Artsy Birthday Fun!

My daughter turned 11 a few weeks ago (12 days before Christmas to be exact.) And my niece, Shaeye, (who is under our care) celebrated her 17th birthday 6 days later. Needless to say, December can be a bit overwhelming for us financially. So I was thrilled when Savannah responded to my Artsy Birthday party idea with enthusiasm. It didn't break the bank, but still was a Huge hit with the girls.

Most of the ideas for this party I discovered courtesy of Pinterest. See, it's not a complete waste of time!  

The plan: pick up the girls on a Friday afternoon from school and walk to our home. Art project itinerary: 

1.) Suminagashi (Japanese Paper Marbling) 2.) Alcohol Ink Tiles 3.) Hand Painted Christmas Ornaments

A little "Just Dance 4", Pizza and Cupcakes and more Cupcakes. I'm 45 and this sounds like a fun party to me! :)

Most of the projects were left with me over the weekend so I could add Mod Podge to the Ink Tiles and ornaments, and glue to the Suminagashi prints to create notebooks and notecards. 

Everything was packaged up and brought to school on Monday for the girls to take home.

 Leaving school, party bound

 Each girl created 2 tiles (6"X6") to be used as trivets or whatever. Coasters would also be a great idea.

 I stumbled upon these ceramic ornaments in the clearance aisle at 

Michaels for .50 each! And what art teacher doesn't have acrylic paint laying around?

 These prints were glued onto colored construction paper to create 

one of a kind notecards. I found some photo print paper that worked 

great in lieu of the copperplate paper that is recommended.

The girls could have played around with these Suminagashi prints all day..so much fun! 

I have plans to incorporate them into an art project in a future class.

                                     

          I took the girls' favorite Suminagashi print and glued it to a notebook a la The Dollar Tree -

 Instant designer journal

Thanks to my Mom and unofficial president of my fan club for all her help with the party.

I couldn't have done it without her!
And of course she was up there dancing with the girls - she's so Cool!

Some time to move around with Just Dance 4 on the Wii

Happy Birthday Savannah!

Abstract Collages

Gabrielle

Tommy

 Alexa

 Sutton

 Luc

 Sarah

 Hank

 Kate

 Jenna

 Olivia

Today I had my second 2 hour art workshop of Winter Break, Abstract Art Fun. This project was inspired by the fantastic art of Mollie Moseley Morrison at MOMO Art Gallery. She is also an art teacher and has a great blog, Kids Art Market. I love her collaged work where she combines different cut up paintings; they are colorful, bold and full of energy. To try to accomplish this with my group of 5-9 year olds was a bit ambitious for a single 2 hour class, but we did it. The children created 3 different patterned watercolor pages. My niece was kind enough to blow these dry to speed up the process. The children then cut them up and reconfigured them to create a work of art. We talked about repeating shapes, lines and colors in our collages. I would love to try this again spread out with more time and incorporate her wonderful paper weaving technique.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

                                     

(Samantha, 13) - Gorgeous!

Over the Winter Break I'm offering two 1-day themed art classes. The first was Winter Wonderland Art. Since we live in Orange County, this class may be the closest thing to snow the kids might experience this winter. (Although many take advantage of our great snow destinations in Big Bear, Lake Arrowhead and Mammoth.) My age range was a bit daunting ...5-13. But I think I chose projects wisely to please, entertain and challenge. The first was the classic and beloved printed birch trees. I have seen this done so many ways and it just doesn't get old in my book. Color mixing, perspective, shading ... it has it all. These were created with liquid watercolors, black acrylic paint prints using using cardboard, splattered snowfall and shadows using charcoal or watercolor.

Next, my group looked at this wonderful wolf illustration from Etsy. We followed a direct line drawing lesson and then used Sharpie, Charcoal and their choice of media to add color (marker, oil pastel, or watercolor). Lastly, they added a watercolor background and printed snowfall using the backs of paintbrushes with white acrylic.They are all so different and wonderful! We packed quite a bit into a 2 hour class. Thanks to you kids for working so nicely together and bringing your "A" game. I loved my morning with you all!

HO HO HO....

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas! 

Enjoy your time spent with family and friends!

Indian Elephant Festival Posters

My Animal Art Fun class left the savannas of Africa after our tiger and zebra art pieces and traveled to India to create these colorful posters celebrating The Elephant Festival held annually in Jaipur. The children created their pieces in layers: chalk pastel backgrounds, decorative painted borders and of course their front and center elephant. These were shaded with chalk pastel and then decorated with colorful acrylics. And of course I added a picture of the artist riding their own creation. (Thanks to my husband for his great suggestion) These make me smile kids! (Ages 6-10)

Zebras with Watercolor and Salt Landscapes

This project was inspired by some wonderful cut and torn landscapes at  Angela Anderson Art Blog and New City Arts.

Since I'm in the middle of my Animal Art Fun class I decided to utilize the colorful textured watercolor backgrounds against the graphic look of a black and white zebra. My class created the backgrounds first using a variety of liquid watercolors. They had the opportunity to use sponges and salt to create unique textures. The magic of salt always seems to win out - it's highly addictive! The children followed a direct line drawing lesson to create their zebras using Sharpies and/or black paint. While we looked at pictures of African Savannas for inspiration for the landscapes, most of my students preferred a clean lined graphic background as opposed to a more literal landscape created using torn paper. I love the results! Well done kids! (Ages 6-10)

Watercolor Tigers

Luke, 1st

 Jenna, 4th

 Nathan, 5th

 Emma, 3rd

 Abby, 1st

Scott, 2nd

I love it when a direct line drawing lesson yields such varied results! Because I teach classes for K-5th together, it can be a bit tricky creating lessons that won't overwhelm my younger students or bore my older ones. I think tiger portraits were a great choice for the first day of my Animal Art Fun class with my mixed age group. I had pictures of real tigers on the table for the children to look at in addition to our line drawing lesson. I had originally planned on only offering orange watercolor (first time using liquid and loved them) after their Sharpie and charcoal drawings were complete. But decided to let them cut loose and decide if they wanted a Fauve cat or a realistic one. Wonderful expressive tigers kids!