What the Art Teacher Wore #156

First Day o' Feb Monday: Are you kidding me? I've been counting the days until I could bust out my heart-tastic, LOVE-ly wares, y'all. heart print top: Buffalo Exchange; belt and palette print skirt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; hat: New Orleans; tights: Target; shoes: Fluevog

What's happening, my friends? I feel like it's been ages since we last chatted even tho it was only Tuesday. I do try my hardest to see you here three times a week but sometimes the week gets ahead of me and the next thing I know, it's Sunday. How does that even happen? Time flies when you are a procrastinator, y'all.

In other news, Monday was the first day o' Feb and I was beyond ready to bust out some heart-y/love-y outfits. I also am leaving you with my latest filmed sub plan! I had to pop outta town for a coupla days and I was thrilled to have my same sub from jury duty land. She was very excited when I told her I had another filmed lesson ready for her. Hopefully, her day went well. I thought I'd share it with y'all in case you need a quick fun project for Valentine's Day! 

Until next time, love y'all!

This lesson is based around the book Love Monster by Rachel Bright. I don't own the book so I had my sub read aloud the youtube video below and then dive into my sub video you see above! For this lesson, the kids needed Lost Love Monster sheets, glue, scissors, Sharpies, googley eyes and paper to create hearts. 

The story is super sweet and one that my sub could play for all of my kindergarten through fourth grade kids. For kindergarten, there was a modified worksheet that didn't entail as much writing. 

Sadly, I forgot to save the word doc of the sheet or I'd share it with y'all here! But I did make a couple of examples that I had on my white board which shows what the copy at the bottom of the sheet said. You can also sneak a peek in the video.

If you wanna keep up with my video'd lessons, you can subscribe here, kids!

Love and Kittens: I made this dress (and matching sweater!) a coupla years ago and it's still my fave V-day, kittentastic look. I can't believe I didn't stitch up a single Valentine's dress this year! My lil sewing machine is gather dust at the moment, boo. dress: by me, here; belt: amazon; boots: Hunter

Jim Dine Heart Dress: Okay, let's be honest: Valentine's Day in art teacherin'land is also known as Jim Dine Projects Day, amiright? Love this artist so much I needle felted this dress dedicated to him! 

Color Wheel Skirtness: I realized the other day that I'd never worn this bad boy to school! The kids loved it but mostly the big bow. The lady at the bank was not as impressed by my big bow, I'll have you know. Color Wheel Skirt and Top: DIY here

If you follow me on Instagram, then you've seen this photo already! We did some color mixing experiments in first grade this week and they loved it! I thought I'd share with y'all how. I used three clear cups for the mixture of each secondary color. In front of the kids, I put an inch of water in all three cups. Then I put drops of food coloring in the outer cups. In this case, yellow and red. I folded a paper towel up (I used Viva paper towels, if that matters), placing one paper towel from yellow to the clear cup and another paper towel from the red to the clear. Immediately, the colored water began to creep up the paper towel. To help the process, I raised the height of the outer cups with stacked CD's. By the end of art class, the kids saw some progress but the following day yielded the best results. They loved it and it was so easy! 

100 Day of School!: I forgot to share with y'all my outfit for the 100th day of school...or, as I should call it, Any Excuse to Wear My Rainbow Wig to School. The kids were curious about the rotary phone pattern so we busted out my old phone and played on it! wig: Gothic Lolita; dress: ModCloth; hat and cherry pin: vintage; faux fox sweater: DIY made by me here

Until next time, you crazy kids!

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What the Art Teacher Wore #154

Totes Tuesday: Well, we actually returned on Monday but that was kinda a rude awakening and I just couldn't seem to pull it together enough to snap a pic. You didn't miss much, lemme tell you. Just sitting-in-meeting 1950's vintage wear. You know, the ushe. But on Tuesday I was feeling a lil more up to form. Getting back into a routine of not staying up til midnight and beyond and rising late in the morn takes some easing into, y'all. sweater: thrifted vintage; skirt and boots: Anthro; scarf: gift from a student; tights: Target; bracelets: street market in Cali

Well, it happened. We went back to school. This year our district provided three glorious days of PD which I totes enjoyed. Not only was our art professional development fabulous (check it out here and here!) but it also helped us all ease back into the routine of things. I was stoked to have a couple of days to prepare my room for my Art Teacherin' Resolutions (part 2 coming next week!). In fact, so many things have changed/updated/whatevered that I decided to create a brand new Art Room Tour for y'all! 

There are still a TON of things I want to do to my magical art teacherin' space (like, A.TON. Is our job ever done?!) but until then, this is as good -n- groovy as it gets. By the way, many of the items you see me pan over in my artsy joint will be spoken about in detail at AOE's winter online conference where I'll be talking about how I attempt to Maximize my Minutes in the Art Room. And until next time, have a great week, kids!

 Wonderful Wednesday: We had the chance to work in our rooms and get caught up on teacherin' life on Wednesday. What a wonderful gift! Not surprisingly, I didn't manage to get everything done but do we ever? I sometimes wonder if/when the day will ever come when I leave my art room and think, "Welp! I got everything checked off my list, all's done!" Instead, I just close my door on the mess, shake my head and walk away super fast. I'm sure that makes me look like a nut on the security cam! sweater: made by me, DIY here; skirt, boots and belt: Anthro

 Bring 'em in, Thursday: The kids came back on Thursday and I was ready to throw all kinds of new things at them. You can read about some of those routines in my Art Teacherin' Resolution post (update this next week!) sweatshirt: Forever21; dress: made by me, DIY here; shoes: Payless with shoe clips made by me

One of my resolutions was to film myself instructing and play that for the kids. This allows me not to forget any details I need to share and frees me up to prepare supplies and drink my coffee (because, priorities). I was worried that the videos wouldn't be as effective and the kids' artwork wouldn't be as awesome as it usually is, but...

 Check out these cityscape printing plates! The kids and I were both thrilled! I have since created a video to walk them through the printing process which they'll see this week. Here's a peek: 

Feel free to use this lesson and these videos in your art room. And any feedback would be much appreciated. Third grade was my test pilot this week. Because it went over so well, I will be making more videos just like this. If you are interested, y'all can subscribe to my youtube channel to keep up. 

 Friday Already?!: That was fast! Teaching only two days a week will do that to you, I guess! It was a fun week and I'm looking forward to the next. I hope y'all have a super duper upcoming week as well! blouse and sweater: thrifted; palette belt: etsy; palette skirt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; tights: Target; shoes: Clarks

Oh! I have to share this sweet image with you! When my kindergarteners were finished with their paintings on Friday, I threw down this piece of fabric I purchased at IKEA and asked them to color it with my fabric markers. When I told them it was going to be sewn into a dress, they were thrilled! I overheard my sweet little friend in the blue on the right tell the other kids when they came to the floor, "Mrs. Stephens is going to make this into a dress and wear it! We will be famous!" They are so funny! 

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DIY: A Color Wheel Circle Skirt, Blouse of Many Colors and the Crayola Experience!

Well, Happy New Year, all y'all! I hope this here blog post finds you bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and tackling that short list of resolutions...and not nursing a hang-over pondering the poor life choices you made last night (Not judgin'. Just sayin'.) Myself, I finally managed to finish off this here ROY G. BIV(and M...for Magenta) skirt complete with a blouse o' many colors and ginormous headband. It's only been on my sewing table for something like a month so hurray for finally finishing something! 

 

I got the idea for this circle skirt way back in November when I took my second sewing class at Craft South. Y'all might remember the music-themed skirt I made with fab-o instructor Devon Iott, aka Miss Make. The skirt was created from an Anna Maria Horner pattern and it comes with a coupla of different stitching options. One of them being a circle skirt that is made up of eight sections. I thought it would be fun to connect each section with a colorful satin stitch and have a corresponding quilted colored pencil at the base of the stitch. 

And while I was mid-stitch on el skirt-o (like, seriously, mid-stitch. I have this habit of getting an idea, dropping WHATEVES it is I'm doing and starting on Thing 2. It's really the worst habit ever and I don't recommend it), I got the notion of making a top AND headband to match. I decided to use the Scout Tee pattern from Grainline Studios because, y'all. That is one easy pattern to follow and one simple top to slap together in, like, 60 minutes or more. 

Hey! Speaking of stopping whatever you are doing mid-stream and totes doing something dif, I hereby interrupt this sewing talk with a chat about my trip to Orlando's Crayola Experience! (That was a segue, kids. A really crappy segue).

So way the funk back in September, the hubs and I made a trip down to Orlando for Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights. While we were there, we drove past the Florida Mall and I spotted that hallmark yellow and green. I was all, "Hey! That's a Crayola WONDERLAND! Like Chuck E. Cheese for art teachers. Can we go? Please?!" It was then that Mitch reminded me he'd told me all about this place before we left and I'd been all "meh, whateves". Silly me. I was so happy to find that teacher's get in free! Sadly, el hubbo did have to shell out something like $35 for his ticket. I told him he could stay in the car but that only got me the side-eye. 

 

If you cats and kittens ever get the chance to go to this place, y'all best do it. It's simply fascinating -- like a history lesson on Crayola and a science lesson on the making of crayons. Not to mention a look at their vintage ads which were just so fun to see. 

And tons o' other fun stuff. One of my faves was this station where you could name your own crayons and have them made. We made a handful of our own personalized crayons called such things as "Mrs. Stephens' Lipstick" for a red crayon and "Martian Blood" for a green one. 

Another fave of mine was this encaustic station where you could paint with melted crayon juice. Is there anything better smelling than a melted crayon? By the way, I've installed Scratch -n- Sniff technology in this blog post so feel free to scratch that photo above, stick your nose to the screen and breathe deep. Don't mind the stares, other folks just be jealous. Oh, it didn't work? Keep trying. You can stop when the men in the white coats come to get you. 

My ultimate fave was this melted crayon spin art machine. You get to pick your color combos and while the melted crayon is dripping down onto your paper circle, you can control the speed of the spinning. This results in some seriously cool and trippy masterpieces. 

 Like, far out, dude. 

But, if I'm gonna be all fur realz-ies with y'all, I've gotta admit that the real Experience was to be had in the gift shop. I mean, just take a look-see at that sock assortment. Need I say more? 

Even the check out counter was neat mosquito -- it's made up entirely of upright crayons! 

And now, I interrupt that interruption to bring you back to what I was originally chatting about. Before I interrupted my own dang self. Ahem. The skirt! Which was heavily influenced by all things Crayola Experience-y. And BOOM. I just segue'd my segue. 

 So the first thing I had to do was figure out the colored pencil (do y'all say "color pencil" or "colored pencil"? Because I've always said the latter but now I'm not so sure). Anyway, I sketched it out on paper first and used that as my template once I was happy with el sketch-o.

After cutting the pieces, I started stitching with right sides togetherness.

 Like-a dis. 

 And like-a dat.

 Press with an iron and...

 Viola! Eight colored pencils, one for each section of the skirt. 

Once I had cut out the eight panels of the skirt in black and stitched them together, I started the process of appliquéing the pencils to the skirt. I measured 12" down from the bottom of the waistband and held the pencils in place with some Stitch Witchery. Then I set my machine to a wide satin stitch (it's the one that looks like a zigzag) and sewed the pencils in place. 

Once all the pencils were in place, I simply followed the pattern to complete the skirt. That pattern is cake, by the way. The only thing that is a total drag is hemming that beast. I mean, the circumference is about three miles long so it takes forever to get through. 

Miraculously, I persevered (but not without mucho whining...to myself. The cat and the hubs don't seem to heed my complainingness). 

And I'm super happy I did because I do kinda dig this thing. 

It's great for sitting on the floor and doing a Wicked Witch of the West "I'm melting!" impersonation...

And for twirling away. I do hope you kids have a wonderful New Years and we'll chatty chat soon enough!

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What the Art Teacher Wore #151

 Monday Was Technically STILL November, But...I just couldn't wait any longer! I've been itching to bust out all things red and green since the sugar buzz wore off from Halloween! I was all, "Get outta here, November, I'm done with you! I only have 25 days to wear every piece of festivus clothing I own (which exceeds 25 days. Surprised? Thought not)". blouse and Santa suspenders: thrifted; skirt: vintage; tights: Amazon; shoes: made by yours truly! 

Can we be real for a sec? I've kinda sorta been suckin' at this whole photo-a-day thing for a while. And I feel really bad about it for a coupla reasons. One because it shows I'm outta my usual routine (not that one was ever really established for the likes of a crazy person like me) which means that most mornings I'm running behind and out the door before snapping a pic. And I really hate starting my morning in a rush and a fluster because it has lately been effecting my entire day. Another reason I feel bad is, well, cuz I put together some mad outfits, y'all! That need to be shared with the WORLD. Or at least the five folks that read this blog.

In all seriousness, I've been actually feelin' pretty low this week. I feel like I'm swimming in a mess of a mess (like, for realz. My art room is gonna be the end of me, y'all) and it's all I can right now do to slap on a silly outfit and a smile. I'm not sure just what is going on but I'm determined to snap out of it soon. So, cheers to a new week and another chance to do my very best...at dressing crazily that is!

I must confess...another reason I've been lousy at snapping photos daily is because I do a good amount of sharing on Instagram. You can find me giving new meaning to the word "oversharing" here. 

Thrifty Tuesday: So the other day, I walked into Goodwill and walked out with this entire ensemble. I know, right?! The Tacky Christmas Sweater gods were lookin' out for me, what can I say? sweater, top, skirt: thrifted; belt: Amazon; tights: Target; shoes: Clarks

I Actually Hate Candy Canes Wednesday: Nope, never been a fan.  I pretty much hate peppermint anything and want to know what tastebudless pleasure-hater created it so I can go pee on their tires. I know that sounds harsh but don't you recall how razor sharp those sucked-on canes could be? Tongue-killers, y'all! Not to mention trying to pull the plastic wrap around the curve of the cane. Geesh. Don't get me started. Makes for a super cute pattern for tights, tho! dress: made by me; sweater: Anthro; tights and crinoline: Amazon

More from my Instagam feed. I told you I wasn't shy on sharing! And, oooooh-kaaaaay, candy canes are good for something: super cute pattern-y-ness. 

Totes missed out on snapping photos of Thursday and Friday. Your loss, kids. I did wear these bad boys on Friday complete with jeans (gasp!) and a pair of socks that say "It's My Parents' Fault". Truer words were never spoken. Later, friends!

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