Vol. 5, No. 129, August 10, 2020

5129 - Hiatus.

I needed a posting/arting break. Today I decided to get back into it. This week I get to hang out with H. Part of my job is to help with school work. I was so excited when I saw that part of his assignment was to create a ripped paper collage an ice cream cone. He caught on really quickly, so as he worked, I did too. Here are our completed cones side by side.

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. 4, No. 312, November 8, 2019

4312 - Displayed.

Good teachers are always adapting and improving their lessons. This quarter, I decided to have students cut out all of their Van Gogh flowers. They will still put one on the wall for our collaborative collage, the other 3 will be mounted on a background paper. I put together this example using 2 flowers that I made and one flower that was given to me by a student. The student’s flower wasn’t blended very well, so I added a little bit more color.

Vol. 4, No. 311, November 7, 2019

4311 - In Progress.

I've been working on a color wheel creature as an example for my first graders. They painted a color wheel, and then used it as the body of a creature. The next step was to color. Sometimes when the students are coloring, I get time to color as well. This week, I was only able to get the creature colored. My plan is to finish coloring the background soon, maybe even tomorrow.

Vol. 4, No. 310, November 6, 2019

4310 - A Little Fishy.

One of my Kindergarten students was gone today, on the last day of our Mouse Paint Color Wheel project. Students mixed paint on day one and painted raindrop shapes. On day two, students cut out the shapes and glued them to form a color wheel, then they added pink circle ears. On the final day, students were drawing eyes, whiskers, tails, and noses. I finished the project for the absent student, because the way our curriculum is set up, there isn’t much time for make-up projects.

Vol. 4, No. 292, October 19, 2019

4292 - Peak-A-Boo.

I was thinking that I wouldn’t be able to complete this challenge due to the fact that I am on vacation and I have limited resources. However, as I lay with Baby R during his morning nap, I noticed a travel magazine sitting on the end table. It was the August/September issue so I figured it would be okay if I cut it up. The next challenge was locating something to do the cutting. Fortunately, my nail kit that I carry in my purse had a mini scissor; it worked perfectly.I flipped through the the magazine and found the perfect spot to start cutting. In the end, my picture had eight layers.

Vol. 4, No. 256, September 13, 2019

4256 - Just One More.

I had a student gone yesterday, so I made one more quilt square in case we have a gap. The next step is to start hanging the squares.

Vol. 4, No. 255, September 12, 2019

4255 - Double Take.

I worked with quilts again today as my last first grade class finished their quilt squares today for our school’s collaborative quilt inspired by Libs Elliott. This class and the one before used orange as their primary color.

Vol. 4, No. 254, September 11, 2019

4254 - Never Forget.

I remembered to take a picture of my collaborative quilt square today. At the elementary school, students in grades 1-4 working together to make a paper quilt inspired by the work of Libs Elliott. Each student is making a monochromatic quilt square that will be hung with the rest of the squares, creating a rainbow quilt around the cafeteria. Two of my classes worked with yellows. This is the square I made with them.

Vol. 4, No. 126, May 4, 2019

4126 - Helping Hands.

The other day, Momma Miller asked me if I would help Baby’s A and R make  Mother’s Day gifts for their Moms. Of course I said yes, because I couldn’t turn down a chance for some Miller time and a craft project. So last night we set to work with our project, flower bouquets using hand and footprints. I did two prints of each and and each foot for each baby just to insure that we would have a good one for the bouquet. After the paint was dry, I cut out each print. Then I made tube-shaped stems with leaves that popped up. Momma Miller cut out and wrote on the flower pots. After assembling everything, I added a little trim to each pot. While it looks cute and really finishes off the project, it was really designed to cover up a glue smudge.

Vol. 4, No. 125, May 3, 2019

4125 - Brown Bear.

When I think of Eric Carle, I think of Brown Bear, so today during my extra prep time, I got to work cutting out pieces for a second painted paper collage. This time, I made a bear. I didn’t glue anything down, because I plan to use it as a working example for students to better understand how I want them to do the project.

Vol. 4, No. 124, May 2, 2019

4124 - My Favorite Things.

Today my 1st graders began their Eric Carle painted paper collages. Collage is probably my most favorite medium so I couldn’t resist sitting down with my students to make my own. I asked the students at the table I was sitting at for animal suggestions. My favorite of the ideas offered up was a zebra, so I set to work. We only had warm and cool colored papers to work with, so I had to get creative. I chose to use warm colors for the skin and cool colors for the hair and stripes. Of course, no artwork is complete without a background, so I added grass, clouds and the sun. When I was finished I noticed an empty spot so I added a flower as well. I was torn between leaving school on time today and staying late to make a second example collage. Leaving on time won, because I remembered that I have an extra prep time tomorrow due to the 1st grade field trip!

Vol. 4, No. 116, April 24, 2019

4116 - Perfect Square.

During this past cycle, my kindergarteners did a lesson based on the book “Perfect Square” by Michael Hall. For this project each student chose a square paper; they had a choice between one with cutting guides or plain construction paper. With their chosen paper, they cut, ripped, tore, wrinkled, shredded, and folded to create something new. I wanted to make an example with each of the available options and was able to get 4.5 of 6 completed during class. The bird was my first creation, made from construction paper. Next was the waterfall inspired by a student’s work. This was followed by the broccoli looking tree, not a great success. To top it off, today I made the dinosaur and volcano. This particular creation was a collaboration between myself and a student. I did all of the tearing of the printed square; the student helped me color. It’s not exactly how I would have done it and I was very thankful when the clean up bell started ringing, forcing her to stop coloring and “wrecking” my artwork. The half project that I made was a neat star design made from printed green triangles. I didn’t get a chance to color the background and didn’t include it in my picture.

Vol. 4, No. 115, April 23, 2019

4115 - Due Date.

In honor of Baby Foresman’s due date, I finished the my shower present for the baby and Becca. The drawing is of two otters (Becca and Nate’s spirit animal) holding a bunch of balloons. During the shower, each guest signed a balloon indicating their guess as to the gender of Baby Foresman; purple for girl and gold for boy. Now Baby Foresman just needs to hurry up and be born so we know who guessed correctly.

Vol. 4, No. 096, April 4, 2019

4096 - Foodie.

Today I finally got around to finishing my Archimboldo inspired self-portrait example for my 8th graders; it only took me 3/4 of the school year. The students had to choose a theme and find images in magazines that fit into that theme. They cut the images out and arrange them over a silhouette of their head to form a person. Students struggled to grasp the concept of how much detail I was looking for, with a visible eye, ear, lips, shirt, and hair.  The students could choose any theme they want, however, I let them know that food is one of the easier themes based on the magazines in the room. Therefore, I choose food for my example. Now my example will be ready for next year.

Vol. 4, No. 071, March 12, 2019

4071 - Silver Award.

Day 12: What happened today in history? Use that as your theme today.

Today is National Girl Scouts Day, a day to celebrate Girl Scouts which was founded on this day in 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low. I chose this historic event for my project because growing up Girl Scouts was a pretty big part of my life. In fact, I am a Silver Award recipient, this is the second highest award you can achieve in Girl Scouts.

My initial thought for the project was to sculpt something out of Girl Scout Cookies. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any readily available, so I went to plan B. This was to print pictures of Girl Scout Cookies, cut them out and create a collage of the Girl Scout logo. This would have been a good plan, but with conferences at school, and then play practice, I didn’t have enough time to execute this plan. So, on to plan C. Plan C was to use the cookies that I already had cut out to create letters  for Girl Scouts and numbers for it’s founding year and then make a photo collage.

Vol. 4, No. 046, February 15, 2019

4046 - Friendship Hearts.

I had plans for today, and then I forgot the materials at school, so I went to plan C. I asked friends for some help. Oldest Miller was still up when I got home, and she jumped at the chance to make me, or I guess Mom, a heart. Then my sister sent me a heart she made with crayons while at work.

Vol. 4, No. 044, February 13, 2019

4044 - Lion Hearted.

Today I made another example for my first graders. This time I also decorated the background using more hearts.

Vol. 4, No. 032, February 1, 2019

4032 - Red Day.

Today we kick of American Heart Month, bringing awareness to heart disease. Again this year, I will make a different heart project every day in February.

Today’s heart project is an example for my First Graders. They are learning how to cut out hearts and then are making pictures using the hearts. I made the butterfly while Oldest Miller made the cat.

Vol. 4, No. 010, January 10, 2019

4010 - Cover Lover.

I couldn't picture a single album cover, so I took to Google. The first cover to catch my attention was a simple printed banana made by Andy Warhol for an album by The Velvet Underground & Nico. I was at school, so I pulled out my printing ink and used a Q-tip and a plastic baggie to make a mono printed banana on yellow paper. After 3 tries, I cut out my favorite and glued it to a piece of white paper. After I glued it down, I realized that I forgot to account for the mirrored image of printmaking, so my banana curves the opposite way of the one on the original album cover. That was okay, I just put the words on the opposite sides as well.