Christmas Decor

 I made some garlands out of some stuff I had around the craft room.  I'm thinking they can pass for Christmas, New Years and even Easter.  We used to have some of those little pink chicks as ornaments when I was a child, they bring back Christmas memories.  I had to repaint and glitter these ones I found at a garage sale.  I also used felt balls that I took from a purse that I bought years ago at a flea market, plus ribbon and glitter stars. 

 I saw this idea in a store in the Orange Circle.  They took an old branch and hung it with twine, then addes silver oraments hanging down.

 Here is my tree.  I love all the oraments we have collected over the years.  Just like songs, they remind me of specific events and memories from year to year.  I'm going to need a bigger tree soon.

And, my hutch that I thought would be fun to decorate with red and green and silver.  I hope I remember to look back on this post next year for inspiration. 

Some of my Favorites

I love looking at the Christmas ornaments that get put away for 11 months out of the year.  Some of my favorites this year include the giraffe and owl that I got at Target last year at the after Christmas sale, the snowman face and hula monkey I ended up with at ornament exchanges, and well, I'm a sucker for a cute snowman.  They are all now all put away.  See you in 11 months.

Cookie Exchange

I went to a cookie exchange this weekend and made a yarn wreath. Getting into the Christmas spirit.

December Art

 Mary, Joseph and Jesus.  These were done with markers and sharpie, and then cut out and pasted onto a blue background.  the students painted beams of light with wihite tempera and creditcards.

 Polar Bear, Polar Bear, done with my Preppy K's.  We read the book and then painted them with shaving cream and glue.  Then they added the eyes and nose. 

 Go Tell It On The Mountain- sharpie patterns in the mountains and then crayon bursts in the background.

 Angels We Have Heard On High- Oil pastel angels on blue construction paper

 Paper Quilling Christmas Tree: colored construction paper and white glue.

 The Grouch Lady Bug: contruction paper and sharpie.

Victory Vasarely the Hungarian Op artist, created abstract art that looked 3-D though they were only 2-D.  My 6th graders used oil pastels on rubber circles.

Fall

 I have really gotten into fall this year.  My fifth grade drawing class drew pumpkins last week and they did such a great job that we drew leaves today.  We went out on campus and they picked their own leaves looking for nice values and details in the veins.  Next they brought them back to the art room and they drew them.  When it was time to move onto another assignment they didn't want to. 

 Yesterday in after school art we made leaves out of coffee filters.  The students cut out the leaf shapes and then colored them with waterbased markers then they painted them with water to make the color from the markers bleed.  I pinned them on my tree.

We also made pumpkins from brown paper lunch bags.  We stuffed them with newspaper and created a stem from the leftover bag that was cut off the top.  We added a leaf and brown string to tie it up. 

Fall Pumpkins

Easy Peasy Fall Pumpkin:
1. paint a cardboard background with green paint
2.  stamp black circles with lids or small cups in tempera
3.  paint orange pumpkin shape orange with a green stem, let dry
4. cut notches around the pumpkin with scissors
5. wrap yarn in yellow, red or orange around the pumpkin fitting into the notches.  tape the ends to the back
6. add leaves with a chenelle pipe cleaner
7 glue to background

projects

 My middle elementary students have studied the artist Reggie Laurent and his non-objective art.  We then glued on colored organic and geometric shapes onto a black construction paper background.  Lastly, we added lines, shapes and patterns in oil pastel, using one long continuous white line to tie it all together. 

 Preppy K's read the boo "Rainbow Fish" and learned how he shared his scales to make friends and get along with the other fish.  We then painted blue water on cardboard and stamped bubbles with small cups.  Next we added colorful and shiny scales to our cardboard fish.  These look so nice on the bulletin board. 

And, the monkey showed up again in the art room, so we made sock monkeys in honor of him.  I hope he learns the art room rules so he can stay. 

Picker

I found this chair on the side of the road, it was pretty beat up but I loved the print.  It was covered in cat hair and dust and smelled pretty bad.  I took it home and washed it.  My mom put in a new zipper in the cushion cover, (thanks mom).  I bought a new piece of foam for the cover $44, and I bought and installed new castors ($12) and cleaner cost about $15.  It still smells like cat so I am going to fabreeze it to death.  I love it and for $71, such a deal.  Go away cat smell.......

bulletin board

 Getting my bulletin boards ready for school to start.  Last year I made this tree for my front bulletin board.  I was inspired by one on pinterest.  This year I decided to go with a black and white theme.  So my tree this year looks like this.......

Art Camp 2012/2

 We have been really busy this week in my backyard.  We started with treehouses.  The backgrounds are a painting technique using bubble wrap.  Next we used oil pastels on brown construction paper for the trees.  We added a ladder with wooden craft sticks.  They kids designed their own tree houses and tucked them in the branches, lastly, we added green construction paper leaves with sharpie details.

 We have also made cardboard sculptures, by layering carboard strips of different lengths, and then adding acrylic paint designs to the top.  Love these, they were very fun to make too.  We passed the colors around the table adding more layers of color and design, saving black for last.

 More cardboard, masks.  I had some big cardboard boxes from Ikea, that just needed to be artcycled.  we added designs to three colored craft sticks with sharpies, and designed the mask face with oil pastels.  We added sticks to the top for hair.

 This was done with finger painting, no paint brush.  The kids drew their self portrait first, then traced with black tempera and their finger.  The background layer was folded to get several rectangles and water colored.  When it dried, we added black sharpie designs. 

 This was an experiment and they are still drying so I don't know if they turned out.  We dipped the yarn in glue then added layers to the outside of the bottoms of water bottles.  They are suppose to be yarn vases, we will see if they turn out.

And the trusty toilet paper rolls.  Cut in strips and then glued together to make a radial flower shape.  The kids painted them today, we will make garlands with them tomorrow. 

Art Camp

Art Camp ended last week.  We really were creative and made a lot of artwork.  Here are some projects we displayed on the last day for our art show.

 Cars with recycled CDs for tires, oil pastels and paint

 Mosaic collaged shapes.

1.  Self portraits and Cityscapes

 Sailboats

 Clay sculptures, made out of corn starch and white glue

 Plant people collages

Recycled weavings



Student Work Samples

 A few more examples of some of my student's artwork for display.  This is the blue dog by a 2nd grader and below a two point perspective drawing by a 7th grader.

 This a a perspective and shading drawing by an 8th grader and a butterfly below by a 7th grader.

Art Samples

 Just a few examples of my students' past work.  Hope you are inspired.  I teach the artist Laurel Burch, and we create birds and cats done with oil pastels.  This bird is by a 3rd grader and the cat below is by a first grader.

 This is a landscape by a 7th grader.  It is tempera cake paints done in a loose impressionistic style.
And Abe done by a 4th grader.

A self portrait with portraits of two friends done by a 5th grader.

 Line drawing of a frog by a 6th grader, drawn from looking at a photograph.

And, a self portrait at Valentines