I have fur realz been slackin' on this bloggin' thing, y'all! My apologies...I've just become COMPLETELY OBSESSED with flipping my art room around. I know you've seen pics if you follow me here where I have been shamelessly oversharing. However, I'll be posing a pretty big reveal right here on Friday so be sure and wake yourself outta your turkey-day coma and pop back by.
I've also not shared new lessons here lately because I've actually been doing some "reruns" of projects from last year! I don't often do projects more than once (and usually not consecutively) but these selfies are for our Artome art show. They were such a hit last year when my fourth graders did them that I decided to bring it back. And I'm so glad I did, they turned out amazing...even if there were some whining about color-pencil-hand-fatigue!
Here's the lesson video I created and we used:
The reason I decided to have every kiddo in the school create a self portrait is because I know that's what I would want if I were a parent: a kid created selfie! They are so sweet and fun. You can see what my first graders created here and my third graders made here. I'll be sure to post what kinder and second are working on as they finish them.
The kids were super proud of these...I love that with this lesson, the background serves as a way for them to show their interests. I'd also like to add just how much I'm noticing rainbows popping up in my students art work...I take full responsibility!
Swoon!
Now, I will say this: colored pencils...NOT.MY.FAVE. Ugh, y'all. The constant pencil sharpening buzz is enough to make me wanna stab my ears. Please tell me I'm not alone in this.
For that reason, I also give my students art sticks to add color. If you are not familiar, art sticks are colored pencils without the wood (heehee). Crayola makes them...but my FAVORITE are by Prisma Color. Of course, they cost one million trillion dollars but they are worth it and they last. We are down to the nubs in my room...hence the Artome fundraiser!
Eyebrows on fleek, y'all. AND, yes, the S...she managed to get that Sharpied before I could convince her otherwise. Such a beautiful drawing of a beautiful girl. I love seeing the kids write JES...we have such a strong school pride!
AND can I just point out that this sweet girl made the end of her hair into a paint brush that is painting her shirt?! LOVE!
But, back to colored pencils...for the longest time, when I would sharpen colored pencils (btw, do you say "color pencils" or "colored pencils"?) they'd break. Over and over until I was down to a tiny pencil. I used to think it was because the colored pencils were cheap (and that might very well be the case) but now I have a different theory. I blame...THE PENCIL SHARPENER.
If you join my FB LIVE chats (you can find them archived here...I go live every Wednesday at 8pm CST), then you've heard my theory on this. A couple of years ago, I splurged and purchased a $50 Exacto electric sharpener. And it's a loud pencil eater. When my mom came to visit recently, she brought me my old Panasonic faux wood, 5 lbs workhorse of a sharpener. Y'all, this thing is BANANAS. It will sharpen anything without breaking it and leaves the pencils FRIGHTENINGLY sharp. Like, I had to establish a rule: Y'all don't have to come up to me and show me how sharp your pencil is every time you sharpen it. I know. It's sharp.
When I found another Panasonic faux wood sharpener at the thrift store the other day, y'all better believe I scooped it up. So, long story short: if you are tired of your colored pencils breaking in your sharpener, don't blame the pencil...get you a vintage Panasonic sharpener. I just did a quick search on ebay and here she is:
That being said, do you have a fave colored pencil brand? A long time ago, Ticonderoga made a colored pencil and they were AMAZING. They never broke, the colors were bonkers and creamy. I found them on a clearance aisle at on office store years ago and they were my everything. Sadly, they no longer make them...and I've just been using what I've got since.
And I kinda made a promise to myself to never EVER order any more. I have 8 tables in my art room with two large trays of colored pencils at each table. I recently had a former student volunteer and she organized all of my EXTRA colored pencils by color...the idea being that my students can go there and get whatever colors that their table tray might not have. Here's what my EXTRA colored pencils look like:
Yeah, I'm pretty much set for life. Unless I have either a beaver or a termite infestation, I'll be sittin' pretty with these bad boys for quite some time before I need to reorder.
However, if there is one brand that you think would be worth ordering...despite my clear over abundance, I'd love to hear!
But, back to the lesson. My kiddos worked on these for about 2-3 one hour sessions. We drew with the video one day, added patterns and designs and traced with Sharpie the next and then spent the rest of time coloring. And coloring. And coloring.
Oh look, rainbows!
And more rainbows....ahem.
I cannot wait to see these framed at the Artome art show...I'll share with you when the show rolls around!
Now that my fourth graders have made their contribution to our school-wide collaborative (details to come, stay tuned! I'm STILL trying to figure out my life, y'all) and completed their sketchbooks and their first couple of sketching tasks, it's now time for them to move on to the art makin'! I have decided to kick off the school year with landscape for all of my students. I also decided that I wanted my kiddos to learn about contemporary artists (and it so happens, all female artists!). It's with that in mind that I introduce you to the lesson I'll be sharing with my fourth grade artists: Chalk Landscapes inspired by the artist Claire West!
These drawings are my teacher examples...I had so much fun creating them, I couldn't stop! You can see the process in this video I created to be shared with my students:
Now let's take a closer look at some of Claire's work...
Isn't her work beautiful? I love the colors! They are so rich and stunning. I knew chalk would be a good way for my students to capture that incredibly rich hue.
I also love how her work really shows depth. What a great way for my students to learn about the horizon line, back-, middle- and foreground.
Here are the supplies we will be using for this lesson: * Chalk I really like Faber-Castell's chalk. It's vibrant and rich with no fillers or junk. They are my fave! * Liquid Starch! The magical ingredient behind this amazing process. * 11" X 17" Paper I went ahead and cut an inch off the normal 12" X 18" paper so that matting and framing will be easier in the future. * Paint! This will come later...but we'll use a variety of colors of tempera paint.
This project will probably take us some time. A couple of classes for the chalk and starch...and maybe one class for painting. I'll keep you posted on our progress.
Why I am so smitten with the starch trick: no messy chalk pastel dust! No need to spray with hairspray or a fixative! No smearing! I'm so in love. Big shout out to my good friend Jennifer Avarado for sharing this trick with me.
More landscape lessons for my other grade levels are in the works so stay tuned. I'll keep you posted here and on my YouTube channel.
A little over a month ago, I got an email from Trixi Symonds over at Coloured Buttons. She asked me if I'd like to join her super fun #sewasoftie project for the month of July. Her concept was simple: introduce kiddos to stitching with a month long sharing of sewing projects via her Facebook page (which, by the way, is LOADED with fabulous sewing inspiration for kids of all ages). I happily agreed and used my recent trip to Italy (and love for all things pizza) as my inspiration.
Another reason I chose pizza is because my kiddos always find inspiration in food. Are your students/kids like that? It's so funny to me: give a kid a piece of clay and it's guaranteed that they will come back with a clay cookie, pizza or a taco. I know when I share this project with my third and fourth graders in the spring, they'll be all in.
Let's talk supplies:
* Craft Felt in bunches of colors. I find that I have a TON of craft felt. Does it multiply? Are teachers secretly dumping the stuff in my storage closet? The latter is more than likely the case. It would also explain the ziplock baggies of broken crayons I always receive (y'all, I don't even use crayons!).
* Chenille Needles are my jam. They have a big eye that is great for threading and a nice sharp point which is perfect for puncturing that felt.
* Thread can be tricky. Get the cheap stuff and it can break with a slight tug. We use embroidery floss with the single thread...not the one with 6 threads. Cuz we ain't got time to be splittin' hairs.
* Paper for creating a pattern and for making a needle threader.
* Scissors are great...and if you have one for fabric and another for paper then you are just the bee's knees.
* Pins and a Magnet to park those pins. They make these great pin wands that my students love. You just wave them and the pins snap right to the wand.
When I first got the idea to create this lesson, I kept getting more ideas. First it was allowing the kids to create toppings that can be changed at any time. Kind of like the felt boards I played with as a kid. That's why I created the segment in the video where the toppings are changed. Then I thought it would be great to introduce button sewing...for that the toppings would have to be tacked down. And, of course, I had to throw on some puffy paint because PUFFY PAINT MAKES MY WORLD GO ROUND. Thank you, Puff Daddy for the Puffy Paint. He's the one who invented it, right?
Then I got the idea for a silly-faced pizza. I spotted these giant googly eyes at the craft store and thought it would be fun. Because I wanted to add arms like we did with the Stitched Monster project, I knew I'd have to go about sewing a little differently. Originally I was going to make one video...but I decided that two was best: one for the Stuffed Pizza and Button Sewing and another for the Funny Faced Pizza.
So, just some thoughts on sewing with kids: I usually do a fibers unit in the spring, after clay. Kids love sewing, weaving, felting, you name it...and it's a great follow-up to clay as they pink-puffy-heart-with-sparkles LOVE clay. However, sewing is a challenge that you and your students need to be prepared for. Whenever we tackle something new, I remind the kids that we are learning and that takes practice and patience. I tell them that some of them will get it right away...and others will take a little longer...but we will ALL get there. With practice and patience. It's important to emphasis this so that frustration does not lead to a defeatist mentality.
Now, I'll have my students glue their items down with tacky glue. But, for those kids creating at home who wish to change the toppings of their pizza frequently, they could simply keep their cut pieces in a sealed bag.
This pizza was created the same way as the first but I really wanted to introduce button sewing. What better way to do that than with pepperoni buttons?! And, of course, puffy paint.
No doubting that I grew up in the 80's...I got puffy paint in my veins.
Shortly after posting my Stuffed Pizza video on my YouTube channel, Jeanne Kemp, an art teacher out of Baltimore shared this with me. She'd done the project with her students! How fun and they did a fabulous job. I had pizza for dinner in their honor.
This project is a little more involved simply because of the addition of sewing the arms and sewing three sides verses two. For that reason, I'll reserve this project for my older students.
I def don't plan on purchasing them all googly eyes as I don't have that kind of budget. So, more than likely, if my students decide to make a face, they'll have to create the eyes from felt. No biggie.
I really had fun creating these pizzas. They got me excited about hand sewing again...and the upcoming class I'm taking at Alabama Chanin. More on that to come. LOVE to know if any of you all have taken a class there before!
Until then, have a super fun time stitching your pizza!
Y'all, I know. You don't even have to tell me: these are the ugliest things I've created to date. When I showed the hubs the creation on the right, he said, "that thing is scary. Like really scary." This coming from a dude who lives for haunted attractions. Mission accomplished. I got the idea for this Celluclay project when I hosting my #creatingwithcassie craft nights over on Facebook live. It is similar to a project I did when writing my book except with that project, I used air dry clay and created cute little forest animal heads. With this one, I used Celluclay and made these ugly/cute bad boys. How to here:
Supplies: * Celluclay: To say I am obsessed with this stuff is an understatement. I love me some Celluclay every since discovering it when writing my clay book. For a grade level of 80 kiddos, I'd say you'd need 2-3 bags of the 5 lb. of clay. I always premix the clay, I never let the kids do this. It's very dusty and, with a group of kids, could get real insane, real quick. I like to mix mine up the day before, creating batches the size of a large grapefruit for every two kids. I then wrap the clay in plastic wrap and store in the fridge so as not to mold. The next day, I place in a bowl and let the kids unwrap the clay. * Water: For mixing the clay. Don't ask me about measurements. This stuff should feel like clay. Not to soggy, not too dry. * Cardboard for Wall Mount: This project is geared towards kids in middle school and beyond. I'm guessing they will be able to cut through cardboard. Chipboard and mat board would work just as well. * Aluminum Foil: The Dollar Tree sells packs of 30 sheets of aluminum foil. I love this! The stuff is already cut for you. I will say, it's a very thin foil. You and your students may have to use more than one sheet to build a strong armature. It will need to support the weight of the clay. * Paint: I used acrylic but tempera would work. I always cover my Celluclay pieces in a varnish like ModPodge to seal and protect. * Polymer Clay: Totally optional! I used this to create the eyes and the teeth. I thought the difference in texture would be fun.
This guy is small, only about 6.5" in height. What I love about this project and working with Celluclay: 1. You don't have to wrap your project to prevent from drying when class is over or you need to take a break. Allow your clay to dry out. You can simply work the wet clay back into the dry. YES! 2. It sticks to everything! Seriously. I've adhered this clay to plastic, cardboard, tagboard, foil and plaster and I've never had to bust out the hot glue gun. 3. For that reason, no need to slip and score! Yippie! 4. I love the rough texture it creates. However, if that is not your bag, then good news, you can sand the clay once it's dry. Use a fine grit paper and do this either outside or wearing a cute lil paper mask thingie.
I always and forever, amen dry my Celluclay in front of a fan. It can dry super fast that way. Otherwise...it may take much longer to dry and mold. No one wants that.
I've used both the white and the gray clay. Both take to paint very well...so no reason to purchase one over the other.
Because the Celluclay sticks to everything in the universe (in the best possible way), you can use such things as air dry clay in combination. We found that out while I was leading a clay session at Art Scouts (details on that amazing adventure later this week!). The participants were adding tooth-shaped clay right into their masterpieces while it was wet...the next day, they were stuck in to place.
I also shared this process during my online craft nights. I LOVED seeing everyone's spin on this project. Imagine where our students could go with this idea. This amazing unicorn was created with plaster trips instead of Celluclay...which works just as well!
Here are just a few of the incredible creations I managed to snag a picture of at Art Scouts. Love this elephant!
And this dragon! At Art Scouts, I had about an hour for the participants to create an armature and make their masterpiece. Pretty impressive that they could knock it out so fast. The method I share in the video makes it a simple process. Once home, the Art Scouts started sending me photos of their finished pieces.
Love this one by Polly Blair. Notice she did not cover her cardboard in Celluclay. Totally optional. It really giver her piece a great contrast between the smooth wall mount and the rough texture of the dragon.
And this cutie from Jennifer Day. That face is a total crack up.
Here's a peak at the other clay creations our Scouts knocked out in just two hours! These were created by my Joliet pal Nora Gleason. The heart was created with Celluclay while the wings were made with plaster trips.You can find that project here.
And these cuties created by Ryann Hawkins. LOVE them! I can't wait to share more from our Art Scouts adventures in a future post. Until then, I leave you with these faces only a mother could love...
Ah! I failed to mention that the "retainer" on the dino on the left was created with an unfolded paperclip and attached with hot glue. The cat eye glasses were some I had in my stash where I just removed the legs and attached to the bridge of the nose with hot glue. The bowtie on the dino on the right, was created from polymer clay and simply attached to the finished piece with hot glue. Now...where to hang such craziness. My art room, of course!
