I need a new look...

So I'm going for a new look. I may experiment a bit before settling on one. I'm looking for opinions and I know you have them! Please comment.

Paper Hats

More from the Minneapolis Children's Museum. My mini had so much fun making a paper hat at one of the many stations. I thought this is a great idea for us artsy people who may be in charge of a fundraiser or carnival. All they had was a bunch of news paper, some masking tape, and a few scissors. There was also the signs below. I love the idea and may even put a station in my room with this idea.

My own face paint...

So the Children's Museum of Minneapolis lets the kids paint their own face. How fun is that! Here you see my little Tisse after several stops to the face painting station.

Why should boys have all the fun...

Have you ever gone into Home Depot and wanted to buy all the everything? I do! I love all of those tool boxes and storage bins! I use them for everything. Here is my quilting toolbox. I love it! We live in the very small space and it is great to pull the box out, work on a project, and put it away. Hoo Ray for boys and their tools (or at least their tool boxes).

eBooks for eKids

I just discovered a site called ThumbleBooks- eBooks for eKids. This site I have access to from my library. I know that there are free trial as well. There is a small collection of books but some good ones for art. If you have an interactive board or even just a LCD projector you will need to visit this site. There are a lot of books that we (elementary art teachers) use in our lessons. There are also interactive games associated with many of the books. Let me know if you are able to access this site off from the link. Enjoy!

They call me the bird lady...

I don't have any reason why I went with birds in my bathroom but it has been fun... and the fun is just beginning. Check out the cool switch plat my husband made me. He is a Technology Education teacher (shop teacher) for our district. He is working hard to try to get a laser engraver into his classroom. In the process he has been able to try out a couple of versions from different companies. I made a list of 'projects' he could work on and this was one of them. It's fun to have a talented husband!

New paint makes me happy.

Finally! I finally decided on a color for our bathroom. Our house has been a lot of different colors in the 6 years that we have lived here. I seem to get bolder and bolder. Not sure what comes next after this color. This is pretty 'hello and good morning'. Here's how I did the birds and branch.

I painted the lighter color 1st.

Then I placed painters tape up and cut my birds out of contact paper. The contact paper I used was clear so you can't see it well in the image.

I painted over the tape and birds 1st with the same light color. I read this some where some time long ago. I had never used the method before. The idea behind doing this is so that if there are little places that are not totally tight to the wall and there is a slight bleed behind the tape... the bleed will be the same color as the shape. It worked!

Then I painted two (or three) coats of the darker color over the whole wall. When dry, I removed the tape there was no problems. The contact paper was something else. I had to have an X-acto knife to cut through the paints as I was removing the contact paper. Does anyone know a getter way? It turned out as I had hoped.

Scrapbook paper and garden stones...

Here is another garden stone experiment. I used the same epoxy method as I did on our family garden stone. On this stone I used scrapbook paper and clear glass. I cut the glass to the paper size and shape and even broke some of the shapes up. I like the way it turned out. This is why I am trying these different methods out. I want to see if I can teach something new next year for my garden stone class. I'll leave this out through out the year and see if the paper fades or the epoxy yellows. Don't you love a good experiment?

Harmony

I got this website from Fernwood Art Class. She linked a bunch of fun places to visit via internet and I tried out Harmony. I love it! I gives an amazing opportunity to sketch in a very unique way. Check it out.

Family Garden Stone

New idea for the garden stones. We used a red die in the cement this time. This time we used a rock based cement and we found it to be less successful then sand base. Here is one stone as it was drying. I experimented with images. I printed pictures of our family off the printer and cut some scrap paper for letters. I placed them under the clear flat stones from the dollar store. I used Ultra-Clear, High Gloss Epoxy Coating to adhere and protect from water when being pressed into the cement. I don't know if this product will yellow or if the paper will fade. It's all an experiment! I thought the family stone was fun. The kids do too. My plan is to let it stay outside and in the sun to see if I can offer it for a class next summer.

Art party!

When we have a party there is usually an activity involved. Here we are last week with our neighborhood making garden stones. We had such a great time, kids and adults alike. We made about 18 garden stones and had a couple hours of fun!

MOSAIC VACATION in NEGRIL, JAMAICA

As many of you remember, I had a mosaic artist in residence come to our school this last year. She did magical things with the kids and now you can learn from her. Lisa is offering an amazing mosaic filled vacation. She is a great communicator, a wonderful mosaic artist, and a spectacular person. Consider a trip to Jamaica this in Jan.! Please see all the details below and help spread the word.

MOSAIC VACATION in NEGRIL, JAMAICA

Register for classes with Lisa Arnold, professional mosaic artist from Minneapolis, MN -www.flickr.com/photos/xolaarts/
Jan. 13-19, 2011 at Negril Treehouse in Negril, Jamaica:www.negril-treehouse.com/welcome.html

Stay right in the heart of seven-mile beach at the Treehouse Resort in beautiful, unforgettable Negril, Jamaica while learning how to make stained glass, tile and picassiette mosaics. All materials and tools included!

Classes will be held on Jan. 14-17, 9:30am-12pm. Afternoons can be spent sunning, swimming, snorkeling, eating, drinking, reading, sleeping, kayaking, parasailing, waterskiing, scuba diving, walking on the soft white sand beach, watching the sun set into the ocean, getting a massage or doing anything else you like!

This $1000 introductory (based on double occupancy) offer includes a six-night stay at Treehouse Resort in Negril, six big breakfasts, four days of mosaic instruction, materials and tools. All ages and experience levels welcome! (Save $100 by booking before Nov. 15, 2010).

Lisa Arnold is a professional mosaicist with 20 years experience teaching art. She is on the Minnesota and North Dakota State Arts Boards’ Rosters of Artists in Education, is a member of the Minnesota Mosaic Guild and the Society of American Mosaic Artists.

Please contact Lisa at xolaarts@gmail.com to register or receive more information.

Thanks for helping spread the word!

Up, up and away!

Here is the latest and greatest image created by my minis. Here's how I did it. I'm sure there are a million ways to crete a fun project like this one. Please comment if you have a similar or fun mono print that you have worked on!

We used these materials... plexi glass, dry eraser marker, a brayer, a tray for paint, paint (ink would have been better), a fine mist spay, and q- tips.

I drew the lines onto the plexi so the kids would know where I wanted them to roll the paint. They did so and then drew their designs into the paint with a q-tip.

Then they pressed a sheet of paper onto the paint. They pressed hard all over the paper.

The fun part was pulling the paper off from the plexi to reveal the print!

The prints turn out so unique to the style of the artist.

Finally, after the prints are dry we created our space ship with a paper collage. Stickers and help with cutting made this a success for my two year old and my four year old was able to practice his drawing and cutting skills on the second part of this project.

'Flying Space Guy' by Sawyer Hahn

Colored Sand

For us in the mid west our summers are so valuable. We are cold so much of the time that we don't know all the ways to use warm weather supplies like sand. I just discovered how to color sand and my mini's and I had such a great time! We simply took our white sand (from a FL trip) and placed it in baggies. Then put some food coloring in the bags. My mini's shook the bag until the sand was colored. They giggled the whole time. I feel a sand painting coming on!

Ask 3...

This could be the most useful product I created over my visit to UW- Stout for my summer class. We learned how professional signs are made. Her we designed a image, cut out an image on a laser engraver and hot pressed the design to the cut out shape. These were awesome! I, once again thought of something that I could use in my classroom. These mini stop signs I plan to put on a pop cycle stick and have through out my room.

Picture this... You have the most wonderful lesson you have ever delivered. I mean really, you have thought about how to adapt it to every student, how to answer every essential question, how to deliver it so every student will understand. You are AWESOME! You get done with you instruction and you practically want to bow because you know this, this lesson will go so smoothly because you have explained things so well. As you tell the kids to get started little Johnny comes up to you and says, "What am I supposta do?" At this point there is a little person inside your head screaming... "I JUST TOLD YOU!!!" Instead, you calmly hold your little sign up... This little sign will ask little Johnny to please ask 3 other students BEFORE asking me. In most cases Johnny finds his answer after asking his first friend and you are able to help the other 30, 35, 40 students in you classroom.

Personalized Products

More products from my classes at our alma mater. We made these personalized markers using a printing method called pad printing. It was interesting to learn the 'how to' of printing on 3-d products. The equipment needed was a bit out of the shoe string budget we have in a public school. If you want to learn how this project was made there are great training videos at Autotran.

Life Size Poster

Life size poster of me:)... who doesn't want one of those:)

As I mentioned in a previous posting, my husband and I visited our old stopping grounds of UW-Stout for some classes this summer. In my last posting I talked about the 11x17 poster we made. We also got to make a life size poster (30x40). This was quite fun. Here is mine to the right. Below is some of the images that their students created. It was a nice display of students showing their interests down the hall. It made my brain start to think about how I could use a similar concept for my school. Even if it is nothing more then taking a picture of them holding a white sheet of paper and printing it out to have them create their art in the blank of the paper. Always thinking about how I can apply new skills to my school, home, or life:)

Shapes and Lines Make the BEST design!

My husband and I took a class from the Graphic Communication Department at the University of Wisconsin Stout earlier this summer. My husband is a Tech Education (shop) teacher in my same district and we both thought this class would be fun to take. It explained several printing processes and we did a bit with photoshop. I'm know very little about photoshop so it was fun to learn. This is one of the 1st projects that we did. We made a 11x17 inch poster featuring a image that they took on our 1st day of class. We held a poster board as they took our picture on a white background. This way we were able to edit a lot and fill our 'poster' with any saying that we wanted. I thought about the sayings I use all the time. This is one of my favorites!

My Mosaic

Look at the fun mosaic I created while taking a summer class. Lisa Arnold class through the Art Alliance. It was fun to take a class rather then teach it!

The American flag is a tasty one...

1. Peel apart the 'peel' licorice

2. Frost a gram cracker with white frosting

3. Place some wax paper with a rectangle notch over the frosting. Then sprinkle some blue sugar onto the opening.

4. Place the licorice on to make the strips.