Art Teacherin' 101: The Anatomy of a Paintbrush!

I know that somewhere, out there, there's an art teacher putting off their art supply order because they just don't know where to start. I mean, just look at the paintbrush section, for example! There you'll find page after page of paintbrushes ranging in a variety of sizes and shapes. Where to start?! In this wee little five minute video, I'll share with you how to decide what to buy from the bristles all the way down to what the handle is made from. I hope it helps! 

Happy painting!

DIY Earrings! Learn to Embroidery and Make Pompom Earrings!

For the longest, I never wore earrings. My ears have been pierced since I was a kid but...my poor little earlobes have always been high maintenance. If the metal of the post isn't just right, my ears itch and throb. If the earring is even just the slightest bit heavy, my ears start complaining and driving my left eye to twitch. It was all too much! But a couple of years ago, that changed when I spotted a pair of earrings that just sent me spiraling outta control. These days, all I can say is: I like big earrings...and I cannot lie.

But with big earrings, comes big wait. And, y'all, I just cannot. I tried making my own earrings out of wooden beads and polymer clay but, man, they were so heavy! Not too long ago, on a road trip, I stitched up a couple of rainbow earrings and they were perfect! Not heavy at all, nice and big like I like 'em and, best of all, I can walk around and say "THANKS! I MADE THEM!" to anyone who asks (and even if they don't). 

Since, I've gotten some questions on social media just how I made them and if I'd make a tutorial. So! Here you are! I've created two earring tutorials just for you...one on these rainbows and the other on pompoms. More to come as I'm currently on an earring makin' bender, so stay tuned. Until then, gather up your supplies and get to stitchin'! 

And get to pompomin'! Have fun!

Christmas Crafts for the Holidays!

Recently, I posted my favorite winter lessons for my students (you can find it here!) Today I thought I'd share my fave Christmas crafts for we adults! These are projects I've done with my friends in years past when I hosted Christmas craft nights. One of my favorite things to do during the holidays...that I've just not been able to do this year. But that doesn't mean we still can't create! You might even want to schedule a Zoom craft night with friends to give these a whirl. So here we go...my favorite Christmas crafts!

Check out these cuties! These were made with old paint brushes, polymer clay, paint, yarn and whatever else I had on hand. You can find a video and learn more right here!

A handful of years ago, we created Putz Houses! If you aren't familiar, these little houses were created in the 1950's and used to decorate trees. There's a hole in the back where you can slide them onto tree lights and the houses then light up! You can see all the step by step details in this blog post. 

These are highly addictive to make!

And all together, they create a sweet village!

Is there anything more festive than an art supply decorated wreath? I say no! You can see a video on how I created these paint tubes FROM TOILET PAPER TUBES here! I also did this craft with my students and they loved it. Check it out here. 

You won't believe how EASY this one is!

My all time favorite craft is needle-felting. Creating wee needle felted ornaments with small embroidery hoops was a fun and easy craft. Some of us even added some embroidery to our designs. Details here. 

To decorate my art room rainbow tree, I used palettes that I just painted as well as old paint brushes and cardboard tube crayons I created! Check it out here. 

Crayon tube sculpture details here, with video! 

This majestic thing of beauty actually stays up all year in my art room and is from Treetopia.

For our most recent craft night, we created these! So simple to make. We created them with cardboard cones left over from yarn, yarn bombed them and added details. I'm thinking I may have to create a how-to video of this and the pompoms this week so stay tuned.

Happy Christmas Crafting, y'all!

How to Draw Winter Pups and Kittens!

Hey there, friends! I recently had to take some time off from school putting me out of my classroom for three weeks. I'm fine, everything's fine (and no, I didn't have covid) but coming back...that didn't feel fine. Projects that we'd left hanging for the last three weeks didn't seem the best place to pick up where we left off. So I decided to give my youngest artists and myself a break from those projects and start something new. These little cats and dogs inspired by artist, author and illustrator Angie Rozelaar seemed like the perfect thing. Above is what my first graders created in 30 minutes. I got a lot of questions on this over on my IG so I decided to create a video. Here you go:

Feel free to use in your teaching world! All I ask is that credit be given when asked. I always share lessons and resources FOR FREE...my only "payment" required is that my lessons not be sold on TPT (it happens ALL THE TIME) and that credit be given. Please and thank you!

Just for a little variety, I decided to have my second graders draw pups instead of kittens. This tutorial can also be found in the video. Have fun, y'all! And here's to making it through this last week and a half before break!

Favorite Winter Art Lessons!

It's December 1st! Which means it's time to embark on all sorts of fun, colorful and winter-y art projects around here! Today I'm sharing with you some winter-y greatest hits lessons that I've done over the years. Be sure and click on the link to each as many of these lessons have instructional videos...all free, of course! 

Let's kick things off with these black glue outlined stained-glass inspired trees my fourth graders created a couple years ago. If you need a review on line and color with an introduction into the world of stained glass, than this lesson is for you and your kiddos!

Nothing says cozy like a delicious cup of hot cocoa! My second graders created these collage paintings inspired by the artist Heather Galler. This is a lesson I did last year with my kindergarten and they used Model Magic to create marshmallows! You can find this lesson right here. 

A HUGE hit with students and fellow art teachers alike is this project inspired by the artist Jen Aranyi. Check out the video and share in your art room! 

Printmaking and portraits make for a fun collage project in this lesson I've done with first and second grade! You can check out the details here. 

These kindergarten snowmen are the cutest! And they had a blast creating them. All the details (and a video!) can be found here. 

And if you think those snowmen are cute, check out these penguins! First grade created these and they are so adorable! Another video lesson for y'all!

My fourth graders loved creating these snow globe cities. Read all about it and check out the video here. 

One thing I've really missed this year is having my students work closely together on projects like murals. We have been making it work tho! We recently created a massive school mural (oh, y'all, I cannot wait to share here!) and with some outside-the-box thinking and spreading WAY out, we have made it work. You can check out details on creating a winter mural here. 

If you are looking to add a little fiber arts to your art class this winter, you might want to try on these printed and stitched snowflakes on for size! 

Kindergarten snowy landscape collages are always a hit and cover so many lessons in painting, cutting and gluing! More here and here! 

Check out these snowflake reliefs! Always a fun one, details here. 

Need a bunch of lessons that are a little on the shorter side? Well then look no further as this blog post has plenty!

Happy creating, y'all! Stay cozy!