DIY: Intro to Wet Felting!

 During our Intro to Wet Felting session, we learned how to do a little ziplock baggie felting. This one was created by artteacher. Once the wet felted piece dried, she cut it into a heart. I love her colors!

In case you missed the wet felting fun last Wednesday night over here, it is archived both on my Facebook page and on my YouTube channel. We had a whole lotta wet and sudsy fun all the while creating a wet felted piece, felted beads, a felted container and buttons! We managed to pack in a lot...an hour just isn't long enough. But I do love that those participating keep on creating long after we say goodnight. In case you missed it, here is our Wednesday night session:

Of course, it's never too late to join the fun. Sue told me that orders for felting kits are still rolling in which has me so happy! Here's a link to where you can purchase, if you are interested. Again, all previous craft nights are archived both here (subscribe!) and here (follow!). 

And don't forget that we'll be continuing this crafting fun in May with Clay! 

Supplies for that workshop can be picked up here. You can still join the fun without the supplies, of course. 

Now, on to everyone's fiber creations! 

 Don't you love this needle felted Friday by the_doodle_birds? It would make a great pin or even an image on the back of a sweater! LOVE the flowers.

 Look how productive echopaitsel was that night? Love the beads. I think everyone's take-away that night was that wet felting is pretty labor intensive!

 How sweet is this colorful needle felted number by mrsdow_artroom? 

 Can you even believe this? It's so beautiful, I think it needs framing. You should be proud, parkesphoto!

 So, um, I just might have to track down mmmelllodyyy, raid her closet and steal this sweater. I am IN LOVE! 

 Last week, visualpraisestudio covered a hat in needle felted birds...and this week, she's covered even more. I love the talent in our craft night group!

 There is a definite learning curve when it comes to wet felting. Work to fast, and the fibers felt at different speeds and might result in something unexpected (read: not what you'd hoped for). Working slowly is the best bet. That being said, never ever just throw away your felted creations. They can always be recreated into something far more interesting than you'd ever imagined. I love these earrings by alison.m.klein!

 I love that the fam is getting in on the felting action! Check out this sweet cat being needle felted by kmmckinney's daughter. 

 Artroomblog has taken to needle felting...and entire coat! I know how taxing that is, kudos to you, Lee!

Jtheen is a week ahead of us, she's already started creating needle felted sculptures! How fun is this sweet and colorful bird?

 Me being a sucker for bright colors, y'all know I love this dog by mrsdow_artroom! I see an art project based on this one, don't you?

 This Bob Ross by the_doodle_birds made me so happy when I saw it. Adorable!

 This masterpiece looks like it should be in a gallery. I can see mommaplouff creating a whole series of these beauties, don't you?

 Another stunner by parkesphoto. I love the three dimensional look of this piece.

 Check out these artist-inspired pieces created by Jan Marie...can you guess the inspo behind each one? 

 If you didn't believe that we got a lotta work done on Wednesday, Ashley Bruce has done a bang up job breaking it down for you! 

 Gemma has something so beautiful here. I love the organic nature of her piece. 

 When jtheen shared this needle felted cat, I was super stoked since it looks so much like my cat Asha. In other news, there is a book called Crafting with Cat Hair that my mama picked up for me. My cat leaves behind a lotta hair...but I don't know how I feel creating with it!

 I want this on the back of a super hero cape! Love this, the_doodle_birds!

Everything about these needle felted numbers by mommaplouff make me so happy. All done with a single needle too!

 Amandakaiser211 needle felted this adorable French bulldog. I am loving the color choices.

 Tell me this isn't the baddest thing you've ever seen? Meganhallenbwck this is the best!

 My buddy Earl Delong snapped step by step photos of his street-art inspired design. I know his students are gonna love this!

 Check out this busy bee! Sarah Shumaker, you are killin it! 

 And this by Ms. Schmidt cracked me up! I mean, what else do you do with a wet felted piece besides make it into a crazy hair day portrait? I think students would LOVE this idea!

As you can see, we are having a whole lot of fun on this felting adventure of ours. Thank you so much to all of you who have been joining the fun! Remember, you can still join in anytime. If you'd like me to share your work here, just remember to use #creatingwithcassie. Have fun stabbing stuff!

Chalked Folk Art Fish

Need a happy and colorful project for your kiddos that reviews the elements of art, introduces the artist Sandra Silberzweig and allows them to explore the messy and fun medium of chalk? Well have I got a project for you! Here's the lesson video...

Please forgive the quality. I filmed this video at school using my iPad (I normally use my camera) and the iMovie app. I really love filming short clips this way as it's lightning fast! However, when I watched the video back on my laptop, I noticed the quality was not what I had hoped. 

I get asked often about making a video for the art room. I created this video last year at about this time when I was just starting to get my feet wet with filming. I use almost all of these techniques still so if you are interested in creating filmed content for your kids, you might find this helpful!

Back to the lesson: I'm doing this project with my second grade kiddos. This will probably be the last project for the year as they still have a couple of their clay projects, hot outta the kiln, to paint. We are going with a Pet Shop theme and my students created these birds:

They have all come out of the kiln so cute! I purchased some florescent paint, feathers, beads and wire for us to embellish them. I noticed on the bottle of paint I purchased that it says it works in black light...so now I'm on the hunt for a black light for the art show. How fun would that be?

 All that to say, since we are going with a Pet Shop theme, any final projects created will feature animals or fish! My students are using 12" X 18" paper (I used half that in the video) because I wanted big, bold and colorful art. On the first day, we traced the template and did the glue drawing, all in 30 minutes. 

I am going to rethink my black glue recipe for next year. I use tempera paint and Elmer's Glue All...but I think the paint is too thick as the bottles sometimes get clogged. Next year, I'm going to try using India ink as my buddy Ginger uses. That being said, I do kind of like the variety of thick and think lines that the glue produces. 

Y'all know I've caught the Black Glue Bug this year. Check out what third grade created: 

And fourth grade: 

 What I love about chalk work is how vibrant it is. 

We have a couple more days of work left on these lovelies so I'll keep you posted on what happens next. Until then, enjoy your long weekend!

Exciting News: Free Clay Workshop!

I have got to be honest with y'all: I am LOVING our Wednesday night craft nights! If you aren't familiar, I've been hosting a free felting workshop over on my Facebook page each Wednesday at 8pm CST during the month of April (in fact, if you are joining in the fun tomorrow night, I'll have a list of supplies needed below). You are ALWAYS welcome to join, even if you do not have the felting kit. That was simply created with the help of Sue at Back to Back Fiber. And, if you decide you do want to join, you can still pick up your kit from Sue. All of my LIVE chats are archived both on my Facebook page and on my YouTube channel. Remember: I would LOVE to share what you create right here. Just use the hashtag #creatingwithcassie when you share your work on your preferred social media outlet. 

So now on to the exciting news: I'm going to continue the craft night fun with Clay in the month of May! I've partnered up with Activa Products to create a kit just for you and our creative evenings. Here's what your kit will include:

 A 1lbs. box of Celluclay, a 1lbs. box of ActivClay and 4" X 180" of Rigid Wrap which can all be purchased here. Knowing that we art teachers love a bargain, Activa is offering us a very special rate. I want to throw a big shout out to them for working with me! I know I've shared this before...I am not making a profit from these craft nights. I am doing them simply because I find creating, teaching and spending time with y'all so much fun. Thank you for joining me on this adventure. Remember, you do not have to make a purchase to participate in this free Clay in the month of May workshop. These are simply the supplies I will be using if you want to create along with me. You might have heard me mention both Celluclay and Rigid Wrap before. Here's a peak at some projects I've done with both materials:

This was my first experience with Celluclay and I was HOOKED after creating these vintage-inspired treat buckets!

Maybe too many episodes of Walking Dead was the inspo behind my Zombie Head Planters. 

Obviously, I'm a fan of the Halloween. This Book of Spells was big fun! 

I also introduced my second graders to Celluclay with this project. 

I shared Rigid Wrap with my fourth graders when they created these Candy Heart Sculptures. 

This is the perfect opportunity for you to explore new sculpture materials before introducing them to your students. If you are without a kiln, these materials are just the thing as they don't require kiln fire. I became very familiar with Activa Products when writing this here clay book of mine! 

My book is currently available for preorder here and slated to come out early June (I previously said mid-May but that release date has changed). In this book, I work with a variety of air dry, polymer and handmade clays. Once you are done with our 5 Wednesdays of clay exploration, you'll be ready to dive into this book and bring the fun to your art room next fall. 

As for this Wednesday, we'll be Wet Felting. So bring a zip lock bag (whatever size you have handy), a bowl of warm water, a bar or pump soap and scissors. Can't wait to create with you!

In the Art Room: Stitched Monsters, Update!

Now that Clay Week(s) has come to an end, it's back to business as usual in the art room. In order for all of my kids to work with clay at once, I have the kids "push the pause button" on whatever we are currently working on. That means, after clay week, we un-pause and resume what we left behind. For fourth grade, that meant our Stitched Monsters! Here is the lesson video I created for this project. Feel free to use in your art teacherin' town!

Out of all the projects we have done this year, my kids have ranked this one very close to the top. Clay was a first place winner, of course, but it was a tight race. Many of my students have started sewing at home, bringing in their pillows, monsters and other creations. I remember when I was first introduced to hand sewing as a kid. It felt like a whole new world of creating was opened up to me. I think the kids are feeling the same. 

 I really liked having the kids use Smart Fab for the body as this made it easy for them to see thru and insure they were "capturing" the arms and the legs of the monster as they stitched. Once the stitching was complete and the monster was flipped to the correct side, if they noticed that part of their arm or leg was not securely attached, the kids had to go back and restitch. This really taught them the importance of good, even stitches. 

Once flipped, the kids had to complete a sketch of their monster. This sheet asked them questions about their monsters to really get their creative juices flowing. Once the sketch was done, they were to slide a card into their monster, cut the shapes of the face and glue them down with tacky glue. The card inside made it so the monster would not be glued together. 

Not until the kids started stuffing their monsters did they really seem to understand that they were creating a stuffie. One told me he was going to go home, make a bunch and sell them. Right on, dude! I had many requests to take them home today...but I need them for the art show! Give me a month, y'all.

Have y'all done stuffed monsters with your kids? I know there are may ways to go about making them. 

 Earlier this year, one of my sweet students gave me a small stuffed monster with a rectangular body and dangling arms and legs. That look is what I based this pattern on. 

Learning to sew monsters this way taught my students how to properly pin, stitch and create a monster. I definitely think this is a lesson worth repeating! 

Love to hear about your students stitchery projects!