Art Camp/Craft Sticks

It's only day 2 of art camp the second week and I learned so much the first time, that it has made this time around really easy. Today we made these houses out of popsicle sticks or craft sticks. The kids colored the sticks and added designs then we hot glued them onto a piece of black construction paper, added a few colored wooden sticks, used pencils and part of a ruler.

The end results are amazing. I mounted them onto a colored piece of construction paper and they are ready for our art show on Friday.

Hollywood Sign

Do you know that you can get within about 100 yards of the hollywood sign? I didn't, but with a friend, a little persistance and an address and a GPS, you can get pretty close. This is something really fun and free to do in LA. It's in a residential neighborhood so we didn't stay long, but it was amazing to see it up close and personal. Here's the address if you are feeling adventureous.

3204 Canyon Lake Drive

Hollywood Ca 90068

Smore's Pie

Ymmm! Found this recipe on this blog for the incredible pie. It was gone in a day. Super easy to make and only took 20 minutes to bake. Be forewarned though, it's really sweet.

Don't Throw Stones, Paint Them

So we went over to Sarah's house to swim and also to help her paint some garden stones. She got them in the discount section of a building supply store for a buck each. I'm thinking I need some for my yard as well. This was really fun. Even her 2 year old got into it. Here she is, Momma is going to add her hand prints after her painted stone dries.

My Emma did this one. Can you tell she loves frogs?

And, here is one that I did. I think I am going to be going to the building supply store real soon. Thanks Sarah for a fun afternoon.

flickr pics

Its been a while since I put any pics on flickr, but I practiced making this tile sampler with the pics I had on their already. It was fun to go back and look at art from a few years ago. I really enjoying having a creative outlet. It makes everything ok.

Art Camp 2.0

Getting ready for another week of artcamp. Looking forward to being creative with my little artist friends. Looks like the weather is going to be mild which will make for pleasant artmaking. We will be doing a wide range of mixed media projects: painting, drawing, collage, sculpture and mobiles again. Let me know if you need more info.....

Inspiration

I stumbled upon the artist Kimmy Cantrell as I was bloghopping one morning. I found his sculptures very inspiring, so I drew out a few ATCs from his inspiration. I love getting inspired by other artists. I was talking to my friend Sarah who does a mommy and me class with her daughter, and she was complaining about how the craft section of the class never had a sample of the completed project for them to go by. It made me think of the debate as art teachers to give the kids a sample or not. Some art teachers swear by not giving the kids a sample to look at. I disagree. I say, give them inspiration, but...... be clear that it's inspiration and their end result should not look exactly the same. I think it's important to inspire them, not frustrate them. Give them a jumping off place and see where their creativity takes them. Those who are not creative won't be frustrated and those who are creative will take the inspiration and run.