In the Art Room: Art Room Tour Before and After (Part 1)

In this blog post, I'll be sharing a lot of images from my art room over the years. This image is from a post about my New Years Art Teacherin' Resolutions from 2016. Check it out if you'd like to see how I created my art room placemats!

Over the summer, I dropped by my art room to grab some things and I saw my art room with fresh eyes. The above was my view. And all I could think was: LOOK AT ALL OF THIS VISUAL CLUTTER! One of the posters was falling down (as all things do on those cinder block walls) and it inspired me. Before I could stop myself, I was tearing it ALL down until the wall was blank. Hearing the commotion, my custodian buddy, Mr. Joe, walks in and asks me what I'm doing. Decluttering! Like you always tell me to do! 

"Yeah, but now what are you going to put there?"

I had no idea. But I did know that it was definitely going to be more visually pleasing and less visually noisy than what had been there before. 

And here is what that space looks like now, after much work. I moved my demo/document camera table so that it is now perpendicular to the wall. This allows me to create and not have my back to the kids while doing so (never a good idea, amirite?!). I created the giant color wheel with wooden oars; repurposed the thrift store cart with pencils and it now holds the artwork of the classes I see on that particular day; I came up with a new set of rules and had a blast painting them (downloadable PDF here) and hung some fun folk art along with my paintings. 

 With my 30 minute art classes with my younger students (1st and 2nd grade) and my doubled up classes with my older students (which allows me to have them for an hour), getting in, seated and settled right away is really important. I've always used taped lines on the floor to create rows. However, my older kids, believe it or not, need seat spots. These are not assigned spots...just so they know to fill up all the space we can to make room for everyone. The spots are die-cut circles with clear packing tape on top. They've really helped speed up our walk-in, sit-down process.

 Of course, I've gotten the rainbow-bug so all things in my art room have been rainbow-ized. Including my demo table! When I saw this cute bunting at Target, I had to get it. The rainbow peace lamp is from Walmart and the pattern pencil cups were created by me. I still use my Happy/Sad Board...it's my old standby and the kids respond well to it. 

For Christmas, my mama got me this amazing chair from IKEA which I hose down with Scotch Guard twice a day. Seriously, I love it! I'm afraid it will be my messy hands that will mess it up! Let's take a look at this area before...

Check out a blog post all about the first days of school in my art room, here. 

When I first began teaching at my school, close to 15 years ago (I taught for 5 years in Nashville prior to my current school-home) I used to spend my summers decorating my art room. Seriously. I'd drive in at 8am, work through lunch and leave at 3:30 when they kicked me out. Every.Day.Of.My.Summer. I would pick a cultural theme that we were to study and completely transform my art room into that environment. That was pre-blogging days but I do have a couple images from then (will share in a moment). At the time, I had this kind of freaked-out perfectionist mentality. It made it so that my room was sweet but I was burnt to a crisp when August rolled around. Over the last several summers, I've hardly gone in to my room at all...which is good, that's how it should be! But at the same time, my art room started to get neglected and feel stale. Posters had been up for ages. It had the look of an art room where the art teacher had lost interested. At least according to me. Here's how this space has now changed:

When I was given a large TV and a document camera, it was installed in an area of the room where I never used to do my instruction. So that took some adjusting. Previously, I did all my instructing in front of my giant dry erase board which is further in my art room (scroll down to see...might help you visualize the lay of the art teacherin' land). That dry erase board was super because I could draw, demo, hang examples and reference it all day long. In this new spot, I'm trying to add more demo and writing space without adding junk as is my usual MO. So, with Command Velcro Strips, I hung both this dry erase board and this painted cork board on the doors of my kiln room and my storage closet. I created the Crayon Color Family Display this summer with the help of my mother in law and the kids LOVE it. Along with my giant color wheel, it has made a huge difference in them retaining color theory information. I also had big fun painting my Tints and Shade pencils as well as my Gradation one. 

Just to the left of my Gradation sign are these colorful plants! I found these laser cut wooden flowers at Target a while back and had no plans for them. Then one day on a whim, I painted them in rainbow order and hung them above my kiln room window. 

 Images from this post about the first days of school in my art room.

When my students enter my art room, this used to be their view. It's changed so much! Before we talk about that area behind the gong, let's chat about what I call The Masterpiece Gallery. 

This is an image of what that area used to look like. By the way, the dry erase board is for our game that we sometimes play called The Smartest Artist. Back to the gallery: when I first started at my school all those years ago, this was one of the first things I did: create this gallery. You know all of those drawings the kids create at home? This is where I hang them. The window looks directly into my office (yeah, I have an office...not that it even remotely resembles anything other than a huge dumping ground but I'm working on it!). I painted it many years ago with window paint. I scored the frames from the thrift store and backed them with cardboard, cork and fabric, in that order. I love this space but it has also seen some change:

Because I really wanted to introduce my students to sketchbooks this year, I knew I had to figure out storage. I picked up a bookshelf from an abandoned classroom and gave it a painted makeover. 

Since creating this space and this sketchbook system, I've already made changes! If you read the sketchbook post, you'll see how I formally had the kids pass out the sketchbooks. It was a decent system and it worked...but this past week, I came up with something even better. So, soon, those book bins will be empty. More storage for something else. I'll share the new process with y'all super soon.

Read my original post about sketchbooks with kids here. 

This space in my art room, just past my instructional space, ALWAYS sees change. Remember when I said that I often change the area to match the culture we were learning about? Here is what it has looked like in the past:

 One year, we "traveled" to Paris...

Another, Ancient Egypt. 

Japan!

 And Mexico to name a few. 

But recently, I decided that I didn't want to have one culture dominate my art room for the entire year. So now I present cultures with videos, books and artifacts. This also means I don't have to start all over every summer and redecorate this space. When I got an email fro Treetopia this year, asking me if I'd like a rainbow tree for my art room, I jumped at the chance...but knew I'd have to make the surrounding area just as awesome. So I washed the Rousseau-inspired tiger off my window, painted my wall, painted my GONG(!) and got new flooring. Here's the before, right when I got my tree up:

And after:

The kids FLIPPED.OUT. when they saw this new area. I'm so excited by all of the color. The winter afternoon sun has had a habit of blasting through that window and making it hard for the kids to see. So I have since changed the space even more...

By adding curtains! I've also hung up our "I Am" collaborative which makes me all kinds of warm and fuzzy. Folks have been asking me lately about my aprons. We hang them on Command Hooks under the window. I accidentally ordered them via a website online...I had ordered adult aprons for a workshop but these were way too small! So I brought them to the art room and we've been using them since. The kids do have to help each other when tying them but I see that as good practice. 

The curtains were easy to make: I had this amazing IKEA fabric in my stash and just hemmed and hung with an extension rod.

I've been working so hard on a fun space for my early finishers this year...a space that provides more than just the usual books, dry erase boards and blocks. I'm tweaking this area every week and adding more things almost daily. The kids LOVE it! You can read more about my early finisher activities and policies here and here. By the way, I have been getting a lot of questions about my art room placemats. I made them...you can find out the details here: 

I have the Fire Marshall to thank for a lot of my redecorating (insert side eye). No more hanging things from the ceiling, she said. Boo! At the start of the school year, my cute crayons and other ceiling decorations all came down. You can check out how I made that big ART sign here. 

That left my space so bare! As a lot of you know, this table is my Art Supply Store. After giving lesson instructions, this is where my students "shop" for their individual supplies like paper, paint brushes, you name it. That large wooden drying rack has since been moved into my office which is right behind that door. I'm hoping to add a pegboard to hold supplies in it's place. 

I created this Roy G. Biv wall display with Duct tape, paint brushes and letters. By the way, Duct tape has become my fave go-to decorating tool...I've used it so much in my art room. 

 It's funny, as I continue to see what works and what does not, the coat rack has stopped holding my Art Teachers in Training aprons but actual coats and jackets on days when we are painting. Here's that area currently:

That little chalkboard sign is from Hobby Lobby. 

I don't have much of a before photo of my cabinets as they've pretty much just always been cabinets. This whole area of my art room, the counter space, is definitely under construction. I would love to have pegboard added either under the cupboard or at my "store" area. Regardless, the only thing I'm happy with here are my Alphabet Cabinets. 

Art room set up on the first day for our Escape Game.

Yep, the Fire Marshall wasn't a fan of the paper chains and all the rest I had hanging from the ceiling. When I took it down, I took down a ton of other stuff too. I also had a sweet and kind friend of the school custom build me a shelving unit to go right under my dry erase board area. I had always thought was a waste that space was...and I now have all of these fabulous shelves for our supplies!

I used to color code my tables with bulletin board paper. That got to be too much to change out and keep up with...so my alternative was to place Duct tape on the edge of the tables and it has been working perfectly! If you look closely, you'll see the new shelving under my dry erase board. That board now serves as my I Can statement wall.

The baskets are from the Dollar tree. They didn't have all of the colors to allow me to color code them...so, if you look at my labels, you'll see I color coded them.

Above my dry erase board, I created this line display with...Duct tape! I also made that clock a while back with paint samples. 

 These trashcans are ones I brought from home. The art room ones are so small! And I'm always moving them around and unable to find them when I need them. So I decided to color code them and keep them at the end of each corresponding tables. 

Now I keep the cans and the drying racks at the end of each group of two tables...and I love it. Although I STILL get the question: Where is the trashcan?

I swear, this is the year of trying new things...and one that I'm really excited about are my seat sacks. I found some at the Dollar Tree...but they didn't have a rainbow so I had to make my own! 

And, yes, they've already gotten paint on them. It is an art room, after all!

In this area of my art room, I also have two new things: the Blabber Brush behavior system and my Color Mixing Spray Paint Cans!

One of my most favorite things in my art room has always been my Art History Wall. I had had it up FOR YEARS...and was over it. The art history wall was rarely visited or seen by my students. So I decided to take it down and replaced it with this:

My It's a Small World mural! This new area makes everyone smile. I even painted a broken globe to fit right in. 

This bookcase is new too...another abandoned find. I'll share more about the supplies on this shelf soon...I'm still working out the kinks on this system.

So...the REAL reason for sharing all of this with you? Honestly? BECAUSE I'M SO FRUSTRATED. Every morning when I walk in my room and I just see all the projects that I want to accomplish to make my art room as fun and exciting (and clutter free) as it can be for my young artists. I shared my anxiety recently with a coworker and she said, "Are you kidding?! Look at everything you've done so far!!" That's when I realized just how hard I had been working...and that there was progress. 

At the start of the year, I knew I would want to make changes, so many changes, and I told myself: go easy, take it slow, change what doesn't work, keep what does. I can often get excited, ahead of myself and frustrated. Seeing all of the changes I've made in one VERY LONG blog post has made me happy...I am working hard. I still have so much to do but it's like eating an elephant: one bite at a time. 

So, what's next? I want to create an early finishers fibers area as I have started to do in the photo above. I want to create an area where the kids can take photos of their art work and upload to Artsonia independently. I want to create binders for each table that will have idea sheets and drawing prompts. I have already purchased supply carts for each table (they have not arrived yet, will share soon) so that the kids can get their own supplies and I don't have to hustle to have everything out. And I really REALLY want to tackle that counter, my cabinets and my closets. 

Do you see why I get overwhelmed?! 

But I'm getting there...and I'm so happy I decided to scrap the old this year. It's really been making going to school every day and teaching in a bright, colorful and less cluttered place so much better.

Thank you for dropping by this VERY long-winded blog post! xo!

DIY: A Needle Felted Color Wheel Coat!

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Check this out, y'all: on Thursday, it was a balmy 68 degrees in the Nashville area and they were calling for snow and ice the next day. Our weather-predicting/school DJ/head custodian announced that we'd be out. Now, despite those warm weather conditions, I KNEW we'd be out because our weather-predicting/school DJ/head custodian is NEVER wrong. So y'all better believe I was excited to spend my day off working on this needle felted color wheel coat ida that I'd been kicking around in my head.

Not too long ago, I found myself in Old Navy where I discovered this jacket on the sale rack. I'd already had the idea in my head and this style of jacket was exactly what I was looking for...one with a large flat backside that would serve as a big blank canvas for my color wheel. 

 If you've been hanging around this blog for even a minute, you know that needle felting is one of my favorite things. In fact, early this week I shared my Top Ten Needle Felted Sweaters. I've needle felted every type of fabric: jersey, knit, wool, wool blend, canvas, big ole winter coats, you name it. I've managed to acquire a beautiful assortment of wool over time which is great to have on hand when an idea like this strikes. I created a video of myself working to help explain the process:

The tools I used in the video, the pen tool and the cushion, are both by Clover and they are my favorite. However, I will say that because this jacket is a fleece or something, I totally busted all three needles in my pen tool immediately. The pen tool comes with very fine needles...but I have a stash of the thicker needle felting needles. I replaced them inside my tool and, once I got the hang of the surface, I was fine.

 I simply tacked the roving down with the plan to further felt with my machine. However, if I didn't have a needle felting machine (see video) I would have just had to do it by hand. It probably would have taken twice as long. I rarely bust out that needle felting machine but when I do, I'm always happy I have it!

 Of course I had to take pictures of it in front of all the new colorful areas in my art room. Seriously, my art room is my happy place. There are SO MANY projects I want to do...but I'm glad some are finally coming together. I have a self-appointed deadline for my art room but the date is pretty much pushed back to the end of the year. One of these days, I'll get my life together. Meh, prolly not. You can check out more details of my Mary Blair Mural here. 

 My pattern painted globe found a home in front of the mural! 

 I decided to pair my coat with my needle felted palette beret...more deets here. 

When I needed a break from all the stabby-stab, I decided to embroidery-bomb this broken Anthro necklace I'd had sitting in my stash. You can check out this blog post to see just how much I'm loving all things yarn-bomby right now. 

 I needed a little bling to go with the jacket, right? I'm thinking of painting the wooden beads that hang from the necklace...or maybe not. I kinda dig it right now. 

 My jacket tho is pretty much giving me life. I went to grab pizza after working in my art room this morning and dude at the pizza placed thanked me for my jacket. "Thank you for bringing a rainbow in here." I thought that was so sweet! 

 And now for a bunch of picks of my backside. Ahem.

 If you look closely, you'll see that I had to do a little color blending to achieve a complete gradation. You can kinda see it here: check out the purple and pink sections. To blend, I just had to pull and tuft the rooving repeatedly to get it completely blended. 

By the way, this is what the inside of my jacket looks like. Notice how the fibers have been pushed through. 

 I liked the necklace before but I am loving the rainbow makeover! 

And of course I had to take pics of my jacket in front of the rainbow wall and the rainbow tree! If you've not tried your hand at needle felting, I encourage you to do so...then we can be color wheel coat friends! 

In the Art Room: "I Am..." Mobiles

So...at the BEGINNING of the school year, I got the idea for this collaborative project...and, here we are MIDWAY through the school year and I'm finally assembling and sharing it with you. Story of my life, y'all.

At the start of the school year, I dyed a bunch of clothes pins by placing them in a bin of watered down paint. I later learned that food coloring works well also. I dyed them red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

 When the students came in, we read The Dot (yes, this was our Dot Day attempt!) and we spoke about all of the things that we are. "I am creative. I am amazing. I am silly. I am funny." You get the idea.

I had the kids get two colorful clothes pins (any color the wanted) and one plain one. On the colorful clothes pin, they were to write their name on one and a word that described them on another. 

On the plain ones, I had them with  monochromatic Sharpies and create a design. I did this project with my first and second grade students who have 30 minute art classes. My third and fourth graders, who have an hour, did a different collaborative project:

You can find out details on this project here. I at least managed to get this project finished and hung at the start of the year! 

 After the kids were done with the clothes pins, I had them sort them by color. Then I clipped them around 9" cardboard pizza rounds. I then painted the center black and used the kids' painted papers to create the I am... in the middle. Initially I was going to hang these in the hallway but I was afraid they would get damaged without a watchful eye on them.

 AND because they are so stinkin' pretty I wanted to be able to see them all the time! I used command hooks and yarn to hang them above my window. They did keep rotating which would have been fine if I'd had the kids draw on BOTH sides of the clothes pin (which you might wanna do if you do this project). To keep them forward facing, I simply hot glued them together where you see them touching/overlapping a bit. 

Another happy rainbow addition to the art room that I'm happy to finally have on display!

Sweater Weather! Top Ten Fave Needle Felted Sweaters

It's officially Sweater Weather in my neck of the woods and I'm all about it. So much so that this weekend, while I was procrastinating lesson planning, I decided to do a little wardrobe planning instead because #priorities. After rooting thru Mount Sweater (seriously, if you follow me here, you've seen my stories...I have a sweater-hoarding problem, y'all!) I decided I had so many sweaters, I thought I'd go with a theme...and settled on animals. Here's this week's line up:

Boom! Side note: I have enough animals sweaters to last me two weeks, maybe even three. Did I mention Mount Sweater? 

Whilst rooting thru my jumpers, I noticed that a fair amount of them had been created by yours truly. And that's when I thought a blog post of my Top Ten Fave Needle Felted Sweaters was in order (conveniently, I've needle felted EXACTLY 10 sweaters...countless dresses...but 10 sweaters. Exactly.) So here you go. If you are looking for a super fun craft that allows you to take out your frustrations while stabbing something repeatedly AND NOT GET ARRESTED, have I got a craft for you! 

My Very First Needle Felted Sweater! If we are gonna talk needle felting, let's start at the beginning, shall we? I started needle felting in January of 2013 (seems like yesterday!) after a visit to Anthropologie. I'd spotted a BEAUTIFUL sweater that I was determined to buy until I spotted the $98 price tag. Say whut now?! I remember examining the sweater carefully and thinking, "I think this is felt...I think this is needle felted!" That evening, I went home and watched several YouTube videos on needle felting. After stumbling upon a video where a sweet British woman exclaimed, "You can needle felt on ANYTHING!" I decided to get the supplies and give it a go on this thrifted and moth-ridden purple sweater. here's the my preferred needle felting supplies:

This Clover brand needle felting tool can be found on many websites. I like it because it holds three needles, making the job a little easier and it fits comfortably in your hand. Just a side note: when buying replacement needles, purchase the Clover brand ones. They are designed specifically for this tool.

The needle felting tools usually run about $12. If you aren't sure if this is the craft for you but still wanna give it a shot, you might consider inventing in a pack of needle felting needles. They are barbed and razor sharp so if you poke yourself, there will be blood. No sharing needles, okay? Not a craft for the little kiddos, okay? You can purchase a pack of these for half the cost of the needle tool. Why do I need so many, you ask? Well, as a newbie, breaking needles is not uncommon. 

When needle felting, you gotta have a cushion underneath otherwise your needles will break. My cushion of choice is this one, also created by Clover. However, a foam cushion, like that used to reupholster furniture would work as well.

Now, let's talk roving. I'd like to recommend purchasing from a local provider. How do you find that? See if your community has a Fibers Guild. Mine doesn't have much of one...but where my mom in law lives, Birmingham, they do. Reaching out to them will put you in contact with someone who just might produce their own wool. Or you could contact my two favorite ladies: Sue Bunch at Back to Back Fiber and Natasha at Ester's Place. They are GREAT!

Now, back to the sweaters!

Crazy Cat Lady Sweater! After seeing a cat sweater on ModCloth, I decided to make a portrait of my cat on my sweater. So here is Asha! This method of needle felting, I call Paint By Numbers. If you follow the link, you'll see just how easy it was to needle felt. Now, easy does not equal FAST...needle felting is time consuming, FYI.

 Crayola Crayon Sweater! I'm still waiting for my endorsement from these guys. I mean, how much more love do I have to show, I stabbed your logo on my sweater?! If you want an easy sweater, try this one on for size! Flat shapes of color and LOTS of stabbing. 

 Pencil and Line Sweater! Want a fast project? Here you go! By the way, the best place to find sweaters to stab is the thrift store! The sweaters DO NOT have to be wool...remember, you can needle felt ANYTHING. Here's a closer look. 

When it comes to yarn, you can needle felt any kind of yarn, it does not have to be wool! I used yarn on both the zig-zags and the looped lines. Word to the wise: when needle felting yarn, DO NOT CUT IT! It "shrinks" as you felt, meaning it will "felt" and get smaller in size. So only cut it when your project is complete to ensure you've used enough yarn.

 Put a Bird On It Sweater! Remember back in 2013 when we put birds on EVERYTHING? So much so Portlandia did a hilarious skit about it. Well, I'm guilty! I love stabbing birds (ahem) onto stuff...including this sweater. Sadly, I rarely wear this sweater! Whenever I put designs on the back, I always remember that I can only wear them when my long hair is up...otherwise, they go unseen!

 Foxy Stoll Sweater! Here's another short-ish project stabbed upon a thrift store sweater. I'm telling you, once you get in to this craft, you'll either be raiding your own closet or that of the thrift store. The best part is, if you mess up, who cares?! You're only out a coupla bucks!

 Owl-y Sweater! Not even gonna lie, so much of my sweater-inspiration comes from Anthro! I see that cute sweater, get all excited and then I see that price tag...but DIY motivator there ever was. This owl was a direct Anthro-inspo.

 Floral Felted Sweater! As was this one! I love this sweater and practically live in it during the winter months at home. That being said, it took FOREVER to make because of all the small flowers and fruit. But I think it's one of my faves. 

 Van Gogh Sunflowers Sweater! Did you know that you can needle felt fabric?! That's right...if you find yourself without wool roving then hit the thrift store and purchase some 100% wool sweaters. Wash them, dry them and you'll have felted fabric. With that you can cut out shapes and the felted fabric will not unravel. Felted wool is what I used for the flowers and leaves of this sweater and the one below. Just place the felted wool on the sweater and stab as you would wool roving. 

 Calligraphy and Flower Sweater! This sweater involved needle felting wool roving, needle felting felted sweaters and WET felting! I don't talk too much about wet felting on this blog as it's not my most favorite thing ever but...I did it for the yellow centers of the flowers. This whimsical sweater was a blast to make. 

I have shared A LOT of felting and fibers videos on my YouTube channel, so if you are interested in learning more, you might wanna subscribe here. Thanks, y'all!