Vincent van Gogh Inspired Buttons and Earrings!

Hi! I scored this amazing sweater recently and while I absolutely loved it, I hated the obnoxious plastic white buttons that were on the sweater. They just stuck out like a sore thumb! So I picked up some polymer clay at the craft store with the idea to create my own. Normally, I buy the 'name brand' polymer clay but this time, I was feeling cheap and decided to give the house brand a try. It was half the price and I have to say...despite the fact that the yellow clay stained my hands a pinch, it worked great! I'm used to stained hands so, no big deal!

I went about creating these factory style and it went pretty quickly. I made a video to share the process in case you need some van Gogh bling in your life. Like, duh. Of course you do.

So easy, right?

Once complete, I just stitched these onto my sweater and added some jump rings and a French hook to the earrings and I was all set in my new upgraded van Gogh sweater!

Not only that but this craft was just the creativity thirst quencher I needed this weekend. Thanks for letting me share, y'all!

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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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