.

Plaster absorbs paint like crazy, in order to get that nice wash effect you need to put in that sealer first.

Let dry.

Put a little bit of acrylic paint on your palette. Add some water to thin it out and then paint in where the leaf left it's imprint.

If you make a mistake just rub away the paint with a moist paper towel and try again.....that's the great thing about having that sealer coat.

That's it. A great Fall accent for your home .

Give it a try and I'll see you next time!

Thanksgiving Batiks

2011-10-03T06:00:00.000-06:00

Well Thanksgiving is just one week away and we were busy making our turkey shirts using the Gel Glue Batik method. You can also check out the Fall Batik that I do with Grade 3 every year.

I also made a table runner. I used some fabric I had on hand that had a nap to it and unfortunately it didn't take the paint as well as I would have liked.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- fabric or T shirts
- pencil
- cardboard and wax paper
- washable gel glue, I get mine from the Dollar store
- acrylic craft paint
- paintbrush
- water
- tub for soaking
- dryer

PROCEDURE:

Before starting lay your fabric on top of wax paper. If you are doing a shirt slide a piece of wax papered cardboard inside to prevent the glue from transferring to the back of the shirt.

As I've shown you many times we start off putting our design on in pencil first.

We then go in with our gel glue and go over our lines as well as anyplace we want to remain white or the original color of the fabric.

I buy my gel glue from the Dollar Store but you can also use Elmer's Gel School glue.

If you find the bottle too difficult for your little ones to squeeze just put some in a little cup and use a paintbrush.

Your lines will be a bit thicker but I find it works quite well.

Let the glue dry flat overnight and then using acrylic craft paint and some added water to make it flow well paint in your design.

The glue will resist the paint.

Let dry.

Soak in hot water, I use my laundry tub, until the glue dissolves. Sometimes I need to scrub it a little on the spots where there are gobs of glue.

Put in the dryer and you're done!

Wear your Turkey shirt with pride.

Migrating Ducks Art Project and Giveaway Results

2011-09-30T16:45:00.001-06:00

I know you are anxious for the giveaway results and I have kept you waiting almost all day.......but I've been working on this Duck project.

So first we'll do the ducks and then giveaway at the end

So maybe you remember that set of ceramic ducks on the wall of your Grandma's house, I sure do!

Why not make it an art project...perfect for Fall. The ducks haven't left yet but it's only a matter of time.

This is a set on painted cardboard which you could also make out of paper......

...and for the little guys you can make this handprint duck.

So let's get started.

First up the set of three:

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- templates, optional as you can always make your own but if you want mine
- Large duck Template#1 so this one is so big I have to give it to you in 2 parts
- Large duck Template #2
- Medium duck Template #3
- Small duck Template #4
- thin cardboard (cereal box)
- pencil, scissors
- gesso
- paint, I used acrylic
- Mod podge to seal
- wire/tape for hanging

PROCEDURE:

Using your templates trace out your 3 ducks on to your cardboard.

Cut out.

I gave mine a coat of Gesso.

Let dry.

Now start painting. I used acrylics so I want to put in my base coat colors first and then add my fine details and shading.

When you are finished painted add a coat or two of ModPodge. This will give the cardboard extra weight and protect it for years to come.

Add a hanger on the back.

Now you can easily make these out of posterboard instead and get the kids to use pastel or colored pencil.

Next up Handprint Ducks:

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- white wc paper
- blue tempera disk paint
- template, you can use mine, Handprint Duck Template #5
- colored paper
- brown liquid tempera paint
- googly eye, optional
- glue
- scissors
- pastels or colored pencils

PROCEDURE:

Tape down your wc paper on to your art board.

Paint in your blue background with tempera disk paint.

Let dry.

Using the template or designing your own cut out the body parts for your duck.

Glue onto your background in the center, make sure you have room for your handprints.

For the eye you can glue on a googly one or make one out of black paper and a hole punch.

Take some brown tempera paint and place on a plate. Shake a little to make the paint flatten a bit so you have a large surface to place your hand in to.

Dip hand in to paint and then make print on the paper.

We had our thumbs closest to the body which means you have to get both hands messy. (Oh what fun!!)

Wash up!

After paint is dried come in with some pastel or colored pencil to add a few details. As you can see we did it before the handprints but found we had to come back in again to add some to the wings so do it after.

That's it.
Some great looking DUCKS!

Incidently I got carried making templates so here are a few other ducks you could use:

Template #6 a
Template #6 b
Template #7

On to the Giveaway for this wonderful book: "Learn World Calligraphy".

I had 49 comments and 27 emails for a total of 76 entries.

Using Random.Org to choose our winner we get:

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-09-30 22:21:59 UTC

That works out to be by time entered:

Tara who emailed me on Sept 28th at 11:26 am and said:

"Hello Gail,

I follow your posts religiously and would love to receive this awesome resource."

Thanks everyone for entering and we will see you soon.....in the meantime make some ducks!

Learn World Calligraphy : Book Review and Giveaway

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000-06:00

"Learn World Calligraphy" is a recent release by author Margaret Shepherd. She has written 16 other books on calligraphy so she knows her stuff.

The unique thing about this book is span of calligraphy styles presented.

- Greek
- African
- Thai
- Tibetan
- Celtic
- Hebrew
- Chinese and Japanese
and list goes on.

The entire book has been hand lettered in multiple styles, giving it a very artsy feel. This allows you to get inspired just by reading the "How To".

Margaret also presents ways to incorporate lettering into your art projects, showing you historical pieces and ways you can duplicate and update them. I can see a lot of applications in my work. Just being able to add Greek characters to our "ancient civilizations" projects in Grade 6 is terrific.

I especially loved her ideas for taking a word, writing it in such a way that it graphically represents the object or meaning.....way cool!

So the details:

softcover
192 pages crammed with info, she actually super shrinked the index and credits so they are only 2 pages total
lots of pictures and examples
suggested retail $24.99U.S/$27.99 CAN

On to the Giveaway, if you are interested in winning your own copy of this amazing book you can leave me a comment on this post or email me at: thatartistwoman@shaw.ca

I will make the draw on Friday so you have until Thursday at 11:59 pm. The draw will be random based on time of your entry. U.S and Canadian residents only.

Good Luck everyone!

- review/giveaway copy provided by Newman Communications, Inc.

Turkey Line Drawing

2011-09-26T06:00:00.000-06:00

It will be Thanksgiving here in Canada in a few weeks so I thought I better put a few related projects up.

This is a good project for Grades 4 and up. Now usually we describe a contour line as an outline but here we are also using line to represent texture and a sense of 3 dimensional mass.

This is a good project to get kids to focus on details but in a very easy manner.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:
- dark colored paper, I used dark brown, dark colors contrast best with the white lines
- white tempera paint, white pencil crayon, white gel pens, or even white crayon
- turkey reference photos, feathers for reference
- pencil and eraser

PROCEDURE:

Draw out your outline in pencil.

Starting with that outline apply white paint.

When the outline is done start working on each feather section. You want to add some variety here so the feathers will look distinct from one another.

Color in some sections, use bold lines, thin lines, curved lines, straight lines just keep it consistent for each section.

When the tail is done start working on the body. You want to emphasize the roundness. Take your time.

That's it, although it appears quite complicated once you get started it's really not that hard.

Cat Portraits

2011-09-23T17:32:00.000-06:00

So the inspiration for this project came from a pillow in the Marie Claire Idees magazine (Sept 2009).

At first I was going to get the kids to cut their own versions from fabric and then mount them on posterboard but I thought it would be more interesting to get the kids to create their own print.

The original was made from lace.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:
- white paper
- tempera paints
- assorted odds and ends for printing, i.e. cardboard, bottle tops
- plasticine or modelling clay (optional)
- scraps of ribbon or printed fabric
- embellishments for collar
- black paper
- black markers or pencil crayons
- glue

PROCEDURE:

Before starting you can talk to the kids about textile patterns, bring in some samples to give them some ideas about print designs.

Take a large piece of white paper and paint your background color.

After the background has dried take your odds and ends and using a different color start creating a print design.

Here I'm using bits of corrugated cardboard, bottle tops, ends of pencils........whatever you have around that would make an interesting design.

If you have some plasticine you can make your own stamps. Etch in some lines with a toothpick.

I keep some scrap paper nearby as it's usually the 2nd or 3rd print you want. Use the scrap paper as a blot for your first print.

Let dry.

Turn your printed paper over and draw out your cat design.

Cut it out.

Glue on some eyes made from paper.

Add a nose and whiskers with paint, pencil crayon or marker.

Take some scraps of ribbon and make a collar. Glue down with tacky glue.

Turn over and glue the ends of the ribbon down.

Add an embellishment to the collar. Here I am using part of a doily.

Glue onto an oval background.

Then glue this to a black piece of paper as a mount.

You can add a little border with extra ribbon or using markers.

Here is a blue version.

The book print cat was made by creating a page decoupaged with pieces from an old book and using Mod Podge.

See you next week.

Large Papier Mache Pumpkin

2011-09-21T07:03:00.000-06:00

This is just a short post to show you another variation of the papier mache pumpkin.

We follow the same procedure as before we just use these large pumpkins. For the nose I made a cone out of cardstock and then taped it on the face.

The eyes are 2 sections from an egg carton, taped on and papier mached over.

You only need 2 coats of mache. Let dry and then paint with acrylic or tempera.

If you want to keep it on display outside use an outdoor sealer.

How to do a Rooster Wycinanki and Variations

2011-09-19T18:51:00.001-06:00

So I've been trying to design a Rooster project.

Last year I gave you a brief introduction to Wycinanki or Polish paper friezes. The rooster is a very traditional design.

In this post I'll give you directions and the templates for this design(probably Grade 4 and up). If you are teaching younger grades keep reading as I have some easy variations for you to try.

Now with wycinanki it is usually cut out of 1 piece of paper and all connected. I cheat, cutting in sections, and then pasting together. It's just easier for the kids this way, no need for Xacto blades.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- black paper
- colored paper or tissue
- white paper for mounting
- template #1
- template #2
- white pencil crayon
- scissors
- tacky glue

PROCEDURE:

Fold your black paper in half and trace out the rooster design. You can make up your own or follow the template. (template #1) Make sure to place it on the fold.

A white pencil crayon works well.

Cut out 3 designs. The main rooster, a top design , and something for the bottom.

Unfold and then glue your pieces onto a piece of white paper. Now designs are usually circular so you could mount on a white circle and even add a black circular border.

Build up your design with bits of colored paper. I included some of these shapes on template #2. You can use tissue paper if you want.

Glue into place with tacky glue. You can put a piece of wax paper on top and then place a heavy book on top of that to get it to dry really flat if you wish.

VARIATIONS:

Now for younger kids you might want to do just a basic rooster.

I have the templates for this guy here;

template #3, template #4, and template #5.

You can cut the main shape out of black paper and add the colored shapes just like the previous project.

Or you might want to try something like this.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- brown kraft paper or paper bags
- template #3
- oil pastels and colored pencils
- book pages, newspaper, maps, etc.
- paint
- glue
- scissors
- plastic wrap

PROCEDURE:

For this rooster I wanted some interesting papers to create with so you start off by painting your book pages or newspaper, or map paper.

I also like to add another layer of interest so after the first coat of paint is dry I add another color (usually in the same family or an analogous color). Use different objects to make a repeating print, splatter, sponge, dry brush, paint stripes, whatever catches your eye.

While your patterned papers are drying paint a background for your rooster.

While the paint was still wet I smooshed in a piece of plastic wrap and left it to dry. (don't remove that plastic wrap until it is dry)

Using the basic shape (template #3) trace it onto brown kraft paper or a piece of paper bag.

Using pastels add some color and outline your features with colored pencil.

Cut out your rooster.

Glue the rooster to your background when dry.

Using your patterned papers that you made cut out an assortment of tail feathers and glue onto your rooster.

Add some wing feathers too.

Give one of these roosters a try and I'll see you next time!

How to Make Fall Inchies

2011-09-14T16:20:00.001-06:00

So here is a Fall version of the Inchie project. When I polled Grade 2 last June, asking "what was your favorite art project this year?" the Inchie project won hands down.

The kids really liked the assembly line stations.

Now each one of these squares is an art project in it's own right and you could easily just do a large version of any one of these.

PLEASE CLICK ON PHOTO TO SEE LARGER

MATERIALS REQUIRED: (don't freak out now.....)

- little inchie squares, I cut mine 2" x 2" as they are easier to work with, use wc paper, heavy sketch paper, whatever you have on hand
- tempera disk paint or watercolors (pan or tube)
- paintbrush
- oil pastels or wax crayons
- some assorted papers (newspaper, old painted papers from your stash, etc)
- contact paper or masking tape
- a nickel
- a kleenex tissue
- glue
- a straw
- some raffia or tissue (optional)
- an old book page (can be photocopied if you prefer)
- some poppy seeds (optional)
- a small square of plastic wrap
- a small bit of modeling clay or plasticine
- toothpick
- a little googly eye
- sharpies, markers, or pencil crayons
- little alphabet stamps if you have them
- paper for mounting

whew.....honestly just adapt and use what you have that's the whole point of this project.

PROCEDURE:

I like using 9 squares. A good number for a real nice collection/display yet not overwhelming.

Now one thing I have talked about before with an inchie project is you don't have to do them all in one sitting.

- you could set it up as a center, one square a day, or however many you have time for.
- give each child an envelope and as the squares are completed (and dried) just have them keep it in their desk until you are ready to mount.

You can also do all the backrounds one session and then let these dry.

Come back and finish them off in a second session and mount your collection.

Now the first square is just a painted yellow background and some leaves cut out of colored/painted paper with FALL stamped on with.

I keep a stash of painted papers.I always get a few of the kids to paint extra pages whenever we do a project.

If you don't have a stash you can use colored paper, scrapbook paper, etc.

Now this is from a different project but you can see the little alphabet stamps I use. I get them from Michael's in the dollar bin (yes, seriously!) I have many many sets.

The next one is a sunset. You want to paint on some yellow and then some orange at the top.

While the paint is still wet wrap the nickel in a kleenex and lift out a sun.

When the sky dries paint in your horizon line with brown paint, leaving 1/2 the sun.

You could do a large one similar to this project.

The 3rd square uses a sticker resist. Now I cut mine out of repositionable contact paper. (check out this post to learn about it)

You could also use painter's tape cut into the shape you want.

I chose candy corn, one of my favorite Fall indulgences, but you could do a leaf, pumpkin, apple, pear, squash, etc.

Stick on your sticker and paint on your background color, go right over the sticker it will resist the paint.

When the square has dried remove the sticker and color in the details, use a fine marker or pencil crayon to outline if you wish.

You then can add stamps or cut out letters and words. For a class I'll print out words off the computer.

Now the next square is just a little version of this project.

Paint your square with a few Fall colors. With the square being so small just put a few drops of watery color at the corners and then shake the square to mix them just a bit.

When dry put a drop of black paint on the edge and blow with the straw. Add some more drops along the trunk if needed and blow additional branches.

For the crow square, have the kids glue the inchie to an old book page. Trim off the excess and draw in your crow.

I added a little googly eye.

The little cobs of corn square is made from paper that has been splattered with paint in fall colors.

At school I use a splatter box with the kids. This saves me lots of clean-up at the end.

Cut out a few little cobs and the glue onto your background with a little bit of raffia.

The pumpkin square is a pastel resist. Draw on your pumpkin with oil pastel or wax crayons and then paint on a background color.

The sunflower square is based on this project.

Paint your background blue, cut out some petals and glue them on and then add a few poppy seeds for the middle.

The last square I did a plastic wrap effect background. Paint some Fall colors on your square and then before they dry add a little piece of plastic wrap on top. Smoosh it a little to get a few wrinkles and then leave on until dry. (a few minutes)

I then made a modelling clay/ plasticine stamp. Kids love to make these stamps and we have tons of plasticine at school.

Take a little piece, roll into a little log. For a leaf shape I taper the ends a bit. Pound one of the ends on the table a little bit to flatten the surface and then using a toothpick carve in the veins of the leaf.

Put a little bit of tempera on a plate (flatten out the paint on the surface with a paintbrush) and then use your stamp. Stamp the first impression on some paper to blot a bit and then use the 2nd or 3rd impression. When you are done just wipe off the stamp and put the plasiticine in a plastic bag. You can reuse it over and over again to make more stamps.

Once all your squares have dried mount in a collection on some colored paper.

I double mounted this one.

That's it. I love making these collections and I'm sure your kids will too!

Give it a try.

Papier Mache Pumpkin Tower

2011-09-13T09:21:00.000-06:00

Ok, next up with our series on "altering those little plastic pumpkins" is this Pumpkin Tower (totem pole).

It's based on this wooden pumpkin tower (totem pole) that I made several years ago.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- 2 of those little plastic pumpkins from the Dollar store
- white glue
- a few paper towels
- water
- recycled container for the glue mix
- sheet of wax or parchment paper, or an old plastic bag
- paint, acrylic or tempera
- Mod Podge, optional

PROCEDURE:

Cut or tear your paper towels into strips. Mix up your white glue with some warm water (makes it feel less yucky for the kids) in your recycled container. 1 to 1 ratio.

Remove the plastic handle.

Working on top of your wax paper,

start covering your little pumpkin with strips crossing the ends over.

The middle pumpkin only needs a couple of coats but for the bottom one you want it to be a bit larger so add a few more.

Add a few features in papier mache to the faces.

Leave the opening in the plastic pumpkin as is, you don't need to cover it over.

For the top pumpkin I took a 1/2 sheet of paper towel and scrunched it into a ball. I then papier mache a layer or two on top of this. You could also use paper, foil or newspaper.

Try to keep it smaller than your middle pumpkin.

When you added all the features you want let dry. You'll need to turn them every so often to get all sides to dry out.

When they have dried out, (a couple of days), paint with acrylic or tempera.

I wanted my top pumpkin to have a witch hat so I made one out of felt.

I used the glue gun but you could use tacky glue.

Glue on top of your little pumpkin.

Then start gluing your tower together. I used the glue gun as I was a bit impatient but you could use tacky glue again here.

Now if after gluing your tower doesn't stand up you can push in the bottom of large pumpkin. This should help.

If you want you can seal the pumpkins with Mod Podge for a nice shiny coat.

.........and that's it. You can vary your tower having the faces looking out at slightly different positions if you want.

I also do a variation of this with Grade 1 and Kindergarten using paper. We talk about facial expressions and try to get 3 different looks to our pumpkins.

Give it a try and I'll see you next time.

Chalk Pastel Sunflowers

2011-09-12T06:00:00.000-06:00

So this is a pastel project using a glue resist method I've seen several times.Most notably I've seen Kathy over at "Art Projects for Kids" use this many times. I wanted to test the boundaries of this technique so I did a few experiments.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- chalk pastels, you can also try regular chalk, (results will vary, see below)
- black paper (cardstock, construction, tinted sketch)
- regular school white glue
- kleenex tissue
- pencil and eraser

Trace out your design in pencil. I wanted to use odd cuts of paper for visual interest.

-Open(cropped) composition.

Now take your regular school glue or tacky glue and go over your outline. Make sure you work on a flat surface.

I'm working on top of wax paper as my lines go off the page.

Let dry flat.

When dry you can snip off any little ends from the glue that go past the page.

Using the pastel add color in the sections marked off by the color and smudge. Keep a tissue handy to wipe your fingers off.

Now I found the best way to approach this is to add color in small sections. You can discuss with the kids the use of more than one color for each section as we have highlights and shading.

But when smudging I found it best to start with the lightest color first and then smudge into the dark. This helps to keep those light colors from getting lost. Wipe off fingers and then go to next part. (for example I would smudge one petal, wipe, and then smudge the next).

Now I know not everyone has access to chalk pastels so I wanted to see how regular colored chalk would work.

This is done with chalk pastels.

and this is done with regular colored chalk. We have fewer colors to work with and we don't have that richness in the colors but still do-able.

I tried this technique with oil pastels but found the glue sections very hard to smudge. I could foresee lots of frustration and ripped papers for the kids so I recommend this only for chalk pastels.

Housekeeping: Some of you may have noticed I added pictures for all the posts listed on my page directories at the top. Seasonal is getting way to big so I am creating pages for each season. I hope this will be more user friendly for you all.

See you next time.

Open vs. Closed Composition

2011-09-09T11:04:00.000-06:00

Before I reveal the winner of the giveaway I thought I would talk a bit about composition. Now there are many elements within composition (symmetry/asymmetry, balance, harmony, etc.) but I just want to focus on open vs. closed, a basic understanding that I try to teach the kids.

So here are some pears. A great subject matter for Fall and this arrangement is a CLOSED composition. Why is it closed, the focus is just on those 3 pears. A closed composition tends to be kind of static, getting the viewer to focus on the subject matter within boundaries. Lots of still life's and portraits are considered closed composition.

Now let's look at this arrangement. This is an OPEN composition. Parts of the pears are extending off the picture and you can imagine them beyond the boundaries. Often lots of landscapes are very open compositions.

Now it can sometimes get confusing when you look at a painting/picture that is considered a closed composition but the background is open. I tell the kids to focus on what is going on in the foreground.

Here is a good example of what I'm talking about. This composition is closed. In fact, the manger defines the boundaries of where you should be looking, but the background could extend on.

Nativity Silhouette Project

Now here is another example of a closed composition, Cimabue's "Madonna Enthroned" (1280), a picture I took at the Louvre in Paris. This is very closed with border/boundary built right in. Although those angels are right at the edges their wings are painted complete and they themselves become the border, especially if you look at the arm positions of the 2 bottom angels, focusing your attention on the Madonna and Christ child. This is good one to use to test your understanding!

Here is an example of an open composition, the focal point is on those dandelion seeds with the wishes printed on them but you can imagine lots of them being blown right off the page and into the wind.

Dandelion Poetry Project

Here is good example of an open composition by Edgar Degas "The Rehearsal" around 1874. You can imagine yourself in that rehearsal hall with dancers practicing all around you, your eye trying to take them all in.

So here is a good project to try with the kids. Have them do both an open and closed composition of the same subject matter and display the 2 together. For the closed composition you can just set up the still life but for the open you may have to get them to view it through a old mat or frame. You can also add a photography component. Get them to photograph an open composition and then paint the view.

Next time you are viewing a work of art or photograph ask yourself "Is this an open or closed composition?"

On to the Giveaway results. I had 61 entries total from both the comment section and email.

Using Random.Org we get:

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2011-09-09 16:55:25 UTC

So our winner (number assigned by time entered) is:

Dale Anne Potter:

Oh I would SO LOVE this DVD - I caught one of the episodes on PBS and wished I'd seen the others.
THANK YOU for this opportunity and for your FABULOUS blog (that I usually read via Google Reader)!

Sept 5th, 2011 6:03pm

So Dale if you could email me your shipping details at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca

I will get your new DVD series off to you right away. Thanks everyone for entering and I'll see you next week.