CT-aRt - Zentangle Lettering with the Young Women From My Church

I had a group of girls from church at my house this week learning Zentangle lettering. I taught this class in the same way I did my First Friday Zentangle class. We used the same videos and handouts from Joanne Fink.

These girls (and leaders) did great!! At the beginning of class one of the girls said, "I don't really do art. My sister is an artist, but I can't draw". Of course I told her we don't say "can't" in my art classes--this is a supportive, positive environment. :) This same girl by the end of class was asking if she could take extra notecards home and then said, "I'm going to draw like this ALL the time!" Music to my ears! I love it!

In our church the kids have rings and other things with the letters C T R on them. This reminds them to Choose the Right. So the girls called our class CT-aRt. We started with the basics of Zentangle, then we did Joanne's butterfly, and then we did the letters, focusing on 'C', 'T', and 'R'. And then the girls went from there adding their own creative flair to it.

Here's a few pics of their amazing work... (including the CTR at the top of the post)

Zentanlge is a great art concept to introduce kids to art and lettering. And Joanne's videos are fantastic. She breaks it down into very do-able steps.

What a fun night with these darling girls and their wonderful leaders!!

A Butterfly for My Niece

My niece recently got baptized and I was able to go visit her. I did this little butterfly drawing for her as a gift on her special day.

I painted the frame her favorite color--light blue.

The drawing is pen and ink and Prisma markers.

Newest washcloth

Pattern: Seed Stitch Dishcloths from Just B Crafty
Needles: US 9
Yarn: Lily Sugar n' Cream Hot Green

Great pattern. Well written and makes a really pretty dishcloth. This one went to my sister on a recent visit. I love to take handmade dishcloths when I visit friends and family.

First Friday Art Class for January 2014 - Inchies!

There is a really fun art trend going on right now and we jumped right onto the bandwagon! Have you heard of inchies? They are itty bitty pieces of art - 1" x 1" that can be used for tons of different things or just stand alone as a tiny, little masterpiece.

I got all my ideas for today's class from THIS POST on Craftster by Phizzychic. And also THIS POST from Kira Nichols.

Before class, I cut strips of paper to be 1-1/2" wide (I decided that 1" x 1" would be just a little too small for us to work with--so our inchies are a little bit bigger). I painted the strips with juicy, wet watercolor. I dripped on them and let them be smeary and irregular. This adds to the interest of the little squares later.

I just used basic white card stock for these and they turned out great. 

I would have loved to have the girls do this step so they could do this project from start to finish, but there just wasn't time in class to paint them and let them dry and then cut the squares.

So once the strips dried, I cut them into 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" squares.

BUT...first things first...our treat today was PRETZEL TREATS because they are tiny, cute squares and they are very colorful--just like our art was going to be today!!

When the girls arrived I showed them some samples and then we discussed things you could do with your finished inchies. 

You can:

Make a book out of them (this is what we did in class today)

Add them to a card

Frame a bunch of them in a large frame

Make a bookmark

Add one (or more) to the front of a plain journal or notebook

...or about a million other fun ideas

And then they got to work. 

With very little instruction, they were busy and excited to make their little books. They each did 8 separate inchies.

We took those 8 inchies and we glued them back to back using a basic glue stick, punched holes in the side, and attached them together using jewelry jump rings. (ETA: we had a bit of trouble with the jump rings. We couldn't always get them to close enough and some pages fell out. A friend of mine did these later and used safety pins to hold hers closed and it looked really cute. She tied a tiny ribbon on each pin. You could also very easily just tie them with some bakers twine or sting. Just don't tie them so tight you can't turn the pages. I also wonder if you could use those earrings that look like little continuous circles?? If you find a great solution, leave a comment and let me know.)

And their books turned out wonderfully! And so fun and colorful!

I'm hoping each girl will go home and create lots and lots more little inchie artwork!!

See you next month for a sweet treat themed February class!

Newest Name Signs

Christmas Tags

As a gift to my sister I made masonite tags for her to use on her neighbor gifts. I also made several for myself to use the same way. I love to tie these to gifts because once the goodies are gone, the recipient still has the little tag to hang on their tree or display on a tiny stand.

And because they are made on masonite and have a protective layer of Mod Podge on the top, they are quite durable and should last for years.

I made these exactly the same way I did my CHRISTMAS ADVENT TAGS.

First Friday Art Class for December 2013 - Christmas Angels and Doodles

Today our focus was Christmas. We began with some fun Christmas doodles. We did ornaments, strings of lights, presents, bells, bows, and letters accented with snowflakes.

Here's a Christmas Doodle worksheet of all the doodles we did. (The optical illusion bells are from texasdoxiemama).

We did all these doodles together with me working on a white board and the girls working in their sketchbooks or on a blank piece of paper.

These doodles are really fun and easy to do and they look so sweet. And if you add color to them, they really pop!!

We then moved onto some sweet Christmas angels. These took me back to my elementary school days. Do you remember making angles with doily wings? :)

Paper Doily Angels

Supplies needed:
Paper doilies (I got mine at Joann's in the baking section--they are about 3-1/2" across)
Scrap paper for the dress and face
Colored pencils
Black markers
Glue stick (for the paper)
Glue gun (for the accessories)
Gold paint (optional)
Misc. items for accessories (pearl trim, gold thread, heart punches, brads, beads, tiny buttons, ric arc, etc.)

What you do:
1. Fold a paper doily in half, unfold it and cut along the fold line. This half circle becomes your angel's wings.

2. Draw a head on white paper. Color it and outline the features in black pen. We tried to remember to make them look very serene and sweet.
3. Cut out the head.
4. Using the wings and the head as size references, cut a triangle to be the angel's dress.
5. Glue the head to the top of the triangle dress and glue the wings to the back of the dress.
6. Accessorize your angel and add any other finishing touches you'd like to add. (We dry brushed some gold paint on some of the wings to give it a little shimmer).

Here's back view to help you see the construction of the angel:

Here are the girls' darling angels:

You could make a whole choir of these angelic cuties. You could also glue a magnet or clothespin to the back of them or mount them on a Christmas card.

Okay, now get out there and do some doodles and make some angels! :)

See you next month.

Gray Knitted Cowl - Free Pattern

Gray Cowl

Needles: US 8

Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton – just under 3 skeins

CO 40

Row 1 (RS) – Knit

Row 2 (WS) – Purl

Row 3 (RS) – Knit

Rows 4-12 – k4, (yo, k2tog) to the last 4 stitches, k4

Row 13 (RS) - Knit

Row 14 (WS) – Purl

Row 15 (RS) – Knit

Row 16 (WS) – Knit (this knit row on the wrong side creates the purl ridge on the right side, in the middle of the stockinette segment)

Row 17 (RS) – Knit

Row 18 (WS) – Purl

Row 19 (RS) – Knit

Repeat rows 4-19 until desired length. (I did them 22 times)

Repeat rows 4-12 1 more time

Repeat rows 1-3

BO loosely

Seam the two ends together.

My finished size before blocking was 8" wide and 50" around.