Sketchbook Art (aka Art For Me): Trying Watercolor Pencils and Camper Gallery Wall

Usually when I'm camping, I am a voracious reader. This time, I wanted to make art instead. My motivation was to do some self-care, get my creative juices flowing and try out my travel art set I'm making (hopefully details on that in a future post).

I wasn't too strict about the art-making. I'm just having fun and seeing where it goes. It rained quite a bit the two weeks we were there, so I had plenty of opportunities to create. And I read three books--I still had to read!

One of the days, I just couldn't stop looking at this interesting leaf that had fallen into our campsite. The patterning on it was so cool. I had a good idea how I would paint it if I had brought traditional watercolors with me, which I had not. So, out came the watercolor pencils and I did my best to adapt to those. It has been fun trying a new medium. I'm going to try to "review" the watercolor pencils in a future post. 

Anyway...a side effect of doing art more is that my children see me creating. I've always encouraged making of all sorts and have multiple spaces in our house set up for that (the art center downstairs, mom's art area upstairs, the dining room table and all four of my kids have desks/work areas in their rooms). I've packed a bin of art supplies since the early days of camping, but I noticed that as they've become teens, the art bin isn't used. This time, they saw me using the watercolor pencils and decided they wanted to have an art competition. So, twice, they created art.

The competition wasn't an actual competition since I'm not judging anything on vacation AND certainly not an art competition between my kids!! But they had fun, used some new (to them) art supplies and passed a couple of rainy hours.

I created a super easy gallery wall in our camper to showcase their work.

Later in the week, I got the idea to "bottle up" some of the camping vibe and created two pieces inspired by the work of illustrator Jen Aranyi. Her work is AMAZING and so beautiful! I teach this lesson to my grade 5 students and it's always a hit. My older students usually see the work drying on the drying racks and want to do it too. 

Again, I experimented with the watercolor pencils I had with me, pushing one to be more watercolor-like and leaving the other a bit more sketchy and colored pencil-like. Usually, my favorite way to do a Jen Aranyi-inspired landscape is using Crayola markers for the color and then using water to turn them into watercolors. But I didn't have Crayola markers with me and I'm not sure I'd pack those in my travel art kit. I'll have to keep thinking about it!

What do YOU want to "bottle up" about the summer?

Enjoy!

Supplies used: Cotman cold press watercolor paper, Sharpie markers, Prismacolor watercolor pencils, Reeves watercolor pencils, Craftsmart acrylic paint pens (white and gold) 

Survey Says: CLAY!

I'm going to be returning to my teaching schedule soon and wanted to poll my previous after school students to see what they wanted to see more of in the coming year and the media that won was: CLAY!

This is probably no surprise to some of you, but this means I am going to make a serious effort to include some awesome clay projects with this year's classes! This does take a bit of planning since I don't have a kiln--this means air dry clay it is. I have some plans for Model Magic, Crayola Air Dry Clay, and plans to test a couple of new (to me) air dry clays on the market. Any suggestions?

Another downfall: drying space. Since I'm "art on a cart" I don't have space to store the items safely where I teach while they dry. That means I pack all the clay items up, load them in the car and bring them home to dry until the next class. This stresses me out! I worry that one of my kids will get into them or the dog will knock them over. I'm come up with some good ways to transport and store clay creations in progress, but it will be nice when I don't have to worry about moving them.

So, without further ado, I repost this lovely "Forever Sandcastle" post I did awhile back. The lesson is from Family Fun magazine and is really fun for the children to make. Make one yourself and enjoy those summertime memories all year long!

Whip up a batch of air dry sand clay
to make a forever sandcastle of your own!

Summertime! At least for a few more weeks here in NH!

I try to keep my children's reading, writing, and math skills up over the summer. We start out strong, but I must say, I have had to "renegotiate" the summer contracts with my children this year. This is a skill that now makes me ready for the United Nations!

Anyway, I had my middle son write some poetry, type it into the computer, and then illustrate it. Since his poem was about "Summertime," he decided to do a variation of the flip flop collage project I posted about here.

He had a great time writing this, typing it in, and creating the 3D flip flops--especially when he found the minions in an ad = instant minion flip flops!

This would be a great sneaky project to get your kids to do a bit of writing before the end of the summer while preserving those summer memories. Or, if you are a teacher, it's a great welcome back project for integrating art and language arts!

Enjoy the rest of YOUR summer!

Giant Dreamcatcher!

Take a look at this super-giant dreamcatcher the librarians at the Amherst Town Library in Amherst, NH, made to celebrate their Summer Reading Program. The theme of the Reading Program is "Dream Big" and this extra-large dreamcatcher is spot-on!

The diameter of this dreamcatcher is about 5 feet! WOW!

The hoop looks like an over-size hoola hoop (plastic tubing from the hardware store) and the "web" is made from twine. The "beads" are sections of pool noodles and the feathers are about 8" long. So creative and striking! There are two of them hanging outside the library and they are so unexpected and beautiful--it is nice to see them gently swinging in the breeze.

Awesome!

Super Simple Dream Catcher From a Paper Plate

Third son had a terrible dream last night. It didn't help that he fell out of bed (which I hadn't heard but was described by my first son as "something crashed into the house--it made the whole house shake!" A few minutes later I heard the little guy crying and went in & located him (still on the floor). He was shaking and crying and still dreaming away. Man, that's tough!

$1 for the pony beads at the Dollar Store and $2 for feathers-
the rest of the supplies I had on hand. What a nice and easy craft!

So today, we made a super simple dream catcher to hang above his bed to catch all of his bad dreams. This is a lovely craft to do as part of a summer camp, Native American craft session or part of the library's summer reading program (our local library's theme this summer is "Dream Big!").

Well here's the super simple dream catcher and may all of your dreams be pleasant!

Paper Plate Dream Catcher

Supplies Needed:

• One paper plate
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Yarn (four 12" sections and one 48" section)
• Clear tape
• Pony beads
• Feathers (ours were about 3 1/2-4" long)
• Markers

Directions:

1. Cut a 5" (or so) circle from the center of the paper plate, leaving the outer rim of the plate intact.

2. Use the hole punch to make a series of holes every inch or so around the inner edge of the ring.

3. Use markers to decorate the ring with patterns and images as desired.

4. Weave the 48" piece of yarn through the holes in the inner edge of the ring going across the ring to create a web for the bad dreams to get caught in. This is the fun part--even young children can relax and weave this inner section. The funkier, the better! We secured the beginning and ends of our yarn to the back of the ring with clear tape.

5. Use the hole punch to create a single hole at the top of the ring to hang the dream catcher. Make a loop from one of the 12" long strands of yarn, run it through the hole and knot it to secure. If you like, you can string a couple of pony beads onto the hanging loop to add some color.

6. Use the hole punch to create three holes about an inch apart along the bottom edge of the dream catcher. Feed the remaining 12" strands of yarn through the holes and double knot to secure. Feed pony beads onto the yarn coming from each hole. Knot and then use clear tape to attach a feather to the bottom of each strand. Trim excess yarn with scissors. Repeat to make three strands of beads with feathers coming off the bottom of the dream catcher. I made the center stand slightly longer than the other two.

7. Hang above your bed to catch all of those bad dreams! Nighty-night!

Dollar Store Flip Flop Collage Craft

I live in my flip flops during the summer (and have the tan lines on my feet to prove it!). So when I saw this cute project on Artrageous Afternoon, I knew it would be great for my Recycled Art class, but also just plain fun, too! 

You'll "flip" for this summertime craft!

First, we traced my flip flops onto lightweight cardboard (we used poster board). Make sure you make two flip flop soles--one for each foot! We also cut out some 1" x 8" strips of card stock for the straps of the flip flops (you'll need 2 strips per flip flop).

Then, we decorated our flip flop "soles" by using strips of magazine paper to fill up the background and then cut neat summery images from magazines to show our summer plans or what we love to do during the summer. I encouraged the children to cover the entire surface of the sole--I didn't want to see any cardboard showing through.

We used hole punches to punch holes in the straps and the sole of each flip flop and then secured them together with one of those metal fasteners (mine were leftover from another project, but you can get them at craft stores and some office supply stores). We secured the other ends of the straps to the underside of the soles with tape.

Lastly, we hot glued our flip flops to a piece of sandpaper (a pack of 12 is $1 at the dollar store) to make our flip flops on a sandy beach. So fun!!