Vol. 5, No. 026, January 30, 2020

5026 - Your Turn.

I'm an art teacher, so I make up and set creative challenges for people everyday. One of today’s challenges was for my first graders. I challenged them to use play dough to make turtle sculpture. Their sculpture was to be complete with texture. All 22 of my students completed the challenge, these were 4 that I was able to get a picture of before the sculptures were smashed to be recycled. Today’s challenge was just a practice run for next week’s clay turtle challenge. I would like to note that all students used the same blue play dough. The turtle on the yellow background shows the most accurate color. The student who made the turtle on the bottom red mat, went above and beyond by using extra play dough to make a textured lettuce leaf for his turtle to eat.

Vol. 5, No. 025, January 29, 2020

5025 - Rewind.

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting everyday. Frankly, it's a lot of work. So I am making it easier on myself and only posting when I am moved to do so. Today's January Challenge prompt was to redo one of othe previous prompts, or do one that you may have skipped. I decided to go back to day 25...Nature's Stamp. I was prepping clay for my 7th graders and decided to make something for myself. I went on a brief walk outside finding some fallen leaves and tree bark that I stamped into the clay to make a decorative border on a ceramic tray.

Vol. 5, No. 024, January 26, 2020

5024 - Makes Sense.

I spent the day at Becca's house hanging out with my niece. Becca asked that I cut a Sweedish Washcloth to differentiate it from the others so that they would know that it was the face washing cloth. After cutting the edge, I got it wet and gave it to Eleanor to play with. She used it to wash Becca's face. You might be wondering how this ties in, well I love Sweedish Washcloths. Their spongy texture is enjoyable for me to touch while washing dishes.

Vol. 5, No. 023, January 24, 2020

5023 - Take Three.

Today's project was a collaboration. I had a first grader who was absent today, so I used her cave drawing from last week to demonstrate the next steps of the project, charcoal and finger paint.

Vol. 5, No. 022, January 22, 2020

5022 - Shaded Path.

I asked for a color suggestion and was told maroon. What do I do with that? Well I searched my environment and decided I would focus on maroon adjacent. Some pictures were supplied by friends including Littlest Miller. Others I found on my own. The flower I made using maroon adjacent paper on a maroon adjacent rug in my office.

Vol. 5, No. 021, January 21, 2020

5021 - Your Song.

As we sat in the theater waiting for the One Act show to start, I asked my sister Margo if she would be willing to help me with my project for today; I had to write a song. She eemed excited about the prospect and agreed to look at the prompt. She very quickly declared that she could not help me and our song was born.

Vol. 5, No. 020, January 20, 2020

5020 - Ta-Da List.

I started my rear completing projects that I started last year. With the Miller Littles I used cookie cutters to make the set of three ornaments. I used Eleanor's handprints to make the snowman and green ornaments and Ziva's pawprint to make the wreath amd red ornaments. Tonight my dad and I whipped together this delicious dinner of chickpea pasta and a homemade alfredo style chicken. I've done lots of other things this year, but I don't have any pictures to show.

Vol. 5, No. 019, January 19, 2020

5019 - Taste Of Home.

I couldn't think of a favorite meal. However,  my family was celebrating today, so I made a family favorite dessert instead. At Philip's request to celebrate his 25th birthday, my half-birthday, and a clean bill of health for my mom, Margo and I made Tripple Layer Brownie Cake. The recipe happens to come from Taste Of Home cookbook. We have made it so many times that the page is worn and smeared with chocolate.

Vol. 5, No. 018, January 18, 2020

5018 - Find A Landmark.

One landmark in my town is the World's Largest Twine Ball Made By One Man. It has been right across the street from me nearly my entire life. Today I was going to make a snow sculpture of the Twine Ball, but the snow was not the right consistency. Instead, I used coffee and the paper that I made the other day to create a painting.

Vol. 5, No. 017, January 17, 2020

5017 - What Do You Stand For?

I chose Smile Always as my t-shirt slogan. The background is the scarf that I painted the other night. I put the design together using PicsArt.

Vol. 5, No. 016, January 16, 2020

5016 - Whatever The Weather.

With hardly a cloud in the sky, it appeared to be a beautiful day, however, it was so cold! Being cooped up inside, my 6th graders got creative and started lining up colored pencils. It looked really cool, so I decided to use it to make my frame. Not wanting to stand outside any longer than necessary, I took the picture from the warmth of my car. I used PicsArt to put the frame on the picture.

Vol. 5, No. 015, January 15, 2020

5015 - Here's Looking At You.

I was ready to draw two self-portraits and then one of my 7th graders showed me a video of someone drawing a portrait using both hands at the same time to draw one portrait. He showed me the video because it fit with our blind contour line self-portrait project, but it fit with my project as well. So I grabbed two markers and started drawing. It was easier than I thought. As I was taking the picture, I realized I had forgotten to draw my glasses, but I didn't have time to go back and fix it.

Vol. 5, No. 014, January 14, 2020

5014 - We Are Family.

Tonight I attended a scarf painting class with my cousin. I decided to use a picture of my drying scarf as the background for my family tree. If I wasn't feeling the drowsy effects of the wine that we drank while working, I would have made a larger family tree that included my cousin. However with heavy eye lids, I opted for only my immediate family. I used a leaf sticker in PicsArt to adorn my tree.

Vol. 5, No. 013, January 13, 2020

5013 - To Be Continued.

I decided to try out some brush pen calligraphy. I used a piece of cheap paper and started writing, using both sides of the paper. When the time was up, and my paper was full, I took it to the sink. I rinsed the ink off under running water only to discover that it didn't completely disappear. I briefly considered leaving it to dry with the ink showing through on both sides, but gave it a squeeze instead. The cheap paper would not unfold and instead disintegrated in my hand. I threw the crumpled bits of paper into a container with water, soaking them even more. Then I pulled out an old window screen and started pressing my own paper. I think I may have found my new favorite artform and will be making more recycled paper soon. I can't wait for my paper to thoroughly dry so that I can use it.

Vol. 5, No. 012, January 12, 2020

5012 - Positive Shelf-image.

I decided it would be fun to use a photograph of an actual bookshelf as my starting point. To make it more fun, I arranged a rainbow of books on the shelf. Using PicsArt, I blurted out the original titles to make room for my own. Every book is something that I want more of in my life this year.

Vol. 5, No. 011, January 11, 2020

5011 - Bring The Outside In.

It was cold outside today, but I made a quick venture out, searching for materials that I could use for paint and to paint with. I was able to locate pine needles, sticks, some leaves, and crab apples.

I used a rock to grind up some of the plants and then picked the pigment with snow. After a little mixing, I had some nice-ish paint. Unfortunately winter nature doesn't make for very vibrant colors.

Littlest Miller saw me working an aftering declaring that she lived nature art she grabbed a paper and made her own.

Vol. 5, No. 010, January 10, 2020

5010 - Join The Dots.

I did my project right away when I got to school. I was straightening up a little bit when I came across my paint dropcloth, cover with dots of paint. I grabbed a Sharpie that a student had left near by and got to work connecting the dots. The end result is slightly dragon like. I suppose you could call this a collaboration, because the paint spots were made by careless students.

Vol. 5, No. 009, January 9, 2020

5009 - One Staple Collage.

I decided to go with a cut paper mountain scene. I drew a quick sketch, then cut the layers from different colors of vellum. With 8 layers, I love how it turned out and will definitely make more. I decided to just hold it with my finger for the picture because I want to glue the layers down to make a greeting card later.

Vol. 5, No. 008, January 8, 2020

5008 - Winter Haiku.

In Minnesota, it has been very cold this week with the temperature dropping more every day. On Monday I heard people complaining about how cold it was, when it was still 30 degrees. They had a rude awakening when the temp was in the teens yesterday and below zero today. The cold weather makes me want to curl up with a hot cup tea.

Frigid temps outside

You thought it was cold Monday

Hot tea for me please.

Vol. 5, No. 007, January 7, 2020

5007 - Post It Possibilities.

I was challenged to make an origami squirrel. I thought how hard could it be. I easily found instructions online and started folding. It was going pretty well until it wasn't. All of a sudden I was lost. Unable to figure out what went wrong, I may have skipped a step or two here and there. The finished product is squirrel-ish so I wouldn't consider it a total failure. One friend gave it a 7...I was hopping that was out of 10, but I could be wrong. The picture shows my squirrel with what it was supposed to look like.

Vol. 5, No. 006, January 6, 2020

5006 - Open Door.

I opened the door to my supply room at school and looked around. I noticed some small boxes on a shelf labeled blue. I knew I had looked in them before, but I couldn't remember what was in the boxes. So I pulled one out, finding large, blue twist ties. I've made art from twist ties before and decided it could be fun to try again. I went to my go to, making a flower. This flower is complete with a veined leaf. My 7th graders were impressed and all wanted to make their own wire art.

Vol. 5, No. 005, January 5, 2020

5005 - Making It Big.

Today at church we celebrated the Epiphany. So after church, I moved the Magi from their starting place in the "forest" to the manger. I pulled out the Holy Family and the Magi for Eleanor to play with. She got to play the part of the giant Viking taking out half of the city with one fellow swoop, and then sat back to admire her work. I took a series of photos and put them together to make a GIF.

Vol. 5, No. 004, January 4, 2020

5004 - Puppet Pals.

I recruited the Miller Littles to help me make puppets. Oldest Miller chose paper bags and the supplies in her new art kit as our medium. The Miller Littles colored with markers while I used oil pastels. Oldest and Littlest Miller were kind enough to be the puppet operators.

Vol. 5, No. 003, January 3, 2020

5003 - Color Switch.

I don't know that this is super creative, but my more creative ideas just didn't pan out today. I took a leaf segment off of my rose bush and stuck it in a glass with purple food coloring. The leaf sat in the dye for 7 before the after picture was taken. If you look closely, you can see a slight color variation. I continued to leave it sit over night, maybe it will be more purple in the morning.

Vol. 5, No. 002, January 2, 2020

5002 - Give It Away Now.

I created Sketchbooks for each of my 150 Kindergartener's. Today we began our Jungle Animal Drawing unit and the sketchbooks provide a space for each student to keep track of their animal sketches as they learn to draw each animal. Today's animals were a cat (they could make it look like a leopard and/or a tiger) and a lion. I had several students who were gone today; to keep them caught up, I drew their sketches for them. I returned their sketchbooks to their class folder, where they will be "found" next week.