Summer Projects: Library Bags

My family loves the public library.  I began taking my children to story hour when they were still wearing diapers.  We all love to read and we all love sitting in and amongst all of those books.  Up to this point, I have always held every body's library cards and we've kept borrowed books on a shelf in our living room.  This made things fast and easy for me but the kids were missing out on an opportunity for independence.  When they began asking to check books out themselves, I figured it was time to change things up. We headed to Walmart and picked up some Tulip Fabric spray and a couple packs of canvas bags.  I used my Silhouette SD to cut some stencils from freezer paper and ironed them to the bags.

 

The kids each sprayed over the top of the stencil. I encouraged them to only use two colors to avoid the dreaded "muddy" look. One of my sons saw that as a challenge to his creative powers, so he dutifully took on three colors and managed a very cool blended effect. After the bags we're sprayed, we peeled off the freezer paper to reveal the design.  The kids loved this part!  

 If you try this project, I recommend that you spray lightly and have some paper towels on hand to dab up excess paint. We were able to achieve some pretty fun effects with just the four colors included in the pack of Tulips that we purchased. 

Each kid also made a boondoggle with a key ring to hook onto their bag and hold their library card. Now they can check books out, carry them home and store them in their bags until our next trip to the library. Judging by this smile, I think the new system will be a success! Thanks for reading. LT



Do it yourself Clowning

So for this months' book club we have been working on Clowning.  "Clowning?" you say, "it is January, why clowning?"  Well, it is January, that's why.  Every year when January rolls around I am pretty tired of grey trees and grey skies.  In December it is okay but once the  Christmas season is over, I am pretty well done with old man winter.  So when contemplating this months' book club I decided to go with something cheery, bright, colorful; hence, clowns. 

Week one we read Roarr Calder's Circus.  I love this book, it is an absolute riot.  Maira Kalman takes Alexandar Calder's wire and twine sculptures and tells a circus tale that had my kids rolling.  What  a fantastic book.  The art was wonderful and engaging and while I didn't have time this go around I thought it would be a wonderful spring board for an art project of 3d sculpturing using found material.  Also you can add in this video, Alexandar Calder uses his figurines to perform a circus! So fun. 

After we read Calder's we got to work on some Tempra Clowns (idea came from deepspacesparkle.blogspot.com).  They were so much fun.  I gave them each a 12x18 sheet of white construction paper and set out muffin tins with the basic six plus black and some brushes.  The kids used pencil to sketch out their clowns with me reminding them to draw large and giving them a lesson in facial proportions.  Then they filled in their clowns with the tempra and once it was dry to the touch went back and did the outlines with a fine brush and some black paint.  The clowns came out so unique and very clowny looking.  The paintings will be used to decorate a wall in the library later in the month.  Here are a few of my young artists' paintings

Okay, so that was week one of DIY Clowning.  I'll share everything else we've done in upcoming posts.  So check back here for a four sessions of hands on clowning activities.

Talk to you soon, LT