Back from Convention

I am dog tired and will get to the convention nitty-gritty soon (hopefully)....but thought I would leave you with one of those quips like David Letterman would do: top 10 kinda thing or "you know you are _______ by..."

yah...

so being that this is a Christian convention (altho you don't have to be to attend) they do a little "warm up" with some singing of some Christian songs-well the power point or whatever you call it was not working quite right this morn, at first..so they just dug in and belted em out....cept they forgot something....not all churches sing the new music that is so popular nowadays-leaving some of us sitting there looking pretty stupid/lame or just looking like we were refusing to sing but...here is the real issue...[at least for my daughter and I]

You know you are an old timey Lutheran  when everyone about you is singing some new fangled Christian music that you have never heard (nor most likely ever will in church) before and haven't a clue as to what it is or what the words are.  




And there you have it-my "top of the morning to ya" convention experience.  I breathed a sigh of relief when the words came up on screen and then they sang some I actually knew.  Whew.

**if you are wondering-we usually attend the service with Traditional music-so we could prob'ly belt out the oldies and most of the attendees this morn would have sat there scratching their heads.  17th, or 18th century hymn [old German like]-oh yea.  New music that is all fresh and alive-not so much.  They do offer a service a couple times per month with hip new music, but it is the late service and we usually are long gone by then.  I also do have some music on my iPod "wanna be" MP3 player, that I listen to and love-but not all that stuff...and I simply don't listen to music enough to know this stuff.  So yes, there you have it.

Water Color Project instructions

I just copied/pasted my pal's instructions.  I am hoping I put the right pictures with the steps, to help you see what it should do-but folks, I am kinda guessing, so please forgive me on that. :0)

Just go for whatever happens -happens here-esp. if it is your first attempt.  I actually cut down to size, some left over white board (from Home Depot-the stuff I used for our white board in the classroom) but anything that is slightly larger than the paper size, and is hard enough to not absorb water, will do.  We used painters tape to seal around the edges.  About 1/2 inch or so around the edges-keep it tight or it will bleed, losing that nice edging.  The rest of course, will stick to the board.  Try not to move the boards if possible. Otherwise, wait until they are dry before doing so.  Otherwise, paints will run, plastic wrap will pop off and so forth.  

1. There are 3 main kinds of watercolor paper -- rough, cold press and hot press (smooth) -- we used rough.  As for the paper-it is expensive-we just purchased out right from Michaels and tore them into 6 pieces each.  If you only have a few students-obviously, you can have larger papers.

Arches brand is the best and you can get books (called blocks-so you won't need a board then) .. like this... http://www.dickblick.com/products/arches-watercolor-blocks/ -- it is glued down on all 4 sides so you have a flat surface that doesn't move until you cut it off the block.  

2.  Using painters tape, tape paper down to a solid surface (example white erase board) not cardboard.

3. Have plenty of water, watercolors (cheap Crayola works fine) and a "good" paint brush that holds water (not one that comes with the Crayola paints), and a rag or paper towel

4. You will need some leaves-real or fake to use on the day they trace. Variety is good!

5. You will also need a pencil, saran wrap, reg. table salt, a couple Q-Tips and Rubbing Alcohol. Oh and an old toothbrush if doing the spatter technique.

Steps to paint the picture:

1. Paint the whole blank paper with water, with a big brush drip yellow and blue and red (primary colors) onto the paper.  This is called WET ON WET painting.  The colors will blend on their own, if there is enough water and fill the page.  Let dry with out working on it.

 Here you can see the various early stages....

2. Trace leaves "artfully" across your dry painting.  We used artificial ones of various sizes and shapes.

 You can see the red, yellow, blue bleeding in the background, 

the sketching of the leaves there and the saran wrap. 

Actually the purple leaf has the rubbing alcohol affect on it too.

3. Pick a leaf outline and paint it with water then with paint, again this is WET ON WET painting.  You can try part of the leaf yellow and part red = if there is enough water and paint the colors will blend and make orange.  Do other leaves that DO NOT touch.  You can also try WET ON DRY -- leave the leaf outline dry and paint on it with just wet paints.  These will not blend, they will stay the exact colors you pick.  Let dry.

 Saran Wrap look.

4. Now that everything is dry again... pick another leaf and do WET ON WET again -- take a small piece of plastic wrap (Sranwrap) and place it on the leaf while still wet.  Do not crinkle it up too much but it should have lines and over laps on it.  Do not push down on it either, it will push the paint and water out of the leaf outline.  Let it dry with the wrap on it.  When it is dry you can peel off the wrap and it will look like a crinkled leaf.

 Red leaf has the Rubbing Alcohol technique, the light blue and purple ones

also appear to have the Saran Wrap look.

5.   Pick another leaf that has everything around it dry and do another WET ON WET (use fun fall colors like green, yellow, orange, red, brown) and then use a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol.  Dip the Q-tip in the alcohol and dot the leaf.  Let it dry.  It will look like a bug was eating the leaf or cool mold was taking over.

Notice the spattered look this student got from using the toothbrush. Very nice.

6.  After all leaves are painted there are a couple of other techniques that you can play with.  You can use a toothbrush and splatter wet paint on dry paper.  You can add a new layer of paint to an already painted leaf that you think needs more color.  Try not to over work your picture, watercolor should flow like water.

 This one shows the salting results quite nicely.  

Be sure there is plenty enough water on it to absorb the salt-

not enough, the salt will just stick.

7.  When all leaves are done the negative space needs a wonderful dark wash.  We used a beautiful dark blue with some people adding a touch of purple or green (depending on if they had lots of purple leaves -- they added green, or green leaves -- they added purple).  Remember to use lots of water and it should be WET ON WET again to get it to flow and blend.  While it is still wet take a pinch or 3 or 4 and scatter it over the "water" let it dry with the salt on it.  The salt will move the paint and water out of the way in a fun star-like way.

 Nice mix of the techniques on this beauty.

8.  Once you are all done and it is dry, take off the tape and look at your painting.  Notice how the different layers (or washes) show through.  That first step of yellow, red and blue can be seen in interesting places, like where the salt moved the water.  Or where a leaf has a sunny hue under it but is painted green too.  Figure out which side is up and make sure you sign and date your work. 

 This is a very young 4 yr olds. So even the little guys can make a keepsake!

Be proud of your hard work and patience.  It is amazing how everyone can use the same instructions and they all look so individual and unique!  Remember to not worry about "mistakes" after it is all done and you look at the whole picture it looks like you wanted it to do that and it wasn't a mistake after all!

 Another 4 yr old's-quite impressive~

Here is a good website to see some more watercolor techniques... http://www.watercolorpainting.com/watercolor-tutorials.htm

 Darker background choice on this one-bleeding, salt 

and Rubbing Alcohol show up nicely on this one.

Good leaf color changes, outlines and leaf variance 

(and my boy is color blind so he cannot even appreciate 

some of these dark colors, esp. the deep purple 

and grays-but still not too shabby!)

There you have it-our co-op kids' works of art! I will post the stray student's pic once I get it-she was absent that last day.

 Be sure to frame your beautiful pieces of art too!

Easter Craft-mini bunnies

Now, Easter is my fav. holiday/biblical celebration, and we know full well that it isn't about bunnies and chocolates and plastic eggs.  But it is fun to create a few crafts that scream "spring" and this is one of them.  If you don't like to mix bunnies with your Easter celebration, this would still be a fun craft for spring or when you study bunnies/animals and what not.

You will need to do the following to make your bunnies:

*1/2 and 1/2  or small milk containers-one per child (rinse and rinse and then do a final rinse with a touch of bleach in the water to kill any milk and smell that may remain-let dry completely)

*stapler (staple close the opening you pour the milk from. I waited until I cut the ears/sides out to make it easier to get that area cut out-but you can do this first if you wish)

*Sharpie pen to mark out the ears and sides to cut along (I did this and even cut it out-saves time and it is not that important for the kids to do). They should take up the better part of the top, you can trim it down a bit so the ears don't touch (b/cuz the cotton fuzz will)-stop at the fold near the pouring area.

*scissors and a sharp pointed cutter to start the ears.  I cut the ears out first, then did the side trim.

*hole puncher-make a hole in the middle of the top rim of the container.  This is where you will pull the whiskers thru.  I actually had the kids put the pipe cleaners thru before gluing.  I had 2 pipe cleaners per bunny, but it is up to you. You can use pipe cleaner or yarn or whatever you have that looks like whiskers.

Yes, have the kids wear old clothes: glue, fuzzies and reg. boys gone crazy junk 

will get all over their shirts.  

*Pink paper for the middle of the ears. Cut out smaller than ear size but it doesn't need to be perfect, the cotton will cover a lot of it.  Glue on the ears in the middle of them.

*glue, a container for it and paint brushes. It is simply easier to "paint" the glue on the box than squeeze it on.

*Cotton balls.  I had a bag of 100 and I have plenty left (we did 2) so hopefully, that will help you judge the amt you need [1/3 bag or so was left over].  Have the child glue the sides, add cotton balls and keep going until the outside of the bunny is filled in nicely.  We tore the balls into smaller pieces for the ears (front) and to fill in spaces.  I suggest packing them in good on the facial area, esp. around the pipe cleaners. Pack them in tight to hold those in place and puff up the face as they wish with layers.  Glue a big puff on the rump for the tail.  We glued/cotton balled the back of the ears down a bit and my ds also did one row on the insides.  You will stuff the center with Easter grass, so you don't need to be too worried if it is plain on the insides.

*add googly eyes, and a pom-pom nose (or you could use a button, paper, etc.) and your bunny is ready to go.  Let it dry good though, before adding grass and placing on your table.  Stuff with grass and add some eggs/goodies to finish it off.

Hippity Hoppity Easter is on its way.

6 Step Water Color art project

For one of our co-op classes, the kids worked on a 6 step water color project.  I have the exact directions listed in this post. They turned out beautiful!

Using watercolors, a series of steps, saran wrap, salt, rubbing alcohol,  and lots of water-plus a black pen for outlining-this is what we got and I cannot wait to frame and display these beauties!

Final results are striking.  DD's is horizontal, DS's is vertical

close up of dd's-salt is the white splashes, round dots-I believe is rubbing alcohol...have to check tho

close up of the saran wrap leaf-it is suppose to leave these marks-dd's didn't work right-probably b/cuz we had to move them to dry (due to having done this at the church we had our co-op at, and we couldn't leave them out).