Dr. Seuss Lorax Tree Art

This week we had Monday and Tuesday off from school.
Monday for a snow day and Tuesday for election day here in Ohio.
My nieces and I spent Monday evening working on some art work that I was inspired by pinterest to try. 
We also paintined Dr. Seuss Lorax trees because the girls recently watched the movie, and who doesn't love Dr. Seuss inspired crazy trees :)


We used paper grocery sacks from Kroger, a mountain dew bottle, paint, and an old pickle jar lid to put the paint in.


Use the bottom of the pop bottle as a stamp




the lid works as a stamp too!




winter, spring, and summer







Once we filled all the paper bags we held an art auction in the kitchen and sold the paintings to my parents (their grandparents) for .25-1.00.  My nieces' idea... they are little entrepreneurs!  

Felt Friends

I have been going a little felt crazy lately... I made about a 100 flowers this Christmas and gave away as gifts as hair clips, broaches, shoe clips, etc.

I found a little bunny in a book and decided to try my hand at making one myself on Sunday afternoon. 
I did it all by hand, I tried to make one with the machine but it didn't turn out so well, I think my tension was too tight and it didn't work well with the felt... at least that's what I think.
It didn't take long to make and then I began receiving requests from my nieces :)

My niece's little monster!  Up next a kitty cat!

I think these little critters would be great made out of an old sweater, what do you think??
Have you ever chopped up a sweater?  I may be raiding the $1 bin at Salvation Army soon....
Happy Monday!

adorable bunting 4 ways!

I am excited to share a few pictures with you from my older sister's house! {not the one who is doing a vow renewal, the other one}
She is a {young}30something wife and mommy with 3 absolutely beautiful daughters.  They recently moved to California for her husband's job and she has been having a lot of fun decorating their new home!  I love her style and her new-found creativity!  {this is the sister who didn't know how to decorate before and so she just didn't}
I asked her if I could feature some of the projects she has done because she no longer blogs {long story, but basically people are creeps} and I don't have a ton of projects currently going on nor do I have a camera. 
Win!

Today I am going to be featuring the adorable bunting that she has scattered throughout their home.  I love it!

1. story book bunting - perfect for a little girl's room, and great if you have some books that are torn or the binding is falling apart.

Her girls love Alice in Wonderland!

       2. paint chip bunting - aka free bunting!

Isn't her fall mantel the cutest thing you've ever seen!  candy corn bunting!

This shelf is set up in the room that her step-son uses when he visits.  I love how she designated a special boy space just for him!  I'm sure he loves it with all the pink in the house!  Bunting aside, isn't this skateboard shelf awesome!! Good job Sister!

rainbow!

          3. handkerchief bunting!
 

this is the window above her kitchen sink.  The dainty hankies allow lots of sunlight to come in and doesn't block the great view of the woods she has!  She says deer come right up in their backyard and will eat out of your hand!

        4. Scrapbook paper bunting!

I am so thankful my sister allowed me to show her home to the world... and I have so many more great things to show you all!  Bunting is just the beginning!


ps. what do you think of this new blog header? 

Art class with kids: following instructions

My art class has about 12 students in it, so it should be quite manageable, right?
well there is one child who tests me repeatedly.
In order to make him more involved and attentive for the entire hour long class I came up with this project to get them to follow step by step instructions, to learn about horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines, and to show them that there is no wrong way to do art and even when we all follow the same steps we come out with very different outcomes!

They all started with a blank piece of paper and I gave them the following instructions:

1. draw 3 vertical lines
2. draw 2 horizontal lines
3. draw 1 diagonal line
4. draw one large circle
5. draw a triangle
6. draw 3 small circles
7. draw a square

then I said fill one space in with dots, fill one space in with stripes, with numbers, smiley faces, squiggle lines, zig zags, color one in completely, etc.
Every once in a while I said fill one in with anything you want and they got so excited!! I was impressed to see their creativity too.  Some filled their space with question marks, sunshines, their name, hearts...
and it fill up my entire hour time slot and kept their full attention!
whew.

Art class with kids: recycling art

At the Montessori School this week we made shadowboxes out of cereal boxes and magazine scraps.
I had so much fun making my demonstration box that I want to keep it!
only problem is, like I've mentioned I live in 300sq feet and it is filling up with "art projects" :/

What you do is cut a square out of the front of a cereal box to make the frame for your shadow box.
Then on the piece of cardboard that you cut out you start gluing magazine scraps to make a scene. I think it looks better when some of the pieces stick out to make it look 3D, like the grass.
An underwater scene would be awesome don't you think?
and it's a free, recyclable craft you can do with your kids :)