It All Started at Wal Mart...

I found  adorable heart shaped paper plates at Wal Mart. In a package of 6 for 97 cents.
 Irresistible!!
Then, at Hobby Lobby I found a bottle of glitter named Bubble Gum. It was pink and crystal mixed together. No passing that up. It was $1.47. ( You could use what you have on hand and I'm actually going to do some with red glitter dots on the red. Just as cute!) I used a Spouncer ( remember those from a previous post??) dipped in Mod Podge to make my glittery polka dots.

 I painted the back of the plate red to make it look a little nicer.

Then I spray painted a General Foods International Coffee can with black chalkboard paint. I did give it a light coat of Kilz primer first because it was sitting on the table where I was painting. I don't think it's a necessity if you don't have any primer. This is one of the older metal cans. You could use a clay pot, a paper cup, a little bucket from Target's Dollar Spot,etc. Whatever you have.

Next I painted some paintsticks green.

 

Can't leave them plain- so stripes and dots are next. Just  get creative.

Then I used a little Plaster of Paris to "plant" my paintstick in the coffee can. I added some Easter grass to cover the P of P and tied on a scrap of polka dotted green ribbon. You could add leaves with fun foam or small wooden hearts painted green would be cute.

You can write a message or the name of the person who is going to receive this on the chalkboard painted can. I added some Hershey Kisses on top of the Easter grass.
 What's a Valentine with out chocolate??

And then, because we all know that once I get a theme I can't get stopped (remember Candy Corn and Candy Canes and then the Snowman overload???) I made a small version. I still have some of those little galvanized buckets left so I used that, a green jumbo craft stick, two of those ice cream spoon shaped wooden pieces and a red glitter fun foam heart cut out. I stuck some air dry clay in the bucket to hold it all together and added some Easter grass. So cute and it's just big enough to hold about 3 Hershey kisses. A cute little Valentine for someone or a great "place card" at a Valentine's meal.

A fun little valentine's day project for all ages. You don't even have to cut out a heart shape!! Start with the plates and a little Tacky Glue will hold it all together!

Hello Home Depot!!

Seriously, I ran into HD to buy some wood for a Valentine's themed Afternoon Art Camp next week*. I cannot go to HD without popping into the Garden Center- any time of year- and especially when I have Spring Fever (I am not a Winter kind of girl. I start wearing scarves and sweaters if it drops below 60!!). I actually would spend my last dollar on a plant or flowers over food. It's true.
So, I stuck my head in the Garden Center even though I was supposed to be hurrying (and bought a white African Violet- could not help myself!) and saw all this great stuff...

Have you seen this set?? I would put it in my Family Room. I'm serious. It's that good.

It is amazing. The color is off in this pic due to the awful lighting at HD but it is an awesome "greige" and look at the stylish pillow fabric.

And more great fabrics - Love stripes!!

And coordinating florals. I love these tropical colorways but they have a "greige" colorway as well. And I failed to snap a photo, but beautiful screenprint-look silhouette throw pillows with birds and quatrefoils, etc. Very upscale looking - reminded me of Ballard but for $24.99. I occasionally score a great deal on a Ballard pillow by dropping into the warehouse when I'm downtown but otherwise this is a much better deal!

And look at these...

 

Eighteen dollars?? These have possibilities galore. A little scrap lumber and you have tables, ottomans, benches...

And I told a friend about these at Christmas. She was pricing Adirondacks online and around town and they were well over $100.00 and many were $199.99.  Here is a very nice sturdy chair for under $50.00!! Some bright, cheery spray paint and you are ready for some sun and a good book. We have 4 Adirondacks on our screened in porch They are my faves.
So, seriously, Home Depot!! I'm really ready for Spring now!!

* On the subject of the wood for Art Camp. In case you don't know it- your dream guy is in the back of the HD store. He will happily cut any size board into as many pieces as you want while smiling and chatting. He doesn't care what you are using it for or complain about cutting 14 different sizes. He will do this for free!!! See? Dream Guy!

The Point is...

... to learn about Pointillism and George Seurat. He made his very large pictures by painting lots and lots of dots. We call him "Seurat the Dot!!"
 We started with a canvas. I used two sizes of cupcake liners to mask out a snowman shape. We used q-tips and 3 cool colors on our palettes ( paper plates! Haha!! ) to dot our background. Then the magic happens. We carefully peel off the cupcake liner circles and the positive shape that is left is a snowman.

Then , we used white and sparkly silver paint to paint our snowman. You can hear those q-tips dot, dot, dotting on the canvas. This is a good project if you've been cooped up a few days. I have the children stand to do this and get their whole arms moving!! Play some music and you can really get that dotting rhythm going. Wonder how Seurat did those big paintings without Pandora???

Then we made 2 dots for eyes with black paint, 3 dots for the nose with orange paint and 4 dots for the mouth ( Counting in Art class... makes those cross- curriculum folks happy !)

And then we painted as many buttons as we wanted!! A sprinkle of crystal glitter and this guy is spunky and sparkly.

Guys with Sparkling Personality!

Remember the Sparkly Snow Guys??

 Well, the children came to Afternoon Art Camp and took a blue canvas, added 2 big white circles and went from this ...

to these Sparkly Snow Guys with lots of personality!!

Aren't they cute?? And the best part was that we used a ton. seriously, a ton. of sparkly crystal glitter!!
They were so proud of their Sparkly Snow Guys!!

Irresistible Snowfllakes !

Our snowflake paintings are created using a fun masking tape resist technique!

We used a large (16 x 20) Dick Blick Canvas from the Economy Classroom packs. You could do these much smaller - just adjust the size of tape you use. Big is easier for children, though.

You just tape off your design - you can vary the subject matter. I have done this with a class and taped off blocks of color for a lesson on Mondrian. It's cold, so today it's snowflakes!

Be sure to have the children rub, rub, rub the tape down. You will get a small amount of paint bleed and it adds to the design but you don't want all the white to disappear. Make sure the tape is really pressed down.

Then I let them choose 3 colors for their paint "palette" which is a paper plate! I use acrylic for this project so just pull out all the odds and ends of blues and purples and choose 3 or 4. If you are buying paint for a group to do this the Blikcrylic dries very quickly.Then using a 1 inch or so brush they just start brushing paint around the tape lines - gently so as not to pull up the tape.  I show them how to move around the canvas and paint"patches" of the three colors and they start to blend together. You don't want it all 1 color.

When the canvas is painted you can sprinkle on some blue glitter. I used some turquoise Martha Stewart glitter. It's very fine and subtle but adds that wintry sparkle. It doesn't take much.

Let it dry - absolutely the hardest part. You will be going crazy wanting to pull the tape up!! Wait!

When it's dry you can start pulling the tape up for the big REVEAL!!!!

Just continue pulling off the tape. This is always a lot of fun and good for ooohs and ahhs!!

Then, and this is optional but so pretty, you can paint the white snowflake left by the resist with glue or Mod Podge and sprinkle with crystal glitter.

And you end up with a very sparkly snowflake with a beautiful blended color background. It's a fun lesson becaue you paint the background and end up with a snowflake!

**They have gotten lots of "oohhh so pretty" - the picture really doesn't do it justice.

Linking up :

Groundhog day!

I'm ready for Spring so I hope the groundhog sees what he needs to see this year!!! It's been so gray and dreary for days but at least it is warming up a little. I know some of you are dealing with snow and ice and reallllly cold weather so I shouldn't complain but I need the sun!!

I made a new one of these little guys because the one I've been dragging around for years to teacher trainings was a little sad. This way you can see the steps, too.

I

I used a glue gun for speed but you will need glue or double stick tape for the kiddos. I used a green paper cup because we are in the South and we have General Beau Lee who pops up from a hole in a grassy area. I know Punxsutawney Phil  sometimes has to deal with Snow so you could make this with a white cup and spoon and use cotton ball snow instead of recycled Easter grass. Glue your grass or snow around the opening of the cup.

Make a slit in the bottom of the cup ( This is something the teacher or parent will need to do.)

Then cut a circle of brown fun foam for Mr. Groundhog's head. Glue it on the spoon. I had peel and stick foam hanging around so I just stuck it on the spoon. I added some ears cut from some leftover brown glitter fun foam leaves. Whatever you have - construction paper, pom poms... anything. Get creative. I throw a bunch of brown "stuff " on a table and we make some groundhogs with a lot of personality.
( Look at the bottom right of the photo above... I see his shadow!)

At our house we call him "the Brownhog!!" When College Girl was in preschool she came home from 3 day 3's talking about the "brownhog" seeing his shadow. I said that I thought it was "groundhog" and she said emphatically, "No!" She held out a coloring sheet of a groundhog that her teacher had given them that day. She said, " My teacher said color it brown. It's a brownhog!!" and the name stuck around here for years!

I gave him huge wiggle eyes because I want to be sure he sees the signs for Spring. I drew on a nose and mouth. Slide the spoon down in the slit so it comes through the bottom of the cup.

Here's the back view.

Mr. Groundhog is down in his hole...

...and now he's peeking out!!
(The children just push the spoon up and down and you can have some great fun with him!)
You can also dim the lights and use a flashlight to do some fun shadow play with your groundhog puppets!! You can entertain children for a long time if there is a flashlight involved!!
Wishing everyone an early Spring and a Happy Brownhog Day!!