When sorting through our puzzle drawer I found a few puzzles my kids have outgrown. I remembered seeing a puzzle diy on alisaburke’s blog

First Ginger painted the whole puzzle

Be sure to spread paint out the paint so there are no globs and it’s not too thick. Then we removed all the pieces to dry.

Draw your pattern, design, picture or whatever you decide with pencil if you are like me or you can go straight to the sharpie if you are bold and brave!

After you outline your work in sharpie you can start painting.

After everything is dry — give this fancy new puzzle to a friend!!

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Post tags: art, DIY, Draw, Paint, Painting, puzzle, puzzles, Upcycle

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Today the baseboards in Molly’s room are being installed. All she needs is her rod in her closet and remove the tape from her ceiling and she is good start moving in!

Our bedroom is just about finished too. That carpet is like a terry cloth towel under my bare feet!! Apparently carpet on trucks involved in a wreck are super cheap—-awesome!! Really expensive, really soft carpet for super cheap–I like!!!

Here is my closet/dressing room. I am excited to make this my girly spot! ( Note the rosewater colored walls with the green carpet. Makes me think 70′s girls room!) I ordered a clothes rack and my Mom has a vanity for me too. My mind is spinning with possibilities for my very own space!

Teetery construction steps are gone and replaced with safe and sturdy stairway!

Here are the heartpine floors we ordered off of ebay! Another great deal!! I love them! So much grain!!

We have been painting our arms off! Here is a shot of the appliance wall just waiting for the cupboards that will be arriving this week–finally!!!

The painting has really sucked! It is so hard to pick out paint in a totally new, wide open space that has nothing in it!! Some walls have been painted several times because of last minute color changes (sorry honey!) I am still not totally satisfied but don’t think I will be able  to really choose the right colors until we are actually living and using this space. It was just way easier to paint pre floors and trim.

I do still love this color–but it needs a third coat—ughhhh

This weekend Joe and Jake tore out the walls between the kitchen and the family room.

It was a huge, dusty mess!! Now that it is all cleaned up and the plastic has been removed…Helloooooo long, open house!!!

Here is were the walls used to be–steps and electric to be removed next.

We were really hoping taking that wall out was going to make our family room bigger–but right now it just seems longer! I am hoping to find a lower sitting couch to put under the window seat wall. When we have some money to buy furniture that is!

So as you can see things are moving along. So many details take so much time!!

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Post tags: back door, bedroom, ceiling, closet, color, colored walls, construction, construction steps, dressing room, entryway, family, floor, furniture, girls room, girly, hallway, heartpine, house, Kitchen, Paint, Painting, soft carpet, stairway, wide open space

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Puffy Paint is super expensive to purchase–especially for a whole class. This DIY version is not meant for fabric but more for a paint that dries bumpy. It adds a little depth and texture to the work.

It’s cheap and easy to make. Equal parts salt, flour and hot water. Stir until dissolved. Add liquid or powder tempra. This potion is very forgiving. Add more water if too thick and add more salt and flour if it’s too thin –especially after adding the liquid tempra.

Pour or spoon mixture into squeeze bottles–I bought empty ketchup and mustard bottles. You want the consistency to be runny enough to squeeze out of the bottles with out splatting. Understand? You will once you start mixing. Think frosting–creamy frosting! You can even add a little glitter for some fabulous sparkle!

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Post tags: art, class, creamy frosting, dale chihuly, DIY, glitter, Homemade, mixture, Paint, Paints, puffy, puffy paint, recipe, squeeze bottles, tempra, texture

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Unschooling Co Op is back in session so that means I will have something to post other than updates on our remodel! We talked about the paintings of Dale Chihuly for our first class.

Chihuly is well know for his glass works but his paintings and his painting style is also impressive. Here is a link to a few google images of his paintings

http://www.google.com/search?q=chihuly+paintings&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Xlq&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=QuZxTuPUCKffsQKKvOXICQ&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBMQ_AUoAQ&biw=1035&bih=465

To mimic Chihuly’s style of painting we layered paint on to canvas through several steps. We used sheets from a canvas pad. Be sure to paint on the correct side so the edges don’t roll. We used acrylic paint.

The first layer of paint when on with a brayer

The second layer went on with a broom-allowing the first layer to show through

Next layer was splatter painting

And then we used “puffy paint” for the final layer  DIY puffy paint recipe here

Each one ended up so different and the kids really enjoyed applying each different layer. I did choose specific colors for each layer so that the darker colors went on first and and then in small amounts last, hoping to keep the layers visually separate.

This collage is made up of all the kids paintings

I can see why Chihuly is also well known for his splatter painted shoes after this class!! I loved both the process as well as the product of this project!

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Post tags: acrylic paint, art, art class, brayer, broom, canvas, class, collage, dale chihuly, DIY, google images, Kids, layer, Paint, painted shoes, Painting, paintings, process, project, puffy, puffy paint, splatter, unschool, unschooling

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Jake and I went to Kmart and stocked up on some pretty color spray paint and cupcakes.

Then my kids proceeded to lose a few brain cells all in the name of art, graffiti art. Even in the wide open air there were some serious fumes! It was great to watch how each kid tackled their blank wall so differently. Molly just grab the paint and started spraying.

Jake looked for some inspiration from a book we just happened to have checked out from the library

He was really methodical in his approach. Stepping back thinking about it–all while Molly worked furiously.

Ginger knew exactly what she wanted…This is a picture of our friend Chloe and her new boyfriend kissing. Awwwwwww

Then after consulting with the book, she found her inspiration too!

Of course things got a little out of hand!

If my neighbors didn’t blink at what they saw or grimace at the smell I am guessing they cringed when they heard me yelling “You may NOT spray paint your sister!!”

This window looks cool when lit from the inside

So let me ask you would you rather look at this?

Or this??!!!

I am glad we get to enjoy it for a few days…..it’s all coming down this weekend.

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Post tags: addition, art, Artist, Artists, color, demo, demolition, garage, Graffiti, graffiti artists, Kids, kmart, neighbors, Paint, photo, photos, recycling, Spray, spray paint

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Over the weekend my very nice, helpful and generous husband mixed up several buckets of plaster of paris and poured it into empty milk cartons. We let these dry or “cure” for a couple of days.

Most of the instructions I found for this included adding vermiculite to the plaster of paris to make the carving process easier but because of the health concerns over breathing in the vermiculite we decided to leave it out. You can also add sand or dirt but I was already way over budget and could not purchase another thing so straight plaster of paris it was.

I brought lots of different tools to class and we were lucky the weather allowed us to do this messy-dusty project outside. We looked at works of art of Barbara Hepworth, George Segal, Jean Arp and The Nana’s. We talked about abstract art vs realistic sculptures.

And then we got to work:

Hammers and mallets were pounding, flat head screw drivers were poking and lots of plaster was flying around. The kids really enjoyed this physical process but were definitely challenged by the material.

Once kids were happy with there work they sanded their sculpture and used tempra cakes to paint their pieces. The paint dried almost immediately on most pieces.

And I love the consideration of all sides and angles on this piece!

This was the final week of this session of our unschooler’s co op. I absolutely loved leading these classes. I learned so much along with the kids. Looking forward to doing it again!

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Post tags: abstract art, Additive, additive sculpture, art, art work, barbara hepworth, class, empty milk cartons, george segal, husband, jean arp, Messy, milk carton, nana, Outside, Paint, Paints, PepperPaints, photo, photos, plaster of paris, process, project, realistic sculptures, screw drivers, Sculpture, sculptures, scupture, tempra, unschool, unschooler, vermiculite, works of art

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Our unschooling co op is moving right along. Hard to believe we only have one more week of the session. This week during art class we looked at the works of Louise Nevelson and tried our hand at our own additive sculptures.

We used hot glue guns to build our pieces with various odds and ends and bits and pieces.

Next kids chose a color to paint their sculptures.

Next week subtractive sculpture.

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Post tags: Additive, additive sculpture, art, art class, Artist, class, color, glue, hot glue gun, hot glue guns, Kids, louise nevelson, Nevelson, Paint, Sculpture, sculptures, unschool, unschooling

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We talked about The Linares Family of Mexico and their spectacular art of paper mache. Here is a link chock full of information and links to some of their works.               http://www.driftwood-dreams.co.uk/learn_papier_mache/history.htm

The Linares Family is well known for the mythical like beasts they create known as alebrijes. Popular artists like the Linares are known as cartoneros.  Most cartoneros make fanciful paper mache objects for major celebrations during the year, most notable Day of the Dead and Easter week.  I didn’t know this when I planned out six weeks worth of our Unschooling Co-op art lessons but it ended up perfect timing that we made these the week before Easter!  After looking at some of Felipe Linares Mendoza’s work we created our own little beasts out of foil, covered in newspaper and masking tape.

They were then covered in strips of newspaper moistened in a slightly watered down glue mixture.

We left them to dry until the following week when we painted them. We talked about the style of painting and the patterns used by the Mexican artists and the kids were encouraged to paint their alebrijes in the style of the cartoneros work we looked at.

I LOVE them!! They turned out great!! I would really like to try out more paper mache activities.

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Post tags: alebrijes, art, Artist, cartoneros, celebrations, class, co-op, day of the dead, Easter, easter week, Felipe Linares, glue, Kids, little beasts, Masking, masking tape, mendoza, mexican artists, Mexico, op art lessons, Paint, Painting, paper mache, papier mache, photo, photos, spectacular art, unschool, unschooling, week before easter

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I am teaching 2 sessions of art. My head is so full of possible ideas it might just pop off and my kids are so glad I have a new audience to share all these ideas with! (Although both of them chose to take my class!)

Today we talked about artist, Holton Rower. You may have seen his YouTube video of his TALL PAINTINGS that has been all over the internet lately. I loved it so much and thought it was a perfect project for a first class discussion about process vs product. My husband I built a smaller version of Rower’s pedestals using a piece of 4 inch 2×2 on its end screwed on to a 4inch  2×4 on it’s side and finally screwing those to a 12 x 12 piece of plywood.

Rower uses acrylic paint and there was no way I could afford to buy that much acrylic paint. Then I realized that latex house paint is acrylic paint! Perfect!! We visited a few Habitat for Humanity re-stores and Home Depot’s for some cheap paint before remembering we have a friend with a painting business and TONS of extra paint. Perfect again!!

We looked at a few prints of Rower’s Pour Paintings and I let the kids try to guess how he put the paint down.

Then we watched the video and talked about product vs process.

Luckily I had tons of helpers today! This project was A LOT of set up! First I covered everything with tarps and cardboard. We poured small amounts of paint into dixie cups and let the kids pick their colors.

And the pouring began!

Each of my students made 2 pour paintings and luckily we were able to leave them undisturbed until next week. Hopefully they will dry by then!

I am so happy with the way this project turned out! The kids loved making them too! I would love to try this on a larger scale someday. I certainly have enough left over paint!!

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Post tags: acrylic paint, art, Artist, cheap paint, class, co-op, color, colors, holton, kid, Kids, latex, latex house paint, Paint, Painting, paintings, perfect project, photo, photos, Pour, prints, process, project, Rower, TALL, teaching, unschool, unschooler, Unschoolers, unschooling, work

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I watered down some tempra paint and cut some paper circles to fit the bottom of the spinner.

Oooh Ahhhhh! I bet if you didn’t have a second salad spinner the paint would probably wash out…but please don’t blame me if you try it and it ruins your salad spinner!!  Maybe look for one second hand for spin art purposes only!

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Post tags: art, Paint, paper circles, salad spinner, Spinner, tempra, tempra paint

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