dream big.

Art Week - day two!

Inchie art is everywhere! I LOVE the simplicity of it and the fact that it allows for playing with new and different art techniques.

This was created by That Artist Woman and we may do another inchie project for our next Art Week and focus on winter. She has some great art ideas for kids and heck, even adults can have fun playing with some of the projects as well!

This is the fall inchie project one of the girls created for art week. For some reason I didn't get pics of everyones inchie art. We worked with LOTS of water color techniques and used some mixed media as well.

We created the art on two inch squares and then mounted them onto black book board. The girls have stated that this water color project was their favorite from the week.

I highly recommend this simple, fun, and creative art project for kids and adults of all ages!

 

Art Week - day one!

I am back. I know completely MIA for a while, but I needed to live life in real time and focus on my family. And today's projects are created by my family and students I work with.

So, I figured out my uploading issues, and want to share what we have been up to.

Part way through the school year I decided I needed to spend more time creating art with my kids. I decided that about every six weeks we would take a week off from our normal school work and spend a week creating and learning about different art styles. This kids LOVED it. This week I want to share our first official ART WEEK.

On the first day of Art Week we created self portrait collages. This was perfect for using up my scrapbooking scraps and the kids really loved the results. I found the idea at Better Homes and Garden.

Olivia created the portrait above. The girls each drew an outline of how they felt their face is shaped and then started gluing torn pieces of scrap paper in the correct color hues of their skin, hair and eyes. They then did the same for a shirt.

Next. we cut out the final portrait and using dimensional squares adhered the portrait to some patterned background paper.

This was a great project to kick off Art Week, because everyone felt super successful.

 

It took some patience, but because we had an entire day to work on it the kids didn't feel any pressure and ejoyed the creativity.

Tomorrow I will show you some of the mini art pieces we made.

Kids story craft with download

One of the projects I was working on last week was a craft project for my almost 6yo to go with a story we will be reading when we start school next week. The story isTiger Gets Stuck from the book The Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book.

 

The story is about a tiger who tries to be tricky and catch a rabbit from within his hole, but of course he gets stuck! Funny story. We are going to make a Book of Books this year featuring art pages about stories that we read. Should be fun and I will share more of the book as the year goes on...which means I have know idea how I am pulling this together yet, but as time passes I am sure it will come to me!

The first thing I did was sketch out the main characters in the story.

Then I created the background for the project out of paper scraps...LOVE finding ways to use up scraps!

The shapes here are easy to cut out and simple for beginning cutters. The grey cave is a template that can be traced and cut.

I colored the characters with colored pencils...it is always fun to use new school supplies. Ella likes to paint, so I am not sure if she will color or paint, we will find out what she wants to  do next week. After coloring the pictures I cut them out. I cut them close, but if Ella wants to cut them herself, she can cut them out with white around the edge...this is good practice for her.

After gluing the characters down I glued on black beans for tiger stripes and rice for crocodile teeth. This is good fine motor skill practice.

Here is the final project.

This will be an easy fun story craft project.

Here are the character files for you to print! Happy kids crafting!

Download Tiger_1

Download Tiger_2

Monday Chalk Board Calendar Tutorial

I have calendar tutorial for you today. The best part is that it is fun, easy, and a great way to dress up the walls of your home!

I finished a project this weekend that I have been thinking about for over 2 years. I know long time, but I was never quite sure exactly how I wanted to pull it off. I bought this calendar a couple of years ago with my only thought being: I want to do something with this!

I LOVE calendars! I only really knew that I wanted to cover the frame with patterned paper to coordinate with my kitchen walls. I measured the edge of the frame and cut strips of paper to 1.25 inches and using ModPodge I adhered them to the frame. I added a coat of ModPodge to the top of the paper as well.

I like to use recyclable material whenever I can on projects! I thought I could do that for what I had in mind for each calendar square. So, I gathered several boxes of packaging from my kitchen that were the thickness of a cereal box.

I used my Slice to score 2.5 inch circles out of this material. Doing this made these boxes really EASY to cut through! I cut 31 circles for the days of the month. Measure the days of the month squares before choosing the size circle to cut.

When I was picking up spray paint for my daughters birthday I grabbed some chalkboard spray paint as well, for this project.

I sprayed both sides of my 2.5 inch circles with the black chalk board paint.

I adhered a magnet to one side of each circle and then selected 31 pictures from my fall photos. Using the circles as a template I cut out 31 circles from my photos and adhered them to the magnet that is adhered to the circles. That makes sense right? I now have a magnet sandwiched between a photo circle and a chalk board circle.

Using chalk I wrote the numbers of the month on the chalk board circles. I LOVE the way this looks!

I wanted a calendar that was both art and fun for my young kids to learn the days of the week when we school this fall. They already totally enjoy turning the days over as they pass. The only thing left for me to do is hang it on the wall! Super fun and easy project to make and a great way to use your photos!

One last thing! I plan on making a set of circles for each season of the year...yes that makes 3 more sets of circles and 93 more photos. Super cool!

Back to School Ideas + The Big Idea Festival

Just a couple of weeks left before we start school again. I thought I would share some back to school items I have found on line.

This is such a cool use of old magazine letters and a great way to spell new words during school this year.

You can find more about this at Better Home and Garden.  

This is such a super cute printable to use on those first day of school photos. I am printing these and having them ready for our first day of school.  Go here to print yours!

Speaking of back to school Big Picture Classes FREE summer event begins on the 15th.

Big Idea Festival: Words to Live by

You are invited to a FREE festival packed full of big ideas at Big Picture Classes this August! Join us for 12 fun-filled days featuring 12 of our talented instructors. Each instructor will be giving you a word of the day, which we hope will inspire you, along with a downloadable template (in both printable and digital format) so that you can create a mini layout about that day's word and how you applied it in your life.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page to register, remember it is free and you will not see a charge in your account, but you do have to check out.

New to Big Picture Classes, become a member for free!

Refreshing Monday.

 
On a cold day today I a will be:

1. Finishing my Illustrate Your Life page.
2. Help my kids finish their sewing projects, more on this to come.
3. Revamp my homeschooling schedule...it is mid year and time to re-evaluate where we are.
4. Work on some cute craft and sewing projects.

Loving today, even the cold, grey skies outside.

 

 

 

Illustrate Your Life with gratitude!

So, I have my photos printed and ready. My story is ready to go. Now let the fun begin. That's not to say the first two steps weren't fun...but you understand what I mean, right?

Today I am going to illustrate my story as yesterday I spent time outside with my kids and today they are having a pajama day at the Mohler Academy... a bit of light reading and finishing up any work they may have skipped throughout the week and then an afternoon of fun. They will be watching Elf! I will be listening and illustrating my life! I will post my final project later today.

 

Thanks for all the well wishes for my husband. He is on the mend and feeling better. After a week at home he is off to work today. He had a hernia repair surgery and they say recovery time is 4 weeks. We will see how he does today...he hasn't spent long periods of time standing yet, so we will see.

 
The other day during school the girls saw this cute little bird fly into our big picture window. Of course we then had to go outside and see if the little guy was alright. I was sure I would be riding the world of a dead little bird, but the kids and I were surprised.

 
On our deck rested simply a dazed and confused bird. As we sat very close by monitoring its vitals, Ella even tried to takes its pulse, or maybe just tried to give it a little love tap, either way she was monitoring this little guy.

 
 
After a little while the little bird began to hop around a bit. Then suddenly flew off very grateful of the care attention we provided I am sure. At least that is what I told the girls. I then informed everyone science was over for the day and they needed to get back to their math. A collective groan was uttered and I offered up some cookies to go with their math and then they all began cheering my name...well maybe not actually cheering, that may have been in my mind, but I know I saw some smiles.

 

So, I am behind. Good news is that I am completely okay with the fact that I am behind.

One of the reasons I am behind is that I have been working on a new idea.

An idea I am quite excited about. Because I am a one woman show around here, that means when I take on a new idea I have to slow down a few others that I have had cooking on the fire.

I would like to share a few things with everyone though.

 

This is the ONLY photo that is on my latest life changing moment’s page. Yep, that is me in the ninth grade. This is the year before I had BIG hair, a few months before I got braces, and a few months before I found my voice. The page is finished…I just keep forgetting to take a picture of it in decent light…so the page will be up on a later date.

 

Last week The Mohler Academy went on a field trip to see a small light house.

 

We have been reading the book Houses and Homes from around the world. The best part the trip were the unexpected “houses” built from drift wood scattered all over the beach.

 
 
 

It was a great day, and a first for my two youngest to ever ride a ferry.

 

As for my idea…well, as soon as it is cooked long enough I promise to share it with you.

Fun Fall Activity!

Yesterday I took my girls for a walk around the lake.

It is a strange time of year, because already the leaves are falling and the weather is cooler than normal.

The falling leaves reminded me of an idea I had just discovered this past summer.

So, I quickly told all of the girls to look for leaves in different shapes, sizes and colors and collect them as we walked the lake. It was so much fun to listen to my younger two get excited over the leaves they had found and want to share their discoveries. My oldest just grabbed some leaves without giving it any thought. She later regretted her decision!

When we returned home we hopped onto the computer and l shared the Land Art link that inspired my decision to have the kids collect leaves as we went on our walk.

The girls got VERY excited as they thought of the wonderful creations they could make with their leaves. Even Olivia was excited, and decided she would go into the backyard and collect a better selection of leaves! J

Here are our creations!

 

 

 

 

This simple activity supplied a couple hours with entertainment and creativity for all of my girls…even the one who thought she was a bit too big to be collecting leaves!

This fall if you get the chance to create some Land Art I would highly suggest it! Such a fun activity filled with memories in the making!