Birthday Celebrations

My youngest daughter turned 3 on earth day last week. I really enjoy birthdays. I mean any reason to have friends over and have a Cinderella cake is awesome. I made a fun little garland by stringing craft pom poms on embroidery thread. I used whatever needle was handy and it broke so if you make one I would suggest using a strong needle. It turned out pretty cute and I think I will use it in her room now that the party is over. Mid way through the project I thought it was a bit of a pain. I worried about it getting all tangled up. I ended up stringing them all on one after another. I then stretched out the thread having a helper hold the ends then I spaced out pom pom however I wanted. To ensure it wouldn't get tangled I wrapped it around a cardboard box just like I would Christmas lights. My advice would be don't do this around your soon to be 3 year old. It turned it to a limbo game.

A tangled frustrating limbo game.

I wish I had a picture of the turkey wraps I made for the party but I didn't snap one. They were super delicious so I thought I would share anyway. They looked very much like these.

I used the mission brand tortillas in tomato basil and Spinach and Herb

I smeared some garden vegetable cream cheese over the tortillas.

I then topped the tortilla with provolone cheese, shaved turkey meat ( I really piled the turkey on) , lettuce, and a few tomatoes.

the picture I used included bacon which would have been great too.

Roll that baby up and give it a diagonal cut.

My 3 year old had her very first art show this weekend. I love to see preschool programs embracing the arts. It was such fun to see all the kids excited about their art. My favorite artist was this little girl.

The cutest, right?

Finger Knitting Fun

I am working on some projects for summer camps I am planning on offering this summer. I am super excited to be planning a Fiber Art class full of cool activities. I was running some ideas by my older girl and she wanted to give the finger knitting idea a try. We used a very helpful YouTube tutorial here. She learned after school around 3:30......

and 3 hours later she was on her third project...

It was so easy to learn. We just watched the video several times and then grabbed the yarn and watched again pressing pause after each step. The next day two friends came over and she taught them how and within minutes they were all doing it. She added some beads and turned her yarn chains into a necklace for her sister and then made a extra long scarf for me.

Fresco Revisited

I have blogged about the lesson on fresco painting before but wanted to post about it again. I had the pleasure of doing the activity with my group of girl scouts this last week and they turned out great.

We only meet for 1 1/2 hours so to save a little time I pre-cut out the burlap and stapled them to the paper plates and it worked out really well.

I read a little history about fresco painting from the into to the lesson plan. I also showed them some pictures of ancient frescoes from my art history books you can find some images here. I poured out the plaster and while we waited for it to dry up a bit they worked on their designs. I let them use a mixture of soft and oil pastels. They turned out great and I know they all had fun working on them.

After we finished the other co-leaders and I discussed how this has so many possibilities. They look so cool when finished especially when you antique it by creating cracks.

Photoshop Express

I have not been able to play around with Photoshop Express but after reading Carrot Revolution it appears Photoshop is offering a very limited web version for free. I do love my Photoshop and Illustrator Software but it is an expensive investment and if you just want to have fun with photos and such this might just be the place to do so. You can Google photshop express demos and find a variety of videos.

Foreground /Background with Mona

I have a fun activity for young kids learning about foreground and background. You can download the worksheet and my notes here. Download and then print out the picture of Mona Lisa. Explain to your little artist that Mona is in the foreground. The artist wants the viewer to see things in the foreground first. Everything around Mona Lisa is the background. You can then color the Mona Lisa and cut out her figure carefully. Create another background for Mona Lisa anything you want and put her in it. Mona can be anywhere you want. She can be in your room, the grocery store or the moon. I had fun with a room full of kindergartners and this project they love saying her name Mona Lissssssssa.

Background above provided by a sweet little almost 3 year old who just told me, "I want pancakes in my tummy!"