Recycled Art Journals

I worked with middle schoolers to create Recycled Art Journals out of discarded books.  It is always fun to give students permission to use materials in new and in this instance, writing in books.  I looked for books that were discarded from the local library, with few pictures and with covers that were still in decent shape.

 I painted the covers with chalkboard paint and then had the students use metallic markers and neon colored pencils to decorate the covers.

 Each day we focused on a different project and with any left over time they students were encouraged to explore and create anything they wanted in their books.

"I Believe" Suns

Favorite Quotes

Bedroom Make-over

After

Before

When we moved into our home, we knew it needed to be updated.  We let the kids choose the colors they wanted for their room.  Although I thought the colors were very dark and tried to suggest more subtle colors, they insisted on red and turquoise to go with the cedar wood paneling.  The turquoise curtains that were already in the room when we moved in helped to create a very dark, cave-like room.  It was no wonder that they rarely spent time in there.  This winter I had enough of the dark and suggested a room make-over. I asked them to trust my judgement, then shipped them off to their grandparents house overnight while my husband and I got to work on lightening up their room.

BEFORE

Red wall before make-over

Turquoise wall and dresser before make-over

Dark cedar paneling

AFTER

Lighter walls helped make the room feel more inviting.  The colors they love were used on their dressers.  

Replacing their outdated ceiling fan with a higher watt light and all the natural light also helped lighten the room.  We are still trying to decide on curtains.

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

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.

Crayon Mosaic

I just finished working with 6 classes of Kindergarten and 1st graders to create collaborative pieces of art using crayons.  

 We started by collecting used, broken crayons.  Many of us have a collection of old crayons so finding the supplies was easy.

Next, I had the students help peel and break the crayons in to small pieces.  To make the peeling easier, I used an Exacto knife to score the crayon wrappers.  We spent time sorting the crayons by color to make it easier to put the project together.

I designed the 6 pieces to either stand alone or put together to create two scenes of the Gorge.  They each contained the sky, mountain and river or wildflowers.  I drew and colored the designs with crayon and then made another copy using melted crayons and dots to get an idea of what the final projects may look like.

Working in small groups, the students worked with me to glue the crayons into 15" x15" wooden frames.

The finished projects!