Creating My Own Canvas...

I am trying to do something purely creative for an hour or two every morning this summer... yesterday it was simply sketching flowers in my sketchbook, this morning I printed on a cream colored piece of cotton canvas I bought last weekend for this exact purpose!

Ok, so everybody needs to have a cat invade their space when they are working... if you have/have ever had cats you understand... its their way of saying, " Hey, look at me! " 

Ok, so inspiration for this whole thing comes from Alisa Burke, she is an amazing, very inspirational artist who freely shares her creative ideas to inspire others! She has so many cool ideas! Sometimes I will see her do something, like this plastic bag printmaking and think OMG how did that never occur to me to try?!?  Then I realize it's because 10 months out of the year my mind is on overload from school, lesson plans, SGO's, assessments, data.... you know... all the stuff that SUCKS ALL the creative and physical energy out of you! ( if you are a teacher you know what I mean... )

I started by painting some fabric paint onto a plastic bag( Ziploc , not the grocery kind...) and placed it randomly onto my canvas and pressed...

Once I started to get into it I became more random in my placement...

Now its starting to resemble Monet's Waterlilies to me...

Time to break out the random kitchen items...

I really wanted some bubble wrap but do you think I could find any? I had my daughter searching through the house... 

Ended up with a piece of Lego instead...

... it made the dots I was wanting but I would still like some bubble wrap...

The kitchen table is not just for eating...

...ready for something contrasting...

I tried a couple of ways to paint onto the bag but was not loving it... I ended up drawing on the bag with the paint bottle and then gently printing the sketch into the fabric...  to much and it over squished... found I could quick blot it up with a paper towel and all was good...

over squished... blotted it up and the background color came through in places, looked way better...

... added some white flowers too...

... even when I'm not at school my hands are a mess...

I so LOVE how this turned out!!!

Now the whole piece is drying out on my front porch in the breeze...

Time to go clean up my mess...

I'm going to be using this with some awesome fabrics and recycled denim I think for a bag...

I'll play later...

Mrs."C"  :)

Creating....

I picked some flowers this morning off my deck and then sketched this...

Observational sketching... superfine Sharpie and Prismacolor watercolor pencils...

While listening to the many. many birds singing in the woods around my house and watching CBS Sunday Morning... ( the humidity is gone from the past couple of days and the windows are open again, yeah! ) 

Another South Bay Shawlette on my hook... this is a really popular pattern! I am seeing it pop up in all different versions all over the internet! I'm putting some striping in this one at the bottom and making it a little longer than others I have made before...

I picked up this pattern at Wal-Mart last weekend while I was running errands... it's the pattern that Meredith from Mereknits blogged about after so many us asked about it after seeing several skirts she made from the pattern! 

I, of course had to then drive over to Joann's Fabrics and get some fabric to make some of the skirts!  I picked out 4 nice batiks. Meredith, I didn't realize it until I got home, but I think you made one of your skirts from the same gray and white flower print! I left the pattern in the car and was too lazy to go out and get it to read the yardage,(and they didn't have the pattern at Joann's)  so I guessed and I will now be using these four prints for many other things as I purchased enough to make a skirt with each and then some! I didn't plan on going so I didn't have my coupons with me... :(  I did have my teacher discount card and the cashier was awesome and found me 6, yes, 6 coupons, I could use right then and there on a magazine that Joann's publishes. It cost me a whopping $1.00 something for the magazine and I saved over $60.00 !!!  :) :) :) 

This piece of cotton duck canvas is going to get painted, stamped, printed and drawn on.... I will then turn it into... ???  Bags possibly... ???

I am trying to get up the motivation to start cleaning out this space, my son's old room... (I painted that Milky Way on the wall for him when he was 9... ) so that I can move my sewing machine and ironing board into here...

Here is the sewing machine...

... and the ironing board is under here... yeah, I know... it looks like something from Hoarders...

dresses and clothes from work, shawls from winter... all clean but I have been too lazy and busy the past few weeks to hang them up and put them away in my closet, so ... yeah ... I will organize it today... I promise...  

I also have to re-organize all my yarn stash... it is a complete disaster and is taking over a corner of the family room... this is the first task after I make some nacho's ( can you say procrastinating?)

I am slowly straightening up one room at a time... the downstairs is not so bad... now onto the upstairs... oh yeah! Nacho's first!  :)

SCHOOLS OUT !!!!

( yeah!) 

:)

Blogger is Being Weird!!!

I can't read the blogs on my reading list today! Blogger is only loading the most recently posted and when I click "show more" nothing happens! I would really like to read my blogs! :(

Is anyone else out there having this problem?  My reading list was fine yesterday...  :(

Almost Summer...

I had to post something so I could get rid of the picture of that snake! We officially have only Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday left for this school year... oh and what a year it has been!

Where do I begin...

I survived the first year of our new teacher evaluation system... I made it through my Student Growth Goals and all the pre,mid and post assessments without committing Hara-kiri...

I wouldn't say that all this educational change has left my district unscathed... we have lost some  excellent educators to retirement due to all the new initiatives ( and some other stuff...) People that could go, did, even if they didn't feel ready to go... just too much BS to deal with... I'm sad about that ... 

...And my schedule(or my colleague's schedules for that matter) for next year... well... let's just say  we're not going to discuss it right now... I prefer to keep this a family friendly blog and some of the vocabulary that has been used to describe our schedules for next year are not very family friendly... :)

It's Friday and this basically sums up my evening tonight! ( except scratch the coffee part and insert an Arnold Palmer Coolatta from DD, YUM! )  My husband is working late, my 20 yr old son is out carousing with his 2 best buddies who are home on leave from the Navy this week. I think I have seen him a total of 30 minutes all week! Just long enough to run in, take a shower and run back out... Ah, youth...

It's just me and my 15 year old daughter having a Walking Dead Marathon... ( I don't like the zombies, but I have gotten really caught up in the character's story lines! ) My daughter is going through Walking Dead withdrawl and I don't think she is going to make it until October for Season 5, lol...  :)

I have to finish up some grades and my school orders for next year, do some paper work, finish organizing my two rooms for summer cleaning and then I'm set! 

It looks like it's going to be a really nice weekend! Hope you all enjoy yours where ever you may be! 

Mrs. "C"  :)

The Snake Who Wanted to Go to School...

Sounds like a name for a children's book, doesn't it? Well.... this morning at 8:10 one of my colleagues found a younger relative of this Northern Pine Snake slithering along in the hallway between mine and her room! How the snake got onto the second floor of a school when all the stairwell doors were closed leaves us to wonder... does he have family in the building 

somewhere!?! Needless to say ALL of my fellow colleagues on the floor were freaked out ALL day! Snakes are the only thing that bothers me, I have no problem with bugs or any other living creatures. I was kicking boxes and looking before reaching for anything in my room today! 

Today was our last full day of school! We now have 5 half days and our last day is next Wednesday. Soon, but not soon enough! :)

Oil Pastel Jenga Anyone?

I had to take a picture of this this morning...  a couple of my 5th grade boys toward the end of class this morning began to build using the oil pastels... they let me get a picture before they knocked it down! They built it just to knock it down... that's boys for you! My son used to love to build with blocks when he was little and then he loved to knock it all down!
FYI: This post is going to be loaded with several things so hold on to your hats people! It's been a busy time getting ready for the end of the school year!

This is the last box of art work that has to be handed back... I have two 5th grades that I have not seen for the past 2 weeks due to trips and programs... the same two classes are going to on a trip again on their art day next week! They are going to be getting their things back on they very last day of school! 

I finally got the last few 3d graders to finish their Japanese Koinobori ( carp streamer) and they swam out of my room yesterday afternoon! I have my 3d graders make these every spring just before Children's Day in Japan. We ran a little late this year...  Check out the cool koinobori that Cassie Stephens made with her students this spring!

Who saw the post on The Art of Education that Amanda posted about the oil pastel tye-dye? This was the perfect make-it and take-it project for this week in my 3d-5th grades! The kids loved it and made several during the 30 minutes we have for art class! Thanks Amanda for this great lesson! I gave them basic directions but encouraged them to experiment with different ideas! They blew me away! :)

The students inspired each other with all the different shapes and color combinations they tried! 

Ian's post on The Art of Education called, " I Don't Like Grading , And, Uh, I Don't Think I'm Gonna Grade Anymore" REALLY got me thinking about everything that is going on right now with grading and assessments and data and how it is affecting our art programs...  I have spent the last two days reading through Joe Bower's blog and all he has to say about how he has abolished grading from his classroom. Some really interesting reads! Thanks Ian! I have been collecting info and I am definitely making some changes to my evaluation system. I am required to use letter grades for 3d-5th grade and I will continue to post my grades as such on the report cards but I am going to be making some changes on how my assessments are going to be made...  more on that this summer after I have had some time to work on it... Ian made some great points in his post and I agree with them all, completely and totally.  The most important objective I have for next year ( and all the years to come) is keeping creativity alive and well in my art rooms despite having to collect data, do pre, mid and post assessments. I want my students to be immersed in the creation of their art work, not "what do I need to do to get an "A" .  Again, more on all this later this summer...

I am almost done reading, Classroom Management for Art, Music and PE Teachers, by Michael Linsin. His blog, Smart Classroom Management is well worth going over to check out. I have it on the side bar of my blog with my favorite blogs. The book is easy to read and a wealth of information! I have already used one of his techniques to get your class to re-focus their attention on what you are saying to them. It works like a charm! Just simple, random, one step directions... one class thought we were playing Simon Says! (lol) After two random directions they were all ready to listen and follow the directions, no muss, no fuss!  Thank you Michael Linsin! When I am done reading I will type up a quick summary of what I read and will be uploading it to my folder called, Domain 4 - 2014-2015 ( if you teach in New Jersey you know what that is!) Anything I read or research I can include in my Domain 4 documentation for my annual review. This year we were hit with it 2 weeks before it was due and it was nuts collecting all the info that we need from this school year! Not next year! Everything I can use is being scanned, made into a pdf and thrown in to my folder! 

Many changes coming down the road again next year...  I'm just gonna climb on my imaginary surfboard and ride the waves! 

Three more full days of school next week and then we have five half days until the end of the school year.  If you are in the tail end like me hang in there, it's almost over! 

Have a great weekend! 

Mrs."C"