DIY: Paint Palette and Crayon Hair Clips Giveaway Closed

What do you do when you need a present for an art teacherin' buddy? One who is just as adventurous in her crazy art teacher ensembles as you? Make her a couple wild and crazy hair clippies, of course!

If you've been around this blog for a hot minute then you know I have a thing for wearing a wee palette in my hair. It's kinda become my signature look. So much so that when the kids draw pictures of me I'm usually only recognizable by that lil palette in my 'do. Strangely enough, even tho I made my palette clip, I never did a proper DIY blog post about it. While making this clip for a friend (and one for YOU, dear readerz...deets in a minute), I decided to lay out the steps so you could make one of your own!

Because I was making two, one for my buddy and one for a winner of this here giveaway (okay, if you just can't wait, deets at the bottom of this here post), I simply folded the felt in half, drew a palette shape, pinned and cut them out. 

 Oh, look. A photo of the pinning stage. Fascinating.

I did add a bit of interfacing in-between the two layers of felt to give it a little bit more body. Nobody likes a floppy palette, know what I'm saying? 

 From there, I cut out "paint" shapes and used Witch Stitchery to hold them in place. If you aren't familiar with the magic that is The Witch then, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! Yes, I'm shouting. And you will be to once you discover the amazement of this hold-in-place-without-pinning magicness. 

Okay. When it comes to stitching, you don't need a fancy machine to impress your friends with your mad stitchin' skillz. What you do need to do is set your machine to the zigzag stitch, change the width of the stitch so it is medium width for the smaller shapes (for zample, the paint blobbies and the palette hole opening) and the widest stitch for the outer edges of the palette. 

The needle will hop back and fourth on either side of the paint blob. It's hard to turn those round shapes but don't you worry your pretty little head about perfection. It is a paint blob, after all.

For the outer edges, set your machine to it's widest stitch. This time, when you sew, allow the needle to go to the very edge of the shape and back in. This may feel odd but this will seal in the edge. 

AND done! Time to add the brush and clip. I done told you perfection was overrated. The paint brush and your massive 'do will hide any mishaps. 

I used hot glue to adhere the paint brushes to the back of the palette. 

As well as an alligator clip. Now time to stick it in that top knot!

But wait, why stop there? Let's make a Box O' Crayons clip too!

Also, would you please take a moment to appreciate that sweater of mine? Because, let's face it. It looks like crayon worms are crawling all over me. And what could be more creepy/bizarre/fantastical than that?

 Alrightie, so, kinda repeat of the palette. Folded fabric, trace, cut out, cut out a piece of interfacing, you get the idea. 

 So that I'd have my designs placed correctly, I cut out my template and traced the places I knew I'd want to stitch certain lines. 

Does it look like that box of crayons is wearing a diaper or is it just me?

 Oh, my. Somebody is definitely bikini ready. 

 Crayons cut...

 And tacked into place with Witch Stitchery. 

 And the sewing commenced. 

Without the tight curves of the palette, sewing the boxes of crayons was a lot easier. 

I did add a small stitch around the tops of the crayons just to add more of a design and further adhere them. Clips were hot glued to the back at a diagonal. 

And viola! Certifiable Crazy Art Teacher Hair Clippie! Let's talk about how you can get your hands on One Palette Hair Clip:

1. Leave a comment about your fave gift you ever created for a friend or loved one. DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS so I can let you know if you are the lucky winner!

2. If you are on Instagram and don't currently follow moi, I'd love it if you would!

That's it! Looking forward to hearing from you and sending the lucky winner their new head ornament. 

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!

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!