Arts and Crafts Class Today

Here's what we did today. We began by reading Ten Little Ladybugs. We weren't making ladybugs, but I didn't have a specific book about caterpillars or butterflies (I need to do something about that) :-) and this book has beautiful pictures of caterpillars and butterflies.

First we made a bouncypillar. I got the idea here. You just fold two strips together to make a boingy body and then add a face, antennae (we used paper because I didn't know if little hands would be able to glue pipe cleaners in there) and of course, googly eyes.


Then we moved onto a clothespin butterfly/caterpillar. The base is a clothespin, the wings are 1/4 of a paper towel. The kids decorated the wings with markers and crayons. Then they chose their body and eye colors (colored googly eyes!!! Love them!). We then added the antennae with a fun pipe cleaner. The wings are clipped into the clothespin so you can take them out to make a caterpillar and add them back in to make a butterfly. I thought these would be fun with a magnet on the back and one little cutie in my class said she was going to use it as a bookmark.

A Name Plaque for Emily

Just finished this one for Peyton's friend's 6th birthday. She is such a cutie and a total girly girl so I had to go with pink, yellow and purple polka dots!

Paintings Currently Available

Due to some upcoming changes with e-bay, I'm currently rethinking my "relationship" with them. So I may not have any auctions there for a while. I do still have several paintings in my ETSY store.

And a new development--the following painting is now available directly from my EBSQ Portfolio via Paypal!

Mayzie, 12" x 12"

*SOLD*

Arts and Crafts Class Today

Here's what we did today.

First, we painted plaster hearts. I used this activity as a way to introduce color mixing with the kids. I brought red, yellow, and blue paint and had them mix the other colors. I also brought white, black, gold and silver. They always love the gold and silver!

I made the hearts ahead of time with Plaster of Paris in a heart ice tray.


The kids had a great time painting them and they came out with some beautiful colors! Who knew mixing gold and black paint could be so pretty?

Our second project for today were these cute little Tootsie Pop Butterflies. I glue the eyes on the suckers before hand and for this class I also cut out the wings because I have a lot of kindergartners in there. The kids painted the wings and had a lot of fun twisting the pipe cleaner antnnae.

(This is my daughter, Peyton, holding up a pair of cuties she made for Girl Scouts. She did these with markers instead of paint.)

Hey! How Fun Are These?

I had so much fun making these! I just put two sets of them in my ETSY store. These are perfect for any occasion! They say "Hey!" on the front and I've left the inside blank so you can write your own message (I love you, I miss you, I hate you, Congratulations, etc., etc.--see any occasion!).

Any Suggestions?

I bought this paper mache box around the holidays and ended up not using for what I had planned. So I decided it needed some paint. Here's what I have so far. Any suggestions for what to paint on it? I'd like to paint all four sides and the top so I'd probably like to stick to some kind of theme. But I'm open to any suggestions.

New Shop

Always wanted a T. Matthews Fine Art piece but couldn't afford an original? I've opened a Cafe Press shop where you can buy prints of some of my work. You can get greeting cards, magnets, mugs, etc.

Have a piece in mind that you don't see in the shop? Let me know and I'll add it to the shop!

Just Finished These...

These are for an e-bay order. They are for two sisters who share a room. Their mom sent me a picture of their bedding and these were done to match. How fun are these colors?

Spring Art Class for Kids

I can't believe it's time already to start the Spring Enrichment classes at the kids' school. I'm teaching arts and crafts again. We had so much fun the in fall doing lots of Halloween and Thanksgiving crafts.

This term we'll be doing some Valentine crafts then move onto Spring and Easter--we'll have to do some bunnies and chicks.

Today we made these little key chains. So simple, but the kids just loved putting them on their backpacks as zipper pulls!



Then we made these paper hearts. I found some cool DCWV Border Punch Strips. I just cut the strips in half lengthwise for the hearts. (That saved me a TON of time!)

The kids loved these. Also very simple, but I've got several kindergarteners in there so I try to keep things at their level. They all did all their own stapling and enjoyed making large ones and tiny ones!

Two New Name Plaques

This one was done for an order on ETSY. It's for a jungle themed room for the client's granddaughter. (Name plaques are also available on e-bay).

This one is for Peyton's friend who is turning 6 on Saturday.