Art Scouts, Final Countdown!

Well, this is it: the final countdown to Art Scouts! The months, weeks and days of pondering, planning and preparing is finally here. And, I have to tell you, we really could not be more excited. Art teachers are our favorite friends...especially ones who believe in making big messes with little people, like we do! We have so many returning Scouts that we are excited to see and newbies we are thrilled to meet. So, someone light the campfire, bust out the marshmallows, pop the tent and get ready to create (have no fear, there will be no tent popping with these 90 degree Tennessee summer days...we'll be in the luxury of air conditioning, a direct gift from heaven). 

We still have spots available at both sessions. OUR FIRST SESSION IS SOLD OUT! If you are on the fence, you best hop off and join the fun, y'all! We are down to only openings at the second session. Here's a look at how your 12 PD hours will be earned:

The cost for our full two day camp is $275. That includes all of your supplies, two lunches, a Campfire Craft Night with a sweet treat and a swag bag so big you just might need a U-Haul to get it home. To register, simply hop over here. Be sure to click on the link that says Art Scouts 2017 Important Information as that will lead you to how to book your room at the convention center hotel.

Got questions about Scouts? I might have the answer! I tried to pile them all here. But if I failed to address your thoughts, feel free to join the Art Scouts Facebook page where you can drop us a line. 

And if you'd like to learn more about our beautiful location, check this clip out. We are so excited to spend time with you all...our cheesy grins say it all. See you real soon! 

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Deep Space Sparkle Workshop, 2016

This summer has been the summer of Doin' Stuff: finishing a book, creating two Art Scout Camps with my fellow Troop Leaders, working on a coupla top secret projects (I'm not trying to hide things from y'all, I promise. More details when I'm free to share 'em!) and, last but certainly not least: co-presenting with my buddy Laura Lohmann at Patty Palmer's Deep Space Sparkle Workshop!  

In BEAUTIFUL Santa Barbara, y'all. I've already picked out my Barbie Dream House on the beach. 

The theme of the Deep Space Sparkle Workshop was Latin Art and I loved that folks got dolled up for the part. I mean, how cute are these ladies in their handmade Frida crowns? 

The Workshop started at a comfortable California pace at midday on Friday. Everyone was greeted with a smile and a swag bag full of goodies. 

To jump start the Workshop, Patty opened by chatting about establishing a mindset of making in the art room. Many of the ladies in the audience traveled from all over the country (and one from South Korea!) and are all walks of teacherin' life: some where art teachers, classroom teachers, special needs educators and a yoga instructor who brings art into her studio! So many lovely ladies who have one thing main thing in common: the desire to teach creativity to children. Can you ask for a better bunch?

 I was up right after Patty (tough act to follow much?!) and, I'll admit, I was a wee bit nervous. I've presented on a much smaller scale before but nothing like this. I was mic'ed up, there was a film crew and close to 200 folks in the audience. However, being with such a wonderful group of ladies who quickly became friends really put my mind at ease. I shared with them something I do so love: fiber arts!

On our first day together, we prepped and painted our plates for circle loom and tree weaving. And look how pretty!

 Ohhhhh!

 Ahhhhh!

Oh my! I loved each and every one ever before the addition of the weaving!

Next up was the always-awesome Laura! I love her painted apron and Frida crown, don't you?

Laura shared with everyone her super spectacular technique of teaching painting to children...without the mess of water. I'm so ready to give this a go in my art room this year.

She also shared her love of Crayola's Model Magic clay. The ladies had a fabulous time exploring and creating with this medium. 

 Each creation was so much fun and completely unique.

Someone was loving the beach as much as I was!

The patterns was what struck me with this piece. 

To wrap up the first day, Patty hosted a lovely fiesta. Complete with delicious food, drinks and a chance for everyone to mingle and make new friends. It was such a pleasant way to end the first day.

The following day, we started bright and early with a fun Mexican tile printmaking project taught by Patty.

I've never tried printmaking with water-soluble oil pastels but now I am itching to give it a go!

Now that our plates were dry, we were ready to dive into tree and circle loom weaving. 

Weaving can be tricky to teach to a room 200 folks. To do so, I'm simply explained the process as I do to my students: slowly and simply. The weavings turned out so beautifully. 

What I love about teaching is that folks come up with their own unique ways to problem solve. We had fun sharing our different ideas and thoughts about approaching weaving with children.

From there, Patty did a wonderful portrait lesson featuring Frida Kahol.

And Laura shared two fun projects that were both colorful and bright: large marigold paintings and a still life collage. 

 The room literally blossomed!

 This is a project I so want to bring back to my art room. 

 So much happy!

Patty wrapped the Workshop with a final project (not shown) and a good ole Q & A session. Then, sadly, we had to say goodbye to our new friends. I managed to get a couple of photos...but many were pulled from Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Thank you for sharing those photos, new besties!

 Masters of the Art Teacherin' Universe (and weaving!).

 My Facebook buddies and I finally had the chance to meet in person. Loved meeting you, Cheri...

 and Charlene! 

And the super sweet and adorable Leann. Making new friends is always my favorite part of workshops!

It was such a fun weekend of connecting, creating and, well let's be honest, being in sunny So Cal. 

BIG THANK YOU to Patty for having me join her wonderful Workshop. Until next time, y'all!

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Art Scouts, Tennessee Camp 2016

Well, hello there, strangers! My sincerest apologies for how quiet it has been on this here blog over the last week (let's be honest: you enjoyed the peace) but I've been super duper busy with my buddies Jennifer, Laura and Ginger getting ready for the Tennessee Camp of Art Scouts! 

Laura and Ginger arrived in town on Wednesday afternoon from Ohio. Jen and I  had just enough time to show them around our favorite place: Franklin, Tennessee. Franklin is a small town with a big history just 15 minutes south of Nashville. The downtown has a lovely Mayberry-esque vibe. After a stroll up and down Main Street, we took them to a local fave, Pucketts Grocery and Restaurant. The food was delish but the best part of the meal was when we walked in, Jen's husband Miguel and two sweet daughters were there. What a happy surprise! It was so fun to pull up a table and chairs to join them.

On Thursday morning, bright and early and fueled up on coffee, we began to set up Camp for our Scouts. Thankfully, we had the help of our art teacherin' friends Stephanie Preston and Jennifer Staples to get ready for the next couple of days. Those two girls were our right hand gals during Scouts and we just can't thank them enough for all they did for us and the Troops. Thank you, sweet friends! Also, a big shout out to my buddy Mr. Joe for hanging out with a bunch of wild and crazy art teachers for a couple of days. 

Friday morning, folks started to arrive and, after breakfast, chatting and a super secret Art Scout ceremony (sorry, y'all. Must be present to get the scoop), we dove right into the art of making big messes!

I have to tell you, we simply have the nicest folks attend Art Scouts. We had teachers from Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, California, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, the Carolinas, Texas (and I know I'm even forgetting some)...we were blown away! These sweet, kind and dedicated art teachers are a gift to their students, faculty and staff. 

 Not to mention, some seriously talented (and funny!) artists.

I mean, when is the last time you saw folks having this much fun at a professional development? And we had just as much of a blast hosting them. We were so lucky!

We had a little over 50 Scouts in attendance. Laura and Ginger lead 25 Scouts on their quest to earn their painting and clay badges in my art room. They created over three clay projects and multiple painted paper pieces during their first day with Troop Leaders Laura and Ginger. 

Now, y'all know that Laura is the master of all things painted paper and collage. Having the chance to learn her approach is so much fun...and I speak from experience. I had that opportunity at Tennessee Arts Academy last year. We've been friends long before that. I love and respect what she does for her students and the art education community. Not to mention, she's funny as all get out! 

 

 I loved the variety of creations that I was able to sneak a peak of when I popped down to my art room.

Ginger had folks working with Amaco's air dry clays because it has a very similar texture as kiln fire clay. Ginger is such a jack of all trades but, unlike me, she's a master of all. When we were brainstorming ideas on what badges our Scouts would earn and what we'd like to share, Ginger is so versatile, she could teach it all!  She did such a fab-o job sharing fun clay projects with our Scouts.

I so wanna do this with my students, I know they would have a blast!

Ginger is also our Mural Maven (if you've not seen the time lapsed videos of her students painting murals, go here). The Scouts worked on this scene of the Smoky Mountains that Ginger drew. This helped every understand her simply and impactful method of teaching mural painting to children.

I love how the colors pop on that black paper!

Back in our territory, Jen and I shared everything we could pack in on fibers and printmaking. Jennifer shared such a fun assortment of printmaking projects that are not your usual carve-into-block type of thing. What I love about what Jen shares is that she brings her bright and cheery personality to each project. The sunny sun prints and the colorful wax crayon prints are a true reflection of how colorful the projects are which she shares with her students. 

Because Jen has 30 minute art classes with her kindergarten through fourth grade kids, she was able to share how she breaks her projects down into bite sized bits. She also enlightened us to some fast and easy clean up tips!

 Marker prints were also thrown into the mix!

 We also had a big time exploring Gelli Arts printing plates!

Those printing plates are so versatile and fun. I mean, check out these effects!

These look fabulous just as they are...however the Scouts turned them into beautiful flower collages.

 Love this orchid collage by Stephanie.

And this one being cut out is fabulous. I love that the Scouts swapped flowers to add variety to their collages. 

Now all y'all know that needle felting is my jam. So when I shared that we'd be taking a stab at it (wink, nudge), the Troops were thrilled. And shocked at just how easy needle felting can be. Check out the cute lil palette hair clips we made!

Because I'm secretly on a mission to have ALL art teachers dress like CRAZY art teachers. 

 We also learned how to do some of my favorite weaving activities, circle loom and tree weaving, to name just a few. 

I always love the variety of paintings created on something as simple as a paper plate.

I mean, I wanna paper my walls in these beauties!

Remember: you can circle loom weave on anything round! Hula Hoops! Embroidery Hoops! CDs! Just make sure you have an odd number of warp threads. 

To earn their fibers and painting badges, our Scouts created three printing projects and three weaving and one felting masterpieces. We were busy, y'all.

 It's been such fun getting to know these new friends of ours. One of my favorite things was seeing all of the fun images shared on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Here's a collection of what was shared by our Scouts.

P.S. THAT PENCIL DRESS!! Beth, you know I love that dress, girl!

I love this collage of art teacherin' fashion that Rina created...so glad I made the cut! 

 Painted paper fun!
Happy faces, fun projects!

Just one half of the Scouts wearing their needle felting palette hair clips!

I love this photo collage created by Scout Brandi!

We had so much fun sharing out passion of making big messes with little people...with our new best friends, the Art Scouts!

We couldn't have done it without our Ohio friends Ginger and Laura! After our Scouts left Saturday afternoon, we broke down and put our feet up. 

 Because I live just 4 miles from my school, I had the gang over to my place for some dinner and chill time. We're already brainstorming ideas on plans to bring more Art Scouts Camps to our future Troops...and we couldn't be more excited! 

To keep up with us, you can follow us on Instagram! You can also join our Facebook group where you'll find a ton of more images and be able to make inquires and chat with attendees. 

Here's to more art making fun! 

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