Fav Photo: May 2009

Front door art.

(Although I wish I could say I came up with this design on my own,

the truth is that a folder I bought at Walmart last year was my original inspiration.)

Bug Sculpture

So what do you think? Does the pipe cleaner sculpture look anything like the ground beetle it's supposed to represent?

You never know what you'll get when you throw a few interesting things on the table and give your kids some (adult free) time to create!

By the way, we *heart* Flash of Brilliance Flashcards...well the bug ones anyway.

Hope you're having a wonderfully creative day!

My Pretties

While garage sale-ing recently I came across some Christmas garland with beautiful beads and stars and ugly angels and bows all strung together. At 50 cents a strand I thought them a bargain and decided to get creative.

What you see below is the result. I snipped each sting in half and removed all the beads and such. I then ditched the angels and bows and restrung the beads and stars in a pattern that was more pleasing to my eyes. My original plan was to hang them in the front window but Wonderful Hubby convinced me that the front door was a better choice.

This shot shows the outside of the door.

And this one shows the inside.

I really love them and enjoyed the process of restringing immensely!

We also bought some glow in the dark strands of stars to hang in the boys room. I'll have to post those later.

Hope you're having a wonderful day,

Art Dream Come True

It may seem silly to some, but since I was about 15 I've dreamed of having an "art studio" in my home. But we live in a small house and at 768 square feet it's never felt like our house could handle it. So art supplies stayed spread out in drawers and boxes and bedrooms and closets...

No more. I recently inherited the cabinet pictured below from my Grandma...and placed in the kitchen/dining room/school room it makes for a nice place to store art supplies. (That's my bread maker sitting beside it.)

I've yet to gather all of our supplies but here is a pic of the inside holding a few basics! Several types of paints and brushes, beads, craft sticks, markers, pencils, glue, tp (you might be surprised), scrap cardboard, scissors, etc.

In no time at all we realized we had our art studio and J put it to good use! He made himself a sword, telescope, shield and armour out of scrap cardboard and paper bags.

And then spent quite a bit of time exploring color theory. This is one of his new favorite past times. He loves to see what happens when you add just a little more yellow...or green or red or whatever color he's enjoying at the moment.

With a daddy who's a hairdresser and colorist we have no problem making the connection between hours of messy color mixing and real life.

To end this post I thought I'd leave you with this video. We first saw it over at Mrs. Pivec's blog and it's been one of our fav's since!


Have a good day,

J's Creative Worship

From beads to a "Body of Christ Necklace"...

to remind him that God made each of us different and with a special job to do. (1 Corinthians 12)

From "melty beads"...

to Easter gifts, so he can share Jesus' love with others.

For us art and Bible quite often go hand in hand. This is especially true for J because when it comes to learning he's very hands on.

Now you know. :)

He Is Risen (Illustrated by W and J)

Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.” So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.

After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.

Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mark 16:1-15

The Sunset

Presented as a gift just for me from J! Aren't I the luckiest mommy in the whole world?

Up for Interpretation

The Indian Scout by Robert Wesley Amick

(borrowed from the library and then photographed by me..I looked for it online but couldn't find it. Sorry about the glare.) W's drawing of The Indian Scout

J's painting of The Indian Scout
We really enjoy art and one thing I especially love is seeing the difference in how each boy interprets and reproduces a piece of art. I always tell them it doesn't have to look like the original and that's part of what's fun about art.

Drawings by W

Our Dream Collages

Things we like. Places we want to go. Attitudes we'd like to adopt.

You get the idea.

We had a lot of fun with this project.

The boys really took their time with it and then went into detail with me about why they chose each picture and what it meant to them.

Beethoven Paintings

Well, we finally got around to the (pop) art project I blogged about here. Sometimes it takes a while to actually get a good idea done. I thought I'd share the results with you.

Here is W's painting.
And here is J's

I like them both!

Sunset Cityscapes by J and W

I just found Kathy Barbro's blog Art Projects for Kids. She's an elementary-age art teacher and is sharing some of her favorite projects. Here's one we did last night.

Of course my boys never do an art project exactly the way it's presented and I've always let them know that that's fine. They love art!!!

Have a wonderful day,

music and (pop) art appreciation

While browsing around the library a few days ago my kids and I found this really fun Andy Warhol print of Beethoven. I am not a huge Warhol fan but I love his use of color and this one is especially appealing to me because I love Beethoven!

We went ahead and checked it out (you can keep art prints for like 6 weeks!) My plan is to play my Beethoven records at top volume while we try our hand at replicating this image. I think it will be fun to see what each of us comes up with.

Sunflower crafts

These are a few ideas I came up with for a friend and thought I'd share them here too. He's looking for something Kansas related for the kids at church to make so he can take them on his missions trip this summer and give them as host gifts to the families he'll be staying with.

You can use them for gifts or just for fun springtime activities.

Each of these has a sunflower theme.

Sunflower picture frame made with craft sticks

How to make a pretty card with sunflower decorations

Quilled Sunflower picture frame craft

PS The above poster can be purchased from posters.com