Swish your Bushy Tail....

.... if you are a gray squirrel, that is!!
We had a little art camp the other day and it was all about acorns and Mr. Gray Squirrel!



Once again, a Dick Blick canvas panel ( nada from DB, still.), some scrapbook paper,
Mod Podge and some fuzzy felt for the tail!

I line all the supplies up "cafeteria style" and the children come up and choose for themselves. It gives them freedom to choose their supplies and keeps the activity from being static. They get to get up and move from time to time. They can also move along at their own pace to some degree.
This lesson was all about shapes. We created our squirrel and his acorn from different basic shapes - rectangles, ovals, squares, circles, half circles...

They have a ton of personality for something created from a few basic shapes.
 We added the furry tail and a real bit of twig for the acorn stem.

There was heavy Mod Podge usage so all of these pictures still have some white "globs" on them!! :)

So enjoy the Fall weather and swish your bushy tail like Mr. Gray Squirrel.

The Great Pumpkin....

... with a 'stache!!!
This was the pumpkin I made for our "Trunk or Treat"* two weeks ago. He has been hanging out by my office door and one of the kiddos told me last week that he was "her dream pumpkin!"  :)

He'll only be around one more day and then I get to figure out where to store him until next year. I keep making huge decorations and then, reality.... where to put them??? :)

I'll worry about that on November 1st!!!!

Happy Halloween!!



* a  pic from Trunk or Treat. Everyone decorates their trunks or dresses up and the children go from trunk to trunk getting lots of goodies. It was so crazy and fun - about 450 showed up - that I didn't get many pictures!! ( this is my gig so I was busy, busy and not a good photographer!!)

College Girl came home for the event - she can't stand to miss this event. She's been at Trunk or Treat since she was little, then she started driving and decorated a trunk and now she comes back to hang out at my trunk. You can see the great big pumpkin behind them. A friend helped me make the photo booth mustaches so every child could have one!!! Kids of all ages wanted them. They were so much fun!!

Here Come the Big Dogs, FB.....

 

You can find the made by mollie's mom facebook page here :

https://www.facebook.com/Madebymolliesmom

For whatever reason, Facebook and I are not getting along and I can't seem to add the FB button to my blog - no matter how many times I try :( 


 I'm going to have to call in the big dogs for some help next week!!



Glad I don't have to feed this big guy!


 

Showtime!!!

One day down and one day to go !

Here is my little booth. I was worried about having enough stuff to fill it but it worked out. Most of my "art" is made from recycled and found items, scraps of paper, fabric and ribbon, etc. so I decided my display would be the same. I gathered up all my galvanized items from the house and porch and a galvanized ladder from the backyard. The "filler" around the base of the trees is shredded newspaper and the tags are paint strips - may I say that I have used paint strips for art and gift tags since before anyone even thought up Pinterest :)



This was first thing in the morning!

 

 By late afternoon all the pumpkin stakes except one lonely guy were gone along with the snowman and gingerbread ones !

 

I sold most of these long signs and took some orders, too.

 and people started to ask : Are you going home to paint some more tonight??

I decided to be wise and go out to dinner with a friend instead!

I was pooped - Craft Shows are fun but they are work!!!!

I'm off to the show... have a great day!


Linking up:



Things I do when I need to be painting...

I've been busy at work, busy at home, busy with College Girl (which was a ton of fun!), busy getting ready for the craft show, you know... busy like everyone else.

And I need to be painting but instead I have been...

arranging my spray paint in spectrum ( rainbow) order. That's how my scrapbook paper and recycled plastic lids are organized... for some it's alphabetical but for me, it's by color! Is that weird?

... and unloading pumpkins at the church. I love these "white" pumpkins.

 

 

... and I have been getting ready for the craft show. I made a ton of ornaments and canvases but time is short now and some of my ideas will have to be saved for another day,

I'll be sure to take some pictures at the craft show and let you know what creative and clever things were there!!

We interrupt...

.... getting ready for the-getting-ever-closer-craft show to bring you ... ...Football!!!!

Actually, better than just football which RULES in the South,
it's HOMECOMING!!

College Girl was in charge of pre- Homecoming Parade breakfast at the Sorority House so we imported the most amazing donuts ever from a little family bakery down the street from us in Marietta - Ray's Donuts!! If you are salivating just looking at this picture you should have been in the car at 5:30 a.m. with all those warm donuts!!! I'm telling ya...

The centerpiece was created from all found items we had laying around... the University Colors are red and blue and Chi O's is red so we focused on the red. The bucket came from Target Dollar Spot (their July 4th stuff), gift wrap shreds, skewers from the kitchen drawer, scraps of ribbon and I printed out the big red circle (looks like their Homecoming buttons and stickers!) and blue pennants on glossy photo paper to give it a crisp look and put it all together with a little hot glue. Done and done in about 5 minutes. This could be done in any team colors or sports season for tailgating or sports banquets ( I've done a ton of those and they never budget for decorations ... or paper goods!!)

So now we just hope for a WIN!!!!
What more could you want??? Warm Donuts and a WIN!!!

Pumpkins from Paint Can Lids...

Remember this post ?

Here are a few of the finished product ready for the soon-to-be-here craft show.

 You can poke them in the ground coming up your walkway or in a nice, big Fall mum. I have been painting like crazy so I  have not bought a single mum yet.
So I stuck it in my neglected, unpruned boxwood. Yep. And if you look carefully you can see all the dead leaves that need to be raked. :)

 

Linking Up:

"my Mummy said there'd be days like this..."

... so I took my scraps of white paper and got busy!!!
This one may take the cake for easy, peasy.

 

These are gingerbread man shapes cut from white paper and then skinny strips of scrap white paper to "wrap" the mummy. Two black dots for eyes peeking out and some Mod Podge. This can be done any size you wish - it all depends on the size of the gingerbread man to begin with. This is a great project for children because they can trace a cookie cutter and cut out the shape. Then just supply them with a pile of skinny strips and let them "measure" how long to cut them so that the mummy/gingerbread man shape is still obvious. This can keep your own children or a classroom full of children busy for quite some time. And then just glue it all together!!! These are small ornament/package toppers on scraps of wood but they could be done on canvases from Dick Blick - some day they will send me some canvases and say thanks for bragging on us :) - or just out of construction paper and use google eyes for a budget version!! Cute any way you go - my Mummy says!

** I've got to finish at least one thing in the daylight hours
 ( instead of the middle of the night!) 
so that the pictures will be decent!! Sorry for the quality!