You know when you see something and your heart kinda speeds up? That happened today when I spied this from the blog wee wonderfuls.

You can find the patterns here and here and I am sure many more places.

And if you have a moment and you haven' t before checked out Flickr for embroidery it's inspiring. Oh my!





I found this great source on flickr where you can find a variety of free patterns.

I am ready to shout from the roof tops, I am in love with

EMBROIDERY!

If you have ever wanted to give it a try I would recommend the patterns from Sublime Stitching. They are modern little patterns that take the guess work out of stitching and the site has everything you need to know to start. I am all about trying new things and I have wanted to give this a whirl. Loads of fun.

I picked up these suitcases at the thrift store this morning. My daughter will love them.

My girl made her Valentine Cards for school yesterday.

The owl stamp was already made then

she ran some decorated paper through the xyron machine and cut strips for the top and bottom of the card.

I was browsing Jo Ann’s the other day when I was reintroduced to the plastic canvas. I was in need of an easy Girl Scout troop project and wanted to do something different than plain paper valentines. In the past I have dismissed the pre packaged plastic canvas kits as lacking creativity but seeing the variety of blank canvases intrigued me. The supplies for all the girls cost less than $10.00. The girls really loved the activity. Well, after the initial 10 minutes because that was a little frustrating. I heard them talking about different patterns and colors options not to mention the basic technique of hand sewing. All you need is the plastic canvas that comes in a variety of sizes and shapes, smooth craft yarn and either a plastic needle or one of those dull metal needles (Sorry, I'm sure they have a official name).

I have to admit that I am having fun with this activity it’s an easy fun little project. It's easy to take in the car and for sitiing in the doctors office. My soon to be three year old even got into the fun she made her own wild pattern. I found most of the online patterns a little boring but I did find a program that allows you to insert any picture and it creates a pattern. You can download a limited version from the website here for free . I found these plastic canvas portraits that would be fun to try.

I found Ed Emberly's wonderful website last night and bookmarked it. This morning I spent some time looking through it and couldn't wait to share it. It has great drawing tutorials that really encourage kids learning to draw. What I was especially interested in was the Picture Pie Parts patterns and activities. There is a printout full of circles broken down into pie parts and loads of pictures designs that you can make with thes pieces. Here are some examples...









I think this is such a great activity to try. It's a great chance to talk about how easy it is to break objects down to basic shapes. You can find the activities here the above examples are from the February section but I saw some more picture pie activites in other months. I plan on printing out the pie pieces page on card stock and having them lamanated that way my young darling can't bend them all up.


**Okay I went back to the site to explore some more and he has several books out about picture pie drawing I may need to run out and pick one up today. It seems I'm a little behind the times. And he has a book about thumbprint art! What? Where are my keys?

I have been planning on sharing another easy project with you all but I have been distracted.

Would you like to meet my distraction?

Her name is Sadie and she was a Christmas gift for the family. She is super sweet and crazy fast. I hope to find time to post again soon and until then I'll be chasing this little pup around.

Thumbprint Alphabet

A friendly blogger recently left a comment on how great it would be to have an art project ready when the kids get home from school. I actually struggle with this. The mom in me says, "that will be so messy to get all out and then clean up". The art teacher that is living inside is saying, "What? Get messy! Create! Have a ball!"

I thought I would feature some art activities that you could have get out and put away without too much fuss. Yesterday the kids and I created some thumbprint art inspired by something I saw at the small object. The thumbprint alphabet is fun and easy to clean up. (unless you do what I did and mix up some permanent ink pads with your washable ink pads)

Dick Blick Art Lessons

The Dick Blick website has come out with a new list of art lesson plans for 2008. You can take a look here. The picture above is from the Drawing with Yarn lesson. The Paper Sampler below is a fun way to introduce kids to original needlepoint samplers.

The last image is from the Masterpiece Magnetic Puzzle lesson plan and is a great way to use your favorite artwork.

**During my student teaching I was discussing the above artwork, Grant Wood's American Gothic, I asked my 1st graders what their first impression was and one little girl said,

"Well, that guy and that girl look like their about to join an angry mob!"

My older girl and I received this fun journal in our stockings. It has great prompts like flinging your coffee at a page, collecting fruit stickers on another, taking the journal in the shower with you, finding a way to wear it, and tongue painting. Tongue painting is when you eat colored candy and lick the page. My daughter really loved that one. You can check out the wreck this journal site here. I look foward to wrecking my journal.

Merry Christmas

For a up close look at some famous nativity scenes you can go here.

Merry Christmas

I Am Thankful

I stumbled upon this project this morning and wanted to share it with you. I am Thankful! is a worldwide gratitude project. It is a project created by artist Damaris Pierce and you can find the website here.

"The project, entitled I Am Thankful, encourages individuals of all ages and organizations such as craft guilds, public schools and counseling centers to create original postcard artwork expressing gratitude. Postcards submitted can honor people, places, things or circumstances and artwork can be simple or elaborate as long as it remains two-dimensional. Once completed, postcards can be mailed to Pierce’s attention at her studio located at 69 Wamboldt Avenue Asheville, North Carolina 28806. All postcards will be considered for public display. In January 2008 Pierce will feature the submitted gratitude postcards on her newly redesigned web site http://www.IAmThankful.com. "

This is a great project to do during the Holidays. You could get all the materials together and have an open station where guest could create their own postcards. You could send them into the project or save them as a memento.

New Focus

I’m changing up my blog. My initial intent when starting this blog was to create a resource for parents who want to explore art with their children. I want to make that a focus now. I am so enjoying the creativity that flows from my favorite blogs and I hope to share some of my own with you guys.

There is also another reason for this shift. I hope to open the All Dressed in Blue Art Studio when we move in the next year or so! I am now working on my art curriculum and hope to have lots of ideas and lessons to share with you.

I'm of to the Arts and Craft Fair on this beautiful sunny day. I hope you are all having fun today too! Hopefully I'll have goodies and ideas to share when I return. Oh and I am doing a little research for a venture I want to start, I'll be sharing more of that soon too!

With only two comments, I didn't even need to hold a drawing. Taryn and Jessica are going to get a custom stamp. I will contact you soon with the details. Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I had a lovely time with family and I am as stuffed as a Thanksgiving turkey!

I mentioned a bit back that the thing I was in to for the moment was stamp carving. It has been great fun getting back to carving again. Printmaking is very close to being my most favorite of all art making. It is only second due to my complete and utter love of figure drawing. I have been playing around with some stamp designs. I will start teaching art lessons again soon and want some stamps to use for brochures and things. The process is easy and fun. All you need is a few tools and you can create fun unique stamps. I found a great tutorial on stamp carving here. There is also a link that has a great idea for using a pencil as a carving tool for kids. You can find that here.


It's so much fun carving stamps that I want to share it with you guys. Leave a post here and I'll hold a drawing November 24th. The two names I draw will receive a custom stamp personalized for them carved by me. Have a great Thanksgiving!