What the Art Teacher Wore #123 // Thanksgiving Day Craft Ideas

 You Don't Even Wanna Know: The most frequently asked question by my colleagues on this particular day? "Just how are you wearing your stockings today, Stephens?!" Suriously, guise. You don't even wanna know (but being the blabber-mouth that I am, I've written a tell-all below). sweater: Betsy Johnson, thrifted; crayon dress: Modcloth on super-duper sale; belt: amazon; tights: Target; crayon shoes: DIY here

Hey there, my favorite people! I come to you from the wonderful land of Thanksgiving Break (which, for me, is a whole week off. Don't hate. Remember, I did return to school in July. Even if it was July 31st, it was still July). The hubs and I are in sunny SoCal (again, is it just me or does saying "SoCal" make me sound like the jerk I am?) where we'll be hangin until we return home for some Thanksgivingness. In honor of Thanksgiving (which marks the end of fall and the beginning of Christmas-freaking-everywhere), I'm sharing with you a backlog of fall-ish projects that have been created in el art room-o over the last coupla weeks. I thought you might enjoy a wee bit of crafting with the fam after you've all recovered from the after effects of tryptophan (btw, you know that if you read about something on WebMD, A. You prolly have whatever disease you just read about and B. You will prolly be dead my morning. My advice? Don't read WebMD).

I hope all y'all have a great week of giving thanks (even my buds not living in 'merica!) and devouring entirely too much food with those you love. Until next time, I'd love to hear what Thanksgiving traditions you have, aside from participating in some super rad fall crafts, of course!

 Even Asha the Cat was perplexed by my two dif colored legs (actually, she could care less, she's just here begging for food. Because, as you can see, we never feed her). So the deal is, I really would love for some genius hose company (not to be confused with "hoes company", ahem) out there to start making two-diff-colored-leg tights. But until they do, I'm stuck wearing one pair then only wearing the leg of another and wrapping and tucking the spare leg. This works if, and only if, the spare leg that's tucked doesn't fall out and then dangle between your legs like some sort of deflated manhood. Not that I know anything about that. AHHHH-hem.

My afternoon clay class created these one-hour created-and-glazed turkeys using fall leaves and an orange-sized piece of clay a coupla weeks ago. We began by twisting the clay into two equal pieces. One piece was used for the pinch pot body. For the other piece, the kids laid a leaf down veiny side up, pounded their clay into it, traced around the shape of their leaf with a skewer stick and pealed off the leaf. The clay leaf was then attached to the pinch pot. The excess clay that was cut from the leaf tracing was then used to form a coil for the head and parts of the face. The kids really loved this easy project and even got carried away creating hats and bow-ties for their turkey.

 Field Trippin Tuesday: I took my second grade students to see the Kandinsky exhibit at The Frist Center on Tuesday. It was a ton of fun. I felt kinda silly cuz I kept forgetting I was wearing my Kandinsky dress until the docents, security guards and just about everyone else pointed it out to me. They were all, "Where did you get that dress?!" Don't ask me why but I get all goofy when I answer and always say, "Uh, I made it?" with a question mark at the end. Big Dork. jacket: Modcloth; Kandinsky Dress: DIY here; tights: Target; Frye Boots: Journeys, years ago 

Some of the kids in clay class opted to create a peacock instead of a turkey and those turned out super cute as well. And I love that one flipped her pinch pot so her turkey could work double duty (btw, NEVER say the words "double duty" to the under-10 set for they will lose their minds) as a bowl or cup or holder-of-many-a-small-things.

 Crayola Sweater Wednesday: Have y'all left a comment here to enter to win my lil Crayola Giveaway Contest? If you haven't, what in the world is wrong with you?! The winner will be announced next week so get on it, kids! dress: Anthro, last season; tights: Target; shoes: Dolls by Nina; necklace: The Paper Source

A coupla weeks ago my first grade friends printed and stitched up these leaf print wall hangings. For the printing process, we used Gelli-Arts printing plates but if you don't have those, have no fear. You can create your own gelatin printing plates by visiting here and following my relatively decent directions. I have the kids tons of different fall-colored fabric options to pick from. After they created both their positive and negative leaf prints, they had the chance to use sewing machines to stitch them together (totally supervised of course. I'm not that crazy).

 Put a Belt on It: Y'all. When I spotted this belt on etsy, I was all, OMG, I gotta have this in my life! I think it has super secret art teacherin magical powers. Although, when my fourth grade class came to art on this particular day, one girl was all, "Is that it? Where's the rest of your crazy outfit?!" And I was all, "DID YOU NOT NOTICE MY BELT?!" Kids, these days. So hard to please. vintage dress: thrifted; belt: etsy; tights: Target; shoes: Anthro

I was fortunate to have some local college kids in my room to help with the stitching portion of the project. While a handful of kids worked on stitching, the rest used Sculpey clay and skewers to create those beads that you see at the ends of the skewer sticks. For extra fall crafting fun, you could make necklaces with the Sculpey. Oh! And if you don't have access to a kiln, you could easily make miniature turkeys using the Sculpey and the directions for the clay turkey above. You see, your T-day crafting options are limitless. 

 Early Morning Saturday: I forgot to snap a photo one day this week and the totes ridic thing is, I can't even remember what day it was or what I wore! So just before our long flight on Saturday, I snapped this photo. I love to be comfy on the plane while I'm spread out with my assortment of crafts (I took along knitting needles and some embroidery madness). So far, all my attempts at crafting have been in vain. Oh well, it's vacay, right? dress: Betsy Johnson, Buffalo Exchange; jacket: Lucky Brand; scarf: Urban Outfitters; necklace: made by me, DIY here 

Enjoy your final days of fall, y'all!