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!

Mini Masterpieces.

Baby French Fry gets so much joy out of experimenting with art media.  We've worked with just about anything she can get her busy artist hands (and mouth) on.  I had amassed quite the stack of abstract-y expressionist papers and had displayed as many as my walls would allow, but guilt mom gene kicked in and I couldn't bring myself to dispose of the remainders. 

 For real, PURE JOY when she's art-ing.

So, I rounded up our last batch of paintings and decided to artcycle them into some tiny greeting cards.

 I'm digging your mixed media, Baby FF. A little Cy Twombly inspo up in this house.

I snagged a bunch of cardstock scraps left over from other projects (like these), cropped her artwork, double stuck them on with this trusty fella, and we have baby art to go.

 We're spreading the art love and joy, one tiny masterpiece and postage stamp at a time.

Favorite Things of 2015.

These fingers.

These paintings (made by those little fingers).

These home grown flowers (harvested by one little lady).

This gift (made from the heart).

This moment.

This furry friend.

This little family.

Good Reads: Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf.

This book...

Inspired this baby,

To go on a nature walk (or crawl, shall we say).

And with these found ephemera, some fall decor (and a lovely mess) was made.

Happy Fall to All.

Good Reads: Planting (and Picking) a Rainbow.

Today, this beautiful story

inspired these little fingers

to pick and explore

and (help) create this herb and flower bouquet.

Friday Favorites: Summertime Sailing.

Okay, so far we're 2 for 2 in an effort to blog more regularly.  Here's a glimpse into an end of the year project that was the result of a morning drive to work and realizing I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM TEACHING MY FIRST CLASS...IN 45 MINUTES (because I am running late...always).

We used a limited palette for this one because it was the end of the year and I wanted to use up what we had. So the Third Graders used the primary colors and a tint of white and a shade of black to create these beautiful boats.

Before diving into the project though, we did check out many examples of Monet's paintings featuring sailboats and the kids made some pretty astute observations about the colors he used and how his paintings changed as his eyesight changed.  One kiddo even remarked, "Monet didn't give up painting. He PERSEVERED."  Darn tootin', my friend.

We painted in the following order to make sure we got a good reflection of our boats in the water: water, boat outlines, sky, and finally the insides of the boats and sails (or as one student said, "the boats' guts").

After painting the boats' guts, we folded our papers in half to capture a reflection and BAM, smooooooth sailing!

Friday Favorites: 'Merica.

So turns out, having a baby takes up a lot of time. I haven't been able to keep up with the blogging as often as I'd like. But, time with Little French Fry is really important and I keep telling myself I'll get to blog when she naps (which lately is for 15-20 mins tops and seriously cuts down on the ability to do much, other than down a coffee cup). Thus, in an effort to blog more often, I'm going to aim to do Friday favorites as frequently (or infrequently) as I can. The posts may be shorter (and not necessarily sweeter), but without further ado, here goes Friday favorite number one.

Every year, my school celebrates our military children during Month of the Military Child.  I like to work on projects that tie into not only celebrating our patriotism, but also connect to my art curriculum.  This year's project involved the Fourth graders studying Peter Max's many versions of Lady Liberty and the Fifth graders working on some pretty rad op art flags.

The Fourth Grade Lady Libs were large tempera paintings (24" x 24") and we used matboard scraps to create the blended backgrounds (channeling our inner abstract expressionist).  Each student then added in text that summed up what the military means to them.

 

 

And my fab Fifth Graders used a limited color palette to create their own op art-inspired waving flag.

 

 Annnnnnnd that's all she wrote, because I hear a baby beckoning for me.  Happy Fourth of July!