Labeling Plants

We had a wonderful, jam-packed day, lunching with cousins at the lake, learning about power, and planting. This year we decided to get a little more creative with our plant labels.

Painted extra-large Popsicle sticks painted clothespins

small rocks, labeled with permanent pens

itty bitty hand-painted signs

house objects, labeled and put to good use

more clothespins (this was the easiest one for the younger kids to do)

clothes pins, painted and put in the soil upside-down to hold the plant placard

and, one of my favorites, nestled eggs with special messages.

We have many more things to plant, including our raised garden this week. Let me know if you have suggestions for other fun, artsy tags.

The "house project," stage1

We've been painting houses, planning to do this project by Alisa Burke. With no ocean nearby, we'll be taking our village traveling to the Falls, and perhaps even on a camping trip this summer.

3 Steps to Painting Wooden Plates

1. Grab your wooden dishes and add a solid coat of acrylic paint to each one. Kids can do this at almost any age! This step takes about 2 minutes for older kids, and about 10 minutes and 2 shirts for younger kids.

2. Add simple stripes along the edges and polka dots to the middle, (by dipping the eraser of a pencil in paint.) 5-10 minnutes, depending on who is holding the brush.3. When that dries, paint or spray a layer of varnish over them for durability. You are done. In 10-20 minutes, you have a new set of whimsical dishes!*Use clear glass plates on top when you eat.

Sorry for the gross hot dog picture; we had a firepit night tonight!

Poetree

The kids and I have been working on "poetrees" to aid our writing on certain subjects. It's a fun way to encourage artistic brainstorming, for kids who aren't old enough (or excited about) outlining or list-making.

Choose your topic, which can be written on the tree trunk, and brainstorm on the leaves or branches.

The Artist-child decided to write a poem about herself. Her leaves were descriptions about her appearance, personality and interests: natural, horsey, artistic, and so forth.

For our sketchbook work, we did "free draw." The Artist chose horses. Again. NatureMan and Dash drew monsters, using a library book as a guide. They claimed their pictures are not yet ready to be "published." I worked on the human body.

Desert Landscapes with watercolor and black crayon

These scenes are extremely easy, and you need only a few basic art supplies:

white paper

red, orange, and yellow watercolor

black crayon


Paint a simple sunset (which can include the sun, or just layers of red, orange and yellow.)

Draw cacti and other small plants, and then go over all of the foreground in solid black.

(Below, one of my children, who shall go unnamed, could not stick to the color scheme. He is a *unique* little rascal!)

It creates a beautifully contrasting landscape.

Magazine transformations

Today we did a magazine transformation challenge.

I cut the heads off (or faces out of) magazine pictures (it's as fun as it sounds) and then let the kids "fill-in-the-blanks."

Before

After

The other magazine transformations are here. I also used the chopped off heads on other papers, for the kids to draw on hair and bodies. It's a good get-you-started art diving board. The artist got fairly elaborate with hers, even drawing in background scenes and writing a story to go along with it.
Little Lad's Before shot

and After (uh oh, my little man looks like Hitler!)

Several more "After" products:

Have fun with your kids every day!

shoebox dioramas

The older kids have been working on the dioramas of their latest stories . As always, The Artist wrote hers about horses. No surprise. :-)

Nature Boy's story is about pirates. I suppose the lighthouse and flamingos are all wrapped into the story....? We'll see. He isn't finished with it yet, and I'm curious what else will be added. They had to finish and revise the stories before starting on the dioramas (I didn't want them finding a cool picture of a Disney character and sticking in the box, just for the heck of it.) Dash has also started one (dictated to me) that is about aliens in outer space. Don't the stories match their personalities so well??Perhaps I should write my own story and make a shoebox. It's tempting!

Art Journaling take 2

And, again, an overlap... because art and prayer can be consuming. So, for the latest art journal entries, you can go here for mine, and here for The Artist's.

handprints

We just came across this picture, that T and I colored a year ago. Sweet memories.

"Cold" Sketchbook Prompt

Nature Man's "cold"

The Artist's "cold"

My "cold" prompt

I find it funny that The Artist and I both drew a "cold" woman. ;-)

Two -faced Sketchbook Prompt

One of the latest Sketchbook Prompts was "Two-faced."

Nature Man's artwork below:

and flipped:

Another of his:

The Artist's picture:

And hers flipped:

My artwork:

Mine flipped:

I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying these afternoon art sessions with the kids!!