Vol. 5, No. 034, February 8, 2020

5034 - Kites.


To celebrate National Kite Flying Day, I attended the 2nd Annual Kite Festival in Buffalo, MN. When I got there, I stopped and spent some time just taking in the scene. I saw kites of all shapes and sizes. When I got home, I used the left over finger paint to draw a kite in the snow. The paint was a little chunky after sitting for so long, so it was challenging to paint with. I had the paint in ziplock bags and was piping it out; the chunks kept getting stuck. It turned out pretty cute anyways.

Vol. 5, No. 033, February 7, 2020

5033 - Astronomy.

I love all things stars/starry night. I made this mixed media heart mostly with crayons. The black background has two layers of marker with a sprinkle of chalk dust on top. I love how it turned out. My only regret is that I left it behind instead of keeping it.

Vol. 5, No. 032, February 6, 2020

5032 - Vacation.

I don't know if it is necessarily my dream vacation, but I am definitely excited. I was invited to attend the Miller Family vacation in Mexico! I will finally get to use my passport! My project was cobbled together using project demonstrations from my Kindergarten and First grade classes. The "white sandy beach and ocean" was made using texture rubbings for Kindergarten centers. The turtle was my first grade demo. I had been planning on a student being gone so I didn't prep any extra clay for myself. When everyone was there I turned to plan B, playdough. As I was getting everything ready to post, I realized there wasn't a heart, so I added one in post.

Vol. 5, No. 031, February 5, 2020

5031 - Admire.

Creative Sprint Prompt: Pay tribute to the person you admired most when you were young.

One person I admire is my mom. To pay tribute to her I decorated a turtle for her during my first grade clay demonstration. I included two hearts in the design.

Vol. 5, No. 030, February 4, 2020

5030 - Upside Down.

Today's Creative Sprint prompt: What do you discover when you look at the world upside down?

I didn't get very creative. Here is my upside down heart made using tickets I got tonight at CC's last gymnastics meet.

Vol. 5, No. 029, February 3, 2020

5029 - I Know It’s True.

Today’s Creative Sprint prompt is “Finish this statement: One thing I know to be true...”

One thing I know to be true is that today is National Carrot Cake Day. While I like carrot cake, I wouldn’t normally have gone out and made a cake just to celebrate a random national day. However, yesterday I was asked to make Daddy Miller. He was over heard telling the Miller Littles that he didn’t think he was going to get carrot cake for his birthday, which is tomorrow. Momma Miller asked if I could help her out. She said the cake didn’t need to be ready for his actual birthday, but baking today is what worked into my schedule for the week.

I make the cake heart-shaped to fulfill my 29 days of hearts challenge.

Vol. 5, No. 028, February 2, 2020

5028 - Fortune.

At nearly 40 degrees, the weather was beautiful today. Plus the groundhog predicted an early spring, so my fortune reads "feel it in your heart, spring is coming." I put the words on top of one of my paintings for yesterday. This painting was made using string. If you look closely, the top of each flower looks slightly heart shaped and the “veins” within each flower makes it look like a real heart.

Vol. 5, No. 027, February 1, 2020

5027 - Childish.

I didn't complete the entire January Challenge, but I felt okay with that. The stress-free creating was great! This month I will be following the February Creative Sprint. Today's prompt is "do something only children typically do." I decided to fingerpaint. Eleanor was over, so I made homemade edible fingerpaint. The paint was made from sugar, cornstarch and water. It was a sticky gelatinous mess. Eleanor, Becca and I worked together to paint some papers. Once they were dry, I cut paper heart chains. The hearts are in celebration of American Heat Month and Congenital Heart Defect Awareness.

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.