Tag: Art

family

Try Again

Andi

I did this peacock during my friend’s and mine weekly group painting, but I hated it. The first one looked so terrible. I didn’t finish it, I just threw it away.

I stopped to think about why it looked so awful, and evaluated why I disliked it so greatly. The colors were unclear and muddled together and looked like poo. What causes that? Well maybe it was my ridiculously old brushes that weren’t even designed for watercolor being too thick and wide to make the clear lines. I was unable to make the project look correct. So I went and got a new set of brushes. I also considered that my paints were getting used and running low. Perhaps they needed to also be replaced. So i also purchased a new set of paints.

New paper. Start over. The second one came out significantly better than the first. I can stand to look at this one. It could still be better, but that will be on a different day with different paper.

When you mess up, don’t throw your hands up and give up. Look at why you made a mistake, analyze how you could improve. What would make this project move more smoothly? Once you’ve done that, correct your errors. Make those changes. And then try again. If its still wrong, go back and try again. Don’t stop, keep changing things.. Keep making corrections until you get it right.

family

Paper Rainbows

Andi

I did this craft with my children. Its a pretty simple premise. I’d suggest the kid doing this activity be about elementary age. It sounds easy to you and me, but it can become frustrating for a younger kid still developing their hand eye coordination and dexterity.

Materials needed are construction paper cut in a U shape, tissue paper cut into small squares, glue, pen or pencil, white paper crumpled.

Take your U shaped construction paper and dob a line of glue along the edge. Take a square of tissue paper and wrap it over the eraser end of your pencil. Turn over and place on the line of glue. Repeat process until the entire row is full. After you finished one color, go back to the glue and start the next row of color.

Once you’ve filled your entire rainbow, take your white paper and add some glue to it. Place and hold onto the ends of your rainbow for a few seconds until the glue takes hold.

My younger child gave up the pencil and took to crumpling the tissue paper into balls and putting those on the glue. It actually turned out just fine. If your child is having trouble with the pencil and paper, you can show them how to crumple the paper instead.

Allow time to dry of course, and the hang on the fridge, or in the window, or on the wall. Or your kid can run around showing everyone they see their pretty rainbow.

This craft was a little bit of a challenge for us. I’d say it took a good 30 minutes to and hour and then time to dry. My child got frustrated and walked away a couple times. But this activity pushed the limits of their ability, and helped improve it.

Art

The Butterflies and the Bees

Andi

Its been a minute since I shared a photo I took. Granted, because of stay at home orders we haven’t been out as much these last few months as I would have liked, but we all have to do our part.

On one of our Nature Walks, we discovered several bees. Bees are our friends, and we love them. What was so incredible was that butterflies were also all about. It just so happened that a bee and a butterfly landed on the same flower and then stayed there together. I was so fascinated by this. Luckily I was able to snap a quick pic before they flew away.

family

Pipe Cleaner Snakes

Andi

A bit ago, I had my kids do a beading activity. I noticed that my younger child was having a really hard time coordinating the moving string and the bead, to the point he was angrily frustrated and quit. I thought, surely there is a way for him to develop this skill without the frustration.

I’ve discussed the benefits of beading in my earlier post entitled Beading with Children. But any activity your children do should be doable without rage and irritation. Regular beading was a little too difficult for my younger child, so I adjusted the parameters a little bit to better fit their capabilities.

Instead of string, I gave them pipe cleaner to bead. Because pipe cleaners are stiff, they were simpler to coordinate. My child was able to do this craft without too much trouble. I’m fact they enjoyed it so much, they’d pull all the beads off and re-string them.

To add a little structure to this craft, we added little snake faces and positioned the snakes in funny ways. They turned out really cute with their tongues sticking out 😋.

This takes a little observation on the part of the adult. Can the children around you manage a wobbly string while they are beading, or do they need a little aide to work up to it? Another fun stringing activity involves those large wooden beads and shoe laces. Both of these will help a younger child develop their coordination to a point they can string beads, which in turns help develop other skills.

This craft did not cost a whole lot either. The beads I got in a set with some string for $1.99. You do not need that many, unless you have a burning desire to pick up a bunch of stray beads off the floor that rolled away. The pipe cleaners were $1 and I got the package of construction paper for $1 as well. Beading is so incredibly helpful and creative and costs so little. Give it a try with your kids!

Art

Octopus Watercolor

Andi

I’m really proud of this painting. A couple friends and I started doing watercolor tutorials together over Zoom a few months ago when the Stay at Home orders were issued. Before that, we had tried to get together in person to paint together. I’m honestly surprised how well the paintings turn out because none of us are professionals, but they almost always look good.

But this one is extra special. This one is an octopus. Octopuses are my favorite sea creature and my second favorite creature in general. They sit on the top with the Cats and Elephants. They are brilliant and clever and snarky. Look up some of the aquarium and diver stories about them. I love nature in general, but octopuses hold a special place in my heart.

The template was all blue and purple, but as a looked at it, I didn’t like the blue. I decided he shouldn’t be blue, he should be orange. Which immediately reminded me of Hank the septopus from Finding Dory.

I love Hank. He is cranky. He wants to be left alone. He is constantly caught up in his friends hijinks. I am Hank. If I were an animal, I would be him. He is my favorite Pixar character. Which is not an easy feat considering he’s competing with the likes of Joy, Woody, and Dante. I am almost positive Hank was based off of someone in the Pixar studio and I want to meet this person, we would be friends.

So instead of blue and purple, I painted this guy orange and red with only seven arms in tribute to my Pixar friend Hank.

Art, family

The Last Supper Table and Chairs

Andi

A local museum had a room full of art pieces donated by local citizens. Some work they’d done themselves and some that had been passed down in their families. This table and chairs drew my attention and it fascinated me.

It depicts the Last supper in the middle of the table, and there are twelve chairs each depicting a different disciple. I did not notice at the time, but the chair for Judas is carved differently from all the rest as he was the one who betrayed Jesus. It is of course carved and it was quite large. This quick summary laid there with the piece shared the artists history.

I find it incredibly intriguing how various religions have effected the cultures in which they are prominent. Art is one of the plainest places to see these effects, as religious artwork is prolific.

Something else I find interesting about this artwork in particular is the rarity of it. Not because tables are rare or because this artist took 12 years to carve it, but because of the unique idea of it. Who thinks of the Last Supper and thinks, I can make that into a table and chairs. It’s so odd, but delightful.

I enjoyed this part of the museum because of the unique and fascinating nature of it. It was neat to see all these different pieces by or from local residents. But this table, by far, stood out the most.

family

Activities to do in the House

Andi

With many of the schools closing, businesses closing, many families are concerned how they will fill the time without going insane.

I went over the the Dollar Tree and found several great activities, and being the Dollar Tree, it was inexpensive. They have a surprisingly large variety of crafts and toys. I got a few craft kits, some sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and a little golf set. Just to have on hand as this virus escalates and its becoming more likely we will be quarantined at some point.

I did not get crayons or play dough there however. Both of these things can be purchased elsewhere for similar or even cheaper prices and better quality. You can get both at Walmart for a decent price.

We have activities I already had that will come in handy. Things like coloring books, puzzles, board games, dress up clothes, etc. These I think will also come in handy.

Many organizations are also putting free materials out for families to use. Scholastic for example is putting an educational program on their website with activities and books for you children to make use of and hopefully help keep their minds sharp. You can find this resource at

http://www.scholastic.com/learnathome

YouTube will of course have videos you can watch with your kids, educational and otherwise.

Keep your heads up. Doctors and scientists are already working overtime to develop a vaccine. By cancelling events, citizens are hoping to slow the spread of the virus, and maybe dissipate its severity. It kind of sucks, I’m going to be honest. I like going places, and can’t because everything had closed. But I understand why this is happening. To make the best of a bad situation, I’ve stocked up on activities and crafts I know the kids and I will enjoy doing together. We can make it through this!

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Precious Ornaments

Andi

I have these ornaments, and they’ve been on every tree I can remember. They are a pair of figure skaters, and they were made by my Grandma Fern.

Well, she wasn’t really my grandma. She was my dad’s brother’s wife’s mom. So she was my cousins grandma, but not mine. But she lived down the street from my aunt and uncle and we visited every December.

She did a lot of bead crafting. I can remember her craft room with an entire wall of drawers filled with every color bead you can imagine. She gave me several ornaments over the years and I still have most of them. This pair was one of the first.

She had rheumatoid arthritis, and gradually her hands became more and more stiff. Eventually she became unable to handle the small beads. The last ornament she gave me is a little elf that my son now thinks is his.

Her last few years she developed alzheimer’s and she passed this last year. I’d not thought about it until I pulled all these beaded ornaments out of their boxes and it rushed over me. I hadn’t seen her in the final stages, but in a way, I don’t regret that. In my mind, I still see the smiling face cheerfully showing me how to craft. That’s the face I want to hold onto. That’s the face I remember when I hang this skating couple on my tree.

family

Christmas Cards

Andi

It’s a beautiful day! Christmas is coming up fast and I decided this year I wasn’t going to ship gifts and everything had to fit into a regular envelope with a regular stamp.

Sidebar: shipping is expensive!! I spent more on shipping gifts than I spent on the gifts themselves. I could not believe how much the cost of shipping was. End Sidebar.

So, to make things still a little special and unique, I decided to make hand crafted Christmas cards. Luckily, I have a friend that does paper crafting and we set a date to bring all of our supplies together and spend the day making cards.

We crammed the table space we had full of stamps and dyes, scissors and glue. Time went by so quickly as we got sucked into our crafting.

We did accomplish our goal. They are not anywhere close to perfect, but they are still pretty cute. More importantly, we, both mothers, got some time together to enjoy each others company.

Art, family

Photograph of Jellyfish

Andi

Another picture I took that I simply adored. I love nature and how incredibly beautiful it is. Nature puts on an artistic display for us to stand in awe of. It’s not all pretty landscapes and picturesque flowers either. It comes in odd shapes and colors, but still striking in it’s own form of beauty.

The other day we went to the aquarium and my children were profoundly fascinated with all the different creatures. The ocean is full of beauty and color and some of the weirdest animals on earth. I particularly liked these jellyfish. They look like they’re wearing frilly dresses. Those big southern bell dresses with petticoats and bloomers. And they were kind and stayed put so I could take their picture. Some of the other fish weren’t so cooperative.

My tidbit to you is to go outside and find something you love, something you find pretty, and take its picture.