Dirt Cake

Ok, so my little boy is turning 13 today, and I know that is a little old for the themed cake, but I just love being creative in the cake department, so I wanted to make a dirt cake.  I have seen a few on pinterest and  so I got this tractor at the 99cents store, made a bundt cake and added a plastic bottle insert in the midde, covered it with chocolate frosting and oreo crumbs.  I even took a piece out so it looks like there is a hole being dug.  Happy Birthday Henry!

liquid watercolors

I started using the liquid water colors this year and really love them.  I tell the kids to try and not add any water to them, so they stay really vibrant.  I use to get frustrated with the tray watercolors because we always seemed to run out of blue and the yellow always got dirty.  The watercolors seem to be much more bright and last a lot longer.  I will never buy trays again.

Inspiration

 Vocab words: concentric, and colaborative, radiate.  My elementary students have been learning about Wassily Kandinsky and concentric circles.  We got the inspiration for tis project from his "squares with concentric rings."  The students started with a 9" square of white paper.  folded it into fourths to find the center.  Then in multi-colored  crayon they drew concentric circles radiating out from the center, then added patterns inbetween.  Next we watercolored the rest with liquid watercolors.  When they had dried, I cut them into fourth and they traded 3 of the fourths and kept one of their own.  Next we taped them back together for a colaborative piece of art.  I am working on a larger one in which the elementary classes are creating as one big colaborative piece.  Hope you're inspired.......

We have also been inspired by Andy Warhol lately.  Working on these pop art pieces.  We haven't done the handprinting part yet, but the kids are tracing their hand 4 times and coloring them in solid bright colors, with coordinating background colors.  We will handprint next time with black tempera. 

Colorwheel Game

Here is a fun group activity for artclass when you have a few minutes left of art time.  I had a huge tub of crayons left on each table after our art lesson and I challenged each group to make a color wheel with their crayons.  They had to dig for the primary, secondary and intermediate colors and then arrange them on their table before the other groups.  I dismissed them when they got it right.  For the younger kids I went over the color wheel, and told them there were 12 colors and I told them there wasn't any pink, brown, black or white in the color wheel.  Have fun.

 I haven't been to creative lately, been working on softball recruiting stuff for my dd.  I found this quote on pinterest and really like it.  I have a few things I think about, dream about daily.  I kno God has a plan for me, for my life, and as long and I can trust in Him, put one foot in front of the other, and work hard, I know amazing things will happen.  One day at a time, of course, ha.

  A possible T-shirt design for my school.

Happy New Year!

 I found these glitter letters at the after Christmas sale at Walmart.  They were about 48 cents each.  I couldn't find a "y" and really wanted to spell Happy New Year, so I settled for CELEBRATE.  Maybe that's a good thing, I can use the banner for birthdays or any other celebration too. 

 And, then I wanted a new decoration for my door, so I came up with this party hat.  Happy New Year!

 So I was browsing pinterest this morning and I found a great tutorial on how to make an knockoff anthropologie necklace here, and I was thinking I could totally do that and I wouldn't even have to buy a thing, cuz I have a bunch of junk jewelry already.  And, I might even have enough to make two!

Also, amother project that I've tried my hand at is duct tape wallets.  Don't buy the cheap tape at Big Lots, get the thicker stuff at Michaels.  There are lots of tutorials on youtube.And, one more gift idea for the holidays, reuse used leather belts for bracelets.  I bought one at a flea market in L.A. and have been making them since.