Vol. 4, No. 077, March 18, 2019

4077 - All Smiles.

Day 18: Invent a game for two or more people to play. Get someone to play it with you!

I invented ‘Handprint’. It is a game in which you compete to see how many tries it takes to get a 2 month old to open his hand, producing a good handprint on a canvas. Surprisingly, I was able to do it in one try. It helped that he clearly liked getting his hand painted; he was all smiles as we “played”. Alternative directions for the game could include timing players to see how long it takes them to complete the task from start to finish.

The handprint is part of a Foster Family Memory Wall that I am creating for my friends.

Vol. 4, No. 076, March 17, 2019

4076 - Burt’s Bees.

Day 17: Pick the most boring object in your workspace, alter it so it becomes unique or interesting!

My workspace changes constantly, but one thing that is always there is my chapstick. With just a Poist-It note and a marker, I made my chapstick more interesting by turning it into a butterfly.

Vol. 4, No. 075, March 16, 2019

4075 - Ducky Hunt.

Day 16: Hide something and create a map that someone else can use to find it.  Bonus: Give the map to someone to try out!

I decided to hide a little rubber ducky in the house. Then I drew a rough map of the house with a path or the Miller Littles to use to find the duck. Oldest Miller followed the path even before I hid the duck. She figured out which room it is in, but not necessarily where exactly.

Vol. 4, No. 074, March 15, 2019

4074 - Building Bridges.

Day 15:  Create a bridge. Anything that is load bearing and connects two separate things counts!

Periodically throughout the day I would remember I needed to build a bridge, but I never did it. When I got home and settled in after a very long day, I realized I had some work to do. I headed to the toy room in search of a building material. I chose Lincoln Logs. I started building and then noticed the car mat sitting near by. I adjusted my bridge to fit over one road while connecting to another. I added the reactor and car just to make it more real.

Vol. 4, No. 073, March 14, 2019

4073 - Into The Woods.

Day 14: Create something that floats on water (it doesn't have to be a boat)

Tonight I attended Annandale Middle Schools production of Into The Woods. It was fun because I have most of the actors in class this year. The few I didn't know, I will meet in 2 weeks when 4th quarter starts.
When I got home I used the program to fold an origami boat. When I was finished, I set it afloat in one of many puddles at the end of the driveway.

Vol. 4, No. 072, March 13, 2019

4072 - Iceland.
Day 13:
What is a country you have never visited? Learn something about that country and make something that represents what you learned.
One country I would like to visit is Iceland. Recently my sister and brother-in-law as well as some of my co-workers went to Iceland and they all had good things to say about it. Iceland is defined by it's dramatic landscape with volcanoes, geysers, hot springs and lava fields. While I want to go to Iceland for it's hot springs and to see the Northern Lights, I drew a volcano for my project. This choice was because my Kindergartners are learning about dinosaurs. We drew dinosaurs and well as some landscape pieces to go with them. One example is a volcano. We will be assembling all of the dinosaurs and scenery into a mural for the spring art show.

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. 070, March 11, 2019

4070 - Aurora.

Day 11: Use stars, planets, and other things found in outer space as your inspiration today.

The timing of this prompt couldn’t have been more perfect. My 6th graders are currently working their Northern Lights project. They practice blending with chalk to make the auroras and then add a silhouette landscape, as well as some stars in the sky. Today’s class was working on the silhouette and stars. I needed to demonstrate how to use the paintbrush and their thumb to flick the white paint into their sky, without getting it all over everywhere, so this was my example.

Vol. 4, No. 069, March 10, 2019

4069 - Spring Ahead.

Day 10:  Camouflage something.

Mother Nature has been doing a pretty good job of providing camouflage for everything. Yesterday, we got another 8 or so inches if snow, so today I challenged friends and family to send me their nature camouflaged pictures. I created a photo collage with all of the pictures I recieved as well as the ones I took myself.

Vol. 4, No. 068, March 9, 2019

4068 - Tenfold.

Day 9: Create something and then increase or reduce it by a power of 10 (i.e. 10 times larger or 10 times smaller). Repeat.

I recruited Oldest Miller to help me with my project today. She needed to make a windmill for school, so we looked at Pinterest for some ideas. She painted the toilet paper tube base and chose the paper for the blades while I made and assembled the blades. I was going to have her do the assembly, but she got scared of the pin. While she worked on hers, I made a mini version, almost perfectly to scale, 10 times smaller. I considered making a larger version, but I would have needed paper that was 43 inches, and I did not.

Vol. 4, No. 067, March 8, 2019

4067 - Admiration.

Day 8: Create something inspired by an artist whose work you admire.

I like the work of Vincent Van Gogh, especially Starry Night. So today as I was cleaning up watercolors I decided to play. I drew out the scene with oil pastels, the soaked my paper in the sink. While still laying in the sink with small pools of water on top, I dropped watercolors into place. The extra water allowed the colors to flow smoothly through the maze of oil pastel. Some of the color shifted as I lifted it out of the sink. I laid it on another piece of paper in the hopes of absorbing some of the excess water. It worked. I also used a hair dryer to move the larger puddles around.

Vol. 4, No. 066, March 7, 2019

4066 - Rules.

Day 7: Break a rule.

Don’t tell my First Graders, but today I broke all the rules! For the Spring Art Show, my first graders are making “Crazy Cacti”. We go through it step by step, talking about lines, shapes, patterns, and color. They get to practice drawing, painting, cutting and gluing. Today, after class, I made a quick example, and broke the rules. I painted without drawing my shapes first. I used markers to outline and draw patterns before the paint was dry. (Don’t worry, I didn’t wreck good markers, I used the old, dried out markers from the recycle bin.) I used two paper strips for my needles, rather than just one. And when I was cleaning up, I brushed my scraps on to the floor.

Honestly, I liked how the patterns turned out and might gather more recycled markers for students who are a day behind to use. My favorite part of the cactus is the top right piece. I used a black marker to draw the pattern, but the design appears like a rainbow.

Vol. 4, No. 065, March 6, 2019

4065 - Monster Mash.

that doodle into a drawing of a fantastic beast or other imaginary animal.

When I got home from work, I grabbed a pencil and paper and was heading to look for a Miller Little, when I remembered the BoogieBoards sitting on my dresser. I decided this would be a more eco friendly way to do my project today. The first Miller I found was Littlest Miller; she was more than willing to draw a doodle on the BoogieBoard for me. After she drew her design, I realized that I couldn’t do anything to keep her art separate from my own, so I took a quick pic of hers. It is in the bottom corner of the picture. Then I added details, creating this “Fantastic Beast”. I started with the eye, then moved to the teeth. The last part I added was the wing. Due to lack of space, the wing ended up much too small to be functional.

Vol. 4, No. 064, March 5, 2019

4064 - Hamming Up Your Menu.

Day 5: Tear out a page of text from a newspaper or magazine. Write a poem using only the words you can find on that page.

I found a portion of a page ripped out of a magazine lying on the floor at school. Not knowing what it was, I picked it up and then grabbed a Sharpie. It was a page from a cooking magazine, most likely a March/April issue. Using Black Out Poetry, in free verse, I created the following poem. Don’t be just a succulent; it still offers the stunning show. Then recycle the dish.

It’s nothing fancy, but it made me think.

Vol. 4, No. 063, March 4, 2019

4063 - Unforgettable.

Day 4:  Write a note to your second-grade self.

For the life of me, I couldn't recall anything from second-grade other than that my teacher was Mrs. G. I kept thinking about off and on all and at 10:30 tonight I still had nothing. So I looked in to my archive and found an un-posted project. Last week, my Kinders learned about architecture and drew their own castles. They colored the castles using different textures. This was my example.

I guess my note to my second-grade self would say "Don't worry about anything, because 23 years from now, you aren't going to remember it anyways."

Vol. 4, No. 062, March 3, 2019

4062 - Happy Birthday Momma.

Day 3:  Give a classic nursery rhyme a new twist.

Since today is my Mom’s 55th Birthday, I chose my nursery rhyme to incorporate her. The first to come to mind was ‘There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe’
“There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn’t know what to do; She gave them some both without any bread; She whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed.”

I didn’t really change the rhyme, I mostly just illustrated it. I decided to take a family photo and create a frame for it. The frame depicts a shoe with a window for my mom, each of my siblings, and myself. I didn’t give my dad a window, because it didn’t fit with the rhyme.

Vol. 4, No. 061, March 2, 2019

4061 - Big, Bright, Beautiful.

Day 2: Imagine the world from an ant's perspective. What do you see? What would you create?

I was busy with Set Work Saturday today. I couldn’t figure out how to work what I was doing into the prompt, therefore I didn’t get around to doing my project until this evening. During Mom’s Birthday Game Night, I found a scrap of paper and some Crayola Brush Markers, the color pallet was very limited, and drew a picture of some ants about to get stepped on while eating an apple. The perspective isn’t quite right, and they are eating an apple, because my first ant was way too bing in comparison to the shoe, so I had to make it into something else.

Vol. 4, No. 060, March 1, 2019

4060 - Skills.

Day 1: Make something that fits in the palm of your hand using only materials in your immediate environment.

Today I start a new 30 Day Creative Sprint. This Creative Sprint is specifically designed for K-12 Educators. Through out the month we will be exploring themes of academic subjects, lesson planning, rapport building, and self-care.

This Creativity Sprint started the way all Creative Sprints begin, small. When I got to school, I found a ball of sticky tac in my desk drawer. I used it to make a brain. It was kind of a fun challenge. I’ve made hearts before, but I don’t think I’ve ever made a brain.

Vol. 4, No. 059, February 28, 2019

2059 - Last Heart.

For my last heart project, I decided to make an example of a flextangle. I had made copies of a flextangle template for my middle school students, thinking it would be a good project or early finishers or those who wanted extra credit. Unfortunately students were struggling with how to correctly design and assemble their flextangles. After completing the designs for my flextangle, I made copies so that I could show the same flextangle in various stages of completeness. Hopefully this will help students to be more successful.

Vol. 4, No. 058, February 27, 2019

4058 - You’ve Got This.

Today we celebrate Bus Driver Appreciation Day, so as my 6th graders were using oil pastels to work on their abstract art project, I decided to draw a school bus. To incorporate m monthly theme of hearts, I used hearts the create the dotted line on the road. I finished out my drawing with a little bit of watercolor resist in the background.

Vol. 4, No. 057, February 26, 2019

4057 -  Blended.

Today, my 6th graders were finishing their abstract paintings, so at the beginning of class, to refresh their memory of color mixing, did a small demonstration. I had grabbed blue, yellow,  and white, so I ended up mixing a mint green. Once the kids started working on their projects, I used my freshly mixed paint to make a heart. The blue-ish details were made from extra paint that a student had.

Vol. 4, No. 056, February 25, 2019

4056 - Heart of the City.

I wasn’t planning on getting to go to my Church’s Mission tonight, but because today was yet another snow day, rehearsal was canceled, so I was free. Tonight while sitting at the Mission, I drew a small heart, creating a city at night within it. I took a picture of it on another on my favorite hymns, ‘The Supper of the Lord’. After I was finished, I thought that ‘City of God’ would have been a more appropriate song, but I didn’t want to retake the picture. Like last night, I left the heart in the hymnal for someone else to find.

Vol. 4, No. 055, February 24, 2019

4055 - Mission.

Tonight, despite the snow covered roads and blowing snow, my dad and I ventured to church for the first night of our Area Faith Community’s Mission. The night began with fellowship, and there were chocolates on the table. I used the wrapper of a chocolate to fold an origami heart. I took a picture of the heart on the hymnal, opened to one of my favorite songs, ‘Cantical of the Sun’. I left the heart in the hymnal for someone else to find.

Vol. 4, No. 054, February 23, 2019

4054 - Wedded Bliss.

Today I helped assemble the invitations for my sister’s wedding. From attaching the information paper, to folding the card, to attaching the ribbon, I got in on all of the steps except for stuffing. In the end, my main job was putting the tape on the ribbons for someone else to attach. I decided this could count as my project, because the invites have hearts on them. In order to not share their information with the hole world, I blurted out the information part of the invite, but you still get the gist of the invite.

Vol. 4, No. 053, February 22, 2019

4053 - Hypocrite.

Today I did something that I would be mad at my students for doing. When I went to wash paint pallets this morning, I used the left over paint to finger paint in the sink. The heart looks kind of melted because the water was running as I painted, splashing up on the heart and washing it away.

I left paint pallets for students to wash, but I made sure to wash off the heart as to not set a bad example.

Vol. 4, No. 052, February 21, 2019

4052 - Illuminated.

Another of my Valentine's was a glow stick. I think it got broken halfway on the trip home from school, so only half of it glowed when I went to use it. I bent the stick into a heart shape, held between my fingers and then took the picture while standing in the dark bathroom. Youngest Miller thought it was pretty cool and took it to bed with her.

Vol. 4, No. 051, February 20, 2019

4051 - Candied.

I finally got around to looking at my Valentines. I didn’t get very many, but I used the Conversation Hearts and Skittles that I got to make this small installation.

Vol. 4, No. 050, February 19, 2019

4050 - Stacked.

This weekend we ate pancakes for breakfast one day. As I ate my stack, I cut them into a heart shape.

Vol. 4, No. 049, February 18, 2019

4049 - Wrapped In Love.

With my day off today, I decided to attend basketball game between my hometown school and my work school. As make-ups for snow day games, it was a boys and girls double header. I decided that the 4 hours I would be watching basketball would be a good time to finish knitting the scarf for Oldest Miller. I stitched in a pocket, added a finger knitted button in case she wants to close the scarf, and a little trim. It isn’t the nicest scarf, but she likes it today. I laid the scarf out into a heart for the picture.

Vol. 4, No. 048, February 17, 2019

4048 - Family Fun.

Today the Hansen Family gathered for a birthday celebration. Usually we gather at Grandma’s house, but this year we went out to eat at Olive Garden. As we were finishing dinner, I collected Ande’s Mint wrappers and started folding. I was trying to make a heart-shaped ball, but my mind wasn’t computing well enough to figure out how do make the heart, so I settled for a regular ball. Then I used straws and cups to form a heart around the ball. I left it behind for the waitress to find. Thanks Becca for helping me fold the parts for the ball.

Vol. 4, No. 047, February 16, 2019

4047 - Gummy.

Oldest Miller had gotten a Gummy Jewelry kit for Christmas, and she finally got to gelatin needed to do the kit. So, this afternoon she asked me to help her. I agreed on the condition that there were heart molds. There were 2 different sizes of hearts. To make the picture more interesting, I arranged the hearts with a bracelet chain to make a smiley face.

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. 45, February 14, 2019

4045 - Valentine.

This morning I attempted to do my hair for Valentine’s Day (small corner pic). I wasn’t very successful, but I wasn’t ready to give up. I tried again on my hair during my first play practice this afternoon. This time was worse than this morning. Tonight, when I got to my second play practice, I sought out a more than willing volunteer, Molly. I was slightly more successful with Molly’s hair (big pic), and I would have kept trying, but we ran out of time.

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. 043, February 12, 2019

4043 - Architecture.

This week, my Kinders began a unit on Architecture. The unit starts with stations, that explore architecture in different ways. One station is building with wooden blocks. I took a couple minutes during class today to create a heart with some of the wooden spools. The kids were so excited that I was building with them. From above I think the spoils look like Cheerios.

Vol. 4, No. 042, February 11, 2019

4042 - Carhartt.

Today I purchased my first basically new car. I say basically new because it had one previous owner who owned it for one year and only but 4000 miles on it; so it’s basically new. I created a sticker from a picture of my car and then used that sticker to create a heart collage.

Vol. 4, No. 041, February 10, 2019

4041 - Be Mine.

Valentine Boxes are due at school tomorrow morning, so Oldest Miller was putting the finishing touches on her box. She needed to incorporate her name and reattach the crown. She chose to write her name on the crown with puff paint. When it exploded out making a big blob, I helped her to smooth everything out with a paintbrush. When the paint was dry, I used glittery hot glue to attach the crown. Conveniently, she used hearts to decorate her box, so it fits into my theme for the month.

Vol. 4, No. 040, February 9, 2019

4040 - Gifted.

On January 27th, my sister and brother-in-law celebrated their First Anniversary. For the last year I had been planning this project, a mini wedding album, and was going to give it to them for their anniversary. I figured I had plenty of time and then all of a sudden it was the end of January and I hadn't started anything. With all of my snow days the last 2 weeks, I started gathering and formatting pictures from their wedding to fit the size of the cover, which is made from hotel keys which I found in my bags when I was unpacking after the wedding. No, I didn’t intentionally steal the keys, both were a complete accident. One of the keys was actually for the Penthouse Suite that they stayed in. Upon printing the pictures, I folded and glued the pages, using Dental Floss and ribbon for the binding. The spine of the book is made from a scrap of ribbon left over from Becca’s bouquet. To fit into my my monthly challenge, I shapped the book into a heart.

Vol. 4, No. 039, February 8, 2019

4039 - Framed.

Today was another snow day. I decided to make it productive and started multiple projects. The one I finished was a small drawing for inside the frame I made the other day. I used hearts to create a flower design. Simple yet elegant.

Vol. 4, No. 038, February 7, 2019

4038 - Hundreds of Hearts.

Today, some of middle school students were finishing their clay projects while others were already finished. Therefore, I needed a filler activity. I did some research and found this fun heart drawing. Students use Sharpie to fill a paper with various sizes of hearts. Then they use values of red and pink to add patterns to the hearts. I decided to use only red. It was time consuming for me to fill the entire paper, but it was a fun challenge.

Vol. 4, No. 037, February 6, 2019

4037 - Scratch Off.

This afternoon, when I got home from work I went to my room for a quick rest before dinner. Oldest Miller came in begging for me to do a project with her. She wanted to make a tiara, but I was able to convincer her to do scratch art instead. I had some Scratch Art picture frames on hand and Oldest Miller was happy to spend time with me designing her own frame. I think she mostly wanted to do art to avoid doing her math homework. I outsmarted her though and made her do math in between parts of her design. This frame is the one I made while Oldest Miller worked on hers; I was sure to put lots of hearts into my design.

Vol. 4, No. 036, February 5, 2019

4036 - Heart of Stone.

My middle school students were all working on their clay projects today. At one point I had an extra chunk of clay in my hand, so I decided to form it into a heart. Then I used a clay tool add a little design.

Vol. 4, No. 035, February 4, 2019

4035 - Birthday Heart.

Today I had a “Snow” Day; it was actually because the roads were icy. Instead of staying home, I went shopping and bought the ingredients to make carrot cake. Today is Craig’s birthday, I knew that he liked carrot cake and I had been craving it for a while. I decided to make a big cake for Craig, so that he could share it with all of the Miller Littles, and me. Then, because I had heart shaped pans, I made a mini heart cake for my parents. The cake is frosted with homemade cream cheese frosting and decorated with cream cheese carrots. It got 5 stars from all of the Millers.

Vol. 4, No. 034, February 3, 2019

4034 - Family, Food, Football.

Today my family gathered at my sister's house. As the boys demolished a wall to make the bathroom bigger, the girls went shopping to get Mom a dress for Jessica's wedding. Afterwards we gathered once again to eat dinner while watching the Super Bowl. As I helped with food prep, in shaped some of it into hearts. From the top left is fried okra, stuffed peppers with balsamic glaze, stuffed peppers before being topped with glaze, and cheese and crackers with dip.

Vol. 4, No. 033, February 2, 2019

4033 - Light Hearted.

I had all day free to make a great project. Of course I kept putting it off and ended up scrambling as I was getting ready for bed. I pulled out the light wand for my Crayola Glow Station and started drawing, a heart of course

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.