In the Art Room: Monsters of Creativity

Fall means art teacherin' conference time which I so totally love. What I don't love is prepping and planning for taking those days off. I mean, I gotta create content that's educational and engaging both for the sub and the kids all while using materials that aren't too difficult for someone who just might not have an art background. I recently shared with y'all a bunch of my sub videos. Because I'll be out for the next couple of days attending an art conference in Wisconsin (can't wait, y'all!), I created this lesson and thought I'd share it as well.

 It's been my goal this year to introduce my students to contemporary artists with a focus on street artists. I recently did that with our wings mural project. This go-round I wanted my kids to meet the street artist who goes by the name Phetus.  

I think my students will love his colorful and humorous monsters...and hopefully be inspired to create their own!

 My hope is to display their monsters in a grid-like manner such as this. We're calling our display Monsters of Creativity. This will be showcased right outside the art room. Kinda fitting, no?

 I had so much fun creating my own examples for this project. I just love these!

Tomorrow, in Art Teacherin' 101, I'll be sharing with y'all just how I prepare for being absent and what I believe to be the essentials for a sub. 

Fingers crossed my subbo has a great time and that the kids create monsters...and not behave like them. 

 I'll be certain to share a follow up to this blog post and let y'all know how it all goes. Until then, put that tongue back in your mouth and...

Make something monstrous!

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DIY: Zombie Head Planters

These here Zombie Head Planters are the ugliest things I've ever made and I really couldn't be happier. Weird? Yes. Okay with that? Totes. 

I mean, you gotta have respect for something that finds brains appetizing, y'all. 

 So I got the idea to create these Zombie Head Planters last week after I wrapped up my last Celluclay creation. I STILL had half a bag left of the stuff (a little goes a long way...and even with these guys and the pumpkins, I still have some left over) so I actually have another project I'd love to do...but more on that later. 

Let's talk about the brainz-eaters at hand, shall we?

Over the summer, I picked up these little plastic planters from Target with the grand idea that I'd plant herbs in them or something. That didn't happen and so six of these dudes were sitting around collecting dust. I had been using them to prop up my pumpkin heads as I worked on them...which gave me the idea to create these. 

Need a review on how simple it is to work with Celluclay? Here you go!

Originally, I was just going to make the heads but I really liked the idea of the zombies having a body as well. So I used the upturned pottery for that. 

Again, I didn't sand the plastic or prep it in any way. The clay did take longer to dry this time as the weather is now cooler. So I put them in front of a fan overnight and they were dry the next day. They've yet to crack or flake off which is great. They are rock solid once painted and Modpodged. 

Painting was easy. I just picked a dark green color to paint everything, put them in front of the fan and started to dry brush on lighter colors. With a smaller brush, I added details. But, really, the painting is the easiest part. The surface of the Celluclay is perfect for zombies...who knew?!

My original idea was to have herbs in the planters but let's get real: I have a black thumb. So I shopped the heavily marked down fall floral isle of my local craft store and picked up what I thought would look good as hair and brain matter. I'm sure that's what everyone looks for in the floral isle, right?

True fact: I am no floral designer nor do I pretend to be. I seriously just used those floral foam thingies, hot glued some moss on that and stuck in some flowers. 

Side note: hot glue and styrofoam don't play well together. The hot glue melted the foam and, um, that was fun. I was watching Project Runway so I channeled my inner Tim Gunn and I made it work (which for me always means: ADD MORE HOT GLUE!).

And I'm kinda sorta thrilled with how they turned out! With faces only a mother could love. 

It's funny, whenever I'm tasked with creating something at a PD or otherwise, I ALWAYS make this lady. Sassy retro mama with a gnarly expression and usually a cigarette dangling from her lips. I think she's my spirit animal. 

This is my tribute to Gene Wilder's character in Young Frankenstein...note the hair. Of course, I had to zombie-ize him. I love how the moss looks like brains. 

P.S. these will NOT be on display in our bedroom. Their eyes seriously do follow you everywhere. 

Don't tell the others but this one is my favorite. It reminds me of Beetlejuice...which is super duper in my book. 

Now off to find just the perfect place in my house for these lovelies. Love to hear from you if you've worked with Celluclay and what you've created. You can comment below or shoot me an email. In the meantime, steer clear of the brain-eaters, y'all!

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DIY: My Favorite Fall Crafts!

When you've been around the blogging block as many times as I have (ahem), you start to accumulate a whole lotta posts. Add that to the fact that I'm a big time lover of all things fall and you've got yourself an online encyclopedia of autumn'ness. So I thought I'd put all of my fave ones into a pot, mix it all up and share it in a nice fall-y stew for y'all. Pumpkin spice flavored, of course. 

One thing el hubbo and I love to do during the fall is attend a lil something called Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios (I've chatted about it most recently here). That means I do a lotta mobile crafting. The above fall-themed embroidered blouse was one of those crafts I did on the plane. I'm always surprised when I get busted at the airport for a couple extra ounces of contact solution but never my needles and scissors. But whateves.

Speaking of Halloween Horror Nights, here's a sneak peak. Looks like...fun, right?! We've been going for years so it takes a lot to spook us now. But I do have a soft spot for crazy-eyed, chain-saw wielding homicidal maniacs. Call me crazy. My Walking Dead-inspired 1950's dress is always fun to wear.

Y'all know that my love for vintage runs deep...and that goes for all things Halloween as well. The old horror movies are my jam (Hitchcock's The Birds is my all time fave movie) so when I found this fun fabric with cartoon-y characters from horror flicks on it, I knew I had to make a dress...and a needle felted sweater to match.

I had so much fun painting The Bride, Busted last fall. It really reminded me just how much I love to paint. It truly was a test in color mixing as creating that variety of values was not easy. Lil known fact: I actually graduated college with a double degree: one in painting and the other in art education. I don't paint all that much...but I just might have to create another one of these with another villianess busted. I'm open to suggestions! By the way, this print is available for sale here. 

Speaking of vintage horror films, the fabric on this dress is full of 'em! So much fun inspiration on one piece of fabric. I've been itching to recreate large paintings based on old horror movies as well. I need more hours in my day!

Last year, I really got inspired by vintage Halloween decor, especially black cats. I transformed this lacy jacket with my Naughty Kitty Club design. Current number of members: 1. 

The cat made another appearance this year in the form of these vintage Halloween trick or treat buckets. I really can't stop laughing at these crazy guys. I so wanna make more of these, they were so fun and easy to create! 

The vintage buckets were made with Celluclay...and the little pumpkin puppet above was created with paper clay. I love exploring different types of clays from the craft store. Each has it's own unique consistency and texture. 

Fall also means needle felting time in my world. There is something super cozy about bundling up with a blanket, breaking out the wool roving and stabbing something repeatedly (uhhh). The eyeballs I needle felted onto these Target pants are always fun to wear. Haunted Mansion knickers, anyone?

Perhaps a needle felted foxy stoll?

WHHOOOO's down with an owl-tastic cardigan? 

 After a while, the colors of fall start to bring me down a pinch. So I love that I can brighten my wardrobe and my decor with a punch of el Dia de los Muertos. Check out these painted planters. 

And this here dress. You can find so much fun Day of the Dead-inspired fabrics at the craft stores and online right now! 

 In fact, that's where this fabric came from, Joann's. Minus the rainbow of pom poms, I added those. 

 I love having buddies over for craft nights. Last year, we created these Day of the Dead heads! 

And another "flight craft", my embroidered necklace! 

I can't wait to wrap up some fall projects I've been working on and start some new ones. My only wish is that fall was longer! 

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In the Art Room: Spooky Starry Night

Before I chat about this lesson, I gotta give a big ole shout out to fellow Art Scout Troop Leader and good buddy Ginger Pacer. When I saw a version of this project on her Instagram (her's is super cool and involves a lot of paint exploration which I love), I knew I wanted to give it a go. However, I'm under a pinch of a time constraint with this project so I knew I needed to adapt and make it work for me. For that reason, I decided to go with a smaller format than we normally work with (these bad boys will be 9" X 12") and use an oil pastel resist. Here's the complete video'ed lesson (my apologies for the title being left out at the beginning. The kids had a good laugh at that!):

In a one hour session, my fourth graders each got their photo snapped with these wings, watched the first half of the video, drew their skies, watched the second half, painted and some even had time to sketch ideas onto dry erase boards. It was action backed...despite the fact that I was battling a monster migraine that caused me to lose sight in my eye (anyone else get these?). Since my 6 Advil and migraine meds were not kicking in, I was so thankful to have the video to do the work for me. However, it did mean that my usual Wednesday night Art Teacherin' 101 will be postponed until tomorrow. So, y'all come back now, ya hear?!

I do have a SUPER HOT tip for you until then...every fall, I bust out my Haunted Mansion CD  that was originally recorded in 1969 and sold at Disney as a souvenir for the ride. We play this over and again in my room in the fall for my older classes and you can seriously hear a pin DROP. The kids LOVE the slightly spooky and silly tale that lasts about 30 minutes. I noticed that during their free time, my kids were illustrating the story and I thought, HOT DOG! We need a haunted house project. So, when I saw what Ginger was up to, I was super stoked to heavily borrow her idea. 

So here was my little example I cooked up. 

Side note: I used to read chapter books to my students as they worked and they loved it. Their favorite are the choose your own adventure types. However, it was hard for me to help kids and provide feedback while reading. So switching to audio books has been a game changer in my room. I've recently invested in more (the Radio Theatre series is a fave) and I'm excited to play The Legend of Squanto to my students as we approach Thanksgiving. I'll keep you posted on that one, I've got to do a teacher preview first.

Back to the project! True story: when I mentioned the use of puffy paint in the video today, the kids literally cheered. They truly are my artists, I tell ya. 

Here's what they managed to knock out today. 

This kid cracked me up: "We used watercolor in my old art class but salt!? No one ever told me about SALT! Look at it!" 

Apparently, I say the words, "I say 'Go For It'" a lot in my art room because in the video, where I do say it a couple of times, the kids said it along with me. 

 I was thrilled to see the variety of takes on this project: vertical or horizontal format; round stars or star shapes; variety of mark making. You give them fluorescent oil pastels and they'll go to town, these kids. 

 So much yesssss.

 Next up: we'll paint the black silhouettes and add puffy paint. 

Our final day will involve using the silver sharpies which I don't anticipate taking long. A quick project to wrap up this study is in the works. 

Until then, pet that sweet black cat in your path and have fun!

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