Vol. 2, No. 243, August 31, 2017

2243 - Color Connection.

One thing I've been wanting in my classroom since moving in last week is a color wheel. The school only has one of the nice printed ones, so I had to improvise. I used oil pastels to color all of the circles. Then after drawing my base triangles, I glued the circles to the board. With the exception of the orange streak (which you can't really see in the picture) in the yellow circle and the bleeding around the purple circles, I love how it turned out!

For future reference, the bleeding happened when I ran the poster through the laminator. Apparently oil pastels don't take to heat too well.

Vol. 2, No. 242, August 30, 2017

2242 - Go, Go, Go Joseph.

This fall, I am working with  the Litchfield High School Theatre Department on their production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  One of my first tasks was to advertise for auditions. I used Canva and my graphic design skills to quickly create this ad.

In case you would like to see the show, it will be at Bernie Aaker Auditorium in Litchfield the first weekend in November.

Vol. 2, No. 241, August 29, 2017

2241 - Just Peachy.

I was going to do this project right after I canned peaches, but I kept getting busy with other projects and pushing this one off.

Well, today when I got home from school, I still hadn't done a project, so I decided that today was the day. When canning the peaches, I saved the peach pits, washed them and laid them out to dry. I knew right away that I wanted to make flowers with them, maybe even a wreath of flowers. So that's what I did. I pulled out my hot glue gun and got to work. A little while later I had 3 flowers.

I decided the flowers looked like poinsettias, so I painted them with layers of red, pink, and green spray paint. When the paint was dry, I glued some foam "berries" into the middle of each flower.

Vol. 2, No. 240, August 28, 2017

2240 - WhatLiftsYou.

Today I am celebrating the first day of school, and to do so, I decided to make a feather to go with the project that my students as well as all of the other students in the school are making to start off the year.

For this project we are studying the work of international street artist, Kelsey Montague. Kelsey is most well known for her large scale murals of wings, which are detailed and interactive.

All of the students at Annandale Elementary in grades K-4 will be creating a feather that will be combined with everyone else's feathers to make a couple sets of wings. They will then be able to have their picture taken in front of the wings.

My students will have the option of coloring their feathers with crayons, markers, colored pencils or oil pastels. I chose to use crayons, mostly because when I went to my art supply stash, the first of those options that I found was a brand new 8 pack of Crayola crayons.

Vol. 2, No. 239, August 27, 2017

2239 - Never-ending Jobs.

It seems that preparation for the first day of school never ends. Today I spent more time in my classroom, and then worked on my computer when I got home. Then all of a sudden it was midnight, so my project was graphic design. I designed a job chart for cleanup in the art room. It is a SMARTnotebook file, so it is interactive. The numbers are movable, so that each day jobs can rotate between students and the timer counts down so students know when they need to be finished.

I love how it looks with all the bright colors, but I might improve it even more by adding pictures at some point.

Vol. 2, No. 238, August 26, 2017

2238 - Fair News.

Today I took a much needed break from school and joined my brothers and sister at the Minnesota State Fair. We took in many sights, including the Minnesota Newspaper Museum. One activity at the museum was making printer's caps. They had special State Fair newspapers printed to use for the project, as well as instructions and an explaination for the project.

"Paper has have been worn by printers, paper-makers, and typefounders for centuries, and are still worn by some." The provided instructions were for hats made in the 19th century.

I actually waited until I got home to assemble my hat. I figured none of my family members would want to be my model, so I used a stuffed animal instead.

Vol. 2, No. 237, August 25, 2017

2237 - Classroom Chaos.

Today was another day spent getting my classroom ready for school. The best way to describe my project is by calling it interior decorating. I spent a lot of time running back and forth from the workroom, picking up copies and laminating posters. In all that running, I did a variety of little projects, labeling supply bins, making and hanging rule posters, and decorating the board among other tasks.

Vol. 2, No. 236, August 24, 2017

2236 - Pencil Pails.

One of my tasks at school today was to decorate the pencil pails. I used bright paper for the "Happy Pencils"; these are pencils that are sharp and ready to use. They should be stored point up to keep the tips from breaking.

For the "Sad Pencils" I used a more dull, blue paper. "Sad Pencils" are broken, waiting to be sharpened.

I am now one step closer to getting my classroom ready for school.

Vol. 2, No. 235, August 23, 2017

2235 - Scatterbrained.

As a teacher I have found when you are in a classroom full of children, who seem to be pushing every last one of your buttons, time moves very slowly. However, when you are trying to get your room ready for the first day of school, time flies by.

I have a long list of things, including a few that I wanted to use as my daily project, that I wanted to accomplish by Noon tomorrow. The problem is that I can't seem to find enough time to get it all done. Having said this, I am sure you have guessed that I still haven't completed the project I had intended to do on Monday.

Today, the majority of my creativity went into creating this sign that is hanging outside my classroom. Every week I post a new question for each grade pertaining to the lesson that I will be teaching. My goal is that when they leave my class, they are able to answer the posted question. Having the sign in the hallway gives the student a clue as to what they will be learning and it also presents a talking point for parents and teachers.

The bottom part of the sign isn't quite complete, because the laminator ran out of plastic, so I will have to finish it tomorrow. I plan to glue the frame to the background once it is laminated, so I just taped it together for the picture.

Vol. 2, No. 234, August 22, 2017

2234 - Plans Change.

I had a plan for today's project, I was going to make decorative clips for on my white board. Unfortunately, I got so busy with meetings and other necessary tasks, that I didn't have time to make the clips at school and I forgot to bring the supplies home.

So as I sat at the New Teacher/School Board Dinner, with a wasp buzzing around the table, I found inspiration for a new project. My problem was what material to use to make the bee. I was exhausted after such a long day, and I knew that I didn't want anything too extravagant or time consuming. I was about to grab for a pencil and some scratch paper when I saw a pair of Eclipse glasses that I didn't get to use yesterday because it was raining. The glasses yellow cardboard frames and the lenses were silvery on one side and black on the other; I knew immediately that they would be perfect for a bee.

It took me a couple tries to cut out the right body shape, but once I did, the rest was easy. Silver side of the lens for wings and black for the legs. The stripes were added to the body with Sharpie, and everything was attached with 2 drops of Elmer's glue.

While you can't tell by looking at the picture, the bee is very similar in size to an actual wasp.

Vol. 2, No. 233, August 21, 2017

2233 - Identity.

Today was my first official day as a teacher at Annandale Elementary School. My day was spent in meeting and cleaning/organizing my classroom.  One task I had to do was clean out a file cabinet. While I was sorting through the drawers, I found a badge reel. The badge reel had some sort of advertisement on it, but I didn't have a lanyard yet for my ID and keys, so I figured I could use this.

Art teachers, in my opinion, should have glitzy accessories, so I had to make my new badge reel unique. I used puffy paint to draw a paint pallet and paint brush. I am really excited to "show off" my new ID holder tomorrow!

Vol. 2, No. 232, August 20, 2017

2232 - Season's End.

Today marked my last day of summer vacation, as I start school tomorrow. I celebrated by spending some time at the lake. Even though I didn't see any sharks, or any other fish for that matter, I decided to make an origami shark to remember the day.

Vol. 2, No. 231, August 19, 2017

2231 - Bow Bonanza.

Today on International Bow Day, founded by Claire's, we celebrate and share the versatile, lasting global trends of the bow. Claire's has a full range of bow accesories for girls no matter what their style! Customers can find bow themed product in almost every category carried by Claire's. (This information was provided by the National Day Calendar.)

To continue with the 64 Million Artists challenge, origami, I created 3 different origami bows. All of the bows were made using a slight variation of the same pattern, and different sizes of paper (1/4", 1/2", and 1"). The bows were made from old Thirty-One catalogs.

Vol. 2, No. 230, August 18, 2017

2230 - Mail Order Ice Cream.

Today we celebrate two holidays, National Mail Order Catalog Day and National Ice Cream Pie Day. To celebrate I used a page from an old Thirty-One Catalog and folded it into an origami bowl, because you can't have ice cream pie without a bowl.

Vol. 2, No. 229, August 17, 2017

2229 - Thrift Shop.

Today was National Thrift Shop Day. I celebrated by going to my local thrift store to look for a paper crafts book; the closest I came was America Girls Pastimes: Molly's Craft Book. In this book, I found instruction for a paper pinwheel. Because thrift stores are all about re-using things that people give away, I decided to re-use a scrap of paper left  from yesterday's umbrella. In addition to the paper, I used a stick pin and a pencil with an eraser.

The hardest part of this project was uploading the video. Grr...sometimes I really dislike technology.

Vol. 2, No. 228, August 16, 2017

2228 - Where's the Rum?

Today we celebrate National Rum Day. When I searched "rum origami", the first images that popped up were cocktail umbrellas. That seemed like the obvious answer, and I was excited when one of the links was a video showing how to make a pop-up paper umbrella.

It was actually a pretty simple project and I kind of want to throw a party so that I have a reason to make more umbrellas. The picture shows the umbrella from 3 different angles as well as in my morning coffee, which was the closest thing I had to a cocktail at the time.

Vol. 2, No. 227, August 15, 2017

2227 - Try Origami.

Today I stuck with the 64 Million Artist's Origami challenge and decided to fold something based on one of today's holidays, Pythagorean Theorem Day.

Pythagorean Theorem Day or Pythagoras Theorem Day is celebrated when the sum of the squares of the first two digits in a date equals the square of the last digit in the date. 8² + 15² = 17². The next Pythagorean Theorem Day will occur on December 16, 2020. 

I tried to find an origami project specific to Pythagorean Theorem, but that was turning out to be a challenge and I ended up just searching Math Origami. I came up with this spiral star shape. The spiral has a feel similar to the Pythagorean Spiral, so it satisfied my requirement.

Vol. 2, No. 226, August 14, 2017

2226 - Spread Your Wings.

Today was the start of a new adventure for me; I visited my new classroom for the first time.  In just 2 weeks, I will begin my career as an art teacher at Annandale Elementary School. To celebrate my new journey I decided that I would make something inspired by the school mascot, a cardinal. It was a bonus that this week's 64 Million Artists challenge is to explore origami.

After searching my craft room, without success, for origami paper, I used the red paper I could find and online instructions and mostly successfully folded a cardinal. It doesn't look exactly like the picture on the instructions, but it does look like a cardinal.

Vol. 2, No. 225, August 13, 2017

2225 - Lefty.

Today is National Left-handers Day. I'm a eighty, but I figure I'd still celebrate by drawing with my left hand.

I pulled out my Boogie Board and drew a simple landscape. It was a lot easier than I was expecting. I guess practice does make things better. Maybe I'll teach myself to be ambidextrous with time.

Vol. 2, No. 224, August 12, 2017

2224 - Baseball Bounty.

Today is Naional Baseball Card Day. When my family and I went to the Twins game last week, we each received a couple packs of Baseball Cards. Many of the cards in each pack were repeats, so after my brother, who collects baseball cards, took what he wanted, I got the rest to use for my project.

The next step was to come up with something creative to make with the cards. I decided on a flower, mostly because I thought the petals looked similar to the end of a baseball bat.

I positioned the petals with the player name across from their pictures. The middle of the flower is made from the special card that came with the pack.

The picture shows the back of the flower in the bottom left corner.

Vol. 2, No. 223, August 11, 2017

2223 - Bath Bag.

Today's project is really pushing boundaries. I got so wrapped up in getting my art and Thirty-One products ready for my booth at Twine Ball Day tomorrow that I ran out of time to make my originally planned project. Therefore, I had to substitute. One of my tasks tonight was to wrap some Bubble Bath-in-a-Bag Gift Sets. The sets contained a baggie of Epsom Salt, a travel-size bottle of body wash that can double a bubble bath, and a votive holder. I had made the votive holders earlier in the year when I was practicing my wheel throwing skills.

Vol. 2, No. 222, August 10, 2017

2222 - The Art of Canning.

I spent the afternoon/evening at my parent's house helping my mom can peaches. While canning isn't really a craft, it is sort of an art, mostly because not very many people even know how to do it any more.

It was a long process, so after the first batch was finished, I took an artsy picture on one jar. My sister told me that that can't be my project because it's not art. I decided to appease her and make some art my stacking jars of peaches to make a pyramid. This was actually a good challenge, because I was stacking on a soft surface, so the jars had quite a bit of room to move. Fortunately, I was able to stack them without any falling.

Vol. 2, No. 221, August 9, 2017

2221 - Let's Pretend.

Today's project, "Spider in the Snow" was inspired by my morning adventures. Everyday is an adventure when you are hanging out with young kids, but today was particularly awesome.

This morning Littlest Miller went into the bathroom and started screaming "Aww spider! There's a spider in here!" I went to investigate and didn't find said spider. So I told her it would be okay. She asked, "it was just acting to pretend to be a spider?" I agreed because that was easier than trying to find and dispose of the spider.

After the spider incident, Littlest Miller went to play on the porch. A little while later, she came back in wearing winter boots, hat, and mittens. "We're pretending it's a snowing on the porch." I told her that was fine as long as the snow stays on the porch. She went back to the porch and in a serious voice told the others that the snow has to stay on the porch.

I knew right away that today's project would be a spider, however it took a couple tries and a google search to get it right.

I was working at the dining room table while playing cards with my siblings. I had out 3 bags of chocolate chips (all different sizes) and a square marshmallow. In my first attempt, I just laid the chocolate chips on top of the marshmallow, but the chips closest to the edge kept falling off. The spider wasn't quite right anyways, so I took all of the chips off to try again.

This time, I began by licking the top of the marshmallow, making sure the powdery coating was dissolved and the surface was sticky. As I licked, my brother stared at me, giving me a concerned look. My response was "Why are you looking at me like that? All great artists lick their work!"

After a google search I realized what I was missing was the head, so I tried again, and created a decent chocolate chip spider.

Vol. 2, No. 220, August 8, 2017

2220 -  Abundant Fruits.

Today is National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day. This day was created to give people a way to get rid of unwanted zucchini, as zucchini grows in great abundance in August.

My parents are part of a CSA, so they get a weekly supply of fresh produce, more than they can eat on their own, so I visited today to try out a recipe I found a while back for Spiral Vegetable Tart. The recipe called for thin strips of carrots, egg plant, summer squash and zucchini, all of which my parents had, fresh from the farm.

I used a store bought pie crust, rolled extra thin, and covered it in a creamy, sour cream based sauce with some fresh herbs and other things I found in the fridge. Then I spiraled the veggies on top, drizzled with olive oil and baked it.

It looked awesome and tasted delicious, but it was so tedious and time-consuming that I won't rush out and make it again anytime soon.

Vol. 2, No. 219, August 7, 2017

2219 - Flight of the Dragonfly.

I had seen a something online a while back that used maple seeds and a stick to create dragonflies.

I attached the wings and eyes (glass beads) using hot glue. Then I decorated the dragon flies using glitter glue.

Vol. 2, No. 218, August 6, 2017

2218 - Threads of Friendship.

National Friendship Day is a Hallmark holiday, one of those days created to sell cards. I decided to celebrate it anyways; however instead of greeting cards, I made a friendship bracelet.

Vol. 2, No. 217, August 5, 2017

2217 - Edible Panties.

Let me start by saying, it's a not what you think, today is NationalUnderwearDay and National Mustard Day. I decided to celebrate both by creating a pair of underwear out of mustard. I didn't want to be wasteful, so I took a piece of lunch meat and cut it to be the underwear base. Then I drew a lacey pattern on top. After taking the pictures I ate it, creating a great evening snack.

Vol. 2, No. 216, August 4, 2017

2216 - Cookie Collaboration.

To celebrate National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, Mama Miller and I with some help of the Miller Littles, made chocolate chip cookies. I really like culinary art because when you are finished you get to eat it.

Vol. 2, No. 215, August 3, 2017

2215 - Kids Corner.

Today was opening day of the county fair and I decided to bring the Miller Littles. We saw all the animals at least once, "milked" a cow, went to the rodeo, entered contests, and we even found time for a craft project. There was an booth for One Community One Vegetable. The vegetable this year is carrots, so they had supplies to make paper carrots. I made a quick, ripped paper carrot; Oldest Miller made a lime green carrot and Middle Miller made a snake. They may not have followed the project instructions, but at least they were creating. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of their creations, so you will have to use your imagination.

Vol. 2, No. 214, August 2, 2017

2214 - Tree Time-Lapse.

I decided that with the county fair, Twine Ball Day, Nannying, and back-to-school, I didn't have time to procrastinate on this project. So, I got right to it. It really is getting easier to create the collage, it is just a series of clicks and then I am done. Unfortunately, I have yet to get all of the pictures lines up exactly.

Vol. 2, No. 213, August 1, 2017

2213 - Melted Center.

I continued to work on getting everything ready for the county fair. As I packed all of the projects, I realized I still needed a centerpiece. I took two plastic flowers and the melted CD sculpture, all of which I had made for projects a while ago, and combined them with a few glass gems and a candle to create a small, yet colorful centerpiece.

Vol. 2, No. 212, July 31, 2017

2212 - Procrastination Nation.

As I write this at 11:45 pm, I am reminded of my youth. I was in 4-H and every year I would bring 20+ projects to the county fair. And every year, I would find myself up late every night in the days leading up to the fair working hard to get everything finished. If I had planned better and not procrastinated, this wouldn't have been a problem.

After graduating from 4-H I discovered Open Class, where everyone is able to enter projects at the county fair. Entry day is on Wednesday; even after 20+ years of participating in the county fair, I still procrastinated. So I am up late getting things in order.

One of the things I had to do tonight was decorate the envelopes for cards I had stamped earlier in the year. So, I chose that as my project for today. It was a simple task of using a paper punch to cut out some shapes, and then gluing them to the envelopes. I could have done it a long time ago, but that would have taken the fun out of the stressful late night I am enduring now.