Adirondack Alcohol Ink Tiles

I made this tiles after seeing a post via Pinterest.  The inks weren't too expensive but I did use my coupon (Hobby Lobby) a couple of times to get more colors. You will need the blending solution too.  I used a used a toothbrush to spread the alcohol mix around before adding the ink. You can get a whole bunch more color options via this website: Ranger Ink and Innovative Craft Products

I followed this tutorial at Artsyville.  Really the comments section carries a bunch of information as well.  So though lenghty, it's worth the read.
 

 

 

The red and yellow one on the right, I added more alcohol blending solution to mix the colors even more.

What do I plan to do with these?  I am just going to use them as coasters.  I hot glued white felt on the back and that seemed to work just fine.

This process is fairly quick but do it in a well-ventilated area.  The blending solution is fairly strong!
The only problem is the finishing.  As you read through the tutorials you will see in the comments that finishing them so they are permenant and usable is under debate.  If any of you try this and find some good solution(s), please let me know!!


There are metallic colors available too!

 

Art Time

We did these after I saw this post and this post by That Artist Woman.  She has some amazing projects to do with kids.  This first photo is of Elizabeth's (she did spring), then mine and then Ian (we did fall).  The last one is of William's. 

Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2010

I am so glad that I saw this happening again! I have been very absent from blogging this year. Thank you, Amy, for hosting the great Blogger's Quilt Festival again! I love seeing everyone elses amazing work. It is always inspiring.

This quilt started as a small idea, two teachers retiring and somehow involving all of the students. I donated the time and material to make this quilt (and the next) and the PTO helped to cover the cost of a long-arm quilter to do the hard part! I had a short time frame, I think it was about a month.

Orginally I thought I would have each student do a 6" block but that was simply too daunting to prepare and sew with the time I had given myself. I chose a garden theme because it lends itself well to childrens creativity and both like to garden. I love this quilt because of it's long garden rows spaced by a great batik grass. Then surrounded by water/sky.

The garden spaces are made up of two classes each and the last row with the thank you block. It was great to watch the children put something in the garden and show their love for these teachers. It was great to work with the fabric pastels. I've used them on a couple of projects since then.

This was a great exercise for me to give over the creative license to the kids and even more to hand over the quilts to be quilted by someone else. My friend did a fantastic job and worked fast to help me meet the deadline. I could see myself getting carried away with the quilting and that would have taken away from the beautiful art.

Wrapping up the quilts I used the extra from the backing (there was a lot!) and made cases for them. We hung the quilts up at school for a couple of days for the kids and teachers to see the final project. They loved how it all came together and so did the recipients. Lots of love shared and tears shed.

Finished Teacher Quilts

I think these turned out better than any of us expected. The teachers were floored and thrilled and they cried a little too! Definitely a sign of a great gift!

(wrapped and ready for delivery)

I did turn them over to Meg to quilt. She did a great job working around the art work and had them done super fast. Thank you!!

The colors held fast except that a mild detergent or maybe none should be used. There was some little fading of the colors but more so on the signatures. I had intended to go back over them all again but forgot and ran out of time.

We also hung them up in the hall for the last two days of school so the students could see how it all came together. They loved seeing their art worked into a quilt. That puts me to mind of another project (more on that later.)

Without further ado, here they are.

Marching On

While I haven't done much in the way of crafting in the past month we have been busy with school projects. This is IA's submission (1st grade). He picked the dot by Peter H. Reynolds. We love this book and it's sequel ish. He has written and illustrated many books. We also love the Judy Moody and Stink books by Megan MacDonald. We spent about a week working on art. Each making our own dots or "no dots". These are all his own work.

This is EJ's book fair submission (3rd grade). She chose heartbeat by Sharon Creech. We love this book and every other one we have read by her. We love her imagery and lyrical style. Bloomability is one that I really enjoyed but EJ hasn't read yet. She had a lot of fun leaving her footprints and painting this apple.

The other obsession is Box Tops for Education. I am the school coordinator and each month I am coming up with new ideas for rewards and challenges to keep the students excited. February was the Love Your School Challenge.

Here is my one sewing craft for the whole month! My sewing room is train wreck but it is on the mend, the machine is serviced and I just might get back on track.
I made this apron for a 1st grade party my son went to. Here is WH modeling it for me. Brown cordoroy with guitar fabric. The birthday boy is taking guitar lessons. This will be the gift for this year. Aprons. A mother at the party asked if I make them to sell. No. But I might. She said "Call me!"

So my question is how much do you charge for a custom child-size apron? I like the idea but there are so many things that stop me from doing business. Thoughts?

Art Project Inspired by Matisse

I posted this over at our family blog but thought those who peruse this blog might enjoy this little viewing.

We used the idea in the listed post (see below) as a spring board. We painted our background on watercolor paper and it took us all day because we had to let the paper dry in between. For the fish we painted a sheet with various shades of yellow and orange and the striped fish were a tissue paper glued to cardstock. We also did one sheet for the goldfish bowls and then I cut it in 4 so we each had our own to work with.

I love how different each of our works are. That is the joy of art. Interpretation!

So with the kids all being home this week I thought it might be fun to do an art project following along with what they are doing at school. For the past couple of weeks they have been studying Henri Matisse in art class.

I googled art projects using Matisse and came across this project. I loved the idea. It proved more complex and the kids were frustrated more than once during the day long project! Goldfish seemed like a fun idea during a rainy week.

Here is what we turned out.

William, age 3

Elizabeth, age 8

Ian, age 6Mom, age (well you don't need to know!)