DIY: A Hoot of a Sweater (and Other Terrible Owlish Puns)

Owl-fit, I mean, OUTfit details: sweater: thrifted, Target label, DIY by moi; dress: BCBG; belt and tights: Target; boots: Buffalo Exchange; vintage glasses: ebay; crinoline: costume shop

Ya'll know I'm just like Britney Spears, right? Not so much the whole mini-school-uniform/crazy-shaved-head Britney Spears. Naw, ya'll. I'm more of the "Oops, I Did It Again" variety. And by "it", I mean I felted a sweater...again. Cuz that's totes what Brit was talkin' about...right?

HOLY MOLY! I interrupt this blog post and these ridiculous references to Britney Spears to inform you of what just went down while I was typing the above mess. I heard this ever-so-quiet lapping sound coming from the kitchen. I assumed it was this girl getting a drink of water...but the lapping went on far too long and my cat is not a heavy drinker (unlike her owner. Kidding! Ish). I decided to check in the kitchen and that's when I found my cat, Asha, planted face first in the large pan of lasagna I'd cooked for supper. That fat cat just ate about $4 of buffalo mozzarella off the top! She's currently happily licking her chops and cleaning her paws while hubs is putting the lasagna back in the oven to cook off her "kitten germs". Because that's how much that man loves lasagna. Me on the other hand? I'm just glad to know that if hair is found in the food, it won't be mine for a change. 

So! Now you know why this isn't a food blog. On with the DIY!

As ya know, this isn't my first trip down the Anthro-Copycat Road. There's my very first felted copy here; this felted floral number that was a rip off a $200 sweater; and this look where I copied both the sweater and the skirt. So I'm kinda an idea-steal-aholic when it comes to Anthro-land. Which I'd apologize for if it didn't save me One...Million...Dollars (said Dr. Evil style, pinky to corner of lip).

Just like so many other of my felting adventures, this one began with a trip to Anthropologie where I spied this kinda lame owl sweater. I mean, come on, Anthro. Is this really the best you got? And for $98? Do you even know how much buffalo mozzarella that'd buy my cat?! She'd be set for at least a week or two.

Since I loved this felted idea but not the execution, I decided to diverge from the Anthro design and come up with my own. Now I know there are these smart people called scientists out there who might inform you that there are many different species of owls. But you don't need no Bill Nye to tell you what they are because you have me! I did all the intense research and discovered that there are three types of owls out there. I present to you The Voluptuous Hooters Owl, That A-Hole Tootsie Roll Owl and, finally, The Ever-Informative Trip Advisor Owl. You can thank me later.

The Voluptuous Hooters Owl. Oh my how she tempts you with her...wings! Yeah, right. Guys, no wife believes you when you say you go there for the wings. But it's cool. We're just glad you're outta the house while we go on an internet shopping bender, amirite ladies? 

Okay, seriously, I knew when I drew my owl, I couldn't have it resemble the icon of my former employer (...did you believe me...!? Didn't buy it for a second, did you? Humph). I mean, it's actually not the whole boobs-in-your-face thing that bothers me, it's that terrible outfit complete with those uber tan tights and bright white scrunchie socks. What is this, 1984?! Although, I'm willing to put money on it that if ole George Orwell had witnessed this version of 1984, he might not have been so down on the future. And that, my friends, is the only literary reference you are ever likely to read on this blog: a connection between Orwell and Hooters. Again, you're welcome.

That A-Hole Tootsie Pop Owl. Look, all that naked kid with the ear that looks like a smooching pair of lips wanted to know was, say it with me, HOW MANY LICKS DOES IT TAKE?! I mean, it's a darn good question! So who does he turn to for the answer? An owl wearing glasses and a graduation cap (which is how you know he's smart, duh), that's whoooo. And that jerk face eats his Tootsie Pop! Which was pretty much the last Tootsie Pop ever consumed after the invention of Blow Pops. I knew I just couldn't have that mean-a## owl on my sweater.

The Ever-Informative Trip Advisor Owl. So I began to draw my own owlish version knowing what I didn't want my owl to resemble. Unfortunately, without my even thinking about it, I ended up creating pretty much the Trip Advisor Owl. For which I'm totally expecting royalties. Yo, T.A.O., why you no text me back for my addy? I need to pay off these interweb-shopping-bender bills!

Once I had my drawing created, I cut out just the eye shape and pinned it to my sweater. Then I went with a similar method that I used when creating this cat sweater: I needle felt outlined my drawing in 100% wool yarn and proceeded to fill it in coloring book style. For an intro into the wild world of felting, go here.

So after the first go-round of felting, my sweater looked like this: The Hooters Owl chocking on a yellow-haired troll doll. Not the look I was going for.

The next day, I got up and altered the eyes a bit, added the "horns" and beak and was feeling a little better. Until I suddenly noticed the strong resemblance to the Trip Advisor Owl.

To add the bow-tie, cuz this wise owl was gonna have a tie, not some stupid graduation cap and glasses like ole Tootsie Pop, I decided to go with a stencil method. I laid the paper where I wanted the tie to go...

Laid the felt on top and commenced punching with my felting needle...

Which looked a little like this when I was finished.

The wings were created with the same outline-and-fill-in method.

And, to give a little shout-out to the Hooters Owl, I added feathers to the chest which I like to refer to as the owl's many boobies. Because that's what they are. Bill Nye told me.

And there you have it! An owl-tastic DIY that will leave your friends asking "Whooooo made that sweater?!" and "Wow, you're so talented, I just wanna hooot and h-OWL!" That is if you're friends are the really annoying pun-tastic kind. Which, if that's the case, I think it's time to look for new friends. Until next time (which will be soon as I have a million Halloweenie DIY's to share! And by a million, I mean three so brace yo'self), keep your Tootsie Pops away from a-hole owls!

 

 

 

 

What the Art Teachers Wore #80

Forgot-to-Take-a-Picture-on-Monday-So-Here's-Tuesday: In celebration of the best holiday of the year, I've decided to wear Halloweenie-themed outfits until the big day. Here's hoping I can find enough spooky looks to last me! dress: picked up in Burbank at the super friendly Audrey K Boutique, tights: Target; shoes: Clarks

This was Rebecca's last week student teaching and, as they say, all good things must come to an end. Which totally sucks and I hate it! This means I have to go to school tomorrow BY MYSELF! And teach those kids ON MY OWN! Just me and the kids and no Ms. Tenpenny. I don't know who to feel sorry for, the kids or myself. Humph. 

In this outfit post, I've included just a smidgen of the awesome projects Rebecca taught. She's an incredible teacher and is totally gonna kill it at her next student teaching placement (high school art students, shivers). I'm so going to miss her sense of humor, style and just plain awesomeness. And I know I'm not the only one. In fact, when we told the kids on Friday, they let out a long-winded "Awwwwww!!" During a first grade class, one little girl raised her hand and this happened: 

Little Girl: Mrs. Stephens, I know why you want Ms. Tenpenny to stay.

Me: Oh yeah? Why's that?

L.G.: So you can eat and drink all you want in the back of the room!

Busted! That's truly the real reason.

All kidding aside, we'll miss you at JES, Rebecca! Best wishes in High School Land!

That sign ain't lyin', she IS unique! I mean, she's wearing polka dotted socks, a striped shirt and a floral skirt all in one awesome ensemble!

Rebecca dreamed up this project and did all that disgusting math stuff to figure out the dimension of each class' soup can.

You can read all about this fun mural project here.

Wicked Wednesday: This was the very first Halloween dress I created last year (and you can read all about it here, cuz you know you wanna). The kids kept remarking, "Your dress is creeeeepy" to which I replied "So is your face!". Not really. Well...maybe once. Or thrice. dress: DIY, here; tights: TJMaxx; jacket: Modcloth, old; shoes: Sofft

Rebecca scaled that air conditioning unit to hang each and every one of those coffee filters for our big ole The Dot display. These lovelies in the window was a huge hit.

Details of The Dot project here.

Like An Overgrown Lalaloopsy Thursday: Don't ask me what I was thinking. It's like I walked in my closet and said, "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, BEETLEJUICE!" and this happened. dress: Betsy Johnson, picked up at Buffalo Exchange; headband: gift from a friend; necklace: DIY, here, tights: dunno; boots: etsy

Oh my gerd, I think this is my fave Rebecca outfit of all time. Those tights! That necklace! Those booties! Don't tell her, but I totally went all Single White Female and rushed out to where she scored those boots and picked up a pair of my own. They're Lucky Brand and I scooped 'em up at Marshall's.

This necklace, gah. I LOVE it. Rebecca has a couple pieces by this jewelry designer friend of hers (who also designs for Anthro, if you can imagine!). You can check out KariBeth Thompson's incredible pieces here.

Having spent part of her summer in Norway (what?! Soooo jelly), Rebecca created an awesome Viking unit for the kids. To introduce all things Norwegian and Viking-esque, we donned these sweet, albeit super toasty with that fur-lined brim, hats. My fave incident, aside from us randomly horn-whacking the kids, was when Rebecca asked the kids what we were supposed to be and one shouted, "COWS!" Priceless.

Full story of these collages here.

Last Day of Student Teaching Friday, noooooo!: An art-teacher-best-bud gifted me this screaming chicken and it's become one of the random sources of hilarity for Rebecca and I. I don't know why I felt compelled for it to be in our final photo, but here 'tis! owl dress: DIY, here; blouse: gift; shoes: Fluevog

In the Art Room: A Unit on Line for Kindergarten

Completed kindergarten masterpieces. That's right, I said kindergarten. The under-6 set is knockin' it outta the park, er, art room so far this year and I couldn't be more thrilled.

What I'm about to present to you right here is one Big Fat Hairy kindergarten unit on line. And color. Oh, and shape, sculpture and good craftsmanship, i.e. how-not-to-drive-the-art-teacher-crazy(-er)-by-not-grinding-your-paintbrush-into-the-paper. Because she no like-y. And, in my art room, keeping me sane-ish is at the top of my Learning Targets. Which is way harder than you could ever imagine. Just ask the kids.

Do you recall those wild and wacky paintings created on the first days of school in this post? Those large paintings have come in very handy as backdrops for our displays as you can see here.

Without getting into all of that, let's chat about the aforementioned Line Unit, shall we? I'm not gonna lie, I do this same ole project with kindergarten at the beginning of every year. Which is unusual for me because with all the other grade levels, I love to change things up. Not so with kinder'town for a coupla reasons: A. they love it; B. it covers a whole batch o' skills/techniques/vocabulary/routines and C. let's be honest, coming up with projects that the little ones can master is not my forte. So when I find something that works, I stick with it.

So on our very first day of art, after introducing ourselves to one another and an abbreviated discussion of rules and consequences (because, after all, these kids are five. They still have baby fluff, suck their thumbs and wet their pants routinely. Rules and consequences mean nada. A wicked stare and a "we don't do that in kindergarten" usually does the trick), I like to dive head first into the art-making swimmin' hole. Which means we create our very first sculpture.

Now if you're an old warhorse at this art teacher game, this lesson is nothing new to you. You might wanna skip on down to the bottom where I discuss such things as pinwheel portrait painting and bottomless basket weaving (don't worry newbies, they'll be gone a while. I don't even know what that stuff is!). For the rest of ya, lemme tell you how I go about teaching this line sculpture lesson: 

• First of all, we have a little chat about the difference between flat two-dimensional artwork and sculptures. After looking at some images of sculptures, we chat about the ones we are familiar with (ole Lady Liberty almost always comes up) and discuss how a sculpture is something we can see (rotating body at waist for emphasis) all...the way...around.
• I then tell 'em that we are going to create a sculpture with a bunch of straight lines (strips of paper cut 1" X 9" but sizes can vary). I ask them how to make a flat piece of paper pop out of their sculpture base (aka the bottom paper) to which they usually answer "glue!" It's at this point that I tell 'em that if they want their sculpture to stand, just like us, it must have feet.
• I demonstrate creating a small fold at the ends of the strip of paper thus creating feet. It's there that glue is applied (to which the strip of paper always responds, "oohh, that tickles my feet! Ohhh, that glue is soo cold!" Yes, the paper talks to us. It's kindergarten, people. They eat this stuff up). Once the glue is applied, I show the kids how to hold the paper in place on the base for about 10 seconds. 
• From there, I demonstrate adding more paper strips to the sculpture base on top, below, behind or beside the first strip. Then I turn the kids loose on their on sculptures. 
• The following art class, I introduce more lines. I demonstrate folding a zigzag line, wrapping a strip of paper around my pencil to create a spiral and creating a loop de loop. 
• I also chat about how lines create shapes and demonstrate creating a circle by gluing one end of the strip to the other. With that circle, so many other shapes can be created with a pinch. Pinch the circle once and you have a teardrop! Pinch it again and you have an ellipse! One more time, it's a triangle! Anther pinch and you have a square.
• From there, the kids go nuts on their sculptures creating lines, shapes and whatever else they can dream up.

Here! Lemme walk you through it.

On the third day of art class, I get real serious about the whole line thing. We look at each of these snake-y lines on the poster I created way back in first-year-art-teacher-land and then locate them on works of art. Any ole Kandinsky works great for this. It's at this point I introduce to the kids a lil poem I wrote some years ago about a snake named Larry that can morph his body into any line he likes. It goes a lil sumpin like this (complete with hand motions, you better believe it!):

Larry the Line

Is a friend of mine

(creating a snake by opening the fingers of your hand, puppet style and there's your snake!)

He can make three

(hold up a three with your fingers)

Straight lines for me!

Ver-tickle

(create a vertical line with your forearm)

Diagonal and horizontal!

(pantomime each)

Any curve, he can learn

With a twist and a turn.

When he's out of his tangle

he makes a great...angle.

(created by placing your hand on your hip and pointing to your elbow)

Any line, he can make

After all, he's a snake!

After learning the Larry the Line poem, I bust out this huge cheesey carnival snake I got years ago that happens to have a little rattle in his tail. I convince the kids that he's real (they're kindergarten so they totally buy it) and maneuver him around to create a variety of lines. If the kids guess the name of the line correctly, I let them "rattle" Larry's tail. They eat it up and learn the names of lines to boot.

After that, I give a little demo on painting. If you've read this blog for five minutes, you know that when painting, I liken the bristles of the paint brush to a ballerina: It always dances on it's toes, it never scoots around on it's bottom. After I demonstrate painting each of Larry's lines, the kids go to their seats and we do a little guided painting. Meaning, I paint and they follow along.

This school year, I have my kindergarten for 45 minutes every six days (which is different than my usual 30 minute classes, twice every six days...confused yet? That makes two of us). That slightly longer block of time makes a world of a difference in that we can accomplish so much! On the fourth day of this unit, we examine Kandinsky again and this time chat about how influenced he was by music. The kids were told that they were going to be painting a nonobjective picture of lines while listening to Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev. If you're not familiar, this piece of music introduces each character of Peter and the Wolf with a different instrument. Each character really comes to life with the music and makes for great line paintings.

On that day, the children were only given black paint. As they painted to the music, you could see them trying to capture each character in line. Once a painting was finished, I'd take it from them and hand them a new sheet of white paper. By the end of art class, each child had painted about three black and white line pictures.

The following art class, I introduced the kids to tempra cakes which you can see best a coupla photos ago. My focus was on using the art materials properly and exploration of color. I wrote about this particular painting lesson pretty extensively last year in this blog post. In that lesson, we didn't paint to music and we focused some on pattern in a follow up lesson.

Here's a collection of their finished pieces. I love how wild, bright and unique each one is, just like the artists themselves.

On the sixth and final day of this unit, the kids were introduced to Roy G. Biv and watercolor paint. Since the last lesson had just been about exploring with color and proper use of painting supplies, I really wanted to focus on the order of the colors in the rainbow. My hat helped them remember the order (even if it is missing the "B" in Roy G. Biv) as did the large rainbow I have mounted on my easel. And in case you're dying to get a rainbow hat of your own, mine is from amazon. Yes, really.

Have you read this book? I picked it up years ago at the thrift store and it's pretty cute. As you turn each page, an additional color of ribbon is added to the ribbon rainbow in the book, hence the "Magic Ribbon Book" label at the bottom.

After that chat, I demonstrate to the children how to use watercolor paints. This is an easy transition from the tempra cakes as the cleaning-your-brush-before-getting-another-color is exactly the same. We do chat about the differences between the two mediums (you know, watercolor being more translucent) and also discuss painting in Roy G. Biv order. After that demo, the kids returned to their seats with their paintings created on that third day of art class and rainbow-ize the thing. This is the first year I've added this portion to the line unit and I love the result.

And there you have it. One Big Fat Hairy line/shape/color/RoyG.Biv/sculpture/abstract Unit for the wee ones. I know these lessons are nothing new...so I'd love to hear how you approach teaching line. Also, for the sake of space, I may have not answered all of your how-you-teach-that questions, so feel free to email me or leave a comment. I may or may not get back to you. Just sayin'.

DIY Car Crafts: An Embroidered Necklace

Many moons ago, a buddy gave me a big ole bag of junk jewelry. Most of it I crafted into Bedazzled Bobbie Pins but this oval pin/necklace blank was left untouched. When I found it while riffling through, what's known in this house as, the Hoarder Room, I decided to use it for my latest car craft.

Hubs and I are just back from a recent trip to Birmingham (that'd be Alabama, not England, fyi) where we spent time with the fam. It's a good three hour road trip, so I decided to take along an embroidery craft to pass the time. Stitching a little floral motif for this brooch blank seemed like the perfect car-aftivity (that'd be car-and-craft, Bradgelina'ized).

The benefits of having a Hoarder Room: I also had the perfect necklace for my pendant. My moms-in-law gave it to me a while back and it's a perfect fit.

But before I get into all that, I gotta tell you about a lil incident that happened during our visit. My moms-in-law was complaining of an ear ache and I was just convinced that there was a monstrous mountain of ear wax in her ear. Bee-cuz that's totally what was housed in my canals recently. Not wanting to freak her out, I gave her the low-cal version of the story. But for you, I'm presenting the Chock-Full-of-Calories, High-Fructose, Carb-Overload version. You can thank me later, gator.

What my lap looks like on our car rides. I know, the scissors, ack! Not wanting to see me impaled, hubs requests that I keep 'em in the cute lil craft cubbie that's built into the door of the passenger side.

So, I had this problem where I couldn't hear for the life of me and I had a sinking suspicion that there were alien-baby-sized balls of ear wax lodged in my ear canal. Sure enough when the doc stuck his little magnifying-glass/miniature-flash-light thingie in my ear, and I gave a meek little, "do you see anything...?", he sucked in his breath and shouted, "NURSES! Get in here, you've gotta see the size of this thing!" After each and every nurse, intern, secretary and lawn mowin' dude (who they convinced to come inside after beating on the window and making wild alien-baby-ear-wax gestures) had witnessed the freak show, I hear the doc say, "NURSES! Bring in that new instrument." Which, by the way, are words you never wanna hear.

Instead of 'splainin' my stitches to you, I thought I'd just share with you the directions from the vintage embroidery book I used.

Okay, ya'll, get ready. Because the instrument those nurses brought in was a sight to behold. Imagine, if you will, a long, slightly phallic, clear shaped instrument with lights illuminating the length of it. Now imagine the thought of said instrument penetrating, for lack of a better term, your EAR. The first words outta my mouth? 

"Is that some sort of Alien Anal Probe?!" 

Which was met with no response. 

Thinking that, perhaps, they were the ones with the wax buildup and therefore couldn't hear me, I repeated myself:

"I said, IS THAT AN ALIEN ANAL PROBE?! Please, for the love of all things, lubricate that thing!"

The last thing I remember was the doc saying, "NURSES! Hold her head!" while my poor ear canal was taken advantage off. I do remember screaming, "Ouch, you've hit brain!" a coupla times before ole doc extracted the largest wad of wax known to man. After the nurses swaddled the thing and I named it George Michael, I repeated my alien-anal-probe inquiry one more time which was met with a "please pay the secretary as you exit." 

Needless to say, I didn't tell my mom's-in-law that. She got the Disney version which ended with me being able to hear so well that I heard birds chirping in the Amazon and monkeys making monkey love in Africa. Well, okay, I didn't exactly tell her that either.

Don't have a Hoarder Room full of pendant blanks? No worries, I did a lil homework for you and found blanks a plenty on etsy. Check out this wee shop.

After a trip to the 'bama doctor, looks like my mom's-in-law was actually suffering from a lil cold not a case of ear wax'itis. Some folk get off easy, I guess. No lil ear wax George Michael baby for her.

But, really, gnarly stories of ear wax is probably not why you dropped by this here blog today...or was it? Regardless, let's get back to the DIY at hand, shall we? Once I was finished with this little piece, I cut a small piece of cardboard to size and glued the embroidery to it. That was then glued inside the pendant. Wow, did I just explain this DIY in 150 words or less? And to think you had to suffer through all that other nonsense. Sucks to be you.

Hey, you embroiderers in the house, how do you store your floss? Until yesterday, I kept mine stuffed in a jar. Which meant I had to dump out the contents each time I looked for another color. Which the cat took as an invitation to start devouring strands of floss. Which is totally bad for kitty and makes for some seriously slimy floss. Ewww. Wait, where was I going with this? Oh yes, storage. When I came across this old spice rack at the thrift store, I thought it'd solve my problems. Well, one of 'em anyway. I painted the top of the rack black before hanging it (it was a little gnarly looking) and it's found a home on my sewing room wall.

Which looks a little like this. I've recently decluttered the crap outta this room (which you'd never know with one glance at the reflection in that mirror!) and thought I'd perhaps give you a little tour in the future...assuming you'd be interested. Well, would ya? I'll show you where I keep my jar of ear wax! If you ask nicely.

Wow. I just called this a DIY post and hardly spoke of said DIY. Eh, you get the idea. You don't really come here for the education. I'm not sure why you come here (and I'm guessing you aren't either) but I do appreciate you stopping by! Now, go get those ears checked! And, if you're so inclined, you can check out more of my embroidery madness here, here, here, here, and here.