In the Art Room: A Winter Mural Collaborative

So this story of Winter Mural Collaborativity begins with a simple request from my amazing music teacherin' friend: to create a piece for the winter program. The making of this beast involved multiple grade levels with one incident of two classes working simultaneously and another where third grade created alongside kindergarten "buddies". Confused yet? Not as much as my art teacherin' friend Jennifer's daughter was when she popped by for a visit. "I just don't understand why this is on the floor!" Girl. At well over eight yards in length, it was the only place I had for it!

But at least that meant there was plenty of room to spread out and paint!

So just how did the kids create this masterpiece of monstrous proportions? 

 Like, I mean, mammothly monstrous. 

It started when two of my second grade teacher buddies both had to be out for an hour. I offered to take their classes which they thought to be super gracious...what they didn't know was that I was gonna put their kids to work. We called it a Painting Party! The kids were to go to their usual seats but, because of lack of chairs, were told not to sit. They'd need to stand to reach the entire paper anyway! A pattern was started on their large bulletin papers by me and their goal was to finish the patterns. Once complete, I'd pull their paper off their table, ask them what color paper they'd like to tackle next and what they thought they'd like their winter-y pattern to be. After an hour, we had a dozen large painted sheets of paper. My music teacher buddy Kiera and I assembled the papers to create the landscape the day before Thanksgiving break. I even put that girl on painting duty, she outlined all of the hills! Sadly, no photos were snapped...but you can see a very similar process in this mural creation and this one! 

On our half day before break, I arranged for a kindergarten class to come at the same time as a third grade one. I did this mostly because my poor kindergarten kids have fallen a pinch behind due to scheduling. I thought it would be a fun way to catch them up. Little did I know just how much the third graders would LOVE working with their "little buddies!"

Once all of my kinder and third graders were seated, I gave them the basics on building a house. Pick out two squares, cut one into a triangle, glue as the roof. Decorate. Add details. DONE. For my third grade kids, this was a larger version of the houses they created for the Houses to Help. 

By the end of the thirty minutes, we had a stack of these colorful beauties. 

When I told the kids that class was over, the third graders seriously said, AW! and hugged their sweet little friends good-bye. It was the cutest thing ever and I can't wait to do something like that again!

 On Monday of this week, back from break, I laid the mural out and had some second graders go to town painting some trees. It was a fun review of value (dif greens), shape (of the trees), texture (of the branches) and space (painting different sizes of trees). AND collaboration!

Did I mention we played the music program songs the entire time? We got our practicin' in, y'all!

 Love them trees!

NOT TO MENTION, the program was fabulous! Special thanks to Kiera for the awesome program (and mad painting skillz), my P.E. teacherin' buddies for helping me hang that masterpiece...and the young artists that made it all possible! 

In the Art Room: Winter Mixed Media Masterpieces!

Brace yourselves, y'all. Wintertime is here and it's been non-stop winter-y projects up in my art room. Which can only mean one thingie: this here blog is about to be all sorts of frosty, freezy and fun projects galore! So many, in fact, that I'll be posting a couple each week so be sure to pop back by. The good news is these projects are Winter-y not holiday-y (my school is a melting pot so just focusing on one holiday isn't fair to all) so that means you can create these masterpieces until the snow melts and the flowers bloom! 

This was a quick and simple project that one of my second grade classes knocked out. They somehow managed to be ahead of the rest of my classes (doncha love when that happens) and I needed a lesson that would reinforce what we've been learning, introduce a coupla new techniques and only take the kids two thirty-minute classes. I created a couple of videos for you to either show in your art room or simply view on your own and share in your own art teacherin' way. I hope you find them helpful! You can always subscribe to my youtube channel for more videos like this one. 

For this project, our first order of biznatch was creating th background. The kids had previously worked with watercolor and splatter technique so they are pretty much pros at this point. 

In this video, you can see how I walked them thru creating with oil pastels, thinking about what makes an interesting composition, using the elements of art and both oil resist and wet-on-wet techniques. 

After our chat which I try to keep super short, the kids had just enough time to bust out the likes of these bad boys. 

I am learning that not all oil pastels are created equally. I've not ordered new ones this year (we are currently down to the numbs) but I'm learning toward ordering more Gallery brand pastels. I especially love the fluorescent ones, they are just so bright! 

Once complete, these are placed on the drying rack until the following thirty minute class. 

During the following class, the kids use white scratch paper to draw their birds. The kids are getting older now and no longer need me to direct them in drawing. However, some do like me to walk them through how to "read" the how-to-draw books which usually just entails a couple of reminders to break the objects down into lines and shapes. I also tell the kids that if they are feeling stuck or frustrated, to practice on a dry erase board until they feel they are comfortable enough to tackle their paper. 

I found a variety of how-to-draw birds and cardinal online and made several copies for the kids to get ideas from. As an artist, I always like to have a reference and I know many of my students do as well. I leave 'em as an option for the kids. 

Once the birds are drawn, the kids cut them out and commence gluing them in place. 

Because we created these right before heading in to Thanksgiving break, we worked hard to complete these in those two short art classes. Usually our projects take a bit longer...so this was a fun and fast alternative. 

Once complete, the kids use a Sharpie to sign their name so they can be hung in the hall for all to enjoy and for the artist to be recognized. There's just something so sweet about seeing a child's handwriting on their art. I always emphasis neat handwriting and placement. Artists always sign at either the top or the bottom...NOT THE MIDDLE (because, ya know, it's happened).

Once complete, we pop each one of these up on the T.V. via the document camera. We always cheer for the artist and pay them a compliment for their hard work. I love seeing the kids beam when we do this, it truly makes the "job" of teaching art worth while, y'all!

DIY: Let's Do This Our Way, Christmas!

I admit: I have been bitten by the Christmas Bug hard, y'all! I have a Hallmark-movie-loving/kindergarten-teachin' buddy at school to thank for that. She's been chatting way about All Thangies Christmas since, like, Halloween. In fact, I think it was Labor Day she told me her decorating was complete. At first I was all, girl you crazy but then I drank the Christmas Kool Aide (which tastes like peppermint, by the way) and have actually been garland-ing up Casa de Cassie every since. Thanks, Heather! I'll blame you when I'm sick of Christmas by December 1st!

Since my house is all sorts of Sparkly Christmas-land, I thought I'd jazz up el bloggo as well. AND share with y'all my fave DIY's of Christmas past. What better DIY to start with than Christmas Dresses, my personal fave. I created that Christmas dress on the left last year on Christmas eve, y'all! Talking about cutting it close. And that lovely candy cane number was cut from the same pattern with just a wee touch of Santa fur for trim. 

These two Christmas dresses were among some of the first I made. My Blue Christmas dress has blue lights sewn in the hem with a remote in the pocket. It's always a kid-favorite. And one year we created German-style cuckoo clocks and I just couldn't stand not making a dress from that clock fabric when I found it!

Of course, y'all know my Christmas wardrobe wouldn't be complete if I wasn't cutting up every tree skirt and creating a Christmas-Tree-Skirt-to-Lady-Skirt like that fuzzy number above! 

Of course, I know I should hold vintage tree skirts sacred...but look how crazy fun they are as skirts! I love circle skirts and these are easily my favorites to wear. Follow this link to see just how creepy that Santa is on the skirt on the left. The skirt on the right is the first tree skirt I transformed. Like, it can be done in under 60 minutes, It's so easy to do it's no wonder I'm addicted! 

And then, you know, when one runs out of tree skirts, round table clothes can come in just as handy. This one was a buck or three at the thrift store last year. A lil garland was added at the bottom because otherwise that dress wouldn't have been nearly tacky enough for me to wear. 

And one's feet simply should be Santa-fied, says me. 

Tacky Christmas Sweaters are always a must...but why stop at just a tacky sweater, says me. I needle felted this lil guy over Thanksgiving a coupla years ago. 

This photo is actually a whole-lotta DIY in one. There's that sweater, that puffy skirt and those gold-foiled shoes. I was actually wearing this ensemble when a stranger at Starbucks snapped my photo and blasted it out to his friends making fun of me! That's the Christmas spirit, right? Don't you worry, I got him back. You can read the deets in this post. 

As a kid, Making Christmas Ornaments was my fave tradition. But, sometimes, you can just use what you have on hand it makes for a unique display. Like the time I decorated a tree with my vintage paper dolls! 

Or, last year, when I was on an alpaca kick, I busted out these guys with the help of my mother-in-law. 

I couldn't stop making them! 

My fave thing to do over the holidays is host craft nights. I love my super artistic and creative buddies! And we always have a great time creating with each other. Last year we needle felted some lovely holiday-themed pieces. I'll keep you posted what we are creating this year! 

Of course, whenever the fam visits, we always do a lil crafting. My mom-in-law is very crafty and my mom, well, she's just kinda dragged into all of the glittering and gluing by default. I put 'em to work on my holiday decor last year! 

One of my favorite things to do, other than stitch up dresses, tree skirts, make ornaments and strong arm my family into crafting, is paint from vintage Christmas images! 

This cute little wooden house was in my stash forever before I painted it to match the painting seen above. 

Of course, who doesn't love this gal? That big fluffily coat, that smart hat, green eyes and those gloves!

Y'all know I had to go and candy cane that canvas edge, right?!

And my very first painting was a copy from my favorite Christmas book. Love Ruddy! I hope y'all enjoyed this waltz down DIY's of Christmas past. I hope there'll be many many more!