In the Art Room: Paint Tube Sculptures

 So, a while back I shared with y'all that my students were sculpting art supplies. My first graders made pencils, some of my fourth graders made glue bottles, my third graders made crayons, and my second graders made glue sticks and scissors (which I've not blogged about yet! Stay tuned!). Two of my fourth grade classes made tubes of paint. We JUUUUUUST finished them off this week as I totally forgot about them in the middle of us working with clay, sewing our pizza pillows and end-of-the-year/art show madness. So, without further ado, here they are! 

 For this lesson, we used toilet paper tubes as our armature. We wrapped them with Activa's Rigid Wrap and created the paint with Celluclay. Here's the video tutorial I created:

Instead of having the kids paint the words on the tube, which proved to be a touch difficult for me, they came up with their own names and wrote them on a white label. That was then attached to a black strip of paper which I hot glued to their tubes. 

 Once the tubes were created, we did the 100 Color Challenge to come up with our own unique color for our tube. The challenge was apart of my evaluation. You can check out more of that here:

Once the kids had come up with their color, they added that and their own concoction of gray to the tube. 

 Dreaming up the color names was probably the best part!

 With our art show just two weeks away, I'm excited to see all of our art supply sculptures on display. 

 If we'd had the time, I would have loved for these guys to create palettes and paint brush sculptures too...but the school year just isn't long enough for all the fun!

 For our art show, we're going to have quite the mix of 3D displays: art supplies, super heroes and pizzas! I've tried to think of a way to have them all make sense together...but they just don't and that's okay. 

 I also coulda spent an entire year having the kids sculpt art supplies, it was so fun! 

 I cannot wait to share with you how are art show is progressing. I'm sorry I've been spotty here...it's just the busiest time of the year! You know what that's like, right? 

 To seal these projects, they were covered in Extreme Glitter ModPodge...yes, that's a thing. For the bottom, ModPodge was added and then sprinkled with silver fine glitter.

 The kids and I are thrilled with how they turned out! 

 I'm down to just a few more days of art classes with this fourth grade bunch...which makes me sad. I've taught them since kindergarten...I hope they have as fond of memories of me as I have of them! 

 Thanks for letting me share this project with y'all...if you've given it a shot, I'd love to hear about it!

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In the Art Room: Heather Galler Inspired Bouquets with Second Grade

 As we draw toward the end of the school year (okay, I know I'm early BUT in "art teacher years" a couple of months means time for just a handful of projects until the end!), I am thinking about ART.SHOW. Like, 24/7. And my art show isn't until MAY 15TH! I'm trying my hardest NOT to be my usual procrastinating self. So I've been pulling out grade level artwork and seeing what masterpieces we have to hang (we hang everything...if you search "art show" in that search bar on the right, you'll get a taste of our art shows). In doing so, I noticed that my second graders didn't have that one BIG masterpiece. So I pulled out the bingo daubers (yet again) and some huge tagboard and we created these! We did the drawing portion in the first 30 minute art class and we are slowly adding color. These are not finished yet...but the lesson has been so fun that I thought I'd share it with you as we make progress. Here's the lesson video:

For this lesson, we are using our bingo daubers filled with slightly diluted India ink, oil pastels and liquid watercolor. To finish, we'll simply be painting the flowers and the backgrounds...with the option to add color to the vase and table. I rather like the black and white because I find it to be a beautiful balance with all of the color but I'll let the artists decide.

 After our first 30 minutes. It wasn't really a guided drawing...more of a "here's how you can draw some flowers and here's how you can draw some vases and patterns...go to town." We never use pencils first, we just go for it. If they painted something they didn't love, they had to wait until next art class to try again on the back of the paper. This tag board was thick enough for them to do that. The reason I have them wait is because they usually forget about it as they move on. Also...if one kiddo starts over, THEY ALL WANNA START OVER. So, I nip that in the bud.

 Today we began adding color with oil pastels and watercolor paint. It's a big task as the papers are huge. We literally spread all out over the room because only two to three kids can work at a table at a time due to the size. 

 I don't have a favorite liquid watercolor, do you? I find that they are all pretty fantastic. Except the fluorescent ones. They universally stick. 

 I don't dilute my liquid watercolors much...I love how vibrant they are!

I got the great idea from Katie Allain (@mrsallainart on IG) to put my watercolor paint in these color coded cupcake liners to eliminate the guesswork! 

 I'll be sure to do a follow up post on these once complete. I'm so excited! They make my heart happy. 

 Also...this is now my fourth bingo dauber project! The only grade who has not worked with them is fourth and I totally have a project lined up for them using these bad boys. They my fave this year!

 

Are you a bingo-dauber-aholic like me?! I wanna know what you and your young artists have created!

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In the Art Room: Your Face Here Famous Paintings!

If you are looking at my blog right before bedtime, lemme just go ahead and apologize for this nightmarishly frightening image. But I had so much fun creating this mess-terpiece from a $1.50 thrift store frame, that I just had to share it with you! Here's the process:

The idea started last week when I introduced my kindergarten to something called "Quiet Critters"...I'll be sharing more about those magical beasts later this week (tomorrow, I hope but we'll see how life goes). The short story is that my Q.C.'s only come to the quietest and hardest working tables in kindergarten. Here's what they look like:

Giant pompoms with eyeballs, feet and antennae glued to the them. I JUST started using this system with my kindergarten as they are my noisiest crew...and, so far, they are working wonders! Each Q.C. is named after a famous artist with the plan being that I'll introduce one of those artists every other art class. Last week, we met Mona Lisa! Here's a short video of that I shared on my IG:

It went over so stinkin' well that this weekend, I knew I'd need to create another Your Face Here painting. This time 'round, I went with van Gogh! We've been talking about him and perseverance a lot lately...so he seemed like the obvious choice. Here's a snippet from our most recent chat:

I've been sharing short clips of myself teaching over on my IG. One of my most favorite things in the world is to watch others teach...I thought I'd share a little glimpse inside.

When creating these frames, here's what I look for: something cheap, without glass and with a heavy card or foam board that I can paint directly on. This allows me to just "gesso" over the painting (and by gesso, I mean just paint it white) and go to town on the new one. It's super fast, super fun and I'm so excited to bring van Gogh to my students. I won't be painting myself a beard as I just don't feel like wearing a beard for several days straight. I am the proud owner of a nice red fake beard that I can easily slide on before introducing van Gogh to the kids. 

I plan to make many more of these. My friend Ashley made a ton for her students' art show and I LOVE that idea! I think I might have to have them out as a photo op for the big night. 

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Winter Art Show! Our Artome Art Show

Hey, kids! Last Thursday night, my school celebrated their second annual Fine Arts Extravaganza with a musical performance and an art show. Our winter art show is with the fundraiser Artome. This is our second art show with Artome and I CANNOT brag on them enough. I swear, I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just love how easy of an art show (and fundraiser) this is. You can check out last year's Artome art show here.  

I shared quite a bit about this art show on my Instagram and I got a lot of questions. I thought I'd put them together in this post and hopefully help anyone out who is wondering about hosting an art show like this. Before I dive in, here's a short time lapse I made of the pre-show...that's right, this is the calm BEFORE the storm! 

Here are some of the questions I got about out experience:

Is this the only art show you do? No. We do a HUGE art show at the end of the year where every piece of artwork that every child has created is on display. I usually do two blog posts at the end of each school year highlighting both the 2-D and the 3-D portion of our art shows. You can check out archived art show blog posts by using the search bar on my blog and searching "art show".

 What happens to the artwork that is not purchased? After the art show, it is removed from the frame and shipped back to me at no extra charge. In fact, there's no charge for this art show except for the cost of the frame. I'll get to that in a minute.

 How much is the artwork, framed? That's up to you. Artome charges $19 for the framed artwork (and labor of framing and setting up the art show) and you simply up charge. I ask $25 and receive $6 per piece sold. Artome does not charge any additional fees. No charge for set up, shipping, paper, nothing. So, to me, the $19 is super reasonable.

 So, how does this work? You start by contacting Artome either by email or phone. I'm a phone talker myself so I just give them a shout. I ALWAYS get someone immediately. Customer service is spot on. You start by setting up a date and time. About a week later, you'll receive your box of paper for the artwork to either be created or mounted on. The artwork is to be created on a 9" X 12" surface. The paper they send is about 12" X 18" with a space for you to add the child's name, title of artwork, teacher's name and school. Once all of the kiddo's artwork is created, Artome sends you a shipping label. Then you drop it in the mail at your local UPS about 2 weeks before your show. The day of the show, the crew arrives about 2 hours before show time to set up. YOU DO NOTHING! It's fabulous. In fact, the guys who set up my show, had it up in less than an hour!

Writing all of the names on the labels sounds like it would take for ever. What do you suggest? Last year, me and my parent volunteers collectively clocked 2 hours just writing out the names of my 350 students and the rest of the details on the forms. This year, I asked my school secretary if she could print me labels and she agreed. That shaved so much time off the process! I cannot recommend that enough! 

If you don't create the artwork on the paper, how do you attach it to the paper provided? We used 3M spray glue. It is stinky but works great. 

I see you used chalk. Did that smear? How did you set it? My third graders used chalk and we had no issues with smearing! A mom volunteer sprayed it with hair spray and then we attached to the paper...no problems!

What if parents can't make it to the one night only art show? Can they still purchase? So, you get to decide when the art show ends. And, when it does, all of the artwork is packed up, framed, and shipped back to Artome. They do post-show sales for a couple of days after the fact. If you do have sales, they'll ship the framed work to you when they ship the unpurchased and unframed pieces.

What if more than one person wants to buy a piece of artwork? Like a grandparent or something? Artome can do a super high quality print of the original. Then they frame the print and it seriously looks just like the real thing!

 What lessons did you do and how did you decide what to have the kids create? I actually did a repeat of my self portrait projects from last year! They were such a hit...I mean, parents love self portraits, right? You can find the complete lessons on all of our projects! First grade did Royal Self-Portraits, second grade did Super Hero Selfies, third grade created these Sandra Silberzweig-inspired Chalk Portraits and fourth grade did Romero Britto-inspired Selfies! 

I think that answers about all of the questions I've gotten about this art show. I really love it and love this tradition of having a fine arts night. I do think next year, I'd like to add another element...but because we really go to extremes with our end of the year art show, it feel nice to have a beautiful art show that I'm not sweating bullets over. 

I know at some art show that folks put together, they have places set up for kids and families to create. I'm intrigued by this idea...but with our musical program already taking place on the same night, I think adding that just might be too much. I'd love to hear from y'all if you do something in addition to sharing artwork at your school art shows.  

I'd also love to hear if you've worked with Artome? What did you think? Such a great idea! 

By the way, these are the chalk pieces...I think they look great, don't you? No smears. That also shows how carefully each piece is framed.

Thank you so much for letting me share my art show with y'all! It was such a fun night. We plan to use the funds raised to purchase clay and glaze for our spring projects. Y'all know how quickly 500 lbs of clay and a million bottles of glaze can add up!

Big thanks to Artome for making it a fun and EASY night for this super tired art teacher!

Here's to makin' it to Winter Break!

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Top Ten Winter Projects for Kids!

It's that time of the year...where, if you live in Tennessee, that means it's 70 degrees one day and chance of snow the next (y'all better believe there'll be some ice cubes in my toilet, pj's inside out, white crayons on ALL the window sills and whatever else I gotta do to make a light dusting happen). With that in mind, I thought I'd share my Top Ten Winter Projects for Los Kiddos!

I'll actually be sharing more about my thoughts on holiday art and alternatives to that on this week's podcast. Y'all know I have a podcast, right? You can take a listen here and be sure and subscribe...cuz the sound of my voice is pretty close to that of angels singing (if they were being tortured, that is). 

Now, without further ado, lemme share my faves with you. I'll be linking back to the original blog post where you'll find the complete lesson (and sometimes video instruction!). Here you go!

1. Heather Galler-Inspired Patterned Hot Cocoa Cups! This is a lesson I did a couple years ago with my second graders...a lesson that we had to wash down with a cup of hot cocoa, of course!

2. Printed and Collaged Winter Self-Portraits! Need a good printmaking lesson for your kiddos? Try this one on for size. I did this lesson with my second graders but could def work for kids as young as first and as old as fourth grade. Also, if you don't have brayers and printing ink, try THIS super amazing and simple printmaking alternative that just involves markers and water!

3. Fourth Grade Faux Stained Glass Windows! Hey-hey, there's a video lesson included in this link! I LOVED this project and so did the kiddos...but I think that adding the layer of liquid starch would have made this much less messy. Check out using liquid starch with your chalk pastels here and prepare to be AMAZED! 

4. Charley Harper-Inspired Woodland Animals! Video instruction here! I can promise that there will be cuteness. Charley Harper has so many amazing animal-themed works of art that you'll find endless amounts of inspiration from him with just a quick google search. 

5. Kindergarten Starry Night Winter Landscapes! These are such a joy to watch the kiddos create! We learn all about tints, shades, Starry Night, collage and more. This is a lesson I bring back each and every year. 

6. and 7. Snowflakes and Snowflake Prints! I used to make oodles of snowflakes at the dinner table growing up...but kids don't really do that anymore. Time to change all that. What do you do with snowflakes once they are cut out? Well, you could use them as stencils and print! We printed on Gelli Arts gelli plates when we were finished cutting out our snowflakes. We printed on fabric and then learned how to sew to create these wallhangings. My third graders had a blast creating these. 

8. I NEVER get tired of Foil Relief Projects! I mean, really. Hang around this blog long enough and you'll find several versions of foil relieve. This was a fun way to create something magical with our paper cutouts.

9. Mural Making! What do you do when your music teacher needs a little bit of decoration for the music program? You put your students t work!

They'll take ownership, responsibility and have so much fun doing so!

Don't need a mural for a program but still want to crank one out? This one has something in it from every student in the school! You can find out the details here. 

10. Winter Guided Drawing! Let's be real, people: there's nothing more crazy than these last few weeks before school is out for winter break. I find that guided drawing really is a great way to calm kiddos and review the elements of art. Here are some of my faves...and if you click the link, you'll find more details.

What I love about winter themed projects as opposed to holiday art is that 1. IT'S ALL INCLUSIVE! I work at a very diverse school and I would never want anyone to feel left out. Therefore, winter art is the best route for me. 

Another bonus: there's no deadline! With holiday art, there's the pressure to get the artwork complete before the holidays arrive...but with winter art, if we don't finish before winter break, well, we'll return to it after the fact. 

Um, is there anything cuter than a winking bunny?!

MAYBE a scarf-wearing penguin! LOVE to hear your favorite winter themed projects, please share below...and if you have a blog or IG where you share your students' masterpieces, please feel free to add the link so we can all learn from your amazingness. Have a great week, y'all!

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