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

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

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

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

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:

46

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!