Take the Quiz here!

I think the picture pretty much sums it up. Why varnish something when you can spray paint over it? I guess I get to try again with this little project! Oh brother!

Now for the cuteness. We were finishing up dinner tonight and Megan and Emily were enjoying a little sword play with their straws. At one point, Megan said “You’re dead!” Emily replied “No, I am Mommy!” (Then turned to Mike and said) “You’re Dad!”

And finally: There is a ton of good stuff to blog about. We have been busy! But I don’t have time tonight, so I will leave you with some pics of our fun day at the zoo with Jenn and Lauren.

Materials:

paper (I used white, but colored paper would look nice with acrylics)

paint (watercolor or acrylic will work great. I would avoid tempera, as it tends to flake.)

paintbrushes

scissors

glue

Not necessary, but  recommended:

poster board

Foam tape (to create different heights)

Directions:

1. Paint on the paper, it’s pretty simple. Any design will work, since you are going to be cutting it up, it’s not necessary to get too detailed. I did swirls in a a few different shades  of each main color, then topped it with some Jackson Pollack paint dripping. Paint the background onto another piece of paper or the poster board.

2. After the paintings have dried, flip them over and sketch out the basic shapes for your picture. Then cut them out. To get the crinkled look I used, wet the paper down and gently wad it up; then smooth it out again as much as desired. Let it dry and it will hold that form.

3. Now glue the shapes onto the background. If you are using foam tape, layer different amounts of tape to make the objects in the scene stand out. (For example, I used on piece of tape on one tree. On the tree next to it, I layered 3 pieces of tape, then 2 on another, and 4 on a different tree; so that each tree was a different height above the paper.)

4. Pretty simple. Now try experimenting. You and your little artist can come up with some really amazing work.

Oregon (aka blissful homecoming)

We drove 2167.5 miles (which equates to 40 hours, 20 min. of in-car time) on our 4 day trip. It felt so good to be there-a little hot and sticky as we hit a record heat wave-but still good. We played on the beach and Megan couldn’t get enough of the water. She just giggled-almost hysterically-as she sat on the sand and let the waves lap over her.

We took 101 up from where we stayed in Depot Bay to Tillamook (mmm…ice cream…) and over to Portland to meet Amy. (yay!) I am kicking myself that I didn’t get a picture of her. We spent the night hanging out and talking, which was just as fun as when were in high school. I know I am treading towards annoying gushiness here, but she is such a fun friend. It is amazing how we can not talk for months and then get together and feel just like being back in high school. (Only better, because we don’t have to be in high school.) She great to confide in and has deep insights on so many things. I am going to stop now and just say that I had a great time with you Amy.

On Saturday we headed down to Salem to watch Brent play the Salem Surge (or something). As you can see it was fun. We were all a little wilted from the heat, but some icees perked us up, as well giving us nicely colored tongues. Other highlights: driving too fast down Croissian Creek Rd., past my old house, Sprague and Hylo Rd. I can’t help but sigh just thinking about it. We also wandered around Silver Falls. (Which I always thought was Silver Creek Falls, huh.) Either way, the place is gorgeous! Several beautiful falls that are easy to hike to and closely situated. I highly recommend it!

Idaho

We went to the Idaho Falls area to support my cute nephews for their mission homecoming (Jordan) and farewell (Jake). We also got to visit the super-cool Schwendimans and their AWESOME potato farm. I loved climbing up on the potato mountain in the potato cellar. (Yes, it was a lot of potatoes.) The Schwendimans are so much fun, that we are going to head back in a couple of weeks. It was an action packed 33 hours, I tell you what!

misc. joys

The 4th of July was just as much fun as always, here are the kids in their shirts. We loved your bee outfits, Wrights/Hinckleys! Also beloved, are summer dinners in the Jensen’s backyard.  And the nieces and

nephews’ many sporting victories. Among them Weston’s baseball team taking the State tittle. Way to go Wes!

Here is Mike’s new baby. It was the summer of Mike (what with his motor and mountain bike purchases.) His old baby, the Jeep is going to live on the Shwendiman’s farm; where it will have lots of room to run around. (Bye bye, last little shred of coolness. Don’t worry about me, I’ve got my minivan to get around in.)

Next month should be even more fun with Brent and Katie’s wedding and a couple of camping trips on the calendar. Also exciting, I finally finished my proposal for my art idea book! Thank you, Thank you, please no applause. Yes, I feel like it was an accomplishment. You can see it at www.ArtAllYear.com. Please note the site I designed and Eddie laboriously coded for me. I will be posting about the joys of collage soon (featuring the very seasonal trees you see on the site.) If you’re still with me, congrats on your blog endurance capabilities. I’ll try to be more frequent and brief in August. ;-D

Emily accessorizing again!

~Experiment with different pressures to create shading. This can be accomplished by going over the area several times to make it darker. Then use your fingers to blend the chalk powder in. This will give you a more solid covering.

~Try using brushes to spread the chalk dust and create blending and shading.

~Dip your chalk in water before drawing, the application is more paste like and very dramatic.

~You can also try wetting the cement and then drawing on it for a different look.

~Now try coloring (with dry chalk) and then dipping your brush in water and highlighting areas with it.

~If you child loves this, you may want to supplement the usual chunky chalk with colored chalk (for chalkboards) or even pastels to give them a broader range of colors and texture.

~Like other types of art; you just need to play around for a while and pretty soon you will have some great new techniques!

Megan wanted to draw one of her favorite subjects: her beloved cousin Abby and her playing. Here they are surfing, woa daddy!

Materials:

1 large tub of Cool Whip

Several small packages of Jello (however many colors you want)

Black or other dark colored paper

Brushes

Directions:

1. Scoop the Cool Whip into as many bowls as you want different colors and stir a tablespoon or so of the Jello mix into each. I used Raspberry for red, Lemon for yellow, Lime for green, and Orange for orange. (I later wished that I had grabbed a Berry Blue for some blue.) Add more powder if needed, the more you use, the brigher your colors will be.

2. Now use your fingers or a brush to scoop and shape your paint into the desired picture. Keep in mind that you want to apply it thickly for good color. Make sure to do a little tasting.

3. Set aside finished pictures to dry. They will stay puffy and smell great!

Materials:

Toilet paper and paper towel rolls

Items from your art box:

Felt

Cotton balls

Yarn

Beads

Craft sticks, bamboo skewers, or other sticks

Flowers

There are lots of other possibilities-Use your imagination!

Craft glue (I like Aleene’s tacky glue)

Directions:

1. Really, this is a project that you can just go crazy with. But here are the steps for the ones shown:

Opera Singer

1. Place a toilet paper tube inside a paper towel tube and sketch where you want the mouth, then cut the lips.

2. Cut the paper towel tube to the desired legnth.

3. Paint the skin color and the base color for the clothes.

4. Once the paint is dry (about 15 min.) sketch out details and paint (Make sure to pull the toilet paper roll so that the mouth is all the way open and paint all of that as well as making sure the lips line up when they are closed.)

5. Make eyes by gluing a bead onto a cotton ball. Then cut an eyelid shape from felt (and lashes if desired, which are glued just under the edge of the eyelid) and glue over the cotton ball.

6. Make hair by wrapping yarn around your hand several times. Tie another piece of yarn around the wound yarn in one place (Which will hold the threads together.)

7. Trim the hair as desired and glue to the top of the paper towel roll.

8. Tape a stick to the bottom inside of the toilet paper roll. (This is what you will pull to make the puppet talk.)

9. Tape another stick to the inside back to the paper towel roll. (This is what you will hold to hold the puppet up.)

Kitchen Utensil Puppets

Here are a few tips:

Wrap with felt for clothes.

Silk flowers make great skirts.

Salad forks make great royalty. Paint the tongs with gold or silver paint and then embellish.

Whisks make great crazy creatures or aliens. You can tie or wrap fabric or pipe cleaners through the spokes to make hair.

Have fun!

Peanut Butter Playdough

So, things have been a little nutty lately; and I am running a little behind on posting. (stating the obvious, right?) I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share a few words about my little bit of sunshine, though. I just cannot believe that Emily is 2 already. It seems that the more I try to keep her my baby, the faster she turns into this adorable little curly top girl. Here are a few of my favorite things about Emily:

• She has an amazing 1000 watt smile. Seriously, her whole body smiles, she squinches up her eyes and just radiates happiness.
• When she gets excited she jabbers on with such an earnest look on her face, it just makes me want to squeeze her cheeks.
• Uh, yea. Those cheeks-so cute! So are her little chubby arms and legs.
• “wook-a-dat!”, “I wike it!”, “I do!”, “A wock-a-chair!”  (Pretty much everything she says really does have an exclamation point after it. She is just so stinkin’ happy.
• She has this really funny scowl that gives people (especially new acquaintances.) It is intense and it is difficult to break. Mike and I usually can’t help but laugh up as she nails someone with it.
• She is just so stinkin’ happy!
• When she gets mad she banters off these staccato ejaculations. She reminds me of a mad little hen. It cracks me up.
• The curls. Come on, how can you not love them.
• The way she takes in everything around her.
• When she dances around, her shoulders move in a very cute and exuberant way.
• She often holds tight with one hand around my neck and it melts me.
• She loves being with Megan, you can frequently hear her calling out “Meg! Meg-an” in her cute little voice.
• She loves babies and is so cute and maternal.
• She is so excited about life–and it is contagious!
• I can still think she is cute when she wakes me up at 4am.
• She wakes up totally happy–just excited to be here.

This is probably enough mushy-ness for public consumption, but I think you get the idea. I am so thrilled that I get to be her mommy. I know, you are probably full of cheese by now; but let me jut say she is a perfect little bit of sunshine and that is so beautiful! Happy Birthday, Ems.

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Materials:

Tee shirt (A darker color works best. We used mostly red, but navy looked great too. As you can see, the bleached area ended up red.)

Spray bottle with bleach (We started with a 50/50 mix but ended up using a higher concentration.)

Newspaper to put in the shirts so the bleach doesn’t seep through to the back.

Stencils (see Direction #1. below)

Paper towels

A bucket of water to rinse the shirt in was helpful

Glad Press and Seal wrap was also very useful!

Directions:

*Wear old clothes for this activity!

1. Design your stencils. Here are a few methods that we liked: The first was to use store-bought stencils. Layer Glad Press and Seal wrap around the edges of the stencil and press lightly into the shirt to prevent overspray.

Cut shapes out Press and Seal wrap and press onto the shirt, then spray around to create a relief.

Draw a pattern onto a file folder or a clear sheet protector then cut out and use as a stencil.

2. Lay the stencil onto the shirt and hold it down if necessary, while you spray bleach liberally onto the shirt. Lay a paper towel over the top of everything before you pull the stencil off to absorb the excess bleach.

3. Once you have the design you want, let it sit a few minutes until it is as light as you like, then rinse thoroughly. Wash and wear!

*If you have overspray or just want a speckled look, spray the shirt directly with the spray bottle. Less is better here. You can get bigger drops by spraying slowly and a finer mist by spraying firmly and quickly.

*You could use a bleach pen to write, outline, or draw onto the design.

*Embellishing with puffy paint would also work well, perhaps the giltter paints.