Recycled Heart Wands.

Remember that time I had a blog? And then I had a kid?  And then I had another kid? And now I have two kids, no time, but a really happy heart? Yes, yes, I remember.

Baby French Fry #1 has been hard at work finishing her valentines for her school friends. She wanted to make her valentines herself, so here's what we came up with:

Recycled Heart Wands

- Cardboard boxes, the thin kind (we used Trader Joe's packages from mac and cheese, crackers, Joe's O's, oatmeal...seriously, TJ, you OWN us)

- Acrylic paint & brushes

- Gesso or white paint

- Miscellaneous tools for texture (wine corks are our current fave. Yep, drink that wine. It's for the good cause of ART)

- Dowels

- Scissors

- Ribbon or tulle

- Glue 

I prepped the boxes by cutting them flat and gessoed the label sides white. Then little girl got to painting and texturing after the gesso had dried. She wanted ALL the colors of course. True art teacher's kid complex, I guess.

After the paint dried, we worked together and cut out our hearts. 

I glued them together with a hot glue gun and then glued them onto a dowel.

The tulle was a final flourish to make sure these wands help to spread love and kindness with a little pizzazz.  Poor kid ended up sick with this nasty flu virus and missed her school Valentine party.  She can't wait to give them to her friends post-puke fest.

Winning flu quote after finding her post-puking:  "I threw up.  Wash me, but my pants and socks are clean!"

Enjoy your clean pants and socks, arties.

Reclaimed Wood Miniatures.

We've been testing out different media on all kinds of surfaces in the French Fry house lately.  And I mean all surfaces.  I have a feeling I'm going to keep plowing through Magic Erasers with this busy little artist.

Our new favorite tools are the Crayola Slick Stix, which are the closest thing to drawing with rainbow colored lipstick.  These marker-y/paint/oil pastel combos are super baby friendly and easy to apply.  So, we tested them out on some lumber scraps we had left from a recent bathroom reno.

 

It's wonderful seeing how her paintings evolve during her studio sessions. The Slick Stix weren't water resistant like oil pastels are, however when watered down they melted down into a beautiful wash.

She added a final layer of black and white acrylic to her reclaimed wood diptych.  Now to find a place to display these special little wood pieces.

Mondrian Masterpieces.

I don't often repeat projects, but when I do, it's usually because I heart them big time.  And this is one of those favorites.

For step by steps on this one, check it out here.  Since having a baby artist in the house, I'm loving process-y art and projects that give children more of an option in terms of color choices and media.

My Kinder artists loved reading Perfect Square and really knocked our study of Mondrian's artwork out of the art park.  Our art smart focus words were "repetition," "blending," and "outline." We focused on his Broadway Boogie Woogie (1943) and listened to boogie woogie as we worked, thank you Pandora.

 

 

I took an incredible amount of pics, but just couldn't get enough.  I seriously wish I could tape them on me and wear all the time.  Keep boogie woogie-n' arties!