Monday, December 30, 2013

Handmade Christmas 2013

Here is what I created for Christmas this year.  

I had my husband cut off a handful of discs from our Christmas tree stump
to make into these wonderful coasters.


I tried my hand at hand embroidery on felt



I wanted to add a little color to the living room by making a some colorful throw pillows from vintage fabric and my fabric stash.

Holiday banner made from paint chips


star banner made from upcycled book pages





Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Art Week 2013



Another successful Art Week at May Street Elementary! Art Week is just what it sounds like.  A whole week when the entire school is devoted to ART!  Six artists are hired and many parents volunteer to teach crafts all week to the entire student population.  This year I decided to have the students make recycled art journals from discarded hardbound books.





I spent a couple of weeks searching through my local libraries discarded books and also talked to local used books stores for donations.  I was able to collect around 100 books and only spent $2.50!  Thank you Artifacts in Hood River, Oregon and The Book Peddler in White Salmon, Washington for your donations.



 I painted the cover of each book with chalkboard paint and had the kids decorate the covers with colored pencils and metallic Sharpies.






I had never kept an art journal before preparing for this week, but after doing extensive research, I decided that it was a great idea!  Giving myself a couple of minutes each day to create is exactly what I need and modeling that to my kids is an added bonus.










I lead the students though a variety of projects to get their creative juices flowing each day and then allowed them time and access to materials to create whatever they wanted in their journals.