simple Analogy

Latte Doodles

The design of this little painting was inspired by taper weights (torn from Martha Stewart Living) and the colors from drinking iced coffee while the A/C's been on the fritz.  I love the little iced coffee VIA packs from Starbucks.  So handy!  One packet makes enough for two of us to have a good size treat after adding a bit more sugar and lots of milk. 

Only one little problem... All of sudden, while outlining, the caffeine kicked in.  Compared with McDonald's iced coffee, these have WAY more caffeine!  (Duh, it's Starbucks.)  Shaking hands and permanent pens don't go well together.  I thought about waiting for awhile to finish it up, but decided that I'd just plow through quickly.  Any squiggly lines would just give it more character, right?  Sounded good, only I made myself nervous trying to draw like that.  Next time I'll wait until after I finish a painting before partaking of an iced coffee.

I Had To Do Some Too

 
Did you think I could sit back and watch my kids kneading that salty dough (which is actually a tactile delight), cutting out Christmas shapes, and decorating them without making some myself?  You know me by now.  After I saw Katy's intricate designs, I had to try my hand at the red Sharpie version.

I used a fine point sharpie and did them all in one sitting.  My had was a bit cramped at the end which is why there are some peppermint looking snowflakes.  They took less time.

These are for my mom who has a red & white/hearts & peppermint stripes tree theme.  Merry early Christmas, Mom! 

Mountains of Mittens

 
I'm a little off my game today.  We went to the midnight showing of Voyage of the Dawn Treader last night.  So good!  You should go, just not to the midnight show unless you want to be a bit slower the next day.  Slow is what I don't need to be.  You should see the list I have for this weekend!  The main priority is prepping for the Nursery Christmas party for the children.  Like making a ton of salt dough mittens for them to decorate.

Here's hoping you have a productive weekend and get to cross a lot off your list!

Anyone Have the Same Problem?

What to get my dad for a present...  This is a dilemma I face each gift giving occasion.  The things he likes are way out of my price range and I can only go to the clothes well just so often before I get sick of buying plaid shirts and khaki's.  I started thinking about ideas way back in March, but nothing was ringing my bell.

Then I got an inspiration from Wise Craft's new sponsor, Cozy Blue.  Her unique family trees are adorable!  I thought about getting one of these for dad - he's way into genealogy - but hers only have parents in the middle and kids on the outside.  Great for a small family, new birth, or Mother's Day but a little too cutesy for my corporate father.  Plus somehow I thought he'd be disappointed with such little posterity shown.

I perused Etsy, but nothing really hit it.  So, I made him a family tree of my own.  I drew the tree and scanned it into the computer.  I don't have Photoshop so using my paint program I filled the tree with black and added our family name.  I then printed the image using a high quality setting onto thick watercolor paper, which is fast becoming my favorite craft paper.  I tried to add the names with the paint program, but couldn't position them how I wanted, so I wrote the names by hand.  There's nothing that adds more individuality than handwriting.  It offers a bit of who I am to the picture.

I kept it tight as far as family goes - just dad and mom, my family, and my sister's.  With all the genealogy my dad has uncovered it would have taken years to make the whole family tree, not to mention it would have been the size of Texas.  But this way, it focuses on the part he had to play in our heritage and it is a reasonable size (8 x 10).

The frame I bought to put it in really makes the whole thing.  The large width, color, and grain of the wood fit right in with the tree-ish-ness of the whole thing.  I'm having to restrain myself from driving over this very minute and giving it to him early.  And you know how I feel about giving presents early!  I'm just so excited about this one.

You can click on any picture to see it bigger.

Art + Science

 

This smacks of jellies!  Pun intended.  We've been studying marine animals this semester in science and jellyfish in particular this week.  That is the only reason why I know that a group of jellyfish are called a smack.  OH!  Now I get the pun!  What a surprise that this week's art lesson was to draw a scene of the sea.  I told the boys they had to draw at least one jelly in their scene.  As you can see that's all I really wanted to draw!  That poor little fish.  Look how I backed him into a corner, facing that smack all alone.  What must he be thinking?  The lady who drew this was evil - that's what he's thinking.  Maybe he can pull a Marlin/Dory move and bounce right out of harm's way.  Sorry little guy!  I was so caught up with the jellies.

Noah's drawing has a good assortment of animals that we have studied:  sea snake, jellies, sea turtle, anemone, angler fish, crab, sea urchin, fish, shrimp, and his playful take on a box jellyfish.

 Landon's is more of a smack with one scared, inking octopus thrown in for good measure.

Lovebirds Papercut

While working on my next set of multi-cultural crafts for kids (coming soon to a blog near you - this one, in March), I came across papercuts.  I'd seen them around, but had never tried one.  You know me!  I had to make my own.  Feel free to try it for yourself!  Download Lovebirds Papercut. 

I printed the image on thick red paper and cut it out using a self-healing mat and an exacto fitted with a brand new blade.  If you've never done done this before, let me give you a hint.  You want to make sure to cut just inside the line so that none of the black shows.  It's hard to go back and cut away tiny slivers of black line.  Personal experience here!   Oh, and also make sure your blood sugar isn't low.  Shaky hands and a knife are not a good combination.  Click here for more papercut tips.

This one is for Joel's Valentine's Day card.  Since he does not read my blog, there's no worry about spilling the beans. 

For those of you wondering if I'll be doing papercuts with the kids, the answer is "NOT IN A MILLION YEARS!"  With as many kids and the variety of ages I'll be working with on these multicultural projects, I wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole.  There.  Now you can breathe a sigh of relief!

How To Draw 101 Funny People

This came in Noah's stocking this year and has quickly become a new family favorite!!!!!  He struggles with drawing more than Landon and likes step by step instructions.  This book is perfect!

It's fun!  The boys and I sat down together and drew for several hours.  Yes, I said hours.  My boys!

It's easy!  Even the hardest is way within our ability, although I must say that my "toddler" had the biggest club foot you've ever seen.  Sorry little guy!

The steps are easy to follow!  There are six steps to follow for each person.  Many of the steps have several items to add, but still very doable.

They also have other titles:  How to Draw 101 Animals, How to Draw 101 Monsters, How to Draw 101 Cartoon Characters.  If you want instant gratification, we bought ours at Michael's.  I highly recommend these!!!   Noah provided the artwork for this post.

What Our Christmas Carols Sound Like These Days

 

...Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

When we finally beep beep beep,

How I hate going out in the storm.

But if you'll really beep beep beep...

Oh yes!  You've never heard the classic like this before - I'm sure of it!  Boys around the world unite!  No more mushy Christmas carols!

Just think of how lovely it will be going to a wedding this weekend with these guys.  Yes you do have to go, boys!  And no beeping when he pronounces them man and wife!

Evil

Thursdays are evil as far as our homeschooling schedule goes.  As a busy family, we have several commitments during the week that eat up our time.  Since I am not one of "those" homeschool moms that let their kids slip and slide around school work, this makes Thursday our day to accomplish not only all our regular everyday subjects, but also those extra things that I want my children to have in their education.  Like piano lessons.  Like writing class.  Like art.  What would the world be without art, the written word, and music?  Dull and drab is what. 

 

Landon's (the DIY-er's dream hammer)  

Our usual Friday art has been moved to Thursday this year.  Today's lesson was very uninspiring - draw hammers.  Ok, the fact that you can draw them funny, crazy, etc. just didn't cut it for me.  I usually do art with the boys, but today I tried to slip out of it by telling them they could draw while I read a book to them.  They were rather disappointed.  "What?  You always draw with us!  Come on, Mother!"  (They've taken to calling me "Mother".  Sounds so formal, but whatever.)  Oh all right!  Hammers.  Mine were very blah, until I started drawing nails along with them.  Nails are more fun to draw than hammers, so my Thursday art session kind of took on a shape of it's own.  I am banning hammers!  They are evil.

Noah's Hammerhead Shark (he was uninspired by hammers as well)

So Let the Neighbors Talk

For those of you who are totally wanting to do the chalk drawing thing, but don't have any kids to use as your excuse for drawing on your driveway... take heart.  You are not alone!  Meet Michael Neff and see his amazing shadow chalk drawing gallery.  Beautiful!  Imagine stepping outside one morning only to see that someone has captured the shadows of the night on the sidewalk in front of you.  That would make my day!

I tried it last night.  I wish we had detailed iron scroll work, but the only shadow I could find was the one made by the street light shining through the branches of my pine tree.  I grabbed my chalk and got to it.  Mine isn't nearly as wonderful as Michael Neff's and my camera doesn't take very good pictures in the dark, but it was fun and I felt like I was doing something clandestine.  None of the neighbors called Joel this morning to see if I was "all right", so I don't think I hurt my reputation too badly.

So see, you can let the inner child in you be free to chalk up the driveway - just do it at night.  Of course Mr. Neff's chalking can be attributed to artistic genius.  Somehow I fear it may not be translated the same way for you and I.  Someone might think we are doing graffiti, so be careful!  Just sayin'!