Recycled Gardens

What better way to greet Spring than with a beautiful garden? Look close at the papers and you will see we used cardboard food boxes, straws and lids to create a fun flower filled garden.





We started by talking about what we might find in a garden. Ground, flowers, fences, bugs and more. Then we took a look at our supplies. The children were excited to find cheerios and spongebob boxes. They were surprised we were using these instead of paper.



I admit, I am a craft supply hoarder. I save all our bright colored food boxes. I just fold them up and put them in a file. I also save lids. The straws are actually new, I didn't recycle used straws! I just thought it was a fun element to include.

Now the kids get busy. They created beautiful and thoughtful works!





You will need:
-Cardboard food boxes
-Blue construction paper
-Glue sticks and Elmer's glue
-Scissors
-Straws and lids

Some of the work we created:

A Pair of Socks

I was invited by Polly over at Helping Little Hands to participate in a read along she is doing on her blog.

I chose to create a project based on the book, A Pair of Socks by Stuart J. Murphy and illustrated by Lois Ehlert.
We could have approached this by coloring or painting but I chose to use collage like Ehlert. This is a great book for learning about shapes and matching. It is great for opening dialogue and discussion between parent and child. We focused on how to make something look the same by using color and pattern.

My boys had fun with this. First we cut socks. The boys each cut four of the same color. I had them make two pairs so we could make a game of it.

We learned how to make two shapes the same. We could use two pieces of paper stacked together and cut once creating two shapes at the same time. We also discovered you can cut out one shape then trace that shape and cut out a second or third and so on. My seven year old preferred cutting once using stacked paper while my five year old preferred the tracing method.



Now we glue our shapes on our socks. The easy way to get toes and heels is to trace the rounded part of our sock on the color of paper we want and cut it out.



Hanging edges? No problem. Just trim them up!



Here are the socks my five year old made.



Here are the socks my seven year old made. He thought his were very tricky because they were so similar.



Here is the last page of the book.



And here are all of our socks! We played several games of matching as we all took turns mixing them up. Thank you Polly! This was fun!



You will need:
-Cardstock
-Scissors
-Gluestick

Get Green

Little Lassies and Laddies ages 15-36 months gathered around with me at the OKCMOA this weekend to experiment with the color green. We talked about the color green and I gave a little demo on how to make it by mixing blue and yellow paint on a paper plate.

We went through the gallery and found green stripes, circles and squares. In the classroom we used different methods to duplicate some of the same ideas.

Each child started with yellow and blue tempera paint on a paper plate. They used a paintbrush to mix their own shade of green. They applied this color to their papers with the brush. As they began to use up their color I gave everyone a bit of a dark kelly green and white. Now we mix more green.



We used circle sponges, shamrock stamps and detergent lids to stamp our papers. I love to let kids experiment with different items when painting. To finish we added a bit of Leprechaun gold! Here are some of our creations!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

You will need:
-Watercolor paper
-Tempera paints (blue, yellow, green and white)
-Paintbrush
-Sponge
-Detergent Lid
-Shamrock stamps (I made mine using foam stickers)
-Gold Glitter

Chihuly

I shared this project with children at the OKCMOA for Drop-in Art this weekend and our creations turned out wonderful! We focused on Chihuly: The Collection. The Collection is part of the permanent collection at the OKCMOA. It includes 18 glass installations, several paintings and of course the ever beautiful 55 foot glass tower. With all that inspiration we got started!



I had a last minute change of plans and it's so nice when it works out. I had planned to use string to hang these but my demo wasn't working out so I used wood paint sticks to hold it all together instead.

Here is what we did. Each child gets 5 clear plastic cups. We used acrylic paints to decorate the INSIDE of each cup. Tempera paints do not work very well because they bead up and don't seem to give the best coverage. Craft paints work excellent. You do not need artist grade paint. Just make sure it is a thin layer of paint. Now let your cups dry.







Next we used scissors to cut our cups. We made different cuts but the two most popular were to cut slits around the cup all the way to the bottom of the cup (giving a floral effect when fanned out) and to make spiral cuts.







Next we attach our cups to a paint stick using hot glue. We attached them in all sorts of ways. Remember how we painted the inside of our cups? This gives us that shiny glass look on the outside we are going for and is not as easily rubbed off when handled. When gluing we made sure our shiny sides are up. Here are some of our creations!

You will need:
-5 clear plastic cups for each child (I used Solo)
-Acrylic paint
-Brushes
-Scissors
-Hot glue
-Paint sticks

Art Books for Children

Happy Tuesday! This is the first installment of book suggestions for children. A Facebook follower of mine asked me for book suggestions about artwork that she could share with her children. I thought it was an excellent idea to share with everyone and am planning to create a post each week filled with book ideas about a particular art subject.

These are a few books that I like that take a closer look at actual works of art.

You can probably check out most of these books from your local library. Otherwise, I purchase most of my books online at Amazon.

The Art Book for Children I and II by Phaidon Press

Come Look with Me Series by Gladys Blizzard
Exploring Landscape Art with Children
Enjoying Art with Children
World of Play
Animals in Art

Look! Series by Gillian Wolfe
Drawing the Line in Art
Really Smart Art
Seeing the Light in Art
Zoom in on Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art series
Museum Colors
Museum 123
Museum ABC
Museum Shapes

Touch the Art Books by Appel and Guglielmo
These board books great for young children.
Make VanGogh's bed
Pop Warhols Top
Feed Matisse's Fish
Brush Mona Lisa's Hair

3-D ABC: A Sculptural Alphabet by Bob Raczka

Next week I will go over some of my favorite books that discuss color. Thanks again for the idea, Zina! :) Happy Reading!

More Nelson Clocks!

I would share more, but today I only wrote directions on my Facebook page. I did this mainly because I was so busy yesterday that I only took a few lousy iPhone photos.

I did this project with HUNDREDS of children at OKCMOA's Family Day yesterday and it was a hit!

Find me on Facebook! I'd love to see you there!

Blogger award

Wow, Stylish Blogger? Me?

Thank you Jodi at One Crayola Short. You are too kind! :)

Rules: 1. Shout out to the person that gave the award.

2. Tell 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass the award on to your fav 5 blogs.

Seven things, eh? Well here are a few things you may not know about me since I mainly talk art and not about a lot of personal stuff here.

1. I have lived in Oklahoma since I was 10 but will always be a Yankee at heart as I was born and raised in Buffalo, NY.

2. I have been happily married for over 10 years to an incredible man that I have been dating and known for over 15 years. We have two boys ages 5 and 7. They both love creating and exploring. As a family we prefer to be outdoors. We camp, hike, garden and go on adventures. As a couple, my husband and I like to go out and visit local restaurants. We are foodies. I am an admitted creme brulee snob. We rarely see movies. I can't even remember the last movie I watched in the theater. (I should mention our getting out alone is only do-able thanks to my awesome Mother and Father-in-Law who are happily willing to take care of the boys.)

3. Creativity is in my blood. My Mom is beyond crafty and a fabric whiz. She designs craft patterns for quilts and more. Find her at Cleo and Me. My Dad has always been an artist at heart and pours his energy into being the Director of Advertising for AWG.

4. I have always enjoyed the arts. I won Best of Show in the Oklahoma State Fair in 5th grade. I got a few big ribbons. I don't know where they are. That piece was sent to a Children's show in Kyoto, Japan. They sent me a beautiful painted wooden fan as a reward from that show. I still have it.

5. I lost my 'fine art' artistic spirit for a while in high school. I had a teacher that squashed it. I will never forget her or that conversation. I have seen her at shows where I've had pieces but have not ever spoken to her again. I didn't give up on art completely, I moved on to pottery but still had her words in the back of my mind. I got past it in college where I surrounded myself with art and painted again for the first time in several years.

6. I really love having the opportunity to share art with children. It is amazing and new each time to be able to watch their creative energy work. They have a freedom and spirit most adults forget about.

7. Everyday is a blessing. As a wife, mother, daughter, aunt, teacher and friend, I am thankful for each and every day.

Here are a few fantastic blogs I refer to for inspiration and pass the Stylish Blogger Award to! I have so many favorite blogs, these are a few.

Holly at Lines, Dots and Doodles

Kristyn at Her Dabbles

Hallie at Think Create Art

Jen at Paint Cut Paste

Art Project Girl at Art Project Girl