DIY: A Needle Felted Emojis Dress

If you're anything like me (which, if that be the case, the funny farm is gonna be full up soon), then you find that you can do all of your communicating in emojis. They truly say it all. I even turned in my most recent lesson plan completely emoji-fied and it was more comprehensible than most. Turns out there is an emoji for all of the latest edu-buzzwords! Hint: it's the one that looks like a steamy pile o' pooh.

In other less stinky news...

THIS blog that you are reading right now when you probably should be doing twenty other way better things, won first place down at the Art of Educations Art Teacherin' Blog o' the Year. Say whuuuut? Thank you so much for all of your encouragement and support! It truly means the world to me, I love all y'all! AND I love the other blogs -n- buddies that won and were nominated, each and everyone has it's own unique and art-mazing voice. If you follow the linky-loo above, it will lead you down a rabbit hole of art blog-tanasticness!

This is my best, "oh gee, thanks, AOE" pose while I greedily snatch that badge outta their hands and slap it on my blog. I didn't want 'em goin' all Steve Harvey on me and pass it along to someone else, y'all!

In other exciting news, I had the AMAZING opportunity to chat with one of my art bloggy besties, Patty Palmer recently! She is the most incredible art teacherin'/entrepreneur there is and I was thrilled when she asked if I'd like to be apart of her podcast. She's had some big stars on her 'cast like The Great Jessica Balsley and The Amazing Heidi Easley. My chat with Patty will go live on her blog on Thursday. You can drop by and listen anytime for free (as well as listen to those past podcasts I mentioned)!

But enough about all that, let's get back to our originally scheduled blog-cast: A Needle Felted Emojis Dress!

I actually wore this bad boy to jury duty today, sans wig. After the nice lecture the judge gave us about how much he appreciated us answering our call of civic duty, I was all, geesh. Now I can't wear my wig, totes guilt-trip! I even toned down my attire yesterday only to have a woman give me the up/down, pat my arm and say, "Oh, honey. You have nothing to worry about. They won't pick you." When she spotted me today, her eyeballs hit the floor. I was all, "But lady! I'm not even wearing my rainbow wig!"

So whilst I was stabbing away at this dress (which is what you do for needle felting. Go here for videos and deets, y'all), I got to thinking. I should make plethora of emojis that express my emotions during one solitary art class. Because, let's face it, even in my thirty minute art classes, I run the gamut of the following emotions, er, emojis...

CRAY EMOJI: This is how the kids usually find me, jacked up on coffee and ready to create! It should come as no surprise that I'm often referred to as "That Crazy Art Teacher" by the kids. My fave thing is when we get a new student. At times, I've found the other kids giving them a warning at the door before I even meet them. Or just giving them a slow reassuring nod when we are seated on the floor. You know, one that says, "We aren't dealing with an adult that knows how to adult. It's okay. We'll be the grown up for the next 30 minutes."

EMBARRASSED EMOJI: Although, there are those times when they manage to even out-crazy we art teachers. Like that time a group of my kindergarteners decided that my Mr. Sketch Markers must taste as good as they smell (word to the wise: NEVER buy the scented markers unless you want kinders slobbering all over them!). Or how 'bout the time another kindergartener (um, do you see a pattern here? It's always the kindergarteners that manage to out cray the cray, amiright?) decided that the best way to solve getting paint on her was to just go topless whilst painting. While a parent volunteer was in the room. I don't think I've EVER referred to the dress code until that day when I said, "WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE WITHOUT OUR SHIRTS IN ART CLASS!" 

DORK-MODE EMOJI: You know we all got into this art teacherin' biz cuz we are such dorks for all things art. I love nerding it up, chatting with the kids about art history, technique, whateves. In one convo with, you guessed it, a kindergarten class, I was explaining Roy G. Biv. When I asked the kids what the "V" stood for, they were stumped. I prompted them with, "You know, looks like purple, starts with the letter V?" It was then that one girl shouted out, "VAGENTA!" and my face went straight to THE SCREAM emoji...

All the kids thought she was correct so they ALL started saying "vagenta" and I almost died. Look, I dunno what vagenta is but I'm pretty sure that if you got it, you outta get yourself to the OB-GYN. I bet they make a cream for that. 

LOVE EMOJI: But, who am I kidding. From fourth grade all the way down to those crazy kindergarteners, I do love 'em all. And you know we are lurved by them. 

SMOOCHES EMOJI: But, let's be honest, there are those times that we do love to see 'em go. BYE Felicias! Smell ya next time!

On a dif note, I gotta tell you a lil secret. That's a wig. I KNOW, TOTES HAD YOU FOOLED (insert wink emoji). I've been toying with the idea of investing in wigs (because they are pricy, y'all!) because I love the thought of being able to change my hairstyle without doing a thing to my hair. I actually suffer from hair-cut-phobia as I've not updated my do in, like, eonzz. I purchased this one here if y'all are interested in being twinzies. Until next time (insert smooches/bye Felicia emoji)! 

What the Art Teacher Wore #140

More Me Made May-ness Monday: Could I fit any more M's into that intro? Me thinks not. blouse: vintage, thrifted; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; skirt: Made by Me, details here

Hey, friends! I hope your week was fantabulous. This coming week of mine not only includes the last week of school but also our school-wide art show (yes, I know that's crazy...no, I didn't plan it that way). I'll be certain to share all the details of the art show with y'all in a super photo heavy blog post this Wednesday. That'll prolly be the next time you hear from me as I'm certain to be buried under artwork until then.

In this here post, I'll give y'all a sneak peak into what the kids have been creating in preparation for el art showness. Also, since it's #MeMadeMay, I'm still sporting something I created daily. I'll be sharing all of these MeMades in a big fat post at the end of the month. Please, try and curb your enthusiasm. Until Wednesday, kids, fingers crossed I can pull off this art show! Toodles!

 Being MeMadeMay and all, I decided to go with a vintage tape measure as a headband and a wee lil vintage sewing machine brooch. Dude at Starbucks: "Is that caution tape in your hair?! Cool!" (insert head-banging-on-wall emoji here).

 Man, I gotta let you in on a lil secret. During these last few days of school, let the kids work on murals. Throw a big fat sheet of paper on the tables, let them work in groups of their choice, crank up the music to drown out the sound of their voices (I kid! Kinda!), give 'em a theme and watch 'em go to town.

 Granted, I did have a total of four kids completely loose their minds and paint their hands (like, two painted their hands red, y'all. Yes, they were caught "red handed". Sigh.) but for the most part, we had a great time. These will be used as the back drop for our Village of Kindness. Deets to come but a sneak peak here. 

 Back to School Dress Tuesday: I crafted this dress at the start of the school year. It seriously seems like yesterday. With all of our snow days (I think we had 10?), this year seemed to zip by! Any of you teachers out there feel the same? dress: blog post here; shoes: Anthro, gift from a friend (thanks, Rebecca!)

 A while back, a teacher buddy gave me these huge posters of white paper. The kids have been painting circle paintings on them as another part of our art show excitement. You'll notice that not only are we painting but glazing clay projects as well. Ah, the end of the school year. Nothing like that rush to get EVERY-THANG done. At the last minute. 

 Dresses Made During Snow Days Wednesday: Are really the best dresses, aren't they? I managed to bust out a ton of dresses this winter because of all those days. That was lovely. Not having enough time to finish all the art projects that I'd dreamed to doing with the kids? Not so much. dress: details here, y'all; sandals: like, ancient. Target

 I had kindergarten-land for the very last time this past week. We had a Yay-Boo moment. Yay, we'll see each other next year! Boo, this is our last art class as kindergarteners. So, we made a Kinder-Garden! We drew flowers in black oil pastel then painted them with either warm or cold colors. Then we switched the script for the background. I thought they came out just lovely. And one more thing to hang for the art show, yay!

 It's Come to This...Flip-Flops Thursday: I started the week in heels and by the middle, I was done. I scored these fun flips in NOLA. Get this, they smell like flowers! They are from a brand called Melissa that makes scented shoes. I love them! I was smelling my feet all day. Don't judge. sweater and brooches: thrifted; dress: made by me! By the way, this blog post, if you dare to read it, is INSANE...here; flips: Melissa brand

OH, this excitement happened this week! Our "Johnson Elementary has Heart" mural went up this week! If you follow me on insta-gram crackers, you have already seen this. Full blog post to come...but until then, here's the start of our process. I love how this cheers up our front office which was formally referred to as the DMV for it's lovely drabness. 

 Last Year's Back to School Dress Friday: Can I just brag and say that I've already got NEXT year's B2S dress in the werkz? Das right! Even if my sewing room did look like this just 24 hours ago (scroll downeth. Then scroll back upeth cuz I'm not done jib-jabbin' yet). sweater: Betsy Johnson, found at Buffalo Exchange; dress: blerg post here

 So. Can we have an honest chat here for a moment. I know when you come to this blog, like most, I show you the nice, clean and sunny side of my life. But I really, like really-really, struggle with packrat-itis. I recently picked up the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and I'm really enjoying it. Bottom line: get rid of anything that does not bring you joy. Now, I find that hard to apply as an artist/art teacher because, well, you never know, you know? However, this weekend, I decided to attack my sewing room (btw, welcome to my sewing room, y'all!) and, kidz, I gotta tell you, it felt so good! I'll be filling up my etsy shop with goodies next weekend, taking a truck load to Goodwill and tossing the rest. 

Ah! I can't even tell you how good this feels! My new motto is: nothing on the floor and nothing up to the ceiling (yes, it was that bad). I'll have to give you a tour soon! 

What the Art Teacher Wore #204

Hey there, friends! I come to you just as excited as this photo from Monday because...it's a three day weekend. Here's to staying in my pj's all weekend, watching The Office for the umpteenth time and working on all the projectzzzz. I hope you all are livin' it up and partyin' hard like me!

To kick off the week, I wore my needle felted Kandinsky inspired dress to inspire my third graders as they started painting their plates for our Circle Loom Weaving unit. I've got several weaving videos on my YouTube channel if you are interested in bringing fibers to your art room. Just search my playlist Fibers!

Many of my grades are kicking off the year with fiber arts projects like sewing, weaving and fiber applications. I'm so excited about that, here's just a peak. MANY more details to come, I pinkie swear! Of course, I share tons of sneak peeks here. 

 On Tuesday I got all set to teach some of my classes about landscapes. They are getting ready to do my Tree Weaving project which means they gotta paint a landscape first. 

 I was feeling all sorts of prepared. We partnered up and looked at the landscapes in those clear plastic sleeves. The kids had to work together to find the horizon line, the back-, middle- and foreground. It was a GREAT pre-assessment. Then we went over the vocabulary and corrected our mistakes. I chatted about scale, perspective and atmosphere. We were just getting ready to paint when the fire alarm went off.

C'est la vie. After being outside for 10 minutes, we were hot, bothered and not ready to paint. So with our short class, we each took our turn playing the Clean Up Drums instead. More on the Monet Dress here. 

Many years ago, my husband scored me a drum set for my art room. I haven't pulled it out of the storage closet in a couple of years...but decided to this year. It's our Clean Up Drums...an incentive for awesome behavior. One student is picked at the end of class to play a fill. I teach all the kids how to play a fill so that when it's their turn to play, they'll know. On our first intro do, we each get our chance to learn and play a fill...it's a lot of fun. 

 My fourth graders are gearing up to sew. Once class is stitching emoji pillows and they are SO EXCITED. I had to wear my needle felted emoji dress for the occasion. 

Teaching sewing means teaching good sewing habits. I created color coded sewing kits for each table. The kits include a color coded needle book (the felt piece with the button) and a color coded felt backed magnet for pins. I'll keep you posted on their progress!

 Another fourth grade class is stitching pizza pillows! So OF COURSE I managed to leave all of their supplies at home. SMH. They were great and the rolled with our alternative project instead...sewing next time!

Third graders from Monday had a bonus art class on our half day Friday. I was excited to see the patterns they added to their plates in just 30 minutes!

Since my younger students have really been focusing on line, I have been introducing them to the work of Kandinsky...which means I got to end my week on a Kandinsky note too. Hope y'all have a long and relaxing weekend! 

DIY: Ice Cream with Sprinkles Dress

My goal this summer was to stitch up one dress a week. After sewing this beast a couple of weeks ago...I've since changed my lifetime achievement goals. BECAUSE THIS DRESS WAS A MOTHER-LOVIN' BEAST. 

Here, lemme show you why:

 Now look, don't get me wrong. I LOVE this dress and wanna wear it every day and make about a million more in a variety of colors. But.You.All. I cherish the sliver of sanity I like to think I have left. And therefore I will not be making another dress like this for a while. It's gonna be like the Halley's Comet of Dresses that only makes an appearance every 75 years. 

I started with a sketch...where all bad things take form:

And, like, I'm kinda thrilled that my dress actually kinda-sorta looks like my drawing. That NEVER happens! Mostly because my drawing looks bananas but also because I can't sew and 99.9% of the time, I'm just winging it. 

 I decided to go with a 1950's pattern bodice and my trusty Anna Maria Horner circle skirt pattern. Now the 50's pattern did lead me astray as it had me install these horrible, puffy-topped, too-long sleeves that had me lookin' VERY 1980's Working Girl. I mean, I had shoulders for DAYS. I promptly ripped them out and went with a cap sleeve. 

 But the sleeves were the least of my worries. It was THE APPLIQUE. What in the world was I thinking?! I cut out and appliqued no fewer than 29 sprinkles. I think that was how many there were. I dunno. TOO DANG MANY, THAT'S HOW MANY. I'm sorry for shouting but if you had to live thru this, YOU'D.SHOUT.TOO.

 Okay, I thought. Bodice done. Surely the skirt will be easier as it's only too colors.

Well, first of all:
Don't call me Surely. 
AND no. A circle skirt is massive...and appliquing around that alone takes a bit. Add the squiggly line of melting ice cream and you have a project that takes FOR.EVE.RRR.

Insert all the annoyed face emoji's here. 

But once the skirt was complete, I was in the homestretch. Just had to attach the top and bottom, throw in a zipper, toss in a hem and BOOM! Done! 3 hours later...

 Hurray! 

 Lady at the grocery: What are you supposed to be? 
Me (going all existential on her): I don't even know anymore.
Lady at the grocery, shaking her head: No, I mean, are you in a costume? 
Me: No. 

Literally, that's all I had. I was so tired from sewing, I couldn't even give her more than a NAW, LADY. THIS HERE IS MY ENSEMBLE. Now, move, I gotta go figure out what I'm supposed to be!

Now, I say all this because y'all know good and well I'm gonna have to applique me some more dresses...I have them all sketched out and ready to go. Wish me luck!