Art! Where the Wild Things Create!

Sorry for the lack of posts but the only creativity going on with me lately has been in my classroom. Here's my bulletin board outside my door. I'd found this leopard print/pink/green border and started thinking about the word wild. Then that transformed into me thinking about books with a wild theme. Where the Wild Things Are! But I needed to incorporate the arts.

So I decided on "Art! Where the Wild Things Create!

I wanted my tree to be different. Not the typical crumpled up brown butcher paper tree. So I used an accordion fold.

Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself by calling my students Wild Things. Hopefully they're sweet little lambs. One can always dream.

Kelly Rae Roberts

I got an email advertisemeny the other day from the company created by Kelly Rae Roberts.

 Here's some of her work. You've probably seen it in gift shops everywhere.

Here's the e-course. It's about creating your own business, using the Internet shops like Etsy. So I thought I'd share. I really can't afford it. It's $150. But I did find her first e-book she wrote on the same subject Flying Lessons: Part One. It's $55. Much more reasonable.

Crochet Time!!!!

I decided that since I haven't crocheted anything since November, that it was time to break out the yarn......but I didn't have any just laying around, so I headed up to Michael's.

Michael's was very therapeutic with all of the Fall stuff already out (not so much the Christmas stuff, but the Fall stuff made me smile).

So here's my current project...a scarf for Sophia. Her current favorite color is blue. She was so excited when she got home and saw what I was making for her. She wanted me to finish it right away, but I assured her we have plenty of time until she'll need it. Definitely not the best yarn to start back with. Very slow going.

But it felt great to get some yarns on sale to have a "stash" on hand, just in case I get the sudden urge to crochet.

Seeing this would make Donna very happy, I just know it (she's the one who taught me how to crochet).

Fun Frills!

So here's my latest scrapbooking project. After I finished Sophia's "baby book"---3 albums, I started a scrapbook for her that will chronicle her until she's 5 and starts school. I just started her 2-3 years section. The fabulous news is that I have all year to work on this so I don't have to feel behind. The blog books have all these pics and stories but those won't go with Sophia once she leaves home. Those will stay here.

I found this really fun inspiration page. I just love the frills.

So here's how I recreated my own version. Start by measuring the space where the frills will go. Cut a rectangle that is the size of the space. This is the rectangle you'll use to glue everything down to.

Next, scallop (or use whatever paper edger you want). I used about 7 different pieces of paper I think and repeated some. This is a great way to use up those scraps.

Next, cut your papers into 1 inch strips.

Start at the bottom and glue down your strips, letting them overlap a little. Just let them hang off the side.

Layer all the way to the top. Make sure you're just doing 1 line of glue so you'll be able to fold your papers up.

Turn over your rectangle and trim the excess paper.

Fold up the frills. I inked the edges (might be easier to do that step when you're cutting your strips) and added a button for embellishment.

It didn't seem finished to me so I trimmed a 1/4 of an inch off of each side of my layouts. I glued both down to the hot pink paper that I used in my layouts.

Family Art Gallery

For a while now, I've been wanting to have an art gallery in our house that showcases both Sophia's and my own artwork, hung side by side. But I wanted it to be easily changed out. I also wanted to be able to hang canvases and paper.

My solution. I bought about 12 frames (some had artwork in them) from Goodwill for about $11 total. Every 3rd Wednesday of the month is half price day at Goodwill (at least in my area).

So I got all of these frames. Cleaned them up. Removed the glass and artwork if they had any in them.

I layed them out on the floor to play with the configuration.

Then I painted them white.

Next, I added the chicken wire. I've seen other people do this on blogs and it seemed like the perfect solution for being able to change out the artwork and be able to hang canvases and paper pieces.

You just need wire cutters and a staple gun to attach the chicken wire.

Then I took them outside and spray painted them with a gloss white to make sure the chicken wire matched the frames (as seen on my other blog The Kaminski Chronicles).

Next up, since the frames were very worn and imperfect, I decided to use some course sandpaper and distress them.

Here's how I hung the canvas above.

I used a sawtooth hanger and a S hook.

I used clothespins that I spray painted white to hang the paper pieces.

Eventually, the frames will be hung in our office on a big empty wall, but for now, this is where they sit. Russell says he's not hanging them until the grass grows back that I killed when I spray painted my frames.

The good news is that I'm seeing some green return already. Hopefully, my gallery will be hung up by Christmas. :)

Family Hutch

My latest project has been to repaint a hutch that I was given by my dad. It belonged to his mom (my grandmother that I never met). Originally I painted it brown as seen below (I painted it back in 2006). But, it just wasn't doing it for me. So I chose  Cherry Apple by Glidden to repaint it with. It took MANY coats of the red paint to cover the brown but I didn't want to use primer because I thought it would make the distressing part easier.

I'm really happy with the red! Sometimes color risks pay off.

May Layout for Project 12

So here's the May sketch for Project 12.

And here's my interpretation. I did 2 double page spreads again as I've done for all the previous months.

I've started branching out in my use of embellishments. I found these button like things in the t-shirt decorating section of Joann's on clearance.

I added the white "stitching" to the edges to mimic the ribbon I used and to mimic the alphabet stickers I used.

Here's the 2nd layout.

Whewww!!! Finished just in the nick of time. June's almost over and we're about to leave town, so I wanted my dining room table cleaned off.