During the holidays, I decided to focus on some personal arts and crafts. This allowed me to kills two birds with one stone, by allowing me to stay in a creative frame of mind as well as get some things done around the house.
On a Goodwill jaunt, I found some really cute handmade paper with dried flowers in some really beat up and mismatching frames. With a little paint, tape, 150 grit sandpaper and a little elbow grease, I was able to turn this:
Into this:They now hang happily in my downstairs bath.
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| Sorry about the bad picture. I'll make a better one when it's complete. |
That little bit of exposure to paint had me itching to do a little more, so I found another old, beat up frame and started work on this:
It’s incomplete, at the moment, but a few finer touches should have it ready to hang very soon.
I also was pointed towards Pinterest on the web. I am hooked! I have found an amazing array of art lesson ideas, math lesson ideas (for Moving Math), hundreds of famous artworks as well as images of the artist themselves. I plan to use the variety of images as art prompts in the classroom very soon. I also have found hundreds of very interesting DIY techniques, and I decided to try one right before coming back to school. There is a project that involves an old frame as well as window screen to create. I didn't have a window screen handy, so I substituted an old doily from one of my grandmothers. I rarely put them out, and I can't bring myself to give them away. Now one is put to practical use!
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| Sans earrings |
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| With earrings! |
We're back in school mode now, and we're working on some great projects. K-1 are getting ready to produce Snowman Closeups, 2-3 are looking at the color wheel and pointillism, and 4-5 are painting Winter Cardinals. What can I say? I fell in love.
My best Christmas present came in the form of an email. I received notification from Donors Choose that my clay project for the students had been funded! I was SO very excited. You can take a look at my proposal here. I'm so encouraged by the whole experience, I plan to create a new, more ambitious proposal very, very soon. I can't tell you how impressed I am by this organization. If you're in the mood to give, this is a very deserving and trustworthy site.
