In the Art Room: Printed Winter Banners

Greetings, giveaway friends! I thought I'd share with y'all the Printed and Stitched Winter Banners my third grade just finished off. Since they aren't Christmas-y, I'm excited that I can hang 'em in the hallway and keep 'em up for a while. AND hope that they bring us the glorious gift of a snow day. Or five. Not that I'd love a couple of days to stay home in my pajamas and power-watch episodes of Pee-Wee's Playhouse (don't judge) when I could be teaching childrens all day (wink-wink, nudge-nudge). But what am I even talking about, I've got 2 weeks of that kind of sloth-esque behavior in my future. So, lemme get back to the post at hand: Stitched and Printed Winter Banners.

 Ohhhhh, but lemme guess. You only came here to see if you won yesterday's giveaway and to see what's up for grabs today. Well, if you must know, like, right meow, scroll yourself downeth and sneak a peak. Then pop back up here and keep on reading. Go on, I'm waiting... 

 Oh, yay, you came back! I'll get to how you can win today's goodies in just a sec. For now, lemme 'splain these banners.

Since we've been jibber jabbering about Mexico this year in art class, I shared with the kids a couple of prezies on papel picado. We also chatted about other cultures that partake in cut paper designs like Japan (with kirogami) and Germany, to name a few. 

Then we talked snowflakes. Now, I go about teaching snow flaking making all wrong according to Phyl. I gave the kids a 5" square of paper which they folded in half and then in half again thus creating a square. Then they rotated the square to a diamond and folded that in half until they had a triangle. Which they cut into bits for their snowflake-y design. 

Using Geli-Plates, fabric and white tempra paint, we covered the surface of the plate.

Our snowflake was placed atop. I told the kids that it was okay if the flake didn't lie flat. If they fuss with the flake too much, it will leave marks on the surface of the printing plate which could result in a not-so-clean print. 

 Place fabric on top (pattern side down if using patterned fabric) and a piece of recycled "massaging paper" on top of that. Rub the entire surface...

 Remove massaging paper and fabric. Proceed to oooooooh and aahhhhhhh over your awesome print!

 The designs were really lovely and the kids enjoyed seeing the negative of their design.

The fabric we used was 7" square quilters cotton fabric. I happen to get a lotta fabric donations which is super great.

 I dig how this one looks very Aztec-ian.

Printing two separate snowflake designs took us one art class. On the following, the kids created the hangers for the banner. They used three small pieces of Sculpey clay that they swirled together.

 Here's how we kept track of everyone's stick. 

About half way into the second hour long class, I called a meeting at the sewing machines. I explained to the kids that only half of them would have the chance to stitch one day and the rest the next. After a brief sewing demo, I called about 4 kids over to the "sewing table" at a time. When those 4 finished, they became assistants to those up next at the table. 

 Meanwhile, the rest of the kids were either working on their hangers or drawing penguins (to be shared in an upcoming post!). Having all kids on task made my life a lot easier when it came to sticking close to the sewing table. 

And there you have it! And now, the winner...

Congrats, Natalie! (Lawd, my nails! Can you tell I was attempting to hold the paper in such a way to hide that thumb?!) I'll get your Tammis Keefe fabric out to you tomorrow!

Lemme share with you what's in store today. I have two miniature easels with canvases (like, cute!), a super adorable vintage book (the illustrations are amazing! I've already made copies of them so I'll have a set once this is outta my hands) and a VINTAGE Milton and Bradley (before they combined with Crayola) unused watercolor set! Yay!

Here's how you can enter to win (just a lil more work for you today):

1. Please follow me on Twitter! You can find me here.

2. I'm curious...why do you come to this blog? For the lessons, the DIY's or crazy outfits? I often feel this blog might be a pinch all over the place. So, I wonder, are there certain topics you enjoy reading about more than others? I truly appreciate your input.

3. Don't forget to leave your email addy so I can contact you. 

Until tomorrow, friends!