Top Ten Tips: Scissors in the Art Room!

Last month, I released my latest children's book Scissors, Glue and YOU! While working on my book, I thought through everything I cover when teaching my students how to use these supplies. All of that info was poured into my book with large, bold visuals in a fun-to-read rhyming format.

To celebrate, I wanted to share with you my Top Ten Tips for using Scissors in the Art Room!

While this may seem like a bit of a dry subject, I promise you, this videos is PACKED with info from how to clean and sharpen your scissors to the difference between leftie and rightie scissors to how to build student hand strength and SO MUCH MORE! I had so much to share...I hope you like the format. I wanted to be super clear on each of these tips so that you and your young artists have success.

Because I share some of my favorite supplies, like these leftie scissors, I did include links to each in my video. If you don't see them in the copy of the video, I've got them for you here. Starting with these scissors for our left handed friends. 

In the video, I also share several scissors that are perfect for friends who may need assistance. I find these loop scissors to be great. 

For students who may benefit from the loop scissors, these adjustable scissors are great. When the arrow is pointed toward the thumb opening, they provide a spring action. When the spring action is not needed, the arrow can be pointed toward the blade and the scissors will operate like traditional scissors. Check them out here. 

These scissors can be used like table top scissors or by squeezing the handle. I like that the plastic case provents the blade of the scissors from harming young artists. You can see them in action in my video and check them out here. 

In my art room, I had a couple of variations of these hand-over-hand scissors. They really helped my students who were learning how scissors work. You can check out these here. 

Another tip I share is to teach our students to have a separate 'home base' for their scissors and glue. This keeps the scissors from getting glue on them and prevents our students from using scissors on a clogged glue bottle. This has happened in my art room too many times...I learned that keeping these two supplies on opposite ends of the work area works well.

In the video I also share that scissors storage can be expensive if you buy from the online retailers. If you have a limited budget, toilet paper tubes work great! You can even number the tubes and the scissors so students know exactly where to place them.

I also share how to clean and care for your student's scissors! Goo Gone is a great thing to have in the art room as it removes sticky tape and glue from scissors.

I hope you find the video helpful! It was a lot of fun to create...just for you and your artists!

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In the Art Room: Teaching Scissor Safety

There's nothing quite like finding a pile of clipped hair in the art room just as your email inbox pings with a not-very-happy message from a parent of a child with brand-spankin' new bangs. In a miserably short and asymmetrically style ("But I hear it's all the rage on the runways right now...?"). Who knew we were hosting Beauty School Dropouts up in the art room?! NOT ME!

Look, I learned long ago that with kids, you gotta teach EVERYTHING. Like, EVERY-shouldn't-you-know-that-already-THING. And how to use scissors properly, safely and correctly in the art room is one of them. So, here's my scissor chat with my kindergarten as they prepared to cut out the clouds to add to their rainbow collages (lesson details to come!).

Here are the three things we cover when it comes to Scissor Safety:

1. SCISSORS ARE ONLY FOR PAPER. Not people, hair, clothing, applesauce, pizza, eyelashes (yes, that's happened)...just for, REPEAT AFTER ME, paper! The end. 

2. When scissors are not in use, they are closed. For some reason, I hate seeing scissors sitting on a table open. It looks like an accident waiting to happen.

3. Scissors have a HANDLE. It's where your hands go! That's how it got it's name. When HANDING someone scissors....HAND them the HANDLE. 

Additional pet peeve: do not walk around with scissors. They stay at your seats. With you. And your paper. That you are cutting. With said scissors.

 Kids these days, y'all, they don't know how to hold a pencil let alone scissors. I blame technology. I pretty much blame EVERYTHING WRONG WITH THE WORLD TODAY on technology...but I don't say that too often for fear of sounding like an old lady (which, hello, I am). But, for real, have you even seen how kids hold scissors these days? If it strikes you as odd...then guess what, chicken butt? IT'S YOUR JOB TO TEACH THEM! Remember, we gotta teach them everything. After all, they've only been on the planet for, like, 5 years. 

So, here's how I teach Scissor Usage:

1. Your dominant hand (the one that pretty much does EVERYTHING) is your scissor hand. It's job, when cutting, is to ALWAYS FACE OUT. Never toward you, but away from you.

2. All that hand does is open and close those scissors while FACING OUT (stress this...otherwise you gonna find kids with clipped clothing). Now, that hand that usually does NADA MUCHO? When cutting, it does almost all the work. 

3. The "lazy hand" turns the paper for you! Pretend glue your cutting arm to your side. Put it in FREEZE mode so it only faces OUT. Remember, all it does is open-close-open-close those scissors. That other hand does all the paper-steering like mama does when she drives a car.

Y'all. I know it is a lotta explaining. But, seriously, you'll thank me later. And LOOK at how beautifully they cut out those clouds! And I'm happy to report that not a single one ended up with one of those asymmetrical bobs! 

P.S. Giant scissors came from a flea market...but a fake pair could totally be made with cardboard and a brass roundhead fastener thing. DO IT. 

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DIY: The Scissor Dress

Y'all probably know this by now but I'm on the cutting edge of fashion. My designs are, like, super sharp and on point. It's with shear delight that I dream up these crazy ensembles. I can get pretty snippy when what I've got in my wee little head doesn't work out...but when it does, I treat myself to a slice of pizza (I promise I'm almost done here). Shall we CUT to the chase?!

I made a scissor dress, y'all!

So I've been wanting to make a Matisse-inspired ensemble for a while...and while this is NOT it, the idea of creating a look that resembled his cut paper designs is what inspired this dress. If you follow me on Insta, you've seen the start of my Matisse dress (I'm struggling with it tho so I'd love some advice: have y'all ever used a free-motion foot? If I want to stitch something with many curved edges, is that what I'd need?). I'm excited that this dress came out of that other idea. I love how one idea can lead to another.

Please pardon the cat hair. Friends allergic to cats, I'm sure this photo alone gives you the sniffles. I found this dress at H&M and knew immediately that it would be perfect for my scissor dress idea.

 I mean, check out that neckline. Perfect! I started by sketching my pair of scissor directly onto the dress with chalk. Then I traced my lines onto a sheet of lining (seen below) and used that as my pattern pieces. 

 It really was so super easy. Originally, I was going to use silver fabric for the scissors but I couldn't find it in my stash. Instead I used the metallic silver velvet I had and red velvet. I think that was a much better choice. Stitching that thin shiney fabric is a real drag as it aways gets runs and puckers in it. I backed the blades with two pieces of shirting (that stuff you see above) and it made it so simple to stitch.

The scissor handles were a little more difficult. I only backed them with one piece of the shirting, not realizing it would make a difference. It did. It was more tricky to stitch and the lines aren't as clean and even. I'm okay with that tho. The curved lines can also be a drag to sew.

When I popped the dress up on Insta while it was on my mannequin, I got several, "uh, girl, you gonna wear something underneath that?!" comments. Y'all. I'm not J. Lo! I just so happened to have THE PERFECT fabric in my stash: the scissor fabric. And in the right color way too. See, being a fabric hoarder does have it's benefits. I used the Scout Tee pattern by Grainline Studio. I love that pattern as I can whip up a top in just over an hour. 

Did I mention that the dress has pockets? YAZ, KWEEN. Pockets give me life!

Today, I popped into the gym to chat with my P.E. buddies. When I did, the fourth graders asked if I was going to play Capture the Flag with them. One girl piped up, "She can't play! She might cut herself!" Good one, kid. Slow clap.

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