Vol. 3, No. 31, January 31, 2018

3031 - Celebrate!

Unfortunately, I was fighting a fever all day today and didn't really feel like celebrating. So my project today was setting up a display of grade 3 quilling projects. In the state I was in, this was a huge accomplishment.

Vol. 3, No. 30, January 30, 2018

3030 - Your Turn.

As an art teacher, I create creative challenges for students everyday. One of today's challenges was given to Kindergarteners and First Graders. They were challenged to paint a piece of paper using cool colors. The biggest part of the challenge was to not rip the soaking wet paper. Most of the students were successful, completely painting their paper and not adding any rips.

The picture shows a pile of the painted papers waiting to be sorted back into folders. One of the papers was completed by myself, the others are student artworks.

Vol. 3, No. 29, January 29, 2018

3029 - Rewind.

I decided to redo day # 11, try something new. Last time I really struggled coming up with something new, today however, it sort of fell into my lap.

My local library was hosting a Jewelry Stamping class. As soon as it was advertised, I knew that I wanted to go, unfortunately, by time I remembered to sign-up, the class was full and I was put on a waiting list. As today dragged on without a call, I was beginning to worry that I wouldn’t get in. Then at 3:30 I was notified that someone couldn’t make the 6:30 class. I was excited, but I had to rush to get cleaned up after art club in order to make it.

Turns out I’m not a huge fan of Jewelry Stamping; mostly because I’m not great at spacing. However, I was glad that I got to try it, and now I have a new wine glass charm!

Vol. 3, No. 28, January 28, 2018

3028 - No Place Like Home.

I’ve done this one before...My hometown is Darwin, Minnesota, which is home to the World’s Largest Ball of Twine Made by One Man. I’ve actually designed official postcards for the Twine Ball Museum a couple of times. But it would be cheating to use one of those so I recreated one, pen on paper. As I was packing up our hotel room to head home, I came across a pad of paper and a pen from the hotel. Knowing I was going to spend a lot of time in the car today, and not wanting to do my project on the road, I decided to do a quick blind contour line drawing of the Twine Ball “Park”. This postcard isn’t going to be selling for millions, but it was a fun challenge.

Vol. 3, No. 27, January 27, 2018

3027 - Gifted.

My sister got married today, so there were many strangers around, but little in the way of art materials and time. At the reception, after I gave my toast, I used the paper my speech was on to make an origami ball. At the end of the night I gave it to the bartender as an apology for sort of flipping out on him when he carded me for a second time.

Vol. 3, No. 26, January 26, 2018

3026 - Spirit Animal.

With a the hustle and bustle of my sister’s wedding, my motto today was just keep swimming; go with the flow, and what happens, happens. Therefore, I decided my spirit animal today was a fish. I “drew” my fish with thread scraps left from sewing bridesmaid bouquets.

Vol. 3, No. 25, January 25, 2018

3025 - Abracadabra.

As I cleaned up after 2 hours of painting with Kindergarteners and second graders, I had about 50 paint filled sponge brushes to wash. As I prepped them for washing, I created my potion. It looks pretty swirling in the pail, but it is also fun to wash down the drain.

Vol. 3, No. 24, January 24, 2018

3024 - Creative Words.

When I read today's prompt I was really excited, because on Monday I had taken a hand lettering/modern calligraphy class, so this was a perfect way to practice. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to give the project serious thought. At about 10 pm, I ended up pulling out some Elmer's brush markers and quickly scrawling out a quote "Smile Always" on a piece of Kraft paper that I had laying on my dining room table. I started with the S in smile. however, it looked upside down, so I went with it. I continued writing the whole quote upside down/backwards. It took quite a bit of thought, especially the second A on always.

Vol. 3, No. 23, January 23, 2018

3023 - Blackout Poetry.

I chose a book off of my bookshelf at school and flipped through it until I found a page with a good layout of words. The book I chose was The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau. I made a photocopy of the chosen page, because I didn't want to wreck the book. Then I got to work blacking out words. I started at one school and finished at the next. If I had been thinking, I would have brought the  book with so that I could put the text back in the book, allowing the colorful illustrations to show around it. However, I didn't think that far ahead, so I just cut most of the illustrations out.

"When eyes saw the cave, mighty bones shook. No said your needles pillow one before the night."

It may not make a ton of sense, but if you concentrate hard enough, you can make it have a deep and profound meaning. I chose the words, creating a slight zig-zag pattern through the text.

Vol. 3, No. 22, January 22, 2018

3022 - I-Spy.

I rather enjoy these photographic collage challenges, but I was having a hard time choosing a topic, so, without explaining why other than that it was for my project, I asked a friend to choose a color. Of all the colors available to choose from, purple was the color I was assigned. Let me tell you, purple is hard to find, especially since neither of my schools has purple as one of their colors and the Vikings lost yesterday. I decided that since purple was such a difficult color to find, the one who chose it should also have to contribute pictures.

My friend quickly learned how difficult purple is to find, but together we found 20 purple things. From top left to bottom right: table numbers from the purple table, Georgia O'Keeffe painting, purple table sign, hat and scarf on a snowman I drew at Art Club, color wheel, purple table Sign at my other school, foam smiley face I found when I got to Art Club, lounge chairs, my modern calligraphy practice from a class I took tonight, a razor, a blanket, purple ribbon, discarded Vikings jersey, a water bottle on a stack of folders, a sweatshirt, and purple table supplies.

Vol. 3, No. 21, January 21, 2018

3021 - Take A Seat.

When I got to my parents house this morning, I sat down and listened. With only one week until the  wedding, it was time to get the bouquets finished, so I heard lots of talk about what she whats, what we have, and what needs to be done. So when my 5 minutes was up, I jumped right in. It was another group effort, mostly between my mom, a family friend, and myself. The biggest task was the bridal bouquet; there was a lot of pressure to make it great. While waiting for the bride to respond between tries, we worked on the bow bouquet  which she will carry during the rehearsal. We used bows from  shower presents she received. The third, smaller bouquet is her toss bouquet for the reception. We used the flowers that were left over from the main bouquet.

Vol. 3, No. 20, January 20, 2018

3020 - 1, 2, 3...Action!

Today’s project ended up a collaboration and a slight variation of the prompt. The main thing I worked on today was tags and information for the guest gift bags for my sister’s wedding. My parents did most of the collecting of information and I complied it, doing the graphic design work. After lots of editing reformatting we were finally finished. While it’s not really something I am passionate about, I guess you could look at as an advertisement for Omaha NE; maybe their tourism department will hire me.

Vol. 3, No. 19, January 19, 2018

3019 - Over My Shoulder

This evening I spent some time at the theater, critiquing the high school’s One Act Competition show. While I sat there between runs, I made my left handed sketch. I drew the rows of seats and a not very realistic portrait of the guy sitting behind me. My excuse for it not being great is that I was using my non-dominant hand.

Vol. 3, No. 18, January 18, 2018

3018 - Game On!

I looked around my classroom searching for inspiration. I saw a pile of painted papers leftover from the color mixing project a few weeks back. Then I remembered a computer game I saw a kid playing reciently, he had to build a burger to order. The toppings were falling from the sky and if you caught an incorrect topping, you lost. I decided to make the “old school” version. I cut out buns, burgers (they are purple because that is the color I had), lettuce, ketchup, mustard, pickles, and cheese. I also made tomatoes, but decided not to use them. I considered making order cards, so that each player would build a different burger. However, I ran out of time, so this it the simpler version.

Vol. 3, No. 17, January 17, 2018

3017 - #Feels.

I spent most of the day pondering a good way to depict tired. Then as I got out of my car after work, the sun was shining, it was warm (in comparison to the last week) and because of this, snow was melting. I found myself oddly energized. I used this energy to shovel the rest of my driveway, the front sidewalk and steps and my back patio.

Vol. 3, No. 16, January 16, 2018

3016 - Story Time.

I figured that I would work on my project during LCYT auditions tonight, but then I ended up sitting in on the auditions, so my project had to wait. After auditions concluded for the night, I headed the the gym to check in on the Girl’s Basketbll game. My hometown high school was playing one of the schools I work for. While I teach elementary school, I knew I wouldn’t know any of the players, but I thought there could be some of my students there cheering on an older sister. As I stepped in the door, the first person I recognized was the coach. He is a fourth grade teacher at my school, so I see him on a regular basis. I ended up watching the entire game, which my alma mater won on the buzzer. As I watched, I wrote my story. Because the story itself didn’t seem very artsy, I sketched a basketball as well, which I ended up using a s the background for my story, which I typed up using Canva.

Vol. 3, No. 15, January 15, 2018

3015 - Draw On Everything.

I had a busy day, going from one thing to the next. When it was over and I finally had time to think about my project, the first non art material that came to my mind was the natural oils from my skin. I used a Q-tip as my spreader. Gross? Yep, but I felt gross so it worked. I decided to make a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr, in honor of the holiday. While my finished drawing it a decent portrait, it doesn't really resemble MLK.

Vol. 3, No. 14, January 14, 2018

3014 - Sink or Swim.

Being at a hotel, I decided to make my boat out of a bar of soap. I used the soap box and toothpicks for the sails and sailors. I set the boat in the kitchen sink for it’s maiden voyage and immediately it sank to the bottom. One sailor survived the other went down with the ship. I guess it’s a good thing I decided not to try to sail the boat in the pool.

Vol. 3, No. 13, January 13, 2018

3013 - Body Music.

I spent my morning preparing centerpieces for my sister’s wedding. I was hoping that it would fit into today’s prompt. Since that wasn’t the case, I had to wait until tonight at the bachelorette party. I enlisted two of my sister's to join me in creating a Body Band. We had a blast creating this unedited short music video.

Vol. 3, No. 12, January 12, 2018

3012 - Our Poem.

I decided to base my poem off of a quiling project that I was making as an example for my third grade students. I finished both the poem and the project in the car. I had a friend with me at the time and she volunteered the last line of the poem. My sister Jessica also helped with this one. She held could as the glue dried and told me when parts of the design looked stupid.

Vol. 3, No. 11, January 11, 2018

3011 - New Year, New Me.

Try something new...this one had me stumped. I thought about it all day, but being on my third year of doing daily creative projects, I was running out of ideas that I had never done before. I decided to consult a friend. At first I deemed the response less than helpful, but it angered me. That anger lead me to wanting to blow off some steam which reminded me of an art project I’ve always wanted to try. I’ve always wanted to pop balloons filled with paint on a canvas. So that’s what I did. I headed to my basement and gathered my supplies. I unsure of how exactly this was going to go down, but as soon as that first balloon popped, I felt a weight lifted off of me. Turns out paint balloon popping is some pretty cheap therapy. However it is very messy and probably would have been a better project to complete outside with darts rather than inside with just a stick. Oh well, live and learn.

I couldn’t quite decide on a finished project and wanted to document each step before I wrecked it. So we have ‘Exploded and Shaken,’ 'Flicked and Shaken More,' ‘Scraped,’ and ‘Landscaped.’ I might decided to paint over it at come point, maybe another therapy session, but I am happy with it for now.

Vol. 3, No. 10, January 10, 2018

3010 - Paper Party.

Rather than using  a new piece of paper, that would probably end up in the garbage soon after, I decided to take a piece of paper out of my recycle bin at school. I began by cutting a 8.5" square, the largest square I could make. Then I took the left over strip, continuing to cut it into squares of the largest size possible. I ended up with three 2.5" and two 1" squares with a small scrap left over. I folded each square into a different origami shape, a pigeon, a star, a crane, a butterfly, a dove, and a box to put everything in.

Vol. 3, No. 9, January 9, 2018

3009 - Dancing Artists.

I prefer to have a tactile project, so while I could have made a music video, I decided to take a different route. It is difficult to dance without your feet, especially your big toes, which give you balance. So I decided to pamper my feet and paint my nails. Don't worry I jammed out while I was painting!

Vol. 3, No. 8, January 8, 2018

3008 - Breaking News...My Life.

My day was a little crazy, but not bad and then I got home. After some procrastination and a short nap, I pulled out my computer, lanyard, and lesson plan book to prepare the lesson that I needed for tomorrow morning. Let me preface by saying that I'd been intending to write this lesson since before Christmas, and just kept putting it off.

Anyways, as I booted up my computer, I grabbed my lanyard to get my flash drive containing all of my lesson plans and presentations. It wasn't there. My stomach sank as I remembered that I left it plugged into my computer at the second school, which means I won't even have access to it until tomorrow afternoon.

Well I guess it's on to plan b or c.

I created my breaking news announcement using Canva.

Vol. 3, No. 7, January 7, 2018

3007 - Just a Jumper.

I read today's prompt and thought "that's kind of odd. Why would we want to design a dress?" Then I looked at Facebook and saw my news feed filled with pictures of sweaters. I was a little confused and then I remembered that the prompts are coming from a group based in England. Apparently a jumper in England is a sweater here.

So after working on lesson plans all day, I needed to quickly design my jumper. I saw my smiley faces from the other day sitting on my table and decided they would be cute on a sweater. So here it is, my emotional sweater.

Vol. 3, No. 6, January 6, 2018

3006 - Soundtrack To My Day.

I had a very busy work day today, which ended with me teaching my first Wine and Paint class. Our theme was 'Do You Want to Paint a Snowman?' Titled after the song "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" From the movie Frozen. While playing the song on repeat all night was vetoed, it was still mentally my soundtrack. The picture shows my painting from going by as well as the example I made last night.