Vol. 6, No. 8, February 28, 2026

I'm changing the rules. I couldn't keep up with creating something every day and then making a collage. So I am just going to find something to represent each day, to make the collage.

Week 8

Day 50 - Went shopping at Trader Joe's and found a new flavor of sparkling water to try, Cherry Vanilla.

Day 51 - I was a chaperone at the Minnesota State University Mankato High School Theater and Dance Day. We ended the evening by attending their play "The Cherry Orchard".

Day 52 - On four of the seven days this week, I celebrated extended family birthdays. 

Day 53 - One how per week is just not enough. Today I had a girls day and we went to see The Great Theatre's production of "Caberet".

Day 54 - Tonight I attended a class where we recycled sweaters, turning them into hats.

Day 55 - This evening was the last 9th grade boys basketball game of the season.

Day 56 - I was back in the art room this afternoon. The 4th Graders were using acrylic paint to paint their paper mache masks.

Vol. 6, No. 7, February 21, 2026

Week 7

Day 43 - Edible

With juice from pickled beets, pea flower tea, and lemon juice, I made an array of edible paints. It was fun to mix the paints and watch them dry on the paper. I never really knew what the finally color would be.

Day 44 - Shadow

After a quick search online for 'shadow art' I decided to try this one. They did a snowman on a blue background which was cuter, but my trees on a scrap of green paper served my needs.

Day 45 - Heart Shaped

A piece of junk mail had a beautiful heart on it. Why work harder when you can use your resources?

Day 46 - Green

With green acrylics and a sparkly green crayon on green paper, a created a scraped paint painting.

Day 47 - Soft

I pulled out the soft pastels and created a stencil using a heart corner punch. I then stenciled directly onto the background paper for my collage. I forgot to take a picture of the finished artwork before I made the collage, so here is a picture of the stencil instead.

Day 48 - Broken

I thought of ways of adding something broken to my artwork, but I didn't have any good options readily available. That's when I found a piece of plastic and thought I would draw cracks over it to look like a broken screen. Ultimately I decided to put the cracked design on a piece of shipping tape so that I wouldn't have to do any gluing. The texture under the crack is from the silicone mat i put the tape on while I drew.

Day 49 - Stick

I burned the end of a stick and drew stick people.

Vol. 6, No. 5, February 7, 2026

Week 5

Day 29 - Helpful

Once upon a time, phone books were very helpful. I was lucky enough to find an old phone book in my dad's office. It was from 2020, when we still had a landlines at our house. So I found the Hansen section and started doodling with some new to me gel pens.

Day 30 - Pointed

My sister invited me to attend her community art night. One of the activities they were doing was a sticker mural. They had a bunch of white stickers that people could color and add to the mural, many were Minnesota themed. When I was coloring this Pink Lady Slipper, I noticed all of the points it had and decided to save it for my collage.

Day 31 - Silhouette

Also at the community art night, I created a simple sunset silhouette with acrylic paint on paper. I think my painting inspired someone else, because after I hung my painting to try, I noticed someone working on a very similar painting. 

Day 32 - White

For this project I pulled out the plaster of Paris. I started by painting the plaster onto paper with a pallet knife. Then I remembered that I had some small silicone molds that would work.

Day 33 - Old

I looked through some old art that I had sitting around and chose a watercolor wax-resist leaf painting that I had made as an example for an Art Club project.

Day 34 - Sky

It may be double dipping, but I was feeling a bit lazy this week and I decided to use the other half of my silhouette painting for my sky painting. 

Day 35 - Pattern

As my 5th grade students worked on their patterned animals, I drew a small patterned design.

Vol. 6, No. 6, February 14, 2026

Week 5

Day 36 - Red

I used the end of a head of Romaine lettuce and red paint on red paper to create a floral texture.

Day 37 - Sharp

Using primary color tempra paints and a palette knife, I painted some leaves with sharp points.

Day 38 - Colorful

A student gave me this colorful drawing today. I decided it would loom great in my collage.

Day 39 - Round

The paints from Day 37 were new and had round seals on top. I pressed the seals together to create round rainbow paintings.

Day 40 - Grayscale

As the 5th graders continue on their Zentangle animals, I drew a small pattern with pencil on a test piece of paper mache.

Day 41 - Cheerful

There isn't much more cheerful than a sunrise or sunset. The 3rd graders were using watercolors today, so I painted this.

Day 42 - Heavy

I struggled with this one, then came across some small ceramic tiles in my craft drawer. I'm always up for recycling!