The Art Fairy

The Best Christmas Present Ever!

2011-12-19T12:20:00.000-08:00

Today was the day! PET/CT results were in. We hoped and prayed in one direction and asked others to do the same, but rejoiced in God's will and His grace regardless.
I am overjoyed to announce that the scans were clean. There are no currently visible signs of cancer!
We are not completely free of all things cancer related though. We will have a follow up in one month and new scans in three months. In the meantime we will be keeping a close watch on him.
Hodgkins Disease treatment protocols recommend 4-6 rounds of chemo. We have done 4. We had the option to do 2 more rounds but decided not to for the time being. So continued prayers are still requested and necessary.
For today we are singing, dancing, and praising God for His faithfullness to us.

Turn me in for blog neglect- I deserve it.

2011-12-11T16:57:00.000-08:00

It's time for an update. It's been time for an update for a while actually. My blogs do not whine the way my two year old does, nor do they bicker and fight the way my junior high boys do. They are very easy to keep moving to the bottom of the "to-do list".
However, I have had a couple of phone calls and an email which warrant the update.
First off, one call and email were inquiring about art classes. Unfortunately I am still not offering any really. I am doing a very small class for some homeschool teenagers in the middle of the day on Mondays. That has not been regular though because Ryan's chemo schedule got moved around from Fridays to Mondays.
The phone call which I did not return, but meant to, (so sorry) was an inquiry about a link I have on my blogroll near the end of the page about The Art Rats. It is a really cool project, which is why I included it in one of my top twenty posts. When I contacted the author to let them know they were in the top twenty, I never heard back from them though. I can only guess at the process they used to do the project. Which I agree with the caller on, about them having used a grid method. I believe they also ran photos through a photo editor. made them black and white, increased contrast levels and "posterized" before going to the grid with them.
I have also had many emails full of support and concern for my son Ryan who was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma back in August. To give them an update, Ryan is doing really well. we've had a lot of ups and downs with his treatment. The chemo itself has not caused a lot of side effects as we had been prepared for. It was the infusion methods that caused him so much grief! Initially Ryan had a PICC line placed in his left arm. A PICC line is sort of a semi-permanent IV that is implanted inside the arm with an external access to draw blood from and insert medications. We lost the first PICC line about a month after it was first placed. We believe he was allergic to the adhesive in the dressing bandages. It pretty much turned his arm to hamburger. It looked horrible and it was so itchy for him. It also ended up throwing out a blood clot which landed Ry back in the hospital for an extra week. During that week they placed a second PICC line in his right arm this time. His skin started reacting even before we left the hospital. We tried every different type of adhesive and cleaning preparation. It got to the point where it was oozing so bad, the dressing had to be changed everyday. It should only have needed to be changed once a week. So we lost the second PICC line too. Ryan's last four infusions were done by peripheral IV. These have been anything but fun. Ryan is exteremly needle phobic and tends toward anxiety issues. On top of that the stuff they were running through his veins was extremely caustic. One infusion couldn't be finished because his veins just couldn't handle anything more in his overly irritated veins. The next infusion took two days and a double dose of sedative to finish. On top of that he had a nasty cold- which he still has the remnants of.
This brings us to this week and the big reason I am updating. We are at the point where we will be doing new tests to see how effective the treatments have been! A CT/PET scan is scheduled for Thursday. We should have results at our next Monday apointment on December 19th. The best case scenario(the one we are praying for and ask you to as well) is that the cancer will be gone and no further treatment will be indicated. If this is not the case then we will be looking at 2 more rounds of chemo(4 individual infusions), then new scans at that point. If it stll isn't budging, we will have to consider radiation and possibly stem cell transplants. Based on how much the cancer had been reduced on the last scans, we are hopeful these last 2 rounds did the trick. I promise(cross my heart), I will update the blog when we have new results. Hopefully those results will also mean a return blog nurture as opposed to neglect. If for some reason it doesn't though, bear in mind I do have a two year running around the house, or should I say climbing...

Movement Assignment-Personal Challenge Completed

2011-10-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

"Don't Ruffle Feathers in the Henhouse."

So here is my completed challenge based on movement. I would love to hear your commentary on it before I start explaining it. Do you think it is successful? Why or why not?

Giving Back

2011-10-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

I am putting together a kids art calendar which I plan to offer for sale on my blog and website. The proceeds will go to benefit local non profit groups(American Cancer Society, The Pendleton Foundation) that support patients and their families here in my hometown who are dealing with cancer. The theme of the calendar will be "A Hope and a Future." If your child would like to particpate please have them create a drawing or painting in any media they like that they feel fits the theme. Kids ages five through 18 are welcome to participate. Please email photos of the drawing to msjuliesartclass[at]aol[dot]com or if you'd rather send it by mail please message me for the address. Deadline to receive entries is Friday November 11th. Calendar will be available for order to purchase from November 25th through December 31. Selections will be chosen by myself and my son Ryan. Local winners will receive one free art lesson from Miss Julie's Art School. Non-local winners will receive a customized art lesson designed my me via PDF.

Worth Checking Out

2011-10-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

Sixty Free Art History Based Lessons for Grades 1 through 6

I just saw this link over at Homeschool Freebie of the Day. It looks like it could be a huge and very valuable resource for all elementary art educators- whether in public and private settings or for homeschool parents.
It was perfect timing for me. In a previous post I mentioned I am not teaching art right now. Well as of November 3rd, that will change. I am starting an Art in the Park class for homeschoolers in my area. I am really excited about this new endeavor!

A Response to a Collaborative Challenge-Franz Marc

2011-10-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

After repeated failed attempts to leave a comment with a link to this lesson for Ms.ArtTeacher, I am reposting it here in hopes she will see it or hear about it from other art teacher bloggers that google does not deny commenting ability to. I have no idea why that happened. Anyway here was the challenge...

Lesson mission: Create a lesson inspired by Franz Marc that asks students to think about expressive color

So even though this lesson is not new, it does fit the bill and why reinvent the wheel when a simple redesign will do. I would love input on how to improve this lesson. I would really like to make it more criteria based and give less direct drawing instruction for older kids. The goals stated in the above link are really great.
Without futher ado, here is my contribution to the collaboration...

Franz Marc was a German painter famous for his brightly painted animals that were slightly cubist in nature. To learn more about him you can visit my post about him at my other site Artist of the Week for Kids.

To begin you will need

Pencil
Paper
sharpie marker- black
oil pastels
Q-tips.

The drawing instructions look like this...

At this point you will want to outline the horse in black sharpie.

Then decide whether to use rectangles, circles or triangles
and then draw them in pencil over the outlined horse.
Be sure to overlap often and to make some shapes
smaller and other larger.

Here is what rectangles might look like.

Now you will want to use the oil pastels to outline all the lines. Be sure to use bright, bold colors like Marc did. He was not aiming for realistic colors but ones that would make a dramatic impact.

Keep all the lines inside the horse's head the same color, use a different color for the mane, and a third color to outline all the lines of the background.

Once that is done, use a Q-tip to blend the edges inside each shape.

Here are some student examples.

Personal Challenges

2011-10-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

So obviously I haven't been posting much. I do have some pretty good reasons not to. The biggest reason may not be neccessarily what you think though. I simply haven't been posting because I haven't been teaching. Not art anyway.
I am still homeschooling, but Ryan's illness has made teaching a tricky proposition. I used to teach from my home before the fire. But now, even though we have found a permanent living situation, Ryan's immunosuppression has me preferring not to teach out of my home right now. There are also a lot of appointments to be available for. I also can't just leave him by himself to go teach in a different location- and having to pay a sitter would probably cut so far into anything I made it wouldn't be worth it. I am exploring some options though. Including just being happy in this season and enjoying the time I get to spend with my family instead of planning lessons and bending my schedule to try and make clients happy.
That's not to say that I don't have ideas. There are lots of those, but you fellow art teacher bloggers out there know that it takes way more than an idea to make a whole post on an art lesson.
So in this interim season of my life I've decided to try and tackle a few personal challenges that teaching left me little time for. Not that I have much more time now, I just feel the need to challenge myself as an artist in this one of the most challenging times in my life.
Some personal projects I have been working on are two self-published children's books. I am hoping to have links to them here soon. They are just in the polishing stages.
I also want to put together an actual art lesson book for those who might like to use it. It would of course include lessons not available on the blog- can't give away the cow and the milk you know. It will be a bit different. I plan to focus on art history based art lessons that focus on criteria based outcomes. I feel they are far more open ended and teach critical thinking skills not as challenged by simple drawing instruction, though it will include a bit of that. It will also include suggestions for unit studies across the curriculum. Big endeavor I know. I plan to start volume 1 with ten lessons. I will try to post updates as it comes along. Hopefully you may be intrigued enough to want to buy it!!
My last little project is my own personal artwork.
The Bravo series The Next Top Artist has inspired me. In the absence of being in an art class it is sometimes difficult to challenge myself to assignments that are outside my usual style or subject matter. This show challenges the artists on it every week with some theme or project intended to stretch them as artists. This past week artists needed to depict an original personal interpretation of motion while maintaining a cohesive theme for a group show. So... there's no group show in my near future, but a personal and original interpetation of motion: That is intriguing! I will post here when I am done with it. The next show is on October 26th so I will give myself that date as well for a due date on my assignment. If you feel led to join the challenge, let me know. I'd love to see what you come up with!
Tomorrow is a chemo day for Ryan. It is generally an all-day affair. We have to travel about 90 miles one way to the infusion clinic. We have to check in by 8:30 am so tomorrow will be a very early day for us. The 13 year old is going to a friend's house and the baby is being taken care of by a dear friend from church. The good news is that it is a pediatric clinic and really caters to kids. There is a Wii system and movies and even an arts and crafts area, though my son and I are a bit snobby about the supplies we like to use! :) I will also be able to take my laptop. There is a wifi connection there. Slow as it is, it will allow me to work on my other blog so I can finally get an update over there on how Ryan is doing!

A Hope and A Future

2011-08-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in keeping up with my son Ryan's battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, then please check out and follow my new blog...

A Hope and A Future

Not Exactly What I Wanted to Hear

2011-08-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hodgkins Lymphoma.

I knew the diagnosis before the Dr. told us. A quick google search on "lymphoma in kids" was enough to take me to a list of symptoms that fit perfectly, especially with the description of the "hard rubber like ball" the surgeon told us he'd removed during the biopsy of Ryan's lump.

It's rare. It's especially rare in kids under 15. What is even more rare is how fast the process of detection to diagnosis has been. These things sometimes take months to get diagnosed. I first noticed this lump a little more than a week ago. Our pediatrican was awesome as has the staff here at Loma Linda been- save for one PET Scan technician. (I'll save that story for another time.) The speed has also been frightening. It begs the question, why the speed unless this is really serious. We knew almost from the get -go that it was.

This will be my last blog post about this on this blog. I will continue the story in a new blog though and you'll be able to find a permanent link to it here and occasional mentions when there is an update. This is a kids art blog after all, and something I think I am going to need to keep me sane.

For now I'll let you in on the prognosis and the plan. The prognosis is amazingly good. As bad-horrible as this all is, it is the best case scenario of bad-horrible. They think they have caught it really early. Stage 1 or Stage 2 at the latest. They will be doing a few more tests to confirm this like a bone marrow biopsy and CT scans of his abdomen and pelvis, but they are fairly confident these will be clear. It just has to be done to make sure. This early staging means the treatment will be at least complicated as it can be.

Of course chemo comes next. He will be getting a PICC line inserted in his arm at the same time he gets the bone marrow biopsy sometime today. This will allow them to give him the medication and take blood without constantly doing new IV lines and poking him all the time. The downside is when he goes home, he won't be able to swim, rough house or do a lot of the things his friends do. The end of the line will be very near his heart and vigorous activities could cause the line to slip and to damage his heart. The upside is that he won't have to carry in groceries for me for a while.

He will lose his hair. It won't be too big a deal. He wears his hair pretty short anyway. My husband plans to shave his head too and my older son probably will too.

The long term of course is that he will always carry this. He will always be looking over his shoulder to see if it will come back. There will be questions and scans the rest of his life. For now though we will take care of today. Tomorrow has enough trouble of it's own. I also want to promise you something... God will make something good of this, just you wait and see!

The Land of Uncertainty- Part 2

2011-08-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

I think the hardest part of being here has been seeing all these other precious children. Some are bald, some are not. Some are tall and some are no bigger than my own little one who hugs me at my knee.
My heart goes out to them and their parents, and I wonder if we are heading down the same path they are on.

Every fiber of being is screaming, "NOT MY KID"!

I could fight, argue, and scream at God for letting Him allow this to happen. Of course, for right now, we still don't know what "this" is. We are waiting for biopsy results and we are waiting for a PET scan today. We are waiting to hear if and when we'll get to go home. Waiting, waiting, trying not to go insane.

Instead for now, I am trying to accept this circumstance as a blessing, a gift, an opportunity for something bigger that God has in store for us. There is joy here for the taking. Somewere deep within. We may have to dig deep to find it, but I know it will be there.

I am thankful for the opportunity to meet these wonderful kids. To get to pray for them specificially. To personalize the ugly truths that so many parents deal with every day and our own life's circumstances allow us to move to the back of our minds- not out of cruelty or even indifference, but just because unless you have to deal with it every day you don't want to.

They have a school here in the hospital. For most kids, I would suppose it helps create a sense of normalcy. For my homeschooled kid, a novelty I hope will be a distraction.

The Land of Uncertainty

2011-08-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

Here we sit waiting to be taken in to see our son who has just come out of surgery- a biopsy procedure of the lump we found near his collarbone eight days ago.

Let me back track just a bit... yesterday we were waiting for results of CT scans, when our pediatrician asked us to come in. The scans showed suspicious signs of lymphoma. We were instructed to take our son to the ER at the world renowned hospital in Loma Linda. They had already called ahead and the plan was for him to be admitted and the pediatric oncology team at the hospital would be taking over his care.

We still don't know much more than we did yesterday. There is no confirmation or denial. Just suspicion. Just uncertainty. Just faith. Just hope. Just trust that God we will carry us through this too. He has already brought us through so much. It is so easy to become like the Israelites and forget all He has already done for us. Thankfully the memeories are fresh and clear and undeniable. Thank you for praying with us.

Life Goes On and the Paint Layers Keep Getting Laid On...Part 2

2011-08-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I left the story in a place of uncertainty. It's never a fun place to be, yet it's the place where we can gleen the most opportunities to deepen our relationship with God and our faith and trust in Him. We have been in these types of places a lot as of late. I will explain more about what that means in a bit. Back to the story...
We were safe at my mother-in-laws house and for all intents and purposes, comfortable enough. Having lived there as a family before for five years though, we knew that we just could not stay there again. We would if we had to, but we were praying for an alternative. Unfortunately our blessing came through the misfortune and ensuing benevolance of someone else. It seems wrong that someone should benefit at the expense of someone else, but it's really all about perspective. God took something that looked awful, and really turned it into something wonderful. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all our misfortunes could turn into a blessing for someone else who is truly in need of one? Somehow it might make them seem less unfortunate.
A wonderful couple at our church did just that, they chose to turn their misfortune into a blessing for our family. In the midst of very hard times, financial and physical, these lovely people were facing a foreclosure on their home. They chose to try and complete a short sale. After already finding a new housing situation, they felt some trepidation at leaving the property vacant. Everyday you hear of empty homes being pilfered and stripped while they are waiting to be sold. Voila, an amazing opportunity was created! We needed cheap temporary housing and they needed a housesitter. The temporary diggs even had a pool- green swamp though it was. No worries, my husband is a professional pool cleaner. Call it coincidence if you'd like, but I know where the plan originated. Pretty awesome, uh? Keep reading, it gets better.
Even though, this was an amazing answer to prayer, it was still temporary. This situation was only going to last 2-3 months at most. There we were, right back in the land of uncertainty. Again, not a problem for God.
We had pretty much resigned ourselves to the idea that we would need to downsize in a MAJOR way and live in a two bedroom apartment for a while. We have 3 kids at home right now. Two boys and our toddler girl. This would be tough, but we were willing to do what ever we had to. (But we wouldn't have to!)
We heard through the grapevine that a family my husband had known for years(he went to high school with their daughter) had a house for rent. The funny thing was that I was pretty sure that was the house our homeschool charter school facillitator was living in. Right around the same time as the fire though, I had gotten a call letting me know she wouldn't be working with us any more. I was so bummed. She was another friend my husband had known forever and I had known since marrying him 14 years ago. I still don't know all the circumstances relating to it, and I am still bummed to not be able to work with her this year, but because she chose to leave the house, we are able to rent it. I hope she'll be blessed by that. This house is actaully bigger than our last one and $400 less a month! The owners are also very encouraging of us making it our own. I will finally get to create a room for my little girl! The boys will also be getting some paint that isn't white as well! We will be moving in at the end of this month- just in time for the homeschool year.
On a side note, I mentioned I would let everyone know the true cause of the fire as well. It was...
Electrical!
The fire investigator deduced that the fire had started at the outlet behind my sons's bed. The combination of the plugged in fan and the friction of the bed moving from getting in and out of it, had created a hot spot waiting to ignite. It could have happened at any time. Why it happened in the five minutes my son was out of his bed in the middle of the night is part of a bigger plan I'm thinking.
What is was not caused by was any misbehavior on the part of my children. I do urge you though to be careful of what you put in front of utilized outlets- any kink in the cord can create a fire hazard.

I wish I could say we have left the land of uncertainty for a while... we never truly leave anyway, each breath we breath is not certain, it is a gift. We are still firmly entrenced at the moment though.
Because of getting to stay in this house, we got to use the pool. An amazing blessing when you live somewhere with average summer temps over 110 degrees. Because of using the pool, I noticed my son taking off his shirt after a swimming session with friends. He is a very private kid at 9 years old so I rarely see him shirtless. This day, I noticed how thick his neck and shoulders seemed to be getting. Wow, all the swimming must be turning him into Micheal Phelps! Wait, all that thickness is only on the left side...
Ryan has a very large swollen lymph node. X-rays revealed a few more under the skin not visible to the eye yet. Blood work showed a slightly elevated white count and markers for inflammation. A CT was ordered to get a better look. This post is late today, because that is where we spent our afternoon. We left there around 1:30 after being told that results would be at our doctor's office in a couple of hours. At 2:30 I got a phone asking for Ryan to come back in for a recheck at 4:30. If the results weren't in at the time of the phone call, they should be by the time we get there. Welcome to the land of uncertainty- the place only God can get us through.

Life Goes On and the Paint Layers Keep Getting Laid On...Part 1

2011-08-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

I have always imagined the whole of history(past and future) as an enormous multi-dimensional tapestry, puzzle, or for the sake of making my metaphoric title work; a painting. The trick is that there is only one who can see the whole painting at one time. If we work very hard, we can see behind us pretty well, though our view is limited to our own memories and the opinions of others in regards to memories of events and facts. This is the visualization I carry with me in regards to my favorite bible verse of all time, the one that gets me through everything; Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[a] have been called according to his purpose.

I quote that verse a lot.
Some use it as a sort of a cop out, but not me. I truly believe that God can take all of our trash and pain and turn it into something ultimately beautiful. The evidence I put before you is the rearview perspective of my life, especially in recent weeks. Yes, for those of you who might have been wondering is an update on what has been going on since our Father's Day Fire...

There were quite a lot of things that happened that we thought would happen, though perhaps not exactly as they happened. For instance, we knew our landlord would not be pleased with the news of the fire and the damages to the property. What we weren't expecting however was that he would accuse of trashing the house and accuse our children of mischievous arson. He actually told us he believed our children had caused the fire. He then proceeded to give us thirty days notice on our rental agreement, though he wanted us to get all of our belongings out of the house within 3 days so that reconstruction could begin immediately.
After consulting with an attorney and speaking with our landlord again, we were allowed a more reasonable time frame to move our salvageable possessions. The process wasn't easy though. We did not have renter's insurance- we will from now on I promise you! So we had to try to salvage what we could in spite of smoke damage. To add insult to injury, the house had no power and we live in the desert, and it was the middle of the summer. The kids all immediately got sick with summer colds and could not be farmed out to friends houses while I worked and could not be with me in the house under such conditions. God is good though. Grandma was able to keep them with her at work- though she did not get much work done with my very demanding toddler around. I however did get work done in the house, cleaning every item before packing it. I kept my shirt wet with cool water and hydrated my body with the same. I was out of the sun, so it wasn't that bad- though if I could have had A/C I would have gladly taken it. After a week or so, the kids were all better and had a grand ole time at their friends houses while I delt with our stuff. It was amzing how much we ended up getting rid of. What was more amazing was how much we still had! I made my husband promise me that we will never, ever, again have so much stuff!

So once our stuff was taken care of, the question became where were we going to put our remaining stuff and ourselves for that matter? Our neighbors kindly hosted us for a couple of days. Just long enough for my brother and sister-in-law to leave my mother-in-laws house. They had been visiting at the time of the fire. We knew we would be welcome there as long as we needed, but it was pretty out of the way for us and the gas prices were going to cost us more than rent had. What we didn't know was that there was already a place for us... which I will talk about in my next post.
Tomorrow.
In which we will discuss our current and future living situation, as well as the true cause of the fire.

And Sometimes Life Just Happens... The Aftermath.

2011-06-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

I would have liked to blame this latest incident for my blogging break, but alas it was not the cause. It will be the cause of the next one though...
Never tempt fate. No sooner had I shared a post on Facebook in regard to adopting minimalism- especially in regard to kids stuff, than most of said kids stuff was literally gone in a big puff of smoke and melted LEGOS.

We heard the smoke alarm around 1am on Saturday morning. We though it was another dead battery at first. It wasn't. My husband jumped out of bed to attack the villain disrupting his rest to find that the villain was not as innocuous as we had first supposed. There was white smoke covering the ceilings throughout the house. Jody went to check on the boys as I called 911. Our oldest son was in the bathroom. Our younger son was still asleep in a room full of smoke and his brother's bed on fire. I grabbed the baby and we got everyone outside. My oldest daughter was visiting her dad in Pennsylvania.
The fire department was there in under five minutes- still enough time for the room to be completely engulfed in flames.
At this point the cause of the fire is undetermined, though we suspect it is electrical in origin- either from the house itself or from a fan plugged into the outlet behind the bed. We know without a doubt as does the fire department that my son did not cause the fire through any kind of misconduct. Whatever the cause, we now deal with the aftermath...

Aftermath seems like such a strong word really, reserved for huge tragedies of catastrophic proportions. This is not that. WE have too much to be thankful for, too much to praise God for. I try very hard to not go the "what could've happened" place, but going there even for a few seconds just serves to make me more thankful than ever. You have only to look at the picture of the remains of Taylor's bed to understand where I'm coming from.

I have been blessed to be able to see God's hands working in my life in a very real and substantial way in the everyday small things in my life, but for me God is so much more evident when the big stuff comes along.

Romans 8:28 says "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ".

Time and time again these words have rung true for me. Hindsight is truly 20/20 and to borrow a phrasing from a favorite author of mine- God is found in rearview mirrors. A case in point, my poor son Taylor has suffered with an annoying problem of having to be up A LOT at night using the bathroom. As a result he is often tired throughout the day. We have seen doctor's about it, but between waiting for referrals and seeing some temporary improvement, the condition continues. It was because of this annoying condition that my son was not in his bed at 1am when the flames erupted under his bed. AS guilty as I have felt about not being more aggressive about getting his problem treated, I am glad I didn't. God used even my bad parenting to bring glory and honor to Himself.

The wall Taylor's bed sat in front of.

I can plainly see how the rough roads the Lord has taken me through always lead me to the places He wants me to be. So we find ourselves on yet another rough road, but I am very confident that it is leading us to a place that God is choosing for us, and that cannot possibly be a bad or scary place if He is there with us.

Of course I have been speaking in platitudes, in the realm of thought and attitude. There is of course the practical to think about. God is good here too though. First our neighbors have given us safe haven when we needed it, and we do have another place to go. We always have a place to stay with my husband's gracious and generous parents. It is here where we will be going while we figure out the rest of the practical stuff. What exactly is that practical stuff many of our friends have been asking? For now it looks like this...

The boys room was pretty much completely destroyed, including their beds, all of their toys(including their ever so precious LEGOS). Many of their clothes and shoes are beyond redemption because of smoke damage. The ones we have salvaged thus far are in question as well. The first wash has not taken all of the smoke smells out and we are not sure if the smell will ever come out. We had just visited the library that day so my bookworm son Taylor had A LOT of hardback chapter books in his bed that were totally destroyed.(I wonder if all that kindling kept the fire from jumping to Ryan's bed- so I am thankful for this too!) I am hoping the library will be understanding- if not we are looking at some major fees to replace the books.

The rest of the house and stuff were saved from fire damage, but smoke damage infiltrated pretty much every nook and cranny. We have been told that if it was cloth, it's gone. So that means our couch, chair, bed, bedding, bible covers and everyone else's clothes may be a total loss as well. We've also been told that anything paper may never be the same again as well- so pictures and books may forever be an olfactory reminder of our Father's Day Weekend Fire.

Every vent in the house looks like this one.

Never to end on a negative note, this truly was the Father's day in action- my family is safe and we have literally been surrounded by family and friends- the body of Christ- lifting us up. I have also been given an opportunity to streamline, to have the choice taken away from me of hanging on to stuff- either for lack of time to get rid of it or the age old nagging feeling of thinking I'll be able to use it "someday". (We art teachers are particularly prone to this disease).We were hoping to find another place, though perhaps smaller, that might fit our financial means better- as making the rent each month was a struggle. All of our stuff was a going to be a stumbling block in making that happen. We also wanted to do some repairs on the house that were caused by normal wear and tear- and some that were not, in an attempt to get as much of our deposit back as possible. The Lord has taken the need to do that away- though our hope of a return deposit is gone too.

As much as Jody and I can see all the good amidst the bad, it is a difficult concept for kids to understand though. As much as we want our kids to not be concerned over material things and to be thankful for the truly important things God has given and kept safe for them, the truth is also that they are kids and all their stuff just got destroyed. They are dealing with major feelings of loss and will be in the middle of stressful transitions over the next days and weeks, so please be in prayer for them and us as we navigate this next section of rough road using God's compass.

The Art Fairy's Weekly Top Twenty on Tuesday! (Volume 2)

2011-05-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

This week's top twenty...

Art Threads: Monday Project - Scrap Felt Coasters and Trivets

mrspicasso's art room: Monet Gardens

The Paper Pear: 5th Grade Lanterns

*Fun Art 4 Kids: New Circus Elephants

Chesterbrook Academy Elementary School, Raleigh, NC Academic Year 2010 / 2011: (G3,G4) The lines of Gustav Klimt

Art With Mr. E: Line Design w/ Shading- The Steps

Brightest Crayon in the Box!!!: Peacocks!

Art. Paper. Scissors. Glue!: Creative Color Wheel

Art Class @ The Main Street Academy: Rare Trophy Fish

The Lake Forest Louvre: Howard Finster inspired Self Portraits

The Chocolate Muffin Tree: Cut Up Cardboard Box Sculpture

ARTabroad: (masterpieces) Weaving

Irresistible Ideas for play based learning » Blog Archive » mini snap painting

shine brite zamorano: flower power.

Creating Art: Oil Pastel Dogs Inspired by George Rodrigue's "Blue Dog" Series

For the Love of Art: 6th Grade: Chuck Close Self-Portraits

that artist woman: Perspective and the use of the Diagonal

A Faithful Attempt: Hundertwasser Houses

Hands, Head 'n Heart

MaryMaking: Ancient Egyptian Royalty

If you have a lesson or know of one that deserves to make The Top Twenty List for next week,

please let me know, either in the comments or at my email msjuliesartclass at AOLdot com.

Please write "Top Twenty" in the subject line.

If you were featured here, please feel free to grab a button!

Sorry Sneak Peek

2011-05-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty good pace going there for projects and posts which all came to a screeching halt because of a sick baby and even sicker husband. After five bouts of vomiting and that other wonderful thing in only four weeks, her doctor and I decided it must be a food intolerance issue. She was already only drinking soy milk after me thinking perhaps the almond milk was the culprit since she had tolerated soy formula well for so long. Well, we stopped the soy and lo and behold the symptoms stopped too. Until last night when she had pasta for dinner, so now I am wondering if it was the sauce or the wheat. Amidst all that lovely pondering, my hubby has been trying to pass a rather large kidney stone for more than a week.

This is third time he's had one and the second time this year. After two trips to the ER

where all they did was give him pain killers we are exploring homeopathic options.

In the meantime I have still been teaching and looking for contenders for The Art Fairy's Weekly Top Twenty. In fact I have the next list of twenty ready to roll out, but because of my extreme fondness for alliteration, I am going to wait until Tuesday to post it and that will become it's regular home. And until I have some time to write up tutorials for you, I am going to leave with some images of projects I have been working on...

Painted Paper City Skyline

2011-05-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

Materials

8 1/2 " X 11" cardstock cut in half length wise.

tempera paint or acrylic in various colors including black, yellow, and purple.

oil pastels

old credit card

decorative edge scissors

old toothbrush

shape template

metallic markers

This piece was created in stages.

The background was stapled together to create the panoramic length and first painted purple over the upper 2/3 of the pages and allowed to dry.

Then black paint was added over the purple layer and texturized with an old credit card that had been trimmed with decorative scissors.

We combed through the black paint to reveal the under layer of purple.

The lower 1/3 was painted yellow.

Once that was all dry we added stars by flicking white paint off of a toothbrush.

For the buildings we started out by created several colors of painted paper and adding texture in the same manner as the background was done.

After they were all dry, we used the shape template from this lesson in combinations to create buildings on the unpainted sides of the paper.

Then we added details with black oil pastel and metallic markers.

The buildings were cut out and glued on to the skyline at the bottom edge of the paper.

Highlights and shadows were added with white and respective building color oil pastels.

Optionally you could use a layer of Mod Podge to seal the whole picture and leave a shiny finish.

Warm and Cool Color Exploration with Kandinsky

2011-05-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

I begin this lesson by introducing or reviewing color theory and the color wheel. We talk about primary and secondary colors. We also discuss complimentary colors or color opposites and how those combination are always the result of a pairing of one primary color with a secondary color. We also explore how the complimentary colors are made up of a warm color and a cool color and how they site across form each other on the color wheel.

Red(a warm primary color) is the compliment(opposite) of Green( a cool secondary color)

Blue(a cool primary color) is the compliment(opposite) of Orange( a warm secondary color)

Yellow(a warm primary color) is the compliment(opposite) of Purple(a cool secondary color)

Depending on the age of the group, we will talk about tertiary colors too and how we can remember color theory with a little bit of math.

A primary color plus a primary color equals a secondary color. 1+1=2

A secondary color plus a primary color equals a tertiary color. 2+1=3

This piece looks deceptively simple, but keeping the color pattern can be tricky for some kids.

We started by folding cardstock in half one direction and then in half again in the other direction so that you end up with four boxes.

We then drew diagonal lines in one box, starting in the middle and radiating outward.

This was repeated on the remaining three boxes so that all the lines would match up at the folds.

When color was added with watercolor pencils, the students were asked to add them in an alternating pattern of warm and cool.

I kept a chart on the white board to help reminded them which colors were in which category.

Color is added in such a way as that the warm cool pattern continues both from the center to the sides of each color.

Once all the color was added we use Q-tips to add water and blend

This lesson is of course an exploration of Vassily Kandinsky's color studies, so it is also a perfect time to discuss this artist and how he recognized the correlations between art, math, and music.

The Not So Shady Side of Picasso-In Color!

2011-05-09T06:51:00.000-07:00

This is a reworking of an earlier project The Shady Side Of Picasso. We followed the drawing directions from this lesson, but when it came time to color, we used oil pastels and followed the technique from this lesson Hoppin Down The Bunny Trail.

How do you rework and mismash lessons to get new results?

The Art Fairy's Weekly Top Twenty

2011-05-06T00:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome to what I hope will become a weekly feature around here... My weekly top 20 favorite art lessons I have found in the blogosphere. It is also a wishlist of sorts, since I hope to use these lessons in my classes at some point as will you I hope! There's something for just about every age group here. Please enjoy and take the time to check out the blogs of these lovely teachers and parents if you haven't already. And a big thank you to the author's of these lessons, they are truly awesome!

(There are no pictures here as I did not want to infringe on anyone's copyrights.)

The Art Classroom: Camouflage Hands

Splish Splash Splatter: Melted Record Bowls

Think Create Art: Jesus Mandalas- 5th Grade

The Clever Feather: Our take on the Klimt 'Tree of Life"

BlueMoon Palette: Turtles by 2nd Grade

Pour Painting | Housing a Forest

The Art Classroom: Dots n' Spots

Artful Artsy Amy: Lesson Plan Wednesday: Color Theory, Hot Air Balloons

A Faithful Attempt: Milagros Bas Relief

JennyKayKidsArt: Pen and Ink Yr 5/6 drawings

Color, Craft, Create!!!: 5th Grade Profile Views

Art for Small Hands: Printing - Patterns

The Chocolate Muffin Tree: Quick And Easy Recycled Water Bottle Flower Sun Catchers

mrspicasso's art room: Shaving Cream Marbled Starry Nights

MaryMaking: Cats a la Rosina Wachtmeister

Art Project Girl: Projecting a Better Lesson

Sunflowers, Van Gogh and Our Art Project, Spirals, Heliotropism, Observation…. | “How Beautiful You Are”

Sleepyhead Designs Studio: Folk Art Neighborhoods

Art Rats... an Adventure in Junior High: Self Portraits with Text

"That Little Art Teacher": Piet Mondrian Animals

If you have a lesson or know of one that deserves to make The Top Twenty List for next week,
please let me know, either in the comments or at my email msjuliesartclass@AOLdot com.
Please write "Top Twenty" in the subject line.

If you were featured here, please feel free to grab a button!

The Elephant Vortex

2011-05-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

This you will probably recognize as two different projects that have been very popular as of late. For some reason, I felt the need to combine them and this is what resulted.

The links for each lesson are here for the optical illusion background and here for the elephant.

This piece was created with three separate pieces of paper. The first piece I used was 12" X 18" drawing paper. I folded down the corner at a diagonal to make a square and used a pencil to mark where the fold was. After opening I cut off the extra paper.

The extra paper was used for the elephant.

Black construction paper was used for mounting.

First the elephant was drawn in a guided drawing lesson and outlined in water based crayola marker. I started by giving the students an oval tracer just for the body. Often just that starting point is all they need to keep their proportions in check.

We then used a wet Q-tip to go over it. All of those wonderful gray tones just magically appear.

The vortex was then completed and colored. This is where I start to have a few tips.

Start by folding a square piece of paper in half and then in half again to achieve four boxes. Then fold on the diagonal in half and then in half again.(The result should look like a cross with an X through it.) This will create the 8 arms of the radial circle without the need of a ruler.

Another tip, number the sections that are to receive convex curves with 1, 2, 3, and 4, skipping a section each time. Have students complete those curves first. Once they are complete, then they can create the concave curves in the open sections.

When it comes to coloring, I like to reinforce color theory as often as possible so I chose to use warm and cool complimentary colors, but as long as there is a strong contrast the projects will look great.

I started with regular colored pencils, coloring with lighter pressure. Once the initial layer was down, I went back darker at the edge of the convex lines and in the middle for the concave lines. Then I went over the darker layer with white oil pastel and blended with my fingertip until the whole area was smooth. The pastel mixed with the oil pastel and blended out most of the pencil texture. I repeated for each section.

I then used a black oil pastel to darken the convex and concave lines.

The elephant was then cut out and attached in the center. I used mod podge, but I think regular glue would work a lot better.

For a final finish I used the black oil pastel to darken up some of the detail lines on the elephant that had been blurred in the q-tip painting process. I smudged the pastel around the edges of the elephant as well and blended with my q-tip to create a shadow behind the elephant.

Finally I cut on the curves a bit to create a unique shape and mount the piece on black construction paper.

Obviously this is a sample that I myself completed since my students are still working on theirs, but I just had to share. Just remember as always, that art is about the process and not the finished result so water down this lesson as you see fit for whatever grades you might try this with.

Science, Milk, and Fireworks!

2011-05-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

After seeing a great link to a science experiment post about making fireworks with milk, dish soap, and food coloring, I wondered if the results might yield a print. Boy did it!

You can find the original instructions for the experiment here...

http://unplugyourkids.com/2011/03/06/fireworks-in-a-dish-soap-unplugged-project/

After following all the steps here I placed the paper on top of our mixture we had prepared in a shallow cookie pan. What resulted was very pretty, but not exactly vibrant as you can see...

In pursuit of capturing the bright firework colors permanently, we decided to try placing the paper in the pan first and then adding the milk, food coloring and finally the dish soap.

This process produced significantly richer colors.

We allowed them to stay in the milk mixture for about 10 minutes after we were done adding colors and soap and laid them to dry on paper towels. The paper was quite curled by the time it was dry so I mounted them on shiny black cardstock to simulate a night time sky.

This was a fun way to combine science and art with my boys and I plan to try it out soon with my art students as well.

Next time I think I will experiment with liquid watercolor paint and perhaps tempera as well and see what happens!

As a science extension to this activity you might try finding out what causes this reaction. Is it a physical or chemical reaction that occurs.

Steve Spangler has a great explanation of

the science behind the fun here.

Or for more soapy fun, check out this link.

http://unplugyourkids.com/2011/03/01/soap-unplugged-project/

As an art extension, take a look at the prints and see if there are any hidden pictures in there waiting to be more defined. Might there be an alien hiding in those fireworks or maybe a friendly hoot owl, or even a roaring lion. Just think ink blot and see where your imagination will take you.

Fun Foam Mosaic

2011-04-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

This was a really fun project, but it did take quite a long time to complete.

I had the students cover the front side of a copied black line coloring page with white chalk pastel. We then flipped the paper over on to the black construction paper and secured with blue painters tape. The black lines were visible through the regular copy paper so the students just traced the lines

with a pencil creating a white chalk line transfer.

The fun foam was precut into small squares beforehand, but if the space required a smaller space, they had to cut those pieces themselves. Triangle shapes worked most of the time.

They were encouraged to use more than one color tone in areas like the leaves

to create a little interest and depth.

I had the students work from the inside of the picture outward by filling the space with regular white Elmer's school glue and carefully place the foam tesserae in the space. Toothpicks were used to move the pieces to the exact space and students did need to be reminded to leave space in between the tesserae to allow the black "grout" to show through.

I also told them that the piece would be more interesting if they did not cover the entire page with tesserae but left areas foam free.The branch area was also left foam free and created a nice contrast for the yellow claws.

The Versatile Blogger Award- FInally!

2011-04-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

I was so honored to receive this award from not just one, but two amazing bloggers;
Art at Chesterbrook Academy
and
Outside the Lines Young Artists' Studios

Being recognized by individuals whose work I admire and respect so much is truly edifying!

Of course this award does come with a few responsibilities. The first of which is to publicly thank and link back to those who deemed you worthy of receiving it. Next up, tell seven random facts about yourself. Lastly, award 10 more recently discovered bloggers or old favorites with the same honors and high praise and make sure to let them know about it.

Since I have already completed requirement number one, let's move right on into number 2 shall we?

SEVEN RANDOM THINGS ABOUT MISS JULIE

1. I ask my students to call me Miss Julie because if they call me Mrs. Moses I start looking around for my mother-in-law.
2. I collect quotes. I made myself a little journal of them.
3. I am a Joan Crawford like clean freak-though you could not tell that by looking at my house. Or my car.
4. Each of my children believed that their belly button was called their "beep-beep" until they were about three years old because every time we sang "The Wheels on the Bus", when we got to the horn portion of the song, their tummy served as the sound maker.
5. I have learned more from teaching art to kids than I ever did in any of my high school or college art classes.
6. I am endlessly fascinated with neurology and current research on what is called neuroplasticity.
7. I generally ruin all crime dramas or suspense thrillers for my husband by figuring out the plot line pattern 15 to 20 minutes into the episode or movie. As such, my oldest daughter has vowed to create a patternless plot line someday in order to stump me.

Enough about me. Now on to the good stuff!

TEN WONDERFULLY INSPIRING BLOGS YOU SHOULD BE READING

Dilly Dally Art
Casa Maria's Creative Learning Zone
Art With Mr. E
A Faithful Attempt
Art Project Girl
Painted Paper
Art Rats
Teach Kids Art
SmART Class

So now it is their turn to honor some more of the truly deserving blogs out there!

Not just for the bathtub...

2011-04-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I said Monday, but being it is only Monday for another hour, I am going to leave my award post for Tuesday. In the meantime, I will leave you with this...

Recently I purchased bathtub crayons for my 15 month old. Technically they are for 3 and over, but my little one doesn't put them in her mouth-much. They were an absolute hit. I know this because of the deafening screams she produced when I took them from her at the end of bath time.

Since she loves them so much, I tried to extend the play opportunity beyond bathtime. We have since found them very useful in the high chair. It wipes right off! The high chair also keeps her contained, so they don't end up on my walls. Of course there was that one time the high chair was very close to the wall-too tempting for my future muralist. Good news- it wiped right off!

I took the adventure further and invited her to use them on the mirrored closet doors and the clear glass shower door. We haven't tried the glass patio door yet, but we have to save something for tomorrow.

So what inventive ways can you think of to use bathtub crayons?

Op Art Eggs

2011-04-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

I've seen this project around quite a bit lately, so I just had to give it a try. Of course, I did give it an Art Fairy tweak or two.

Instead of using the traditional sphere shape, we used an egg in honor of Easter.

This was also done in two pieces. The eggs were done on a separate paper, cut out and then attached.

They were given a cardstock egg shape templates to draw the eggs.

To draw the grid on the eggs, I had the students draw a slightly curved line down the center of the egg creating two sections. they drew another curved line in in the center of each new section, creating four sections. I told them to think of the longitude lines they would see on a globe. We repeated this process for the horizontal or latitudinal lines.

The eggs were then colored with watercolor pencil, water was added using Q-tips, and lastly cut out.

Because of time constraints, students were given a grid that was premade on the computer and printed onto cardstock. Again we used watercolor pencils for the grid.

We discussed a bit of color theory and looked at the color wheel. We talked about complimentary colors and how primary colors are mixed to create secondary colors. We also discussed how they complimentary colors are always composed of one warm and one cool color.

Students were instructed to choose one warm and one cool color to complete the grid patterns and hopefully create

a bit of "chromatic tension".

The eggs were then attached using rolled up pieces of tape.

Gluing would probably be better, but tape allowed us to move ahead without waiting for it to dry. The eggs were lightly shaded at the edges with vine charcoal. White highlight was added to the center of the eggs with chalk pastel.

Before we started our project we watched this little video on You Tube about the history of Optical Art. It is actually about Pop and Op Art but is nicely split in two sections right in the middle around the 5 minute mark. Several of the pop art images were more than I was willing to explain to my elementary level students so we skipped ahead and stopped early on the video. We also watched this

video slide show of Op Art by Victor Vasarely.

Next time I try this project, I'd like to try adding a basket as well and see how that turns out. Can you think of any other ways to modify this project to fit what you're currently working on? I'd love to hear your ideas...

Stay tuned Monday for a special Versatile Blogger Awards Post!

Faux Stained Glass

2011-04-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

First I found a stained glass coloring page- a very simple oval one. Then we cut up each section of the oval into five or six smaller irregular pieces. This first "stained glass" piece was accomplished by using Prismacolor markers on regular copy paper. The ink bled through heavily. So what we are seeing is actually the back side of the paper. There are little bits of white that resemble some of the frosting you see on traditional stained glass. After that was attached to black paper with glue and allowed to dry. The "leading" was traced over with black glue. Black glue is regular white school glue with just a little black acrylic paint mixed in. It dries with a raised surface. This one turned out very pretty.

This is another simple coloring page sans the extra sections but with a dove added. This is crayon on wax paper. Again the leading is black glue and the frame is two pieces of black construction paper with the oval center cut out. This one would make a really nice sun catcher displayed on a window.

Easter Rainbows

2011-04-18T06:25:00.000-07:00

Materials
7 sheets of paper, red, orange, green, blue, purple, white
paper plate
pencil
paper trimmer and or scissors
stapler
clip(optional)

1.Start with 7 sheets of paper stacked in this color order, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and white. Use a paper trimmer or scissors to cut the papers in half lengthwise.

2.Use a large circle to draw a curve at the short edge one of the papers. Cut this curve and use it as a template to trace the same curve on the remaining papers. Turn over and trace on the other side of the papers. You want a mirrored curve here so that later when the pages are folded in the curves will match up.

3. On the white paper, after the curve is traced, add a wavy line on both sides.

4. Cut all the curves.

5. Stagger the papers so that each shows evenly. Fold the bottom up to meet the white and create two rows of cloud. Crease the fold. Clip to hold in place.

6. Reopen and staple on the crease. It is best to staple from the outside in so that staple points aren't sticking out to poke little fingers.

7. Close book up and place under heavier books to get to lay flat.

In honor of National Poetry Month, this is my Easter rainbow poem. You could write this out in the rainbow book you just made! I am planning on making these with my Sunday school class of kindergartners and four year olds this Easter. I will print out each verse on labels or sticker paper and have them stick on the appropriate verse for each color.
If anyone would like the corresponding bible verses, let me know and I will post them.

A Rainbow for Jesus
By Julie Moses

Red is for the blood
Jesus shed on the cross
Orange is the color of spices
Used to prepare his death cloths
Yellow is the color of the hem
Of an angel's robe,
who From the tomb,
Rolled away the stone.
Green is the color of
the brand new life
We find in Jesus Christ
Blue is the color
of the comfort and peace He gives,
even in the midst of strife.
Purple is the color
Used to dress a king.
Remember the rainbow and
How Christ gave us everything.

This book can become many things. You can write your own rainbow poem or story in it, cut out same colored items from magazines and make a rainbow collage,
or think of items that are that color and draw them in yourself.
Turn it into your own favorite bedtime story so that you too can have rainbow dreams!
For older kids who want to get in on the fun have them check out some rainbow history.

This is a video of the same process.

Artisitic Progeny

2011-04-13T14:48:00.000-07:00

People often assume that because I am an art teacher, that my kids take lessons from me and that they must love having an art teacher for a mom. Kids tell me they wish their mom or dad was an art teacher. The fact of my profession is pretty much lost on my kids though. They hate taking classes with me. I did make them for a time, but then I realized I just needed to back off. They still consult me here and there for technical advice, but mostly they just practice on their own. The above photos show the results of that approach. These were done by my 9 year old son. He just got a brand new set of 48 Dick Blick Studio markers today. They are pretty much equivalent to Prismacolor Markers, just not quite as expensive. I don't know how long they will last, and Ryan seems intent on testing their longevity-TODAY! Ryan has a real intuitive sense of shading. His pencil work has floored me many times and he seems to be on the fast path to mastering blending techniques with makers as well. I would like to think that this has come from watching me and listening to the nuggets of wisdom I impart here and there. Although I am starting to think that it may be far less about me as much as it is giving him the freedom to play with quality materials as well as subject matter. You see we get a lot of guns, various explosives, and technical machinery in Ry's portfolio, but they are beautifully shaded. Would he have put so much effort into some subject I chose for him? I don't think so. Eventually he will need to learn how giving yourself limitations as an artist actually gives you more freedom to explore, but for now I will stand back and just watch- in awe.

Getting Inspired

2011-04-12T08:42:00.000-07:00

"Good artists borrow, great artists steal." A famous quote supposedly uttered by Picasso. Whether or not he actually said it though, it is a universal truth. This article explores this and gives some other great advice for artists of all ages. Go and check it out. Bookmark it while you're there, you'll be glad you did!

How to Steal LIke an Artist and 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me...

The Motherlode of Tangle Resources

2011-03-29T19:50:00.000-07:00

If you are an art teacher and have not heard of Zentangle yet, then you are sorely missing out. It is really a lot of fun and kids and grown up alike love learning how simple and easy these complex looking designs really are to draw. If you already know about Zentangle, chances are you love it as much as I do. If you are like me though, you may get into a rut with the patterns you use in your tangle projects. No more should this happen! A wonderful Certified Zentangle Teacher has created an ever expanding site of patterns from around the web complete with step by step instructions on how to draw them! How cool is that?

Go there now, you will not be disappointed!

Tanglepatterns.com

Math and Art

2011-03-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

In my classes of late we have been exploring relationships between art and math. If you ever go down this path, it is almost a requirement to include a lesson on MC Escher. I usually try to present some biographical information about the artist we are studying. Using a short video to accomplish this works fairly well, not to mention that with a little help from google and youtube, I can almost always find a video premade by someone else. The quality varies, as does the level of the intended audience. I find though, that if I pause the video here and there and explain what is coming up or what was just said, the kids digest it just fine.

As a teaser to a tessellation lesson I'll be posting about soon, please enjoy this really well done video about MC Escher..

Leo's Helio's

2011-03-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

One of the numerous innovations we can give credit to Leonardo da Vinci for is some of the first concept designs for helicopters. Drawing helicopters is far easier than you might think, and my first grade class pulled it off pretty nicely.
This was a guided drawing lesson, (Monart style) so as I drew a line on the white board, the students would draw a line as well. Even though you might think this would create kind of uniformity in the drawing results, it really doesn't. The way each student interprets and reproduces the lines are totally unique. The only caveat is making the kids aware that there is no right or wrong way to interpret and to get them through to the end of the drawing. Kids can be very critical of their process if they don't think it looks "right". This is probably the reason we lose so many people to the idea that they are "not artists" because they can't "draw right." We started in pencil, which can be a tricky thing to do. A lot of art teachers don't give pencils because the temptation to erase can be so overwhelming that it just brings the process to a big screaming halt. My pencils are well loved though and most no longer have erasers. I will give a child a big eraser if they really think they need it, but I try to hold them off if possible.
After the helicopter was drawn we added in background details, This is a great project to introduce the concept of the horizon line, as well as foreground and middle ground and background. Once the kids are satisified with their pencil lines I gave them either a brown marker or brown watercolor pencil to trace their lines. After this step was done, I had the kids use a wet q-tip to trace over those lines which cause the brown to bleed a bit, resulting in the appearance of an old sepia ink wash, just like in da Vinci's journals. If you have them you could use watercolor crayons too. I just bought some for myself personally. I am told they are more vibrant than their pencil counterpart. I haven't had a chance to use them yet, but they may be on my order list of classroom supplies for next year. Anyone out there have anything to say about them? Or water soluble oil pastels?

The Art Fairy is Born!

2011-03-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

It officially Spring! So along with some other Spring cleaning that desperately needs to take place at my house, it is time for a little upkeep here at the blog. What better way than to start fresh? Welcome to The Art Fairy. This is a place for anyone, young or old who has ever said "I wish I could do that!", Well now, like a swish from the wand of a magic fairy princess, you can. Here you will find original projects and links to other wonderful projects
from all over the web.

If you leave an art teacher blog a comment, she will...

2011-03-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

Please be careful when you leave me comments...

If you leave an art teacher blog a comment,
The art teacher will have to check out the commenter blog,
When she checks out the commenter blog,
She will be find an impressive art project.
She will want to try said art project immediately,
But she will find she has no time at that precise moment to do said project,
So she will just "appropriate" said project as a new post on her blog, which...
will probably end up being commented on.

Such happened yesterday with Shannon's comment. I have now been introduced to the wonderful world of Notan! It's bold graphic qualities really appeal to me. I also love the concepts it has to teach about composition and value.

I really hadn't heard the term before since I am mostly self-taught, so I went in search of Notan... this is what I have found so far...
YouTube - What is Notan
YouTube - Notan Design Instruction Video

You may wonder why I can't just go try all these wonderful projects... Well I am currently involved in a rather time consuming project. I'll give you a sneak peak at it's progress...

Time consuming, but sooo worth it.

So Worth A Try...

2011-03-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

This is a project that needs to be done. Logistically it looks to be a nightmare, but with a little careful planning, the process and end result look to be absolutely worth it...

Here you can see how Teacher Tom brought the scale down and did the project with preschoolers.

Teacher Tom took the scale down and used paint mixed with glue to achieve the correct consistency without breaking the bank. This project looks like it would use A LOT of paint which could get expensive very quick in a classroom. The other issue it could present might have to do with the sheer weight of the paint.
I am thinking of using several of the boxes I have laying around left over from all the deliveries after my birthday online shopping spree. I mostly bought books, so the boxes really are the perfect size and shape for something like this. This also looks like something you may want to do as an outside project.
I know my kids will get a kick out of it as well.

New Sources of Inspiration

2011-03-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

If you have not seen this blog, you must go there right now! Seriously, I command you, you really need to see it.

Pink and Green Mama

Blog Envy

2011-02-09T17:14:00.000-08:00

You have to understand, I have no time. No time for myself and definitely no time for blogging. I do have these great ideas though. The good thing is those ideas are in use in my classroom. The bad news is that I am totally frustrated in not getting to share them. My frustration is compounded when I do get a few minutes to peruse other art teacher blogs. Inspired definitely, but definitely jealous. The main culprit for my lack of time is staring at you from above this post through her too beautiful for words, great big eyes. Sure I'm frustrated, but she's worth it. So are the other distractions in my life- like my husband and other 3 kids. Someday I'll be back. Someday. In the meantime I may just stalk y'all and post my favorite links here if you don't mind.
Today's favorites are these...

smART Class

Art Project Girl

Oliart

2010-08-13T09:12:00.001-07:00

Ok. I think I may be out of a job. How cute is this?

She apparently has a whole little series of these videos. Totally awesome!

Blog Hopping

2010-07-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

Hi there y'all. I know I've been out of circulation a bit- if your baby was as cute as mine, you probably would be too! But she's a bit older now and I am slowly but surely being drawn(ha ha, get the pun?) back into the art teacher blog world. It has grown while I was gone and I have been finding some amazing new blogs with oodles of new creative inspirations for my kiddos this fall. I have also been humbled as I find links to this site on quite a lot of them. So if you have a link to this site on your blog and I don't have you in my blogroll yet, would you drop me a comment and let me know you're out there? I anxiously await the opportunity to steal, oops make that SHARE all your wonderful ideas. Even if you don't have a link to me, let me know and I'll add you to my blogroll anyway!

I'll just take this opportunity to update everyone on the precious princess Emberjayne whose image is gracing this post. I have the great honor of saying she will be completely off oh the antiseizure medication as of August 2nd. Currently she is down to only one dose (from two) per day. We are already seeing quite a change in her personality. She is babbling more and is just a lot more alert. She has been on the meds since she was 3 days old so we never knew what the difference might be. Phenobarbital is a central nervous system depressant so babies who have to take can be delayed as a side effect. She was hitting her milestones pretty well(not early but sort of in the middle of the timetable) so we weren't too concerned. It will be very fun to see what happens now though and maybe get to meet our real daughter for the first time very soon!

On another note, I hope to have some new lessons up here pretty soon. Leo's Helios will be up first!

Sitting Under the Klimt Tree

2010-07-27T12:07:00.000-07:00

This past week we learned about Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. If you know Klimt's work, you may think that not an appropriate choice for a kids class. For the most part, I would agree, but he does have several family friendly pieces and his contribution to the art world is still significant. Not to mention he is one of my favorite artists. Though his life was not one we Christians can admire for his high morals, he had few, his work is still exceptionally beautiful. He used a lot of gold in his paintings, being the son of an engraver helped him to become an expert at the gold leaf process.

For this project you will need examples of Klimt's work. Allposters.com is a good resource. There is even a children's book called Klimt and His Cat by Berenice Capatti and illustrated by Octavia Monaco.

The narrator is the cat and Klimt's world is seen through its eyes. It is in no way a complete biography but it is a kid-friendly way to introduce this particularly controversial artist. There is some nudity in the book, so be prepared. I take no shame in my censorship and placed post it notes over questionable images. I also did not let kids view the book on their own so they could not "peek".

Materials needed:
Print or photo of Gustav Klimt's "The tree of life".

Metallic gel markers (we used Prang, purchased at WalMart)
Black or other dark toned paper (pastel paper would be good, but I used scrapbook paper)
oil pastels(brown and black)

1. Have kids decide whether their composition will be vertical or horizontal.

2. Once they decide this then they should find the middle of their page on the bottom edge. Just to the left of this have them draw a curved line with a metallic gold or silver marker that starts at the bottom edge of the page and ends in a spiral. Have them move to the right a bit and repeat this curve in the opposite direction, still ending in a spiral.

3. In the middle of these two curves they should draw a "V" shape. This will create a tree trunk.

4. Now the kids get to make their tree grow. Continue to have them add spiral branches, some growing from the first spirals moving outward and some moving upward until they have just about filled the page. Encourage kids to make some spirals larger and some smaller, some going right and some left. Hopefully they will leave some room though as there are lots more details to add.

(note)There is a lot of detail to this project, so younger kids or ones who aren't into art that much may benefit from breaking this project up into 2 or 3 shorter sessions instead of one long one.

5.Have the kids fill in the tree trunk and then thicken some of the branches on the curves only. The actual spirals probably won't need to be thickened.

6. At this point the kids should add a horizon line. Have them draw a line from the right side of the trunk to the edge of the page and repeat on the left.

7. At this point have them draw in pink and purple flowers with green stems. They may add as many or as few as they like and they should be on the ground and in the tree.

8. Next they will add green triangles, stars(any color), circles, and dots. All these shapes look better when they are done in a grouping and not just by themselves randomly scattered. The dots especially look nice if they follow along the edges of the spirals. Then have them add green and blue swirls on the ground in between the flowers. Encourage variety in sizes, making some bigger and some smaller.

9. At this point have the kids start putting black and brown rectangles on the tree trunk and thicker branches of the tree. They can also add some gold or silver rectangles here depending on whether they started with gold or silver. Again encourage variety in the rectangle pattern. Some should be vertical, some horizontal, some filled in, some empty. The cloak of the male figure in Klimt's "The Kiss" is a good example of this.

When all is said and done these pieces are beautiful and very dramatic especially if mounted on lighter paper and then on black.
Enjoy.

This was the example I made.

This is from an 8 year old student.

This was from a 6 year old student.

This was from an 11 year old student.

This was from a 5 year old student.

Hands On Homeschool Blog Carnival- Summer Kick Off Edition

2010-06-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the June 14, 2010 edition of the Hands On Homeschool Blog Carnival.

I am so very honored to be the host for this edition. Please accept my sincere apologies for this late edition. But better late than never, right? At least that's what I keep telling myself(and almost everyone else now that I have four kids!) God bless families like the Duggar's. How do they ever get anywhere on time I wonder? That being said, please take your time enjoying the offerings of this carnival. You're sure to find something great to fill your summer days. And just like great scenery is part of any great summer trip, please enjoy the great eye candy I have posted along the way for you...

GrrlScientist presents How Will You Celebrate International Migratory Bird Day? posted at Living the Scientific Life, saying, "A list of things you can do to help birds and other native wildlife, from small day-to-day changes to becoming a citizen activist."

Denise presents 20 Best Math Games and Puzzles posted at Let's Play Math!, saying, "Take a break from textbook math and enjoy yourself. I like to use games as a warm-up at Math Club meetings. My students love puzzles and will work much harder at such a challenge than they ever would do on a textbooky worksheet. Try your hand at a few of these, and let me know what you think."

Nikki Olivier presents We play and learn a little more every day. posted at Our Journey in Him, saying, "We're a South African family living and learning together-these are some of the things which keep us busy during the day."

Nikki Olivier presents A Nature Walk in Winter. posted at Our Journey in Him, saying, "This is how we have combined living books and nature study on a recent Nature Walk."

Nadene presents Paper Dolls of Ancient History « Practical Pages posted at PracticalPages, saying, "Children will enjoy colouring in, cutting out and playing with these historical paper dolls. They are excellent for hands-on narrations, dramatizations and plays for History."

Tracy Beach presents New Teacher Downloadable: Give Parents Ideas to Avoid the “Summer Slide” posted at Math Learning, Fun & Education Blog : Dreambox Learning.

Angie in GA presents Weekly Wrap Up « TheOneThing posted at TheOneThing, saying, "Here is a link to my weekly Up date post I thought it might be helpful or inspiring to see how a HS family does it week to week"

Angie in GA presents Life Never Stops therefore Habit Training Shouldn?t Either posted at Habits for a Happy Home.

presents Printable Fathers Day Cards posted at Home Life Weekly, saying, "A great art project make your own printable Fathers Day cards is really easy."

Nadene presents Sniff and find your baby! posted at PracticalPages, saying, "Fun activity for Science, using all our senses to learn."

Though these last three are not from the homeschool community, I decided to include them. One gives us a summer perspective from a family with five kids who are facing the summer together without school as a buffer and the other two are resources you may find helpful this season to supplement your summer learning.

OurBlogs presents Summer Plans, Again posted at A Guide to Raising Great Kids.

Tracy Beach presents Use DreamBox Learning K-3 Math Free in Summer School Classes! posted at Math Learning, Fun & Education Blog : Dreambox Learning.

Kevin Poulis presents DiscipleLand.com – Discipleship Curriculum for Kids posted at SiteTally.com.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
hands on homeschool blog carnival
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Very Vermeer

2010-06-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

This is the lesson I am presenting to my students this week.
It's sort of a challenge to for them as it doesn't teach them to draw anything.
The point is to draw what they can based on the given criteria.

Jan Vermeer

(1632- 1675)

Jan Vermeer was born to an art dealer father in the city of Delft in the Netherlands. His father's position afforded him an early advantage of contact with artists and art buyers. Vermeer painted mostly portraits, completing only 40 or so paintings in his lifetime. More have been attributed to him, but their authenticity can not be established. Other painters so admired his work that they tried to paint exactly like him and this has confused many art historians. It was some 200 years after his death however that the general public took any notice of his work and began to realize its importance.

Vermeer was very much a "starving artist". He worked hard to support his wife Catherina and their 15 children(only ten survived childhood), though it was never enough. The family lived with Catherina's mother Maria Thins and Vermeer still had to borrow money just to feed his children. Financial devastation overtook the family when the government allowed widespread flooding in order to rid the country of the Spanish that had overtaken their country. The family farm was destroyed, as was Vermeer's health and he died a short time later, leaving his wife a widow with ten children to care for all alone.

There was a time when his portrait work was in demand and evidence of this can be found in his paintings that have blue in them. The main ingredient used to make blue paint in this period was extremely expensive and most artists couldn't afford to use it. Another clue to a period of prosperity lay in the maps that frequented the backgrounds of his works. Having a map in one's home was an indicator of wealth, education, and possible world travel.

Only a few of Vermeer's paintings were not of people. Most were of indoor scenes with women, a window to the left of the frame casting a strong light on it's subjects.

How Very Vermeer- The Lesson Plan

Materials Needed
watercolor or cardstock paper
pencils
black Sharpie@ markers
oil pastels
baby oil
Q-Tips
Examples of Vermeer's Paintings

Vermeer tended to paint indoor scenes. There was usually a woman or two strongly lit from the left by a large window. In some of the paintings he did there was a map on the wall and a diamond shaped tile pattern on the floor. In his most famous painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring, the subject is wearing a pearl earning (obviously) and has the color blue in her headdress.
These will be what the project needs to be based on.

The end result should be a a project with these criteria:

1. An indoor scene
2. One or more figures in the scene
3. A large window in the left hand side of your picture
4. A map of some kind in the picture
5. Include a pattern of diamond shapes somewhere in the picture.
6. Include jewelry somewhere in the picture.
7. Include the color blue in the picture somehow.

My suggestion is to look at as many Vermeer pieces as you can beforehand. Ask the students if they notice any other patterns in Vermeer's work that they may want to include in the guidelines.

If your students require more direction, then you can print out a Vermeer print and have them trace it to a blackline. From there they can create their own version on a new piece of paper(or they can use it as a homemade coloring page) and personalize it to her satisfaction. For the faint of heart in the drawing department, never fear, the desired result of this lesson can also be achieved through making a collage from Vermeer prints or even from magazines. This lesson is all about the "criteria". If your student has met all of the requirements in the guidelines, then their pieces are successful.

After they are satisfied with their drawings, they should outline all the pencil marks in Sharpie. Then they should color the pictures in with oil pastel. Once all the color is on, have then take a Q-tip dipped in just a little baby oil onto the oil pastel and rub it around. The oil breaks down the pastel into a more liquid, spreadable, and bendable form. Try to use a new Q-tip for each color and to use the oil sparingly as the picture can get greasy quickly. If it has too much oil, simply blot the page with a paper towel until the oil is absorbed. The Q-tips offer much more control than a brush for student hands. This is a great technique and I use it a lot in my classes.

Hopefully your students will love their pieces and they will probably be able to tell you and everyone you know for a very long time the specific elements that help make a Vermeer standout!

Just Thought...

2010-05-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

Just thought y'all might like to know
what's been taking up all my time and energy lately.
Emberjayne is doing fabulously well as you can see.
At just a week or so before five months old, she is
measuring at 26 1/2 inches long and
weighing in at around 18 pounds.
She is rolling over from her back to her tummy,
though hasn't figured out how to get herself back over just yet, so Mom and Dad have to help her out
when she gets too tired or frustrated.
She is very happy and loves to sing, screech, and cackle!
She is still taking anti-seizure medication and we still have a few neurology appointments to get through,
but all in all she is just amazing!

PS In case you are interested, the gorgeous hair bow in the first picture was created by Amy over at LC Creations. If you have a little girl in your life, it's definitely worth checking out! Proceeds on some of her items go to help children and their families battling cancer.

Botticelli's Venus

2010-05-07T19:20:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is a lesson on how to draw the face of Venus using correct proportions all based on the eye.

Not so Ho-Hum Hummmingbirds

2010-03-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

This was a post from a while ago, but what the heck, a classic is always in style, and I am beginning to have visits from these lovely creatures in my backyard again.

Many a seemingly complicated drawing project is really simple if you just break it down into steps. When teaching a lesson, I always start with a black line coloring book style drawing. Most details and color blending is done as the last steps in a project, but tends to get seen first and can distract you from finding the "bones" of the drawing. I obviously used a still picture to do this project and drawing from life is much more challenging, but the principle is the same. Practicing gesture drawing in quick sketches is the best way to get the structure of your drawing and then go back and add details later.
This blackline came from the Jan Brett website and is available as a free coloring page.

I tried to break this down into manageable pieces without making too many steps.
If you find it confusing, just try to break it down into even smaller steps. What does a shape look like to you? Do you see a triangle or maybe a Hershey Kiss. Do you see a sideways letter C or maybe a rainbow or happy face? Making those kind of connections is what turns you into an artist, not simply following someone else's steps.

The finished hummingbird at the top of this post was completed with watercolor pencil and white oil pastel for highlights.

Below you will find some images of real hummingbirds to reference for color ideas.

Hummingbird Hunt

2010-02-25T17:58:00.000-08:00

Emberjayne Grace
Seven Weeks

You Know it's Spring When the Zinias Zoom and...

2010-02-23T17:08:00.000-08:00

oil pastel and watercolor resist

the art teachers start pulling out lessons
on Georgia O'Keefe's flowers.

Yes, spring has sprung where I live and the rainbow
in my backyard is blooming again! In art class last week and the week before we focused on Georgia O'Keefe.
She has a very interesting biography and you can read more about that here,
but for now I have two projects for your consideration
and a little surprise at the end!

Project # 1 Oil pastel and watercolor resist

Materials needed:
black oil pastel
water color paint
brushes
watercolor paper
masking tape
a flower of your choosing

(before you begin, use masking tape to attach your paper to a board. Go all the way around all four edges, the end result will look like a crisply edged print!)

1. Start by looking at your flower, really looking at it! Look inside as far as you can, notice the parts and their shapes.

2. Sketch out what you see. Remember O'Keefe's flowers were done in a tightly cropped and very "zoomed" in composition. Use oil pastel instead of pencil and try to capture what you are seeing without worrying about mistakes. The point of this is not total drawing accuracy, but connecting with what you see through drawing.

3. Once your sketch is done, decide what colors you are going to use- they do not have to be the same as the original flower. Paint right over the pastel which will resist the watercolor.

4. Once the painting is dry, remove the tape and enjoy!

Project # 2-(intended for older or more advanced students)
pencil floral element composition

Materials needed
Pencil
drawing paper(3 sheets each)
flower or picture of a flower of your choice

1. Sketch the flower as accurately as you can. Really look at the shapes of the petals and the details of the leaves- are the veins prominent? Are the edges straight or serrated?

2. Once your drawing is done, look at that shapes again. Try to pull out at least ten elements of shape or pattern and draw them on another piece of paper.

3. Using these elements, create a new design or pattern. It shouldn't really look like a flower, just a composition made up of floral elements.

4. Once your the basics of your design are in, then shade. Really try to create an array of pencil tones and shades that go from very light to very dark. The more shades you have in a drawing then the more interesting it will be!

Have fun!

Now for the surprise...

Emberjayne Grace

Six weeks old

4 Weeks

2010-02-02T13:46:00.000-08:00

I know it's not an art lesson, but... Art lessons will return soon.

Little Miss Emberjayne is four weeks old today. Time is moving entirely too fast! She has actually only been home for eighteen of those twenty eight days, so that is probably distorting my time time perception somewhat, but still...
Things are going well. Save for my paranoia. The fun thing about coming through something like this is the hyper-vigilance that occurs as a result. I find myself constantly questioning the normalcy of her every stretch, wiggle, and grunt. Not to mention I did myself the severe disservice of trying to educate myself about what happened via the internet. (It's sort of like leaving a hypochondriac in a room full of medical diagnostic journals.) I can joke and make light, but I am admittedly still worried. Her next neurology appointment can't come quite soon enough for my liking. I have so many questions to ask of the doctors. This is the time where leaving it in God's hands becomes difficult, and yet this is what I must do. He is the Great Healer and she is in His hands, not mine and if this is true, then worry will accomplish nothing.
On a different note, our neighbor, friend, and sister-in-Christ just did a family portrait session for us. She has really become an amazing photographer. I can't wait to see all the photos. The one above was me taking pictures behind her. And just to wet your appetite for how awesome these images are going to be let me just say two things... baby and a bass drum!

Updates and Thanks

2010-01-24T14:32:00.001-08:00

Hi there everyone,
I just wanted to get an update to everyone on how the baby is doing. Many of you are on facebook and have already heard, but for those of you who haven't this is for you.
Emberjayne came home on Jan 15th after seven days in the NICU. All her blood work and cultures taken from the spinal tap came back negative. She did not have a skull fracture- it was simply a line on her skull that is actually part of the way her skull is formed. She did have a subdural bleed but it will go away on it's own.We still don't know if this caused the seizures or the seizures caused the bleed or were completely unrelated. CPS did try to make a home visit, but were called off as soon as the x-rays were officially confirmed by an expert at Loma Linda. The EEG did show spikes of activity that could be evidence of current seizures or simply "left-overs' from the ones she already had. We will learn more at our neurology follow up visit on February 4th. In the meantime she has already seen our local pediatrician who told me that if I had not handed him the doctor's reports regarding this whole incident, he would never have been able to tell she ever had any issues at all.Neurologically she seems perfect. She has already gained a pound over her birth weight and has grown two inches.We are still working on nursing, but I am pumping well and she is not being supplemented with any formula. She will have to remain on anti-seizure medication for the time being, and despite my initial fears that she would seem drugged and sleepy all the time, she has gotten used to the medicine and has very normal alert times for her age. She is very wiggly and almost wiggles off her play mat on the floor, not to mention out of her swaddling blankets!
God has been so amazing through all of this. Just when we thought we couldn't take anymore, my husband's truck broke down. Since he is self-employed and uses that truck for work, it was another major setback for us. God however uses these "setbacks" as an opportunity to show us His grace, which he most certainly has. Baby Ember is living up to her middle name! The truck was towed(free of charge) and fixed with help from others and now runs better than ever. We felt that the storm had lifted and the sun was shining the moment we were told we could take our little girl home, and that was enough for us. God how ever has continued to provide. Wonderful families from our church have provided us with dinners all of this past week. On top of that, other friends are providing dinners all of this week.
In the middle of the storm, we were so supported by the love and prayers of so many people. Literally there were people around the country and around the world praying for Ember and for us as a family.
Please know that I really could feel that and without it, I might be writing a very different story. My mom-in-law deserves a sainthood as she took care of all the needs of our older three kids so that we could be with the baby as much as possible and My sis-in-law made a 400 mile trip just to help out as well. My family near the hospital put us up for the week so we could be closer to the hospital as well as provided us with amazing emotional and prayer support. It is times like these that we truly learn about our dependence on God and upon the body of Christ- and wonder why we would ever try to manage on our own.
At this point we don't know exactly what the future holds for us- as if anyone does- but we are confident that God will be there loving and supporting us come what may- through His own sovereign grace or through the amazing actions of prayer warriors, neighbors, friends, and family members in Christ!

Love In Christ,
The Moses Family

Let the Praises Ring!

2010-01-15T22:05:00.000-08:00

Baby Emberjayne was discharged from the hospital early this evening and she is now home!! She will still have to be on anti-seizure medication for the time being, but praise the Lord she is sleeping in her own bassinet with no tubes or wires! The skull fracture was not a fracture but simply some unique feature on her skull. The line was perfectly symmetrical on both sides which does happen with a fracture. CPS will no longer be an issue. The cultures taken from the spinal tap all came back negative as well. She was the healthiest baby in the NICU the whole time. We are so thrilled to have her home. Thank you everyone who prayed for her and our family. God is so good and so mighty and your prayers are very powerful things. Keep us in your prayers as we now face what might be next.

Ember Update

2010-01-13T21:18:00.000-08:00

Emberjayne is continuing to do well though we still don't have any definitive answers. We are trusting in God every minute. Currently we are waiting for interpretive results of an EEG test and X-rays. Her neonatologist believes the skull fracture seen on the ct scan is not really there and is simply the suture line where the skull plates meet. A preliminary report on the EEG did show increased electrical spikes but he would not tell me what that really meant. I have to wait for the neurologists to analyze this information. We probably won't hear anything before Friday. It also looks less and less likely that the seizures were the result of any kind of infection, but she does have to fininsh out antibiotics just in case.
The good news at this point though is she has regained her birth weight and then some. She is currently six ounces over her birth weight and eats like a little piggy. I have been able to nurse somewhat and she has not forgotten how to latch on. I have also been very successful with pumping with a manual pump. A wonderful friend has also loaned me her high end double pump, so nursing is something I can continue to do despite being separated from her for so many hours each day.
The bad news was that my husband's truck broke down two days ago. He uses the truck for work and was coming up to the hosptial as soon as he was done. He now has no truck to work in or come to the hospital in. We are not sure when it will get fixed though it is with a great mechanic who has blessed us in this trial.
God is good! Please keep praying.
I will post more updates as we get them.

Please Pray for Emberjayne Grace

2010-01-10T14:35:00.001-08:00

Emberjayne Grace was born on Jan 5th. She came home Jan 7th, a day late because Mom spiked a temp and had to receive 24 hours worth of heavy duty antibiotics to get rid of whatever infection was causing the fever.
Around lunchtime on Friday the 8th, Ember had her first seizure. It was short-only 20 seconds. We were not completely sure it really was a seizure. Twenty minutes later we knew for sure as she had another one, this time a full minute and with all the tell tale signs of a granmal seizure. She was taken by ambulance to the nearest ER. She was stable the whole time and not seizing anymore. Once at the ER, they wanted to put in an IV, draw blood, do a spinal tap, CT Scan, and chest X-ray. No one could get the blood draw.We had to watch them poke over and over. Finally my husband put his foot down and made them stop. Her veins were too tiny and dehydrated since this all started right around the time she was due to eat next. We were in the ER forever.They got nurses form peds and ICU to try and even t hey couldn't get the IV in. They finally did the CT scan and all we were told at that point was they thought they found the diagnosis and that the doctor would come speak to us shortly. My husband stepped outside to get my mom-in-law at my request. The doctor came in abruptly and without waiting for even my husband told me that she had a bleed in her brain which would require surgery. She would be airlifted to Loma Linda and that she would probably be ok. I went numb. I had to tell my husband and mother-in-law. The room was flooded with very raw and fearful emotion. The need to get the IV line in became imperative. The ER nurse finally got the IV. The peds nurses had given her some sucrose whihc helped plump up her veins a bit. They also got the blood draw finally. We spent the next couple of hours in utter fear and shock as we waited for transport to Loma Linda. Then a nurse came in to as fr signatures to approve transport to Riverside Regional Medical Center. Loma Linda had no beds and would not accept her case. My heart sank, but the nurse assured us that the facility was just as top notch as Loma Linda. I prayed that this was God's hand at work and that He was the one picking the hospital. They were also not airlifting but transporting by ambulance to RRMC. When the transport crew arrived God's hands started to become more and more evident. We were given more details on her condition. She did not have a bleed in her actual brain matter but the subdura which is in the layers between the skull and the brain and that it might NOT require surgery. More info would be needed to know for sure. They took our baby and we headed home to grab stuff as we waited to learn more in the NICU at RRMC.

What we have learned since then is this...

1. She does in fact have a subdural bleed in her left temporal lobe, but it is small and due to her excellent condition other than the seizures appears to be putting no pressure on the brain and is not going to require surgery at this point-only careful observation.

2. She does also have a skull fracture on the back of her head. It is no where near the bleed however and is most likely unrelated, however weird it is and again will not require immediate treatment. She did not fall and was not hit or mistreated in any way.She has no bruises or depressions or other fractures. The only explanation would be from some trauma she received in the birth process but there is no way to ever know for sure as her birth was normal and uneventful. We may still have to deal with CPS though which is policy when it comes to skull fractures and babies.

3. We will need to have a EEG preformed to see if there is continued seizure activity going on. This will most likely happen sometime Monday or Tuesday and we probably won't get results until later in the week. She is on a anti seizure medication though, just in case.

4. The seizures could have been brought on by an infection. I did have one in the hospital and she did receive breast milk, as puny an amount as it might have been. She is now on 3 different antibiotics and one antiviral which she is receiving through an IV. Even though they don't know what is going on for sure, a treatment can always be stopped but it can never be moved back in time. The spinal tap was done at RRMC and the first indicator was that there was not any infection but test results are not complete yet.

5. She is doing unbelievably well. She is eating-alot- up to four ounces at every feeding and has already regained her birth weight. Her reflexes are all normal and she is very responsive. She is a fantastic and easy burper! I am still trying to nurse as well and pumping too.

6. She will be in the NICU for at least 7 days.

These are the things we need you and everyone you possibly know to pray for...

1. Above all else that God's hand continues to be in every aspect of this situation and guides all the doctors and nurses. Pray that He guides our decisions as well.

2. That she continues to be stable and doing well.

3. The bleed will disappear on its own and that the skull fracture will too. Our neurologist still wasn't convinced it was really a fracture because of its placement. It could just be at the suture line-the spots where babies skulls aren't fused together yet.

4. That the EEG shows no signs of seizures.

5. There will be no short or long-term effects from what she has already experienced and that she will not experience any new symptoms or complications.

6. That we can weather this financially. Our insurance should cover everything, but there are incidentals like traveling and meals that are not part of our budget.

7. That I will continue to be able to nurse and produce a sufficient enough milk supply.

8. Please pray also for her brothers and sisters as they deal with of all of this as well.

Thank you so much for your prayers in advance and for those of you who already knew and have been praying already we thank you as well. We know that it is God who is in control and that He answers those powerful prayers. There are so many who have already done things on our behalf as well and we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

Julie Moses- Mom of Emberjayne Grace

Finally!!

2010-01-07T23:17:00.001-08:00

Miss Julie's latest masterpiece
made her appearance on
Jan. 5th.
Emberjayne Grace was seven pounds five ounces and nineteen inches long.

This probably means this blog will be a little slow for a while.

2010-01-04T08:04:00.000-08:00

Chinese Dragon in oil pastel on 18" X 24" construction paper

With Chinese New Year coming up, here is an art project you can use to explore the holiday and traditions that go along with it.

I would suggest giving kids a square template to start so that everyone is "on the same page" in size and proportions. (Better to avoid the dragon that looks more like a tiny lizard- hey didn't Confucius say that too?)

You can click on any of these steps to make them bigger

Unit Study Ideas

Math- There is nothing better for fractions than doubling, tripling, and halving a recipe! So find a great(and simple) Chinese food recipe and try it out! Let your students figure out how much of each ingredient to use. If you don't actually need to do it for your own family- pretend that this is a meal for the court of Kublai Khan!(For a language arts connection, have them write a story about how the great Khan kept changing the party plans, and how the cook had to keep changing the recipes- include all the math work!)

History- Learn about these great historical figures- Ghengis Khan, Kublai Khan, and Marco Polo. You can also learn about the Silk Road and the Great Wall of China. (My boys like to use every lego they have to see how "great" a wall they can make!(Connect this back to math by measuring the space it takes up, counting the legos, and then estimating how many legos it would take to make a lego great wall a mile long.

Science-The Chinese are responsible for many great inventions, printing books, gunpowder, chemical fog weapons, and the weaving of silk thread from silk worms into cloth. You could learn more about any of these and maybe even raise some silk worms of your own! There are also many endangered animals from China, including the panda. You could learn more about them and what we can do to help.

Language Arts- Fairy tales seem to be a universal thing. There are many Chinese versions of fairy tales we know well, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella are just two that come to mind. Why not take an American Tall Tale and give it a Chinese spin!
You could even try your hand out at writing in Chinese with a bamboo brush and ink or make your own Chinese Printing blocks by carving letters in rubber erasers and then use them to print out your story. (As time consuming as that might sound- it was light years faster than it took monks to write out illuminated manuscripts by hand!)
Have fun!
If you have any other ideas(done or not done yet)
please feel free to leave them in the comments
:-)

Here are some book selections you may find useful,
check your local library to see if they have them.

Amazon.com Widgets

A Little Early Christmas Present

2009-12-21T15:29:00.000-08:00

No she is not here yet, but we were treated to a great surprise today. Because of some minor quirks with my pregnancy, we had to do another sonogram. Nothing major and all is well but
this time we got a 4D pic of her face.
Isn't she gorgeous? God truly does amazing work!

Nutcracker Noel's Dancing Partner

2009-12-10T00:01:00.000-08:00

I took this originally from an Usborne art book called "What shall I draw today?"

First I gave the students a triangle and circle template to control the outcome on the size of the figure.(You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

When the drawing is complete, have the children outline the lines with black sharpie marker and then color in with markers and chalk pastels. With older students you can emphasize light sources and how to add shadows and highlights.
The sample at the top was done with chalk pastel pencils and marker on pink paper, but you could also do a simple variation with a glue and pastel technique on black paper. All the above steps would be the same except instead of outlining with black sharpie marker, have the kids go over their lines with glue. Wait for it to dry- a day or so and then color in with chalk pastel.

These dancers also bring to mind those favorite subjects of Degas.

For more information on Edgar Degas, check out these great links and resources...

ArtSmarts for Kids
National Gallery of Art

Amazon.com Widgets

Nutcracker Unit Study Ideas

2009-12-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

These samples above were done by students in third through fifth grade

Soapbox time again.
The Nutcracker offers an amazing array of subjects to explore in a unit study.
Just a few...

Language Arts

The Nutcracker and the King of Mice

Fine Arts/Music/ Theater/ PE

Ballet
Dances
Waltzes
Pas De Deux
Tchaikovsky

Social Studies

Christmas celebrations around the world
Germany, Russia, France
(Clara is German. The original story comes from Russia. Alexandre Dumas revamped the story to the one we are familiar with in the ballet.)
The history of Christmas symbols(IE;the tree)

Science

Different types of snow
Snowflakes
candymaking
rats and mice- how are they different, how are the same?

Math

Telling time
Calendar(when is Christmas?)
Counting- characters, mice, rats, soldiers, fairies, dances, songs, etc.

Here are some other useful links as well...
Powerpoint Nutcracker Themes

The Nutcracker Story
Holiday Traditions- The Nutcracker Story Lapbook

Free Nutcracker Unit Study
Nutcracker Art Lesson

Amazon.com Widgets

Nutcracker Noel

2009-12-06T21:44:00.000-08:00

What you will need:
paper
pencil
black sharpie marker
markers
crayon
metallic marker
scissors
Christmas wrapping paper.

1. Start by folding your paper in half lengthwise. Then fold it into thirds, like you would fold a letter. You should end up with six boxes.

2. Draw (in pencil) a rainbow in the middle of the top two boxes. Leave room at the top of the page for the decoration on top of the hat. The ends of the rainbow should stop at the fold of the first third of the paper.

3. Draw a horizontal line to close up the rainbow shape. The two more horizontal line in the rainbow. One close to the bottom creating a thin shape and the second farther away creating a wider shape. In the top part of the hat, draw a decoration.It could be a poinsettia like mine, a snowflake, a Christmas tree, star, or whatever you want.

4. Draw a rectangle on the bottom of the hat just inside the second third of the paper.
Add a small circle in the middle of the box for the nose. On either side of the nose add a half circle and then draw a circle inside of those.

5. For the mustache, draw a sideways "s" just under the nose on each side. Close these shapes up with a happy face curve.

6. Draw a smaller rectangle under the nose that is halfway inside the face and halfway outside the face. Draw vertical lines to make the teeth.

7. Draw a long "V' shape from the teeth to make the beard.

8. From the corners of the face draw lines that slant in toward the center of the paper and then draw horizontal line to close up this shape.

9. On the bottom of this shape draw a large "W" to make the jacket bottom.

10. For the arms make a waterfall curve coming out from the left side of the head where the hat and the face meet. The waterfall should end just before the fold that separates the second and the final third of the paper. At the end of the waterfall, draw an oval, then draw a slanted line back up to meet the bottom of the face. Repeat on the right side.

11. Draw a horizontal line on each side of the arms at the bottom of the face. This will become the hair.

12. Draw in the jacket and buttons. Draw a rectangle behind the beard for the shirt.
The button can be made with a series of backwards "5" on the left and regular fives on the right.

13. Add texture to the hair and beard with wavy lines and add edging to bottom of the jacket.Outline pencil lines with black sharpie marker. Then color with whatever medium you like most. We used maker, crayon and a bit of metallic marker in class today. If you have room on your paper you can add in the legs of the nutcracker.
Add in background of your choice or cut him out and glue him to brightly colored wrapping paper.

Stay tuned later for a unit study based on this art project and for student samples.

Snowflakes in the desert

2009-12-05T14:30:00.000-08:00

I think I have finally come close to mastering the elementary school art of making a paper snowflake! I have struggled with how to make the flakes look like the lacy ones we see in Christmas decorations or ornaments. The key to it is to start with a circle. Use a cup or bowl or what ever's handy as a stencil. Kudos to you if you keep a compass around the house for making perfect circles. After you get your circle cut out, fold it in half. Then fold it into thirds. You should end up with a shape that looks like a slice of pizza. At this point cut the curved edge to make it straight. If you were to unfold the paper at this point you would have a perfect six sided hexagon,
but don't do that yet. At this point, start cutting out little shapes form each side or even in the middle. You probably remember this from grade school. Be careful to leave places on the fold that aren't cut so that the flakes hold together when you open it. Voila, you should have a nice lacy little snowflake. I will post some pictures here later of a few of my attempts. I have also decorated the house and classroom for Christmas, so I'll share photos of those as well.
I don't have much experience with real snowflakes having lived in Southern California all my life, but they are fascinating. They start their crystalline existence as a flat hexagon. As they fall to the Earth, they come in contact with obstacles. With every obstacle, their design is being formed. The more obstacles they encounter in their path, the more intricate, delicate and beautiful their design becomes, and of course each one is totally unique. Do you suppose that God designed this process to remind us of how He is designing us? With every new struggle our characters are shaped. The more we struggle, the more they are shaped. Let's remember that this year as we encounter characters, some who are family or friends. Let's also remember that as new obstacles and trials come in our path, that each one will leave it's own unique mark and help turn us into the masterpiece God envisioned us to be.

Giving Thanks for our National Heritage

2009-12-03T09:34:00.000-08:00

Did you know that one of the major turning points of the Revolutionary War was when General George Washington and his men launched a surprise Christmas Day attack on British and Hessian troops who were
worn out from all their holiday celebrations?
There is a famous painting that commemorates this historical event- Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze.You can learn more about the artist and the painting at Artist of the Week.
Here is the project. If you don't feel like doing the project, just feel free to print out the black line as a coloring page.

You can click on any of these to make them larger. Below are PDF files. The first is step by step directions and the second is a completed black line drawing that you may feel free to use as a coloring page.
How to draw George Washington

Coloring Page

Here are some more examples from my students. I think they all did an amazing job!

Snowman Landscapes

2009-12-02T21:16:00.000-08:00

The following lesson is a compilation lesson of two or three lessons I found at Art Projects for Kids. It is a good way to explore several key art concepts including: foreground, middle ground, and background, objects that are farther away appearing smaller and darker, shadow, tinting and shading, color value, and drawing offset poses.

You will need:
paper(white or colored)
pencils
eraser
black sharpie marker
crayons or chalk pastels.

When adding color to the picture, have the kids keep in mind:

1. Shadows on snow tend to look blue
2. Objects appear darker or more faded the farther away they are.
3. Decide if the light source is coming from the right or left and add shading to the opposite side. Round the shading on the snowman.
4. Use more than one color green for the trees and make the trees farther away a darker green with less detail in the leaves.

This is a fun project to do on darker colored paper so that you can add the white, but it is fun to start with white paper too. Try it both ways and compare the differences! If kids are using darker colored paper the they should color heavier with white crayon or pastel for the snow closest to them and for the snowman. Using a lighter values of white in the middle and background will give the picture more depth.
The sample at the top of this post was done on white paper and colored with crayon. The following example was done on blue construction paper and colored with chalk pastel.

Mission Possible

2009-11-11T09:39:00.000-08:00

Sometime in the fourth grade, California students learn about California history which includes a study on the California Missions.

This art history project centers on the missions of the southwest. We looked at California missions in particular, but also a few in Texas. The project was inspired by this one at Art Projects for Kids. The kids did an amazing job,but don't take my word for it, have a look for yourself...

Starting off with grid paper makes a huge difference. I printed my own from my personal graphics program. Be sure to look at individual details of the missions, like window shapes and bell towers. Encourage kids to incorporate them into their drawings to create a representation of a real mission or a combination of several different missions.

The Gallery- Blog Carnival of Art Projects for Kids Volume 3

2009-11-01T15:06:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the November 1, 2009 edition of The Gallery- The Autumn Harvest Edition.

This edition of the Gallery brings us three fun project ideas and one opportunity to really expand our art knowledge through the use of the internet. Sit back, relax and enjoy the great articles and beautiful colors of Fall!

Ritsumei presents Car Painting posted at Baby Steps, saying, "We used Monkey's cars to paint some pictures; Monkey loved it and the clean up was surprisingly easy on most of the cars."

Stacie Young presents 100 Excellent Twitter Feeds for Art Scholars posted at Online Courses.org.

Barb presents Frank Lloyd Wright Bubble Window Project posted at Harmony Art Mom, saying, "We had an excellent time working on this project and I hope it inspires others to try this sort of thing with their children or in their classrooms. It sure has brightened up our classroom window.

Miss Julie presents Greek Vases posted at Kids Art Projects and Lessons at Ms. Julie's Place. This project is an opportunity to explore both the history of Greek Vases and the unique contribution they are to art. Explore symmetry and symbolism in this fun "scratch" project.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
the gallery
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:

the gallery, blog carnival.

Baby Update- Seven Months- 30 weeks down 10 to go!

2009-10-24T13:52:00.001-07:00

Nine months is surely a long time. It will all be worth it in the end, but right now I am really wishing that human gestation lasted 30 weeks instead of 40. At night, I try to sleep on my side, but after an hour or so the hip and leg on the bottom get sore from the pressure. So I roll over and it takes another hour or so until the other side is sore. So it goes all night long. I try to sleep on my back propped up with pillows which helps, but then I slide down in my sleep and supposedly sleeping on your back is not so good for the baby because of the pressure it puts on the uterus. Oh, I cannot wait until I can sleep on my stomach again!

On the brighter side, baby is almost always moving. It can be seen through my shirt now. I can't imagine there are any more cannonball dives going on at this point, but I am asking myself when does this child sleep? Music continues to be a major inducer of movement, as are my quiet times of drawing or reading out loud to the boys during school. I really can't wait to meet her.

I know that these next weeks really will fly by, but here in this moment I am wishing I could give that bird a little caffeine to speed him up just a bit!

On a completely different note, don't forget to send in your post for the next Gallery Blog Carnival. Just click on the paintbrushes and you can submit your article from there.

2009-10-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

This was a project I did with first and second graders. They did a really great job! The big trick in working with this age group is to get them to use the whole paper and to use color consistently.

Using a step by step method, the first thing I have the kids do is fold their papers in half lengthwise. Then I have them draw a rainbow by making dots on both sides of the fold. We add another dot up higher where the bow is going to arch through. The the rainbow is drawn from dot to dot. We close up the bottom with a straight horizontal line. I think the rest of these visual steps are pretty self explanatory.

From here the kids can color with marker or crayon or a combination of both. The clown does look a little bolder if it is outlined first. Adding a hat and backgrounds are also a nice touch as well. When coloring I encourage the kids to work in small circles as opposed to broad lines. The color tends to be more even and consistent that way, especially with marker. With older kids, you could also work on shading techniques. A shadow effect can be produced by using the same color marker or crayon in a second layer. I also added some highlight to my sample with some white oil pastel.

Here are some student examples. There are a few in here that I really love that look like clowns on stilts. Who knew first and second graders could draw with foreshortening?(I'm still working on it my own self!)

Oh My Gosh it's a Bosch!

2009-10-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

By Kendall- Age 9

The Art Lesson-
Bosch was a Dutch Surrealist Painter in the 15th and 16th century. This is 400 years before most people think surrealism really began. Artists like Salvador Dali took the art form to it's highest peak in the early 20th century. The art form incorporates realism in fantastic and often nightmarish situations.
Bosch explored the both the good and bad extremes that people can sometimes be. In this we will do the same through depicting beauty and monsters together.

Materials

9" x 12" piece of drawing paper
pencil
black sharpie
markers
oil pastels

1. Fold the paper in half lengthwise. On one side draw the side of a vase in pencil. Start at the top corner and make curves all the way down to the bottom of the paper.

2. Now draw the same curves on the other side in a mirror image.

3 Some of you will recognize this as a drawing exercise called "vase faces" or "gargoyles". If you look carefully you will see the profile of two rather grotesque figures in the curves you have just made. Now it's time to play them up and make them as bad as you can.

4. Once you are happy with how horrifying your profiles are, make as pretty a face as you can in the middle space left by the profiles.(see the Botticelli Face of Venus lesson for a face drawing tutorial)

5. If you have any white space left fill it up with pictures of things you like and don't like. (For instance kitty cats and broccoli)

6. Use a black sharpie to go over all the pencil lines, and then color in with a combination of marker and oil pastel.

7. Bosch used his paintings to tell stories, so as an extension of this activity you can write a story about what it happening in your picture.

More pieces from the kids gallery

By Tatum Age 8

By Zee Zee Age 9

This lesson has just been used by Tech4Learning in their Spring 2009 issue of Creative Educator to support the integration of technology,
art, and language in the classroom using their Pixie2 software
(which my kids love by the way, though it was not used to create this lesson
and is not necessarily needed to complete it)

Not so Ho-Hum Hummmingbird

2009-10-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

The Gallery- Blog Carnival of Art Projects for Kids Edition #2

2009-09-29T21:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the October 1, 2009
edition of
"The Gallery"
Art Lessons and Projects for Kids.

Our very first issue had four wonderful contributions. This time around the baby has grown (much like my real baby) to eleven contributions!
In honor of the similarities the theme of this carnival is
"The Baby Edition".

Kris Correira presents Solubility, Capillary Action, Math, and Art posted at At Home Science.This looks like such a fun project and pretty simple too! Even those of us who are science challenged should not be afraid to attempt.

Jimmie presents Make or Draw a Giraffe posted at Jimmie's Collage.
This is a neat online project that we participated in. Giraffes can be drawings, paintings, 3D crafts, anything! A great theme for your next project and a great way for children to see their art displayed online. .

Jimmie always finds the coolest things around the web! Even if I know she hasn't posted something new, I always check her tagfoot steps to see what new goodies she has located. This was a real gem and inspired this next submission.

Julie presents Giraffe Scratch here at Miss Julie's Place. Here is an additional art lesson to accompany all the giraffe fun that Jimmie found.

Jessica presents Create Your Own Picasso Painted Collage
posted at Art Smarts 4 Kids
For those of you who aren't familiar with Jessica's blog, it is time to get so. Jessica has complied an extensive resource of art history and projects that could keep an art teacher or home school going for a long time. This particular project is very simple, but has a high impact both visually and educationally.

Angie in GA presents a trio of lessons at The One Thing: Art Lesson #6 The Art of Kandinsky and the use of Lines posted at TheOneThing.

Giotto Inspired Art Lesson posted at TheOneThing and

The One Thing: ART LESSON posted at TheOneThing.

Angie's blog was new to me, but I sure am glad to have found her. She really approaches her lessons from a Charlotte Mason philosophy and she and her boys have ended up with some pretty impressive projects.

Dana presents Henri Matisse & Icarus posted at school for us, saying, "I loved the first edition of this carnival and thought I'd share a previous post." Dana and her daughter seem to be having so much fun in their home school! Be sure to pop over there and join in. The Lego video of Daedalus and Icarus is definitely worth the trip!

Tisha Smith presents ART with Mrs. Smith: palm tree posted at ART with Mrs. Smith, saying, "This is one of my favorite lessons because we all love the fantasy of tropical sunsets and it's so fun to hear kids talk about the colors in the sky when the sun sets."
I wish I had been in Mrs. Smith's art class when I was in elementary school!

Debra presents Bb is for... posted at Ryan & Debra Snow Family. What a great project for the younger kids. Like Debra, seeing the kids work area or palette is almost as much fun as seeing their completed work!

Barb has another great site and it's not just for art either. Be sure to check it all out, but start with this fabulous project...

Barb presents Great American Artists For Kids: Tiffany Glass Project posted at Harmony Art Mom, Barb says,
Thanks for hosting this great carnival and I look forward to seeing the next edition.
Barb"

Thanks to you Barb for submitting this great project and to everyone else as well!

Until our next appointment, have fun creating with all these great ideas!

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
the gallery, the next deadline is October 27th.
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:

the gallery, blog carnival.

2009-09-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

Materials needed:
Print or photo of Gustav Klimt's "The tree of life".

Metallic gel markers (we used Prang, purchased at WalMart)
Black or other dark toned paper (pastel paper would be good, but I used scrapbook paper)
oil pastels(brown and black)

When all is said and done these pieces are beautiful and very dramatic especially if mounted on lighter paper and then on black.
Enjoy.

This was the example I made.

This is from an 8 year old student.

This was from a 6 year old student.

This was from an 11 year old student.

This was from a 5 year old student.

Baby Update- Six months

2009-09-24T09:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, she is growing, and so am I, right along with her. It is very hard to think that I have another 14 1/2 weeks or so to go. Pregnancy is at best uncomfortable for me, and this time is no exception. I am only 5'2" and literally have about six inches of space between my ribs and my hips. Not a lot of space for a little growing person.

Despite my complaints, there are many more precious things going on that make it all worth it. This little girl loves music. If there is music playing, she is moving. Live music has an especially energizing effect on her. Daddy is a musician you see, and so is his dad, so it is in the genes- on one side anyway. I play the radio and try not to sing too loud for fear of the build up of yowling cats in the back yard.

She also loves her daddy already. He almost always speaks before or while he touches my tummy and invariably it creates a response from the little princess.

I know this is not an "art" post, but inquiring minds might want to know, so I thought I'd supply the information. In the future there will be a "baby update" link in the sidebar for those who are interested.

And while I'm at it, I will include one art related snippet. The deadline for submissions to The Gallery is quickly approaching on the 27th, so please remember to get those in. I am excited about that "baby" too!

Click on the brushes to find out how to submit an article through Blog Carnival!

The Tiger Lesson

2009-09-23T07:54:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I discussed the artist Ito Jakuchu. One of his most famous paintings is of a tiger. So for this lesson I chose to draw a tiger. Below is a step-by step slideshow of how to draw this tiger. It is a bit rough as I drew it out in paint using only my mouse. I did not add any color. In my original picture, I used chalk pastel, though in my lessons this week we will be using marker.

For now, here is the slide show...

Student Examples

By Ryan
Age 7

By Gabi Age 10

Links

A Tiger's Tale- Unit Study based on this art lesson

Artist of the Week Ito Jakuchu

Greek Vases

2009-09-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

Scratch projects really have limitless possibilities. Vases are a huge part of the ancient history of Greece. They served not only an aesthetic purpose, but a functional one as well.
Different shapes had different names and
were used for different purposes.
You can learn more about those different names and purposes at this link. It also explores the different periods of Greek Pottery and how it changed from age to age.
Greek Vases Part I- Through the Ages
Greek Vases II-Shape Names and Purposes

Here is another project that is perfect for this technique. You can also play around a bit with the mediums. Oil pastel and crayon are generally what you use for these, but you can color with marker or watercolor then "seal" the color with a heavy coat of white crayon or oil pastel. Just be careful to avoid using dark colors like brown or gray as they don't show through the black very well.

1. In order to achieve a vase with symmetrical sides, start by folding a piece of cardstock down the middle vertically. Draw only half of the vase on one side. I did it in pencil first and then retraced in a heavy layer of black oil pastel.

2. Fold the paper over with the black lines on top of the blank side and then use a lidded marker to rub over the lines you just traced.

3. When you open the paper back up the vase half should
transfer to the other side in a perfect mirror image
creating a perfectly symmetrical vase.
You can then color with crayon, oil pastel, marker, or other paint. If you use paint, make sure you wait for it to completely dry before adding the layer of white to seal the color.
Once the color is done and sealed add a layer of black crayon or oil pastel.
If you use crayon you will need to use heavier pressure
than with oil pastel.
Once the black is on in an even layer, use a wooden skewer or unbent paper clip to "scratch" off the black in different line patterns to reveal the colors underneath.

Reminder to send in your submissions for the next Gallery Blog Carnival!

2009-09-18T06:55:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder everyone, the next Gallery Blog Carnival is coming up. Please get your submissions in by September 27th!

Just click on the brushes above for the info on how to submit.