Due to its powerful antioxidant makeup, Sumac is so much more than just another spice in the rack. See all the high power health benefits of sumac spice.
The Crucible project ideas and activities to refresh your unit plan with engaging and meaningful teaching ideas.
Recipe VIDEO above. One for mushroom lovers! Brown the mushrooms well so the base of the pot turns brown, then deglaze it with broth so all that flavour ends up in the rice as well as staining it a lovely earthy brown colour. Also see Baked Mushroom Rice!
This past week's after school art class was great! We were able to get two art projects done in the allotted time and some children had a few minutes to sketch. Both of these projects are fun and colorful and easy to do. I've done them with preschoolers up through fourth graders and everyone seems to enjoy it! This time, I was able to show the children artwork from each artist and link the lessons to children's books about the artists. If you haven't checked out these books, please do! The first project is: Handy Andy's inspired by the blog Artolazzi. For this project, I shared the book: "Uncle Andy's," by James Warhola. What a lovely book! This is written by a nephew of Andy Warhol and is told from the child's perspective. James Warhola talks about visiting his Uncle Andy at his studio and all of the interesting projects and people he sees there. I really like this book. It is interesting to look at the illustrations and see all of the fun details. The book also reminds me that children are like little sponges, soaking up info and inspiration from their environments. Warhola speaks about how inspiring it was to be surrounded by all of the art objects and artwork in his Uncle Andy's studio and being able to see the process his Uncle went through to create his art (note: I brought in one of the Marilyn Monroe series of paintings for the children to view--it had repetition and color that I wanted to highlight with the project below). Handy Andys I saw this project on the blog: Artolazzi and loved it. I changed it a bit to use bright papers instead of paint for the backgrounds to speed things up a bit. I used a bright pad of paper I bought at the local copy store (Staples) which was 50 sheets of 11" x 14" paper (5 bright colors) for about $5. Supplies Needed: 1 sheet of bright paper 11" x 14" for the background 2 5.5"x 7" rectangles of bright paper (different colors than your background) 4 5.5"x 7" rectangles of bright paper (assorted brights so that the hands cut from these papers are different than the backgrounds) Pencil Scissors Glue stick Black tempera paint Paper plate for palette Directions: 1. I had the students select one 11" x 14" piece of bright paper for their background. In the above image, my background piece is yellow. 2. I then had them select two rectangles (5.5" x 7" each) these needed to be different than their background paper. These were glued down to the background so that it appeared the background is divided into four sections. Use the photo as a guide. In my example, I used a blue and a green rectangle. 3. I then handed out stacks of four rectangles (each 5.5" x 7") of assorted colors that had been stapled together. I had the students trace their hands onto the stack and cut through all four at once with their scissors to create four identical hand shapes. Remove the staples, arrange onto the background and glue down using the glue stick. Glue the fingers down well so they don't curl off of the page. 4. Once everything was glued down well, I had the students come over to the printing station where they could dip their hands into the black tempera I had placed in foam plates and then print onto their backgrounds over each of the hand prints. They came out great! The children had lots of fun with these and the bright colors really created an eye-popping display! These would be so nice for Mother's Day or Father's Day and they didn't take any time at all (maybe 30 minutes from start to finish). Coming soon: Part two of this post...15 minute Jackson Pollock paintings!
Inside you'll find an easy step-by-step Mona Lisa Art Lesson Tutorial, with a template and sample art. Stop by and grab yours for free.
Crochet heart pattern. Want to learn how to crochet a heart? Try my simple, quick and easy pattern to make an adorable heart in just a few minutes!
Pain is not the sole symptom of fibromyalgia. Beyond pain many experience fatigue, sleep disturbance, cognitive impairment, and a long list of symptoms.
Plan to redecorate or remodel a room? Here are some painting tips and tricks for everything from prep tips to clean up to make that chore a little easier.
If you are a fan of the amphibians, then try your hand at some crochet toads! Just like the crochet frog amigurumis, the toads will be another fun crochet
Okay, AH-dorable, right? So I will get back to these in just a sec. So as Christmas approaches my brain goes into overload about gifts for others. My handmade gift to-do list pretty much is on overload. Last year I made a couple of handmade gifts...here, here, here, and oh yeah here...and this year once again I just couldn't help myself. So this week I am going to share some handmade gift ideas with you. Gifts of all kinds, for all different people on your list. I am going to do a little holiday version of my Project Series. Project Handmade Christmas Presents. I am going to start off the week with my Hoodie-a-saurus. Now, first off, I can't take the credit for the original idea of this super cute sweatshirt. I came across the original idea, where else...pinterest. I fell in love with the idea right away and with several dinosaur loving boys in our life, I knew it was a must. I knew that I wanted to change it up just a bit. I wanted it to have a little more of a rocker embellished look. I am so happy with how they turned out and I know our nephews will be too. So I thought I would give a little run down on how I took her tutorial, tweaked it a bit and made my own version. Here is what you will need: cheap sweatshirt ( I got mine at The Mart) felt, about 1/4 yard for 1 toddler sized sweatshirt iron on stabilizer coordinating felt or fabric for patch coordinating thread coordinating embroidery floss First step is to work on the scales. The easiest way to do this is to first determine how big you want the scales to be. I liked mine a little bigger. Draw a triangle in that size. Fold your stabilizer up just enough to allow for your triangle to fit. The folded edge will be the bottom of your triangle. The point will go to the edge you folded up. Keep folding and tracing as many triangles as you will need to go from the back of the sweatshirt up to the front of the hood. The 24 month sweatshirt took 7 and the 3T took 8. Cut out your triangles, not cutting on the fold. They will then open up to this diamond shape. Iron each diamond onto the felt you want. Follow the instructions that come with the stabilizer. Once all of the diamonds are ironed on, cut out leaving about 1/4" edge all around the stabilizer. Pin your diamonds with felt side down onto the back of your sweatshirt. Make sure measure what the middle of the back is. Pin first one just above the waist part. Follow up, point to point all the way up the hood. If there is a middle seam in the hood, the middle of the diamond should line up with it. Pinning over the hood can be a bit tricky...just breath, be patient, and do the best you can. To attach the scales, start at the diamond by the waist. Sew up the middle of each scale. Again, sewing on the hood is tricky. Go slowly. Again breath and be patient. I did have to rip out stitches on the blue hoodie once because I was trying to speed demon my way through. Once the scales are sewn on. Fold in half so that you sandwich the stabilizer in. Pin together. Then with coordinating thread sew each scale closed. Starting at one bottom point going over the top of the triangle and stopping at the other bottom point. Repeat with all the scales. Now you can stop here...but I just couldn't. I had to add some umph. First I googled dinosaur silhouettes. I picked out a simple one. One that I wouldn't pull out my hair cutting out or sewing on. This guy was the winner. For the olive hoodie I used this orange felt. The glory of using felt is that you don't have to finish the edges. You can simply cut out the shape and sew it right on. No applique type techniques needed. Then you can easy peasy add some rocker embellishment to the pocket with some coordinating embroidery floss. I simply just looped several times around the edge of one spot on each pocket with a needle. The beauty is that it can look a little messy. I mean they are supposed to be rocker dinosaurs, right? So the blue hoodie was a little more difficult. I chose to use regular fabric for that dinosaur cut out. Which meant I had to either blanket stitch it on or satin stitch. The bad news is that I am not great at either...but because I was going for a rocker look, I knew I could purposely have it be a little rough around the edges...quite literally. Now the hoodie or hoodies are all done. I loved both of mine immediately. Not sure Littlest did. In fact during the photo shoot he was a little grumpy about the blue one. So then I put on the olive one. Happy it seems in his cousins hoodie-a-saurus. So it only seemed... I soon had a photo session catastrophe on my hands. If the hoodies weren't his, he didn't want them on. So I took my prized handmade Christmas present off him before he could shed tears and probably snot on them. Now they just need to be lovingly packaged and wrapped up for our dino-loving nephews. I can't wait till they try them on. Do you have any dinosaur fanatics in your life? I am pretty sure they would love to have one of these! I am told my 19 year-old sister would even like one...hahaha...maybe someday K. Linking here: Made By You Monday: Skip to My Lou Making Monday Marvelous: C.R.A.F.T. Craft-O-Maniac Mondays: Craft-O-Maniac We Did it Wednesday: Sew Much Ado Show and Tell Wednesday: Blue Cricket Design
Okay, AH-dorable, right? So I will get back to these in just a sec. So as Christmas approaches my brain goes into overload about gifts for others. My handmade gift to-do list pretty much is on overload. Last year I made a couple of handmade gifts...here, here, here, and oh yeah here...and this year once again I just couldn't help myself. So this week I am going to share some handmade gift ideas with you. Gifts of all kinds, for all different people on your list. I am going to do a little holiday version of my Project Series. Project Handmade Christmas Presents. I am going to start off the week with my Hoodie-a-saurus. Now, first off, I can't take the credit for the original idea of this super cute sweatshirt. I came across the original idea, where else...pinterest. I fell in love with the idea right away and with several dinosaur loving boys in our life, I knew it was a must. I knew that I wanted to change it up just a bit. I wanted it to have a little more of a rocker embellished look. I am so happy with how they turned out and I know our nephews will be too. So I thought I would give a little run down on how I took her tutorial, tweaked it a bit and made my own version. Here is what you will need: cheap sweatshirt ( I got mine at The Mart) felt, about 1/4 yard for 1 toddler sized sweatshirt iron on stabilizer coordinating felt or fabric for patch coordinating thread coordinating embroidery floss First step is to work on the scales. The easiest way to do this is to first determine how big you want the scales to be. I liked mine a little bigger. Draw a triangle in that size. Fold your stabilizer up just enough to allow for your triangle to fit. The folded edge will be the bottom of your triangle. The point will go to the edge you folded up. Keep folding and tracing as many triangles as you will need to go from the back of the sweatshirt up to the front of the hood. The 24 month sweatshirt took 7 and the 3T took 8. Cut out your triangles, not cutting on the fold. They will then open up to this diamond shape. Iron each diamond onto the felt you want. Follow the instructions that come with the stabilizer. Once all of the diamonds are ironed on, cut out leaving about 1/4" edge all around the stabilizer. Pin your diamonds with felt side down onto the back of your sweatshirt. Make sure measure what the middle of the back is. Pin first one just above the waist part. Follow up, point to point all the way up the hood. If there is a middle seam in the hood, the middle of the diamond should line up with it. Pinning over the hood can be a bit tricky...just breath, be patient, and do the best you can. To attach the scales, start at the diamond by the waist. Sew up the middle of each scale. Again, sewing on the hood is tricky. Go slowly. Again breath and be patient. I did have to rip out stitches on the blue hoodie once because I was trying to speed demon my way through. Once the scales are sewn on. Fold in half so that you sandwich the stabilizer in. Pin together. Then with coordinating thread sew each scale closed. Starting at one bottom point going over the top of the triangle and stopping at the other bottom point. Repeat with all the scales. Now you can stop here...but I just couldn't. I had to add some umph. First I googled dinosaur silhouettes. I picked out a simple one. One that I wouldn't pull out my hair cutting out or sewing on. This guy was the winner. For the olive hoodie I used this orange felt. The glory of using felt is that you don't have to finish the edges. You can simply cut out the shape and sew it right on. No applique type techniques needed. Then you can easy peasy add some rocker embellishment to the pocket with some coordinating embroidery floss. I simply just looped several times around the edge of one spot on each pocket with a needle. The beauty is that it can look a little messy. I mean they are supposed to be rocker dinosaurs, right? So the blue hoodie was a little more difficult. I chose to use regular fabric for that dinosaur cut out. Which meant I had to either blanket stitch it on or satin stitch. The bad news is that I am not great at either...but because I was going for a rocker look, I knew I could purposely have it be a little rough around the edges...quite literally. Now the hoodie or hoodies are all done. I loved both of mine immediately. Not sure Littlest did. In fact during the photo shoot he was a little grumpy about the blue one. So then I put on the olive one. Happy it seems in his cousins hoodie-a-saurus. So it only seemed... I soon had a photo session catastrophe on my hands. If the hoodies weren't his, he didn't want them on. So I took my prized handmade Christmas present off him before he could shed tears and probably snot on them. Now they just need to be lovingly packaged and wrapped up for our dino-loving nephews. I can't wait till they try them on. Do you have any dinosaur fanatics in your life? I am pretty sure they would love to have one of these! I am told my 19 year-old sister would even like one...hahaha...maybe someday K. Linking here: Made By You Monday: Skip to My Lou Making Monday Marvelous: C.R.A.F.T. Craft-O-Maniac Mondays: Craft-O-Maniac We Did it Wednesday: Sew Much Ado Show and Tell Wednesday: Blue Cricket Design
What a mouthful. You'd think I could think of a more succinct name. From here on out we'll call this kid-sized wallet the SNAP TRAP! Last week I introduced my Snap Trap wallet for kids. Although the Snap Trap looks similar to my Snappy Bag, the pattern and tutorial are really quite different. My Snappy Bag is great for business cards, makeup or treats, but the measuring tape closure is not secure enough for money. For the Snap Trap wallet I devised a way to add a pocket with a zippered closure to keep money or other valuables safe. This wallet could, of course, be adapted to be an adult bag with more adult-like fabric choices! Below is the "pattern" and tutorial for my Snap Trap wallet. Please remember the little printer icon at the bottom of this post that enables you to print {with ease} this tutorial. Materials Needed: Front pocket and pocket lining: Two - 6 1/2" x 3 1/2" pieces of cotton fabric Back: 6 1/2" x 4 1/2" piece of cotton fabric Lining (& casing for measuring tape): 6 1/2" x 12" piece of contrasting cotton fabric Interfacing for front pocket: 5 1/4" x 2 1/2" fusible interfacing Interfacing for back: 5 1/4" x 4" fusible interfacing Interfacing for front casing: 5 1/4" x 1" fusible interfacing Zipper: 9 inches or longer Two 5" lengths of 3/4" wide metal measuring tape Thread Finished bag: 5 1/2" wide x 4 1/4" tall Directions: 1. Before Sewing: Cut out all pattern pieces. For front pocket and back: Attach the fusible fleece by centering it horizontally on the front pocket and back and 5/8" from the bottom of the pieces as shown below. The fusible fleece does not cover the seam allowances on the pocket front or back of wallet. This ensures less bulkiness in the seams. For lining (and casing for measuring tape): Turn over one 6 1/2" edge 3/8" and press. Then tuck the interfacing into the folded crease and center the fusible fleece horizontally on the lining as shown below. This interfaced edge will be the casing on the front of the wallet. 2. Making the front pocket: Now to make a little fabric sandwich: a.) Place front pocket piece right side up, then place the zipper face side down with the pull tab at the left. b.) Place the pocket lining right side down on top of those pieces. Pin. 3. a.) About 1/4" from edge of fabric stitch together using your zipper foot. b.) Flip pocket front and lining so the wrong sides are together and zipper is exposed. Press fabrics away from zipper "teeth." Stitch through lining, zipper and front pocket 1/8" from edge of fabric. 3. Attaching front (pocket) to back: With right sides together pin bottom front pocket {and front pocket lining} to bottom back. Stitch using a 1/2" seam allowance. Press seam toward back. 4. Front measuring tape casing: Measure 1 1/4" from the previously folded edge of the interfaced lining and press. This will become the front casing for the snap (measuring tape) closure. Pin the folded edge to the zipper and stitch 1/8" from folded edge. You should have a 1 1/4" casing and the total measurement from the top of the casing to the bottom seam should be about 4 1/4". (see photo below) 5: Back measuring tape casing: Fold the lining over so it is 4 1/4" from the bottom seam to make the back casing and press. Then fold the unfinished edge over just enough so the casing is 1 1/4"... a.) Pin casing to back. b.) Stitch 1/8" from folded edge... 6. Stitch in a ditch: Secure the lining to the front of the wallet by running a stitch in the bottom seam through the lining. (See broken line in photo below.) This method is called "stitch in a ditch." If you are unfamiliar with this, go here. Important: the bottom seam allowance should be pressed toward the back of the wallet. This step should not be skipped as it will make a "bottom" for the zippered pocket. 7. Finishing Zipper: Bring tab of zipper to the middle of the wallet and stitch over the ends of the zipper 1/4" from the edge of wallet side on both sides. 8. Here's where I get a little picky. Trim about 1/8" off both sides of the wallet with a rotary cutter so that the edges are clean and neat. The rotary cutter will easily slice through the zipper to make it flush with the sides. You can see the before and after in the photo below... 9. Finish one side of wallet: Fold the wallet in half right sides together. (The lining will be on the outside.) On one side only stitch 3/8" from the unfinished edge. Trim and zig-zag seam and put the wallet aside. 20. Measuring tape "Snap" Closure: Now for a little carpentry work. If you haven't already, dismantle a tape measure. Just undo the screws on the side of a measuring tape and take it apart. Be careful as you take it apart as the tape measure can "explode" when released from its confining metal case. Put a sturdy piece of tape on the end of the measuring tape to keep it wound. 21. Cut measuring tape lengths: Cut two 5" lengths off the measuring tape (with the crummiest scissors you have in your house), round the corners and tape the ends with masking tape to prevent the sharp edges from damaging your fabric... 22. Insert measuring tapes: Slip the metal measuring tapes into the casings at the top of the bag. The number side of the measuring tapes need to be facing toward the lining of the bag as shown in the photo below. Note one tape is facing "up" and the other is facing "down" because they need to be facing the lining on each side. 23. You're almost done: When you have the tapes shoved all the way inside the casing, pin the sides together and sew 3/8" from the unfinished edge of the side. Trim and zig-zag the seam. 24: Finished: Turn right side out, press and you're done! If this tutorial was helpful, please take a moment and leave a comment below. Your comments give me the encouragement to continue sharing and creating! Enjoy! Linked to: The CSI Project Make it Monday @ Brassy Apple; Made by you Monday @ Skip to My Lou; Made Monday @ Toastie Studio; Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog; Party @ Northern Cottage; Ta-Da Tuesday @ Mommy by Day Crafter by Night; Sew Cute Tuesday @ Creative Itch; Show Me What You Got @ Not Just a Housewife; The Inspiration Board @ Homework; Show & Tell @ Blue Cricket Design; Hookin' Up @ House of Hepworths; Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple
I love this pattern so so so much, this is my third go-round and I am still in love. My sister does not yet know the sex, so I tried making it gender-neutral. I duplicate stitched the sheep using the chart from the Sheep Yoke Baby Cardigan . I’m also making a little sheep to go along with it. So cute!!
How to Marble Ornaments with Easy Marble! Deck the halls with this fun DIY project of marbling ornaments! Update plain plastic ornaments wit...
Mom never used a pressure canner, in truth I still prefer waterbath canning myself but when it comes to safely making soups that hubby takes a pint to work and heats up barely, the pressure canner …
Okay, AH-dorable, right? So I will get back to these in just a sec. So as Christmas approaches my brain goes into overload about gifts for others. My handmade gift to-do list pretty much is on overload. Last year I made a couple of handmade gifts...here, here, here, and oh yeah here...and this year once again I just couldn't help myself. So this week I am going to share some handmade gift ideas with you. Gifts of all kinds, for all different people on your list. I am going to do a little holiday version of my Project Series. Project Handmade Christmas Presents. I am going to start off the week with my Hoodie-a-saurus. Now, first off, I can't take the credit for the original idea of this super cute sweatshirt. I came across the original idea, where else...pinterest. I fell in love with the idea right away and with several dinosaur loving boys in our life, I knew it was a must. I knew that I wanted to change it up just a bit. I wanted it to have a little more of a rocker embellished look. I am so happy with how they turned out and I know our nephews will be too. So I thought I would give a little run down on how I took her tutorial, tweaked it a bit and made my own version. Here is what you will need: cheap sweatshirt ( I got mine at The Mart) felt, about 1/4 yard for 1 toddler sized sweatshirt iron on stabilizer coordinating felt or fabric for patch coordinating thread coordinating embroidery floss First step is to work on the scales. The easiest way to do this is to first determine how big you want the scales to be. I liked mine a little bigger. Draw a triangle in that size. Fold your stabilizer up just enough to allow for your triangle to fit. The folded edge will be the bottom of your triangle. The point will go to the edge you folded up. Keep folding and tracing as many triangles as you will need to go from the back of the sweatshirt up to the front of the hood. The 24 month sweatshirt took 7 and the 3T took 8. Cut out your triangles, not cutting on the fold. They will then open up to this diamond shape. Iron each diamond onto the felt you want. Follow the instructions that come with the stabilizer. Once all of the diamonds are ironed on, cut out leaving about 1/4" edge all around the stabilizer. Pin your diamonds with felt side down onto the back of your sweatshirt. Make sure measure what the middle of the back is. Pin first one just above the waist part. Follow up, point to point all the way up the hood. If there is a middle seam in the hood, the middle of the diamond should line up with it. Pinning over the hood can be a bit tricky...just breath, be patient, and do the best you can. To attach the scales, start at the diamond by the waist. Sew up the middle of each scale. Again, sewing on the hood is tricky. Go slowly. Again breath and be patient. I did have to rip out stitches on the blue hoodie once because I was trying to speed demon my way through. Once the scales are sewn on. Fold in half so that you sandwich the stabilizer in. Pin together. Then with coordinating thread sew each scale closed. Starting at one bottom point going over the top of the triangle and stopping at the other bottom point. Repeat with all the scales. Now you can stop here...but I just couldn't. I had to add some umph. First I googled dinosaur silhouettes. I picked out a simple one. One that I wouldn't pull out my hair cutting out or sewing on. This guy was the winner. For the olive hoodie I used this orange felt. The glory of using felt is that you don't have to finish the edges. You can simply cut out the shape and sew it right on. No applique type techniques needed. Then you can easy peasy add some rocker embellishment to the pocket with some coordinating embroidery floss. I simply just looped several times around the edge of one spot on each pocket with a needle. The beauty is that it can look a little messy. I mean they are supposed to be rocker dinosaurs, right? So the blue hoodie was a little more difficult. I chose to use regular fabric for that dinosaur cut out. Which meant I had to either blanket stitch it on or satin stitch. The bad news is that I am not great at either...but because I was going for a rocker look, I knew I could purposely have it be a little rough around the edges...quite literally. Now the hoodie or hoodies are all done. I loved both of mine immediately. Not sure Littlest did. In fact during the photo shoot he was a little grumpy about the blue one. So then I put on the olive one. Happy it seems in his cousins hoodie-a-saurus. So it only seemed... I soon had a photo session catastrophe on my hands. If the hoodies weren't his, he didn't want them on. So I took my prized handmade Christmas present off him before he could shed tears and probably snot on them. Now they just need to be lovingly packaged and wrapped up for our dino-loving nephews. I can't wait till they try them on. Do you have any dinosaur fanatics in your life? I am pretty sure they would love to have one of these! I am told my 19 year-old sister would even like one...hahaha...maybe someday K. Linking here: Made By You Monday: Skip to My Lou Making Monday Marvelous: C.R.A.F.T. Craft-O-Maniac Mondays: Craft-O-Maniac We Did it Wednesday: Sew Much Ado Show and Tell Wednesday: Blue Cricket Design
EDITED NOTE: A couple of you have reminded me that I didn't show a picture of poor Old MacDonald. MY bad! HERE is where you can find a lovely picture of Mr. Farmer. Thanks for bringing it to my lovely attention. DRUM ROLL.... Here is it! I have scanned and downloaded the actual patterns into this post, but I am also posting the link to download them instead. I know sometimes Google documents doesn't work for everyone so I am trying to give you two options. BUT as always, email me if neither work and I will email them to you. There are 7 pattern pieces. Puppet Pattern Ears and Faces Pattern From Behind Pattern Odds and Ends Pattern From the Front Pattern Noses and Such Pattern Farmer's Clothes Pattern Supplies you will need: Felt in following colors- tan brown white gray yellow blue cream black pink orange Coordinating thread Old MacDonald Patterns Basic Instructions: You will cut out each pattern piece in the color of felt depicted in the pictures of the whole set of puppets. I would have both the picture of the front of the puppets and the back of the puppets in front of you as reference. The hardest part really will be cutting out all of the pieces. Once you have done so, group all the pieces for each animal together. I recommend putting each animal kit in a separate plastic bag. I will be showing how I sewed the horse, but the same basic instructions apply to all the animals, with just a few variations, which I will specify. First: Lay out pieces that go on to the front of the puppet with 1 piece of the hand puppet, and then pieces that go on the back with the back piece of the puppet. Second: Prepare all the individual pieces. -sew the EARS by laying two pieces on top of each other and sewing around the edge. Repeat with the other ear. -sew all pieces on individually, layering appropriately...ie the white part of the horse's nose goes first and then the brown nose part goes on top. -sew all the pieces onto the back. -do not sew the hooves or ears on yet Third: Once all the pieces are sewn on, except the ears and hooves, pin the front and back pieces together right sides facing. Make sure the ear pieces are pinned in place on the inside. With the horse you will also pin the top hairs into place...HORSE HAIRS- take each strip and fold in half to make...folded edge will be pinned on inside. Sew together with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Fourth: Turn out. For all the animals but the ones with hooves, you are done. Fifth: For animals with hooves... Sew two pieces of the hooves together, just on the top and side edges. Place hoof opening over the very top of puppet arm. Pin in place. Finish sewing around the bottom edge to secure hoof onto arm. Repeat for the other arm. Now you have a set of completely ADORABLE puppets that your little ones will LOVE to play with. I know this was a VERY basic how-to. I hope that you were able to follow it. Basically making these comes down to some simple steps-- 1. Cut out 2. Lay out 3. Sew on all pieces on front and back 4. Sew front and back together 5. Turn out The only variations were really in the shape of the sheep's head and the chicken and duck arms, both which were labeled in the pattern. HAVE FUN with this. I would love to see how they turn out for you. THANK YOU for giving these OH-SO-Cute puppets so much love.
I was so happy with how our framed bathroom mirrors turned out that I have been looking for more ways to improve the look of our bathroo...
This meticulously crafted pattern features vibrant hues from the Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton Solids collection, ensuring perfect color coordination in your quilt composition. If you need a specific size not mentionned yet, just ask for it! 💡Crafted using foundation paper piecing technique, this pattern guarantees precis
Okay! As I was surfing Pinterest the other day I came across a blurb about cleaning grout. For the Floridians here that have a lot if tile it seems like there is a constant battle of keeping our gr…
These 40 Crochet Pokémon Patterns will encourage your crochet hook! Crochet these Pokémon characters that will please you, your kids, and your friends!
You will find the best crochet hearts and gift ideas in this post! DIY gifts tend to be more personalized and special for the receiving end.
Who doesn’t love a silly pumpkin? This is another great October project to do, especially if you have students in your class who don’t celebrate Halloween. Pumpkins can be associate with Halloween but they are also just a fall staple! I have done this project with K and 2/3 so it is adaptable to the
I finished my personal 365 project few weeks ago and almost immediately I decided to start another one. A daily life of Darth Vader portraying the Sith Lord as just a normal guy with everyday life problems. This is an ongoing project, updated with one new photo every day.
As secondary teachers, when it comes to decorating we often don’t know where to start. Sometimes, we just don’t have the time or energy to devote to another long project with possible m…
Babies in tiny cute clothes look totally beautiful. And it's even better if the clothes are functional and warm in addition to their appearance. That's
Every summer, right in the middle o' July, I attend the most amazing professional development known to man: The Tennessee Arts Academy in beautiful (albeit hawt as Hades) Nashville, TN. If you follow me on the Instagramz than you've prolly seen me sharing the most amazing projects, craziness and overall good times which all went down this past week. AND if you've been hangin around this here blog for a pinch, then you've seen my past TAA adventures here and here. This year was easily one of my faves because I got to spend time with my craziest art teacherin' buddy, Laura Lohmann of Painted Paper! Laura is a powerhouse of an art teacher, y'all. My group stayed with her for just two days and we learned so stinkin' much about her amazing approach to teaching art to children. I'm gonna share just a handful of her projects but I gotta encourage you to visit her Teachers Pay Teachers store to purchase complete copies of her lesson plans. Laura pours over these plans and they are a steal of a purchase when you see all of the art history and project ideas included. Y'all can thank me laters. On our first day with Laura, we worked with Model Magic to create flowers. Our inspo was Monet but Laura left the creativity and imagination up to us. Her projects are very open-ended and her directions are short and to the point. Once the flowers were done, we set about painting paper. This is Laura's whole deal: have the students create tons of painted paper to use in later projects. That stack in front of her was created by my group in a matter of an hour. We used a variety of texture tools and simply painted as many papers as we could in the time we had. This became our beautiful stash to create later projects with. Like those flowers I mentioned... Once the Model Magic was dry, we painted our flowers anyway we liked an adhered them to a piece of cardboard with Aleene's Tacky Glue. Our painted papers serving as a background. After gluing my papers, I did enhance them with a small brush and some white paint. Because of Laura's anything-goes teaching technique, everyone created a wonderfully different piece. This photo gives you a little peak into how Laura teaching painting to children: without water. RIGHT?! The kids work from paint palettes that have been set up in Roy G. Biv order. When they paint, they start with the lightest colors first and work their way around the color wheel. When they wish to change colors, they simply wipe their brush on their place mats. We used maps of Laura's home state of Ohio for our mats! Laura's suggestion of painting tools included many that I'd never thought to use with my students: round stencil brushes, scouring pads, odd looking paint tools from Lakeshore, you name it, her kids are painting with it! Next up, we created Tikis! Using our painted papers, we learned about Paul Gauguin, Tahiti and the history of tikis. Then Laura let us loose and we created the most amazingly fun tikis ever, if I do say so mah-self. Like, riiiiight? On our second day with Laura, we painted large flowers on tag board. This lesson is actually FREE on Laura's TPT page right meow. You needs to get it because these flowers were so beautiful and fun! What a lovely way to start off the school year and brighten the halls of our schools, right?! After that, Laura had us creating landscapes inspired by Monet... Like this lovely reflections painting by a fellow art teacher buddy. And Gauguin. Now, I gotta tell ya, normally, I'm all chatty at TAA because I do love to hang with "my people". However, I was so into what I was creating on this day that I don't believe I said a peep...and I ended up with a stack of ideas to bring back to my classroom. I'm so excited! A view of our Gauguin-inspired landscapes. On the third day, it was time to switch classes and go spend the next coupla days with one of the funniest dudes I've ever met: Jim McNeill. Jim is the illustrator of Pam Stephens' "Dropping in on [insert famous artists' name here] with Puffer" and Tessellations: History & Making of Design. I gotta tell ya, I've never been a fan of tessellations myself and had some pretty serious reservations about this two day event. However, I really got into it! I fell in love with creating my Diner Dames, as I've dubbed them, and actually think I might have to make more! Folks had some super clever ideas for their tessellations. There were even ones that popped out, morphed and transformed! It was pretty magical. I even did a lil art teacher teachin' for a couple days and taught some fiber techniques for teachers to take back to their classrooms. My art teacherin' students learned needle felting, string art, yarn bombing and how to teach embroidery to small children. I absolutely love teaching art teachers, they come up with THE BEST ideas! On Thursday, Laura and I had to get all pretty for our big AOE conference! I was so glad that Jessica of AOE allowed that crazy girl and me to present back to back since we were at TAA that day. I had the opportunity to watch the presentations last night and, as always, I learned so much (Alecia Eggers, can you PLEASE come organize my liiiiiiifeeeee?!). Now, whilst I was painted paperin' and gettin' my tessellation on (er, whuuuut?) the high school art teachers were hanging with Debbi Engbring, high school teacher from Arizona (pictured second from the left) and Laurie Gatlin (on left) from SoCal. Laurie is an incredible teacher with a unique way of teaching her students through the use of sketchbooks. And I'm not talkin a black-leather bound book or some spiral bound nonsense. Naw, her kids MAKE the books, paint the pages, and sketch daily. I first met Laurie this past fall at our state conference where she was our keynote speaker and shared her method. I was blown away. She's amazing! Debbi had her students IN TWO DAYS create these magnificent teapots. Y'all. These were not thrown on the wheel! She had a very clever way of having the students use half styrofoam sphere's to create each half of the sphere and then put the two together. From there, more clay was added to decorate as well as black glaze for some sgraffito. Super amazing. Now, I gotta tell ya, my favorite-favorite part of TAA is hanging out with this bunch! We are the facilitators or the helpers for the arts portion of TAA. Jim Dodson, on the left, is our fearless leader who organizes everything from the art shows that take place (both student and teacher art shows happen at TAA) as well as arranging all of our presenters and speakers. Libby Lynch (second from the left) organizes the art shows mentioned including the finale art show that features the work of all the teachers. And the rest of that line up is just a buncha trouble! From the right, there's Ken, me, Debbie Flynt and Kim Shamblin, all art teachers and all TAA buds for life. Okay, that's a wrap! For more information on Tennessee Arts Academy and how you can attend (anyone can, y'all!), be sure to pop over here. There's A LOT more to it than I've managed to squeeze into this already-large post. So, if you have any questions, leave 'em in the comments!
