Making a Non-Denominational Holiday Card

 I had to think of something that the kids could put on the front of a holiday card that would be sent to someone in which they would not know what their faith of religious sect is. So In asking for feedback I was told to use a candle. I agreed, a candle I thought was perfect and fairly easy to draw as well. After all candles convey light during the dark time of year, they provide heat and light and people are rarely offended by them.

The after school students an I are participating in the Holiday Mail for Heroes project which send mail to soldiers who are away from their families for the holidays.

I have made a link above to the projects main page if you would like to get involved.
below are the guidelines.

Card Guidelines:

Every card received will be screened for hazardous materials and then reviewed by Red Cross volunteers working around the country.

Please observe the following guidelines to ensure a quick reviewing process:

• Ensure that all cards are signed.
• Use generic salutations such as “Dear Service Member.” Cards addressed to specific individuals can not be delivered through this program.
• Only cards are being accepted. Do not send or include letters.
• Do not include email or home addresses on the cards: the program is not meant to foster pen pal relationships.
• Do not include inserts of any kind, including photos: these items will be removed during the reviewing process.
• Please refrain from choosing cards with glitter or using loose glitter as it can aggravate health issues of ill and injured warriors.
• If you are mailing a large quantity of cards, please bundle them and place them in large mailing envelopes or flat rate postal shipping boxes. Each card does not need its own envelope, as envelopes will be removed from all cards before distribution.

All holiday greetings should be addressed and sent to:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

The deadline for having cards to the P.O. Box is December 6th.
Holiday cards received after this date cannot be guaranteed delivery.

 

So  I have included the tutorial that I made the help kids draw a lit candle.

Bitten by the rubber band bug

So working with kids I have seen an awful lot of the stretchy rubber band bracelets. I myself became intrigued by this new fashion phenomenon. I had also recently decided I wanted to learn crochet so I already had purchased some various sizes of crochet hooks. So I got some little elastic hair bands and experimented with those first. Then I learned from my mom how to use the band on a four peg spool knitter.

I used YouTube tutorials for making a dragon scale bracelet on a fork. Then I caved in,I bought myself a loom for the more advanced bracelets.

I have totally been bitten by the rubber band "bug". I love it ! Until recently I have been making the bracelets for the kids I work with in the after school program.I have been  giving them bracelets as incentive. we have also been making them as projects once a week. I have just started to post rubber band related items to my etsy shops.  I combined my love of making tassels with them and made some earrings for my tribal trends shop.  
This weekend I also learned three new variations on the "triple single" rainbow loom bracelet. I will begin posting some of my bracelets and the new charms I made with polymer clay for the bracelets on my sculptresslink etsy shop today.

Tons more turkeys

Yes, still more installments of turkey crafting madness. We are planning a Thanksgiving party for my after school program so I have made a "Pin the Gobble on the Turkey Game". I drew the turkey with markers on plain old copy paper. I then folded a sheet of red construction paper multiple times to get a multiple cut shape to make 40 "gobbles" for the game.

Another project that was recommend for my after school program is the potato turkey,you can also use a pine cone. Here I used a crumpled  piece of constrctuion paper as getting 40 potatoes or pinecones can be pricy and time consuming.

Tons of Turkeys

With Thanksgiving right around the corner. The elementary school age teachers of America unite on the craft frontier to make, turkeys. Lots, and lots, of craft project turkeys. So here are three of the turkey projects I have been working on.  One is the turkey wreath. This is made with paper plates, construction paper and glue. I found it a little advanced for the kindergarten kids in my after school program but they could do it with some one on one assistance.

The second one that is lots of fun is the paper cup turkey, which is good for all age groups. You will need: paper bathroom cups, brown paint (tempera or acrylic),
 google eyes, construction paper, scissors, glue, cotton balls or craft pompoms and construction paper in brown and yellow. If you are doing this with a group I highly recommend precutting the construction paper pieces.

More then a coloring book

 I came across this Fall leaves coloring book in the check out line at the grocery store the other day I was draw to it like a moth to a flame. Like any other good teacher trying to get the most for their money I of course made xerox copies of the pages for the kids to color on. I have used it for my after school program and recently as a pen and ink study and a collage mixed media material for the charter school I teach at.This is book would also be great for science lessons and for learning plant identification.

Making a kumihimo disk braider

 I learned this from a fantastic fibers artist Mimi Smith. Mimi is fantastic with all things fiber!
I often do this with my after school kids and they love it. I also use the seven strand braids in making my silk flower and shells hair falls that I sell on my tribaltrends etsy page.

Step 1 Is finding a cardboard box to make your disk from. I have found that Macaroni and cheese boxes are just the right size for this. Cut out a square about 4 inches by 4 inches. Its about half the size of the large box panel if using the mac and cheese box.

Step 2 Cut a trianglar wedge out of the corners of the box. You should be left with a octagon or "stop sign" shape.

Step 3 Cut a small slit about a 1/2 inch long on each side of the disk.Carefully point your scissors through the middle of the disk and cut a small hole(slightly less then an inch)

Step 4 Cut seven long lengths of yarn. Keep in mind that the braid will but slightly shorter then the lengths of yarn your cut.

Step 4 Tie the yarn lengths together in a knot about 1-2 inches away from the yarn ends. Put the knot through the center hole and thread the yarn through all but one of the slots you cut.Turn the open slot facing up. Count down to the third string away from the open slot. Pull that length of yarn out and flip it over to the now open slot. 

Step5 Turn the disk to the right so that the new open slot is facing up. Count down to the thrid string from that open slot again and flip it over to the now open slot. Continue this until your braid reaches a desired length and knot the end off. The braid comes down through the middle of the disk.

These braids will make great tassel cords, bracelets,hanging cords, etc.kids can walk while they do this, You can watch a movie while you do this, great for a kids to do on a car trip or I am sure you can think of many other great ways to use this!Suitable for all ages!

Apple tree collage

This a quickie mixed media  collage project. You need brown construction paper, red construction paper, light use paper, pencil, green crayon or marker and, a glue stick.Trace your hand with the pencil into the brown paper. Then cut out brown paper"tree" glue down with a glue stick and draw the green leaves in. To cut several apples at once fold the red construction paper into fours and cut through the multiple layers at once. Making the apple shape is similar to cutting a heart shape and then cutting off the bottom.

 This is another project that I did with my after school program kids.
We spent two days on it. I drew some egg shapes on 8x10 inch construction paper for the kids to cut out. We spent the first day cutting out the egg shapes and choosing colors of paper we wanted then we made our stamps.
The stamps are made out of cut pieces of craft foam which we glued with white glue onto  precut pieces cardboard that we cut from old boxes.
On the second day when the glue on the stamp had dried we used a craft grade paint brush and brushed paint on the the stamp and printed  the egg by gently pressing on the back side on the cardboard stamp.

This stamp was used on the egg below.

Happy birthday Dr. Suess

Hundreds of school children celebrated the "birthday" of Dr. Suess today and Read Across America week.So I thought why not bring the fun to art class too? After all the art of Suess was just as important as the text. So in honor of these events we designed and made drawings of Birthday cakes for Dr. Suess.

After a day of drawing those cakes I thought today I would try my hand at making some Dr. Suess birthday cupcakes of my own.
I  used chocolate cake mix, white frosting  I mixed with some blue food coloring for fish cup cakes.
 I also mixed the white frosting with some green food coloring for the "Green Eggs and Ham" cupcakes.

I got red Swedish fish and sandwiched them with white frosting for cat hats and red shoelace licorice for cat whiskers.  I used some left over gel icing for all other details.

Birch Trees in Winter

This idea came from The beginning pages of the book Snowballs by Louis Elhert. This is a simple collage using strips of white paper, black tempera paint and white paper that was hole punched.I did this as a project with the after school program kids.

So many snowman so little time

 So I have not always been the biggest snow man fan. I know some people are all about the little guys but in the past  I was not as affected by the snowman craze. This year I have been bitten by a snowman bug it seems.

 I have been making a lot of snowman projects. I have created snowman earrings with polymer clay and  we be making many different snowman projects with the students in the after school program.

In the classroom while subbing I have also carried over this snowman craze of mine.

In the classroom student have been painting simple white outlines on blue construction paper to make snowman collages with.  They paint the snowman first then later glue on the button and precut construction paper hats and noses and foil paper scarfs.

We  have also been making snowman collages with students and using a template I found on Big Activities.Their is even a great step by step with visuals directions page you can print out.

The results vary and although the worksheets are identical students have unique perspectives on how their finished snow person will look.

So when you are teaching projects on snowmen you have to have some snowman earrings. These are easy to make but if you would like a pair to wear without the time it takes to make them you can order a custom made pair on my sculptresslink etsy shop.

I even made a snowman math activity for the after school program.
this is from an old curriculum guide I had. To do this first make copies of the snowmen,then cut them out color them in and write math problems on their bellies then glue sticks to them and write the answers on the bottom of the sticks. Then decorate a shallow box and put holes in the top to hold the sticks and the box will conceal the answers,

Winter scenes at night

This is a drawing project I did with my after school program students.  I gave them black construction paper and white colored pencils. I showed them how to draw the snow hill,a pine tree and a snowman what they did with that was up to them.  We added some color with crayons for snowman details and color and the trees.

Easy, affordable ornaments/ hanging sculptures

 I have been making ornaments with my students in the art gallery program and the after school program. I even used the first one as a station project when substitute teaching for art. These are quick easy and affordable.

primary color scheme ornament

 The first one is a paper ornament. Any paper will do but card stock will work the best .You could also recycle thin card board boxes from tissue or cereal(already patterned on one side, less coloring).  These are two same size circles sliced in half and and the slices slide together. I traced the bottom of a cup for these ones. I use one piece of  scotch tape where the pieces connect then pop it back put 1 hole punch at the top of the bottom circle which has the slit facing upward to hang the ornament. If you are making a couple tracing the circles is easy enough. For use in the classroom I recommend tracing a sheet of circles drawing the slits and using the copier to run sheets of circles and then cut them in groups of twos.

Secondary color scheme ornament

Step 1 Trace circles
Step 2 Cut out circles
Step 3 Color front and back of circles with markers, crayons. pencils etc.
 Step 4 Slide slits together
Step 5 Hole punch the top of the bottom circle( the one with the slits facing up)
Step 6  Tie yarn or ribbon through the hole
Step 7 Secure center circles with small piece of clear scotch tape or white glue where they meet up.




 Card board tube ornaments

Cardboard tube ornament painted with acrylics

 Thinner cut version of ornament

 These project uses card board tubes from paper towel or toilet paper.  You can choose to cut the tube into  thicker pieces 1 inch to 2 or thin1/2 inch pieces.  I have included pictures of a few finished ones to give you some ideas.


Step1   Choose to make an ornament with 3,4,5 or 6 pieces.

Three piece ornament

Five piece ornament

 

Six piece ornament

Step 2  Press the tube flat to make the cutting easier, cut the piece of the tube so they are all the same size.
Step3   Hole punch the pieces at one end in the middle of the piece.
Step 4  Decorate the cardboard pieces with paint, markers etc.
Step 5   Thread yarn or ribbon through the holes and tie them tight together so they pop out.
Step 6  Choose the top the the ornament and tie a loop of yarn or ribbon through it to hang it from.

The thing I like about these is that they fast, easy and can be personalized any way you want. These do not have to be a "holiday project." They are good for gifts, party favors, or for teaching: color schemes, 3d vs 2d,spatial reasoning, numbers and counting, sculptural elements and positive and negative space.

ho ho holidays

So the holidays are upon us and the holiday crafting with the kids started in Dec 1st. I will not recap on all that we have done but here are two quickies you can try with your little ones to let them make some things they can give as gifts.

Stamped wrapping paper use plain white butcher paper or news print sheets. You can use some sponge stamps and paint or some foam or rubber stamps and stamp pads. The example below use chunky foam stamps I found at A.C. Moore for $1.00,or go after the 26th and get them on discount for a lot less then save for future projects) I also picked up some $1.00 stamp pads.

 

Pop up cards. Use basic construction paper and fold into four equal sections. On the inside fold cut two small slits about one inch apart. Use another color of construction paper and cut out small trees, stars or other shapes then "pop up" or pull the cut section up and away from the top layer and glue the shape onto the fold of that section.

Happy veterans day

This is another paper plate wreath using my bingo markers some construction paper and the Martha Stuart circle punch I let two girls use their imagination and create a poppy wreath for veterans day.