Vol. 2, No. 200, July 19, 2017

2200 - Happy Birthday.

Like the past few days, I should have been at the theater working on sets. However, today is my birthday so I figured I could give myself most of the day off. Rather than go into the theater to work, I brought one of the props home. I needed to decorate a cake that would be used in the opening song, "Food Glorious Food". I was lucky enough to find a cake form in the prop room. Therefore, I just had to "frost" it, and decorate it.

It took me a while to find a recipe for pipe-able fake frosting that will harden and wasn't expensive to make. I ended up using Plaster of Paris, water and acrylic paint, piped through a plastic baggie. The cake is by no means perfect, but it was well received at rehearsal tonight.

Vol. 2, No. 199, July 18, 2017

2199 - Summer Fun Days.

This morning I brought the Miller Littles to a Summer Playdate. It was supposed to be an outside event, but because it was raining, it was moved indoors. That didn't stop us from enjoying all the fun outdoor activities. One activity was sidewalk chalk.

A large piece of black paper was rolled out on the floor and we were invited to draw pictures. Littlest Miller and I drew popsicles, Oldest Miller drew a love bug, and others added their own pictures as well.

Vol. 2, No. 198, July 17, 2017

2198 - Maids-A-Milking

With only one week left until Oliver! opens, I was at the theater again today. One of my projects was finishing the milk pails and yoke that others had started. Rick built the yoke and Mary and Brenda created the milk pails. The pails were made by wrapping 5-gallon buckets with masking tape, then painting them. Special shout out to my Milk Maid Model.

Vol. 2, No. 197, July 16, 2017

2197 - Farm Fresh.

This evening was Setwork Sunday for my family. One of my tasks was making a basket of eggs. I took plastic Easter eggs and spray painted them a whitish color with brownish specks. They are pretty cute and from a distance they look real.

Vol. 2, No. 196, July 15, 2017

2196 - Sandy Shower.

Today was my sister's bridal shower. After the chaios of the morning, and a fun afternoon at the lake, I realized I needed to do my project. I was going to just draw in the sand, but then I noticed an umbrella shaped seaweed covered rock. I added some reeds for the handle and top spindle.

Vol. 2, No. 195, July 14, 2017

2195 - Hamburger Surprise.

I was busy with bridal shower prep today, so I made part of the prep my project. One of my tasks was to make scones. I was making White Chocolate Raspberry Scones, and my sister looked at the pan and said that they looked like raw hamburger.

Despite the look, they taste delicious! To make the picture more artsy, I laid the scones out in a flower shape.

Vol. 2, No. 194, July 13, 2017

2194 - Keg Party.

Despite the title, there was no drinking involved in this project, and it was a party of one. I was back at the theater this afternoon painting sets. One of today's projects was painting a tapped keg that was hung on the wall of the bar.

I can't take any credit for the construction of the keg, that was the amazing Rick Fischer.

Vol. 2, No. 193, July 12, 2017

2193 - Wall Wednesday.

I spent about 5 hours painting at the theater today, working on the set for LCT's Oliver. Because of this I didn't have time or energy to make anything else. So my project is a wall. The base coat and horizontal gray lines were already done. I added the vertical lines and dry brushing to create a wall that looks like old, weathered wooden slats. This picture shows just a small portion of all the wall.

Vol. 2, No. 192, July 11, 2017

2192 - Twine Tea.

I took yesterday's twine ball and some hot glue and after only a couple small burns, I created a twine teacup. It's not perfectly even, but it will make a great decoration for my sister's bridal tea on Saturday. The diameter of the saucer is about 4".

Vol. 2, No. 191, July 10, 2017

2191 - Twine Ball.

Today, I was working to get things ready for my sister's bridal shower. Since we grew up in Darwin, the home of the World's Largest Ball of Twine Made by One Man, we decided that one of the games at the shower would be to guess how many feet of twine was used to make a mini twine ball. So I took a length of string (I'm not going to say how much in case someone who is attending the shower reads my blog) and wrapped it into a tight ball.

Now as I type this, I am thinking that it would have been cool to use the twine to make a teacup rather than just a ball as it is going to be a bridal tea. Maybe I will have to make that my project for tomorrow.

Vol. 2, No. 190, July 9, 2017

2190 - Pageantry Puppets.

Wrapping up the Watercade festivities, I attended the Miss Litchfield Coronation. I got to the auditorium a little early and was talking to the spotlight opperator when some friends and I decided it would be fun to make shadow puppets. Shining the spotlight on the wall, I helped to position the others to create some fun shapes on the wall. If we had more time we maybe could have done a shadow story, but people started arriving and we had to stop.

Here are a few of my favorites. On the top row we have a weird monster, complete with an eye, and another creature; and kissing swans. On the bottom row we have a peacock and a turkey; and a butterfly.

Vol. 2, No. 189, July 8, 2017

2189 - Daisy Chain.

I was out and about today taking in various events including the softball tournament, Art-in-the-Park, and of course the parade. While waiting for the parade to start I looked around for something to use for my project. The most prominent thing was clover. I began picking the flowers and then braided them together to make a chain. I wasn't patient enough to collect enough long seemed flowers to make a full sized crown. Since Little Miller wouldn't wear it as a bracelet, we made it a crown for her bear instead.

Vol. 2, No. 188, July 7, 2017

2188 - Carrot Collaboration.

Today I brought the Miller Littles to story hour at the library. The subject was carrots, as that is Litchfield's One Community One Vegetable vegetable this year. At story hour we learned that carrots come in a wide variety of colors including white, red, yellow, orange, and purple. We also learned that carrots are biannuals which means that if left to grow, they will produce flowers and seeds in year two.

After learning about carrots, reading a book and singing some songs, it was time for a craft. We made a carrot collage. I collaborated with Little Miller to make my collage. She drew the ground line, and cut out the some of the carrots after I helped her draw them. She could have drawn and cut them all out herself, but she was having a stubborn 4 year-old moment.

I cut out the carrot tops and she glued it all down. Then when we got home I used colored pencil to add a little more detail.

Vol. 2, No. 187, July 6, 2017

2187 - Polished Piggies.

My toenails were in desperate need of re-painting, so I decided to make a fun nanny activity out of it and paint my nails and those of the Little Millers. Of course, Middle Miller opted out.

Oldest Miller just wanted lots of colors, so I did polka dots. Little Miller couldn't decide between watermelon or strawberries, so we did both. It was pretty cute, so I did mine the same way.

Vol. 2, No. 186, July 5, 2017

2186 - Fancy Pup Blotter.

Not having a theme is really getting to me, I might have to pull out my book again. After much research, while sitting down for supper with a can of pop, I decided to make a butterfly out of my pop can. It was a fairly easy project. The hardest part was getting a good butterfly shape that was even on both sides.

After the butterfly was cut out and details were add, I brought it outside and placed it on a flower to be photographed. Then came the really hard part, adding a title to my project. I decided to use an anagram of Pop Can Buterfly.

Vol. 2, No. 185, July 4, 2017

2185 - Melon Shark.

I was excited to not have to make skulls anymore, but I found myself stumped unsure what to make. So when my mom asked for someone to cut the watermelon, I jumped at the chance to try my carving skills.

I chose to carve a shark. I cut off one end, carved out the insides, and then cut in the teeth and eyes. I concluded by putting the shark on a plate, filled it with the watermelon pieces and added a fin.

Vol. 2, No. 184, July 3, 2017

2184 - Celebration Skull.

In celebration of my 30th day of skulls, I took CAT out for ice cream. Before I ate my ice cream I carved a quick skull. I love how it looks like it is melting away just like my skull project.

Vol. 2, No. 183, July 2, 2017

2183 - Cotton Skull.

My family gathered at the lake today for an early 4th of July celebration. Our lake lot is surrounded by cottonwood trees, so there was cotton covering everything. I decided to use this to my advantage and "harvested" some of the cotton from the pontoon and dock to make my daily skull on the pontoon deck. The fun part about cotton and the carpet on the pontoon is that they stick together, which means that my skull is still there for others to see.

Vol. 2, No. 182, July 1, 2017

2182 - Set Work Skull.

Today was another Set Work Saturday. This time for LCT's Oliver. There was much painting to be done and I almost forgot to do my project. I remembered in time to use a bit of spilt paint to finger paint a skull on a step. I think it looks kind of like a monkey.

Vol. 2, No. 181, June 30, 2017

2181 - Forgotten Skull.

It was 10 PM. I was cleaning up from having spent 6 hours painting sets for Litchfield Community Theatre's production of Oliver, when I realized that I hadn't done my project yet. I frantically looked around for something I could use when I saw some watermarks on a table. I decided they would work as eyes and grabbed a pencil to draw in the rest of the skull.

Vol. 2, No. 180, June 29, 2017

2180 - Skull Money.

I had some free time this afternoon so I decided to try my hand at a dollar skull again. It's not as good as the picture I was working g from, but it is still pretty good, and it only took about 10 minutes.

Vol. 2, No. 179, June 28, 2017

2179 - Graphic Skull.

The Miller Littles, like most kids, jump at the chance to play on a phone. Littlest Miller's favorite activity on the phone is drawing. So while I was waiting in the eye doctor's office, I took a page from her playbook today and used PicsArt to design today's skull.

Vol. 2, No. 178, June 27, 2017

2178 - Skull Instructions.

Today Claudia and Middle Miller wanted to draw with me. So, I gave them verbal instructions on how to draw a skull. Since they knew what they were drawing ahead of time, they both did really good. The picture shows all 3 of our skulls side by side.

Vol. 2, No. 177, June 26, 2017

2177 - Carrot Skull.

I was at the Roseville Parade tonight and I still needed to make a skull. So I used what I had on hand, a carrot and a cuticle pusher. I used the critical pusher to carve the skull. It is rather long, but I think it is o e of my favorite skulls so far.

Thanks Claudia and Elijah for the encouragement while I was working.

Vol. 2, No. 176, June 25, 2017

2176 - Family Skull.

SKULL OF THE WEEK Ask a family member or friend to teach you something new and use that to inspire this week's skull.

I wanted to get my project out of the way before hitting the road again and I was hoping to incorporate the Creative Sprint weekly challenge. So at breakfast this morning, my sister and I tried to teach other how to fold a dollar bill skull. We worked on it for close to 30 minutes without success, before our food arrived.

After we ate, we tried a different approach. We collaborated to create this skull using our breakfast garbage.

Vol. 2, No. 175, June 24, 2017

2175 - Yellow Day Skull.

This week's #64MillionArtists Weekly Challenge was to make something yellow for Yellow Day which is today. You can read more about Yellow Day here: https://goo.gl/UBAzwo .

I am visiting my sister this weekend and today she had a go walk a friend's dogs. While at their house, I was reminded by the skulls that decorated their house that I still had to do my project. My sister suggested a skull scavanger hunt, but since had already done that I needed more. Plus I wanted to work with something yellow. That is when I noticed the growing bananas on the counter. I grabbed a toothpick and carved a skull into the peel.

The top picture is the banana right away. The bottom picture is the banana after sitting for 30 minutes.

In the middle of the top scavenger hunt picture is a skull-ified drawing of the family whose home we visited. The skulls pictured today were only the skulls found on the main floor.

Vol. 2, No. 174, June 23, 2017

2174 - Pinkilicious Skull.

Yay, I am 2/3 of the way through my Skull-A-Day challenge!

Today is National Pink Day. To celebrate, I up-cycled a pink plastic shopping bag into a skull mask. My future brother-in-law was kind enough to model it for me. With the flash on, it looks like he has Silly Putty stretched over his face.

Vol. 2, No. 173, June 22, 2017

2173 - Skull Receipt.

Today as I was cleaning off my dining room table, I found a stack of receipts. I decided to use one for my project, folding it into an origami skull.

Vol. 2, No. 172, June 21, 2017

2172 - Skull Slime.

Today's skull isn't up-cycled, but that is because today as a fun surprise, the Little Millers, CC, CAT and I made slime. It was an adventure and when it was finished, I couldn't resist playing with it, forming it into a skull. I made a flat skull, but a more 3-D skull would gave been even better.

Here's some advice for people trying to make their own slime: try a small batch to make sure the recipe works before you make 3 full batches. We didn't do this and had some batches not really turn out.

Vol. 2, No. 171, June 20, 2017

2171 - Water Waste Skull.

Today, the Little Millers and I brought new disposable fliptop water bottles to gymnastics. The bottles had little plastic tabs that needed to be removed in order to be used. So, I pulled all the tabs, and then used the plastic pieces and my teeth to create a skull.

Vol. 2, No. 170, June 19, 2017

2170 - Trash-to-treasure Skull.

Skulls are really not my thing, so continuing to make skulls everyday is a real challenge for me.

Continuing with this weeks Creative Sprint theme, Up-cycled, I tore my skull from a Kleenex that I used to wipe my fingers during supper. Quick, simple, and very much the same as the past couple days.

Vol. 2, No. 169, June 18, 2017

2169 - Candy Wrapper Skull.

SKULL OF THE WEEK For this week's skull, up-cycle! Make a skull from something you would normally throw away.

Today was the Water Carnival Parade in Hutchinson. While watching the parade with my family, we collected candy and of course we had to eat some which left us with wrappers that needed to be thrown away. I saved a DOTS box from the trash pile and up-cycled it into a skull. Fortunately 3M had gone by and passed out tape, because I tore a little bit too far on one eye, ripping a hole that needed to be patched up.

Vol. 2, No. 168, June 17, 2017

2168 - Skull Hoppers.

Today my sister's and I went to Waconia for the Lake Waconia Band Festival. We arrived early to get a place near the judging area, so we decided to kill time by grabbing a bite to eat at Hoppers Bar and Grill. While we waited for our food to arrive, I grabbed a ball in and ripped it into a skull. Then I laid it on the near by pool table to photograph it.

Vol. 2, No. 167, June 16, 2017

2167 -School Lego Collection Skull.

Today was a bittersweet day, I was turning in my keys at Holy Trinity School and picking up my personal belongings. That's right I got a new job!

I made so many projects at Holy Trinity over the last 18 months that I wanted to do one more. So as I finished cleaning up, I pulled out the Lego bins and made a simple skull using a collection of red Legos.

Rather than taking the skull apart and returning all of the pieces to their proper compartment like you are supposed to do, I left it together for someone, maybe my co-teacher, to find later.

Vol. 2, No. 166, June 15, 2017

2166 - Perler Collection Skull.

Today Big Miller was making jewelry and had out her bead collection, including Perler beads. With the help of Little Miller, I picked out green and pink Perler beads to make a skull. It was a little tricky, because I only had a cat shaped tray to work on. After some rearranging, it all worked out. I considered ironing my finished design, but I didn't know what I would do with it, so I just put the beads back in the container to be reused.

Vol. 2, No. 165, June 14, 2017

2165 - Blueberry Collection Skull.

Today was a busy day. All of a sudden it was 6:30, I was sitting in Benson at the Pioneerland Band Festival and I realized that I hadn't made a skull yet. So, I looked in my bag for a collection of something. The best I could find was a "collection" of blueberries. In between bands, i worked quickly to construct a skull. It isn't my best skull, but it sure tasted good.

Vol. 2, No. 164, June 13, 2017

2164 - Car Collection Skull.

I am continuing with the Creative Sprint Skull of the Week, which is using a collection of something. Today I worked with Middle Miller to create a skull using his car collection. Like Big Miller yesterday, Middle Miller was particular about the direction of his toys, making sure they were all "parked" the right way. We tried a few different skull configurations, this is the one I liked the best.

Vol. 2, No. 163, June 12, 2017

2163 - Kin Collection Skull.

SKULL OF THE WEEK Create the image of a skull from a collection that you own or borrow from a friend (stamps, coins, etc).

I borrowed the biggest Little Miller's Petkins collection to make a skull. I made the first skull by pushing all the Petkins together,  then clearing a space for the eyes, nose, and mouth. Big Miller helped me with a second skull by making sure that all of the Petkins were standing up the right direction.

Vol. 2, No. 162, June 11, 2017

2162 - Candy Skull.

Today I welcome my niece into the family. Yes, that's right, my older brother got a puppy. In preparation for Ziva' s arrival, I helped my brother clean his house. In the cleaning process, we found a container of candies, that I think used to be hard at one time, but we're now nice and pliable. I chose a purple candy and molded it into a skull.

Vol. 2, No. 161, June 10, 2017

2161 - Skull Scraps.

This morning a group of friends and myself got together to make invitations for my sister's bridal shower. When we were finished I used scraps of paper and some paper punches to make this little gingerbread skull. I left him on my friend's fridge.

Vol. 2, No. 160, June 9, 2017

2160 - Bookmarked Skull.

This week the Miller Littles and I have begun our summer filled with reading and fun. Of course if you are reading, you need a bookmark, so today that's what we did. I had some precut bookmarks that were sparkly on one side and plain paper on the other.  The kids chose the sparkly color they wanted and then drew pictures on the plain side.  I chose a white sparkly bookmark and cut it to resemble a skull.

Vol. 2, No. 159, June 8, 2017

2159 - Skull Park.

Today, I took the Miller Littles on a walk around the lake (well more like a quarter of the way around the lake). When we got to a park, we stopped to play. At the Lake Ripley Campground Park, while the kids were playing, I used moss, wood chips, and sand to create a quick skull.

Vol. 2, No. 158, June 7, 2017

2158 - Found Skull.

While contemplating what I was going to do for my project today, I was wondering through Litchfield High School, waiting for one of my charges to get finished with matching band. I was admiring the painted ceiling tiles when the Miller Littles started pointing out the artworks that had skulls in them. That's when I got the idea for my project. I would make a photocollage of the skull I find today.

I ended up with 6. We found 3 on the ceiling tiles (although one of them is actually a helmet, it still has skull characteristics, so I included it). Then we went and found my brother who was doing some electrical work in a class room. The room happened have 3 animal skulls sitting on a shelf!

The Miller Littles also practiced drawing skulls today, but they were erased before I got a chance to photograph them.

Vol. 2, No. 157, June 6, 2017

2157 - Left Over Skull.

The Skull-A-Bration continues! Last night we had BLTs for supper. There were 2 end pieces left over. It wasn't enough to save, so I decided to use it for my project.

I ripped the bread to make a skull. After it was photographed, I fed some of it to the Little Millers and we saved the rest of it to feed to the geese at the lake later.

Vol. 2, No. 156, June 5, 2017

2156 - "Left" Out Skull.

This week's #64MillionArtists challenge is : Getting 'Left' Out - draw or write something as a lefty. To continue with the Skull-A-Bration, I drew a skull using colored pencils and my left hand. It was pretty easy until I started shading and kept wanting to switch to my right hand.

Vol. 2, No. 155, June 4, 2017

2155 - Skulls Galore.

Happy Skull Appreciation Day!  Join the Skull-A-Bration by making and sharing your own original skull artwork today.

I decided to join the Skull-A-Bration, a 30-day skull making challenge to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Noah Scalin's Skull-A-Day project.

I start my summer nanny job tomorrow, and I wanted to have drawing kits for in the car. I saw a cute idea on Pinterest using DVD cases and decided to give it a try. It wasn't as easy as it sounds, because DVD cases aren't very thick. I had to rework the idea multiple times, but I am okay with the final product. The plastic on the cover creates a great dry erase surface. I put in a label that has an art quote on the spine, various activities on one side and the other side is left blank for free draw. Inside the case is a small note pad for drawing, a pen and dry erase marker. Each case has different activities on it; a traceable alphabet, a maze, a dot to dot, a board for the Dot Game, and tic-tac-toe. Each case also has a different color marker and pen, making it easier for the kids to play games together.

For the Skull-A-Bration, I tested out the kits, drawing two skulls, one with pen on the notepad, and another with the dry erase marker. Hopefully by the end of the month, my skulls will have improved.

Vol. 2, No. 154, June 3, 2017

2154 - Money Matters.

I have my last graduation party of the year tomorrow, so I had to finish getting the gift ready. I decided that I would fold the money creatively rather than just throw it in a card. I decided on a graduation cap. It was easy enough to make and looks pretty cool too.

Vol. 2, No. 153, June 2, 2017

2153 - Take Two.

I tried my hand at the 90-unit Sonobe ball again. While I wasn't able to make it circular, I did manage to get an enclosed shape.

I will take that as a win for today. I was going to go back and try it again later in the evening,  but I ended up with huge migraine and had to call it an early night.

The picture shows the ball from 9 different angles. Sure it looks cool, but it's not quite what I was hoping for.

Vol. 2, No. 152, June 1, 2017

2152 - Sonobe Recycle.

Today I was a substitute math teacher in Howard Lake. When I was planning my project for today, I knew that there was a stack  of art club registration forms sitting in the office that needed to be recycled as art club was over 2 weeks ago. What better way is there to recycle paper than to make origami?

I picked up the papers, brought them to  the art room, and used the paper cutter to cut them into 4.25" square pieces. Why this size? Well that's the size of half the short edge of the paper, allowing me 4 squares per paper. I brought the squares to the math room and got started on my project.

I wanted to make a large origami ball, like the blue ones that I made in April, only I wanted it to be larger. Bigger balls require more squares of paper, but I didn't know how many, so I did some reasearch. I discovered that this form of origami is called modular origami and it can be used to build lots of different models. In modular origami, you combine multiple units folded form single pieces of paper into more complicated forms. The Sonobe unit is one form of unit that can be used to  create modular origami. Sonobe is the unit that I learned how to make in high school math class.

As I said before, I wanted to make a large ball, After my research my goal was to  make a 90-unit ball. I got all of the Sonobes folded and started to assemble my ball with 30 minutes left in the school day. As hard as I tried, I couldn't figure out how to connect the Sonobes to make a circle. I wanted to leave a completed ball at school, so I eventually gave up on the 90-unit and settled for three smaller balls, a 30-unit, a 12-unit, and a 6-unit. I left all three balls lined up on a table in the math room.

I still have more squares, to be folded, so I think I will try the 90-unit ball again tomorrow.