Today's class was completely inspired by Joanne Fink's Zenspiration lettering and design. We began by talking about what 'zen' means. We also talked about when you have a large task to do, how do you do it? By breaking it down into smaller steps. Art is the same way. If I had shown the girls the letters at the beginning of class and just told them to have at it, they would have thought I was crazy. But by the end, they could do it! We first began by learning Joanne's basic patterns. We concentrated on four lines and a circle, swirls, triangle and fan since those are the ones Joanne seems to use the most. (All Zenspiration handouts were printed from HERE). Then we looked at the FRAMES and BOARDERS worksheet as something simple we could do with our newly learned patterns. We then watched Joanne at work as she drew her butterfly. You can find the video HERE. After that, the girls got to work doing their own butterflies, using the handout from the above linked site. This is seriously the quietest I have ever seen this bunch. They were utterly engaged and totally concentrating! They used their Papermate Flairs that they got last month and worked in their comp books to begin. I think the butterfly is a great place to start. It's simple and helped the girls gain confidence in their ability to grasp the concepts. (It also helped them immensely to watch the youtube video and then go do it themselves!) They were encouraged to try the heart at home. We then watched THIS video from Joanne on patterned monograms. She has a great teaching style and a very calming demeanor. I quite like her. I printed the full alphabet for each girl, but I also made individual worksheets for the girls with their own initial. I thought this would help them get started. We decided that it would be fine if they wanted to trace step b as their guide to start their letter. They worked on 4"x6" blank index cards, which worked wonderfully. Great size, nice thick paper, not too intimidating (i.e., there's plenty more if you mess up). :) They all did a wonderful job and were quite proud of their monograms! And with good reason--they were gorgeous!! And yeah, we did get a little bit silly... What a fun group! I'm so glad class is back in session. I'm already brainstorming ideas for next month!! See you in November...