Pictures | Pepper Paints

Dried Bean Pictures

I see 15 bean soup made with the left over art supplies in our future!

We are still here in case you were wondering!! I have been in a blogging slump and a cleaning slump and an organizational slump and well, you get the picture! But we did make some stickers the other day!

We cut out pictures from magazines …. but you could totally color your own.

Then I mixed 4 Tablespoons of hot water with 2 Tablespoons of gelatin. I used unflavored (knox)… big mistake! They tasted too horrible to lick! So use flavored gelatin!! Stir until blended.

We brushed the gelatin mixture onto the back of our pictures.

Then let them dry for about a half an hour or more. Then we licked the backs and almost puked so we brushed some water on the backs and stuck them down.

Viola! Homemade stickers!

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Our Ocean Paintings

The Unplugged Theme of OCEAN this week comes at a perfect time. In about a month we will be spending some time at the ocean. We have been reading ocean books and learning all we can about the sea. I love the art work in so many children’s books. Two artists I really like are Leo Lionni and Eric Carle. THE ART OF ERIC CARLE and the book ARTIST TO ARTIST 23 major illustrators talk to children about their art, are excellent books that talk about and/or show the artists at work.

Another book we read was SWIMMY by Leo Lionni. We looked closely at the pictures and tried to figure out how Lionni made them. Then tried out some of our ideas in our own ocean pictures.

Looks like doilies!

Molly also used bubble wrap and “paintbrush hair” to add some texture to her work. She also made a fish stencil so that all of her fish would look alike.

Inevitably the painting turned into to finger paint and 5 year olds have their own ideas. Ginger started her painting by cutting out a red fish shape, gluing it down and calling it “swimmy.” The next time I looked their were sunshines and and words and hearts in her ocean. Taking a deep breath I had to remember it’s the process not the product that’s important!!

This was the first time we used acrylic paints. Molly really liked the coverage and control she felt with these as well as the clean finish.

Picture books are a great jumping off point for so many activities. I have a few other ideas to share soon.

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Budda Board

Yesterday we spent the day at The Works Museum. What a great hands-on place! I forgot my camera so no pictures. But there was enough to keep Ginger and I busy for 4 hours while Molly was in an Art-Science class there. One of the many things we loved at the museum was this Budda Board. They had one at the Childrens Museum in Maine but the gift shop was out of them. Lucky for us The Works had plenty in stock!

It really is a zen experience to paint with water on this slate board and watch it eventually fade away.

OOoHHHMmmmmmmmm

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Calling all Moths

I am a bug lover, much to my son’s dismay! Although I am pretty sure Ginger has my bug gene-just ask her friend Maya, she will attest to it! We recently checked a really cool moth book out of the library, NIGHT VISIONS THE SECRET DESIGN OF MOTHS by J. Scheer. Really beautiful pictures. I was hoping to attract some of these beauties to our yard!

Yesterday we made a concoction to entice moths to come and drink from our tree trunk pub. A few years ago we tried this with the Moth Broth recipe from Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots, but I didn’t have a copy on hand. So we used the Mother Earth News recipe.

3-6 over ripe bananas

1/2-1 c molasses, honey or corn syrup

1-2 cups orange juice or other fruit juice

1 or 2 bottles stale beer

1-2 oz rum (I had to skip this as my I was out out rum-go figure!)

mash bananas, stir in sugars, add rest a little at a time. It should be as thick as house paint. If too thin add another banana. Cover and let ferment in the sun for a few hours.

Pick a tree near a clearing and paint at least an 8 inch square of said concoction onto tree bark a few hours before sunset. Hint-use a bigger paint brush than us! We used a tree near our outside light, I thought that might be like a double bait!

Go back at night and check to see who came a callin’! The magazine suggests around 3 AM.

Now this is where I failed. We checked around midnight and there were a couple of common moths catching a buzz but then we all fell asleep. There may be too much light pollution near our house to attract most of the moths in the book but I was hoping for something a little more impressive. We are going to camp at a near by camp ground tonight. I am bringing the left overs with us to try again. I will update if there is good news!

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Tree House Update (in pictures)

It’s just about finished!

Friends and heavy machinery certainly help!

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Lucky me! And the unplugged weekly project…Sticky

Do you notice a big new something in my hand? A new camera! And not just any camera..She’s a Nikon D300. WoW!

Whenever I get money for a holiday I put it away. Whenever I clean my husbands office, I put it away. Whenever I sell anything I put it away. I have been saving for awhile, years actually, so I had a good bit of stash. She is AMAZING! Look at what she can do…

And even this with NO FLASH or tripod….(Wasn’t happening with my XTi)

I haven’t had much time to get to know her but I have been admiring her from afar. I had her picture taped up on my kitchen cupboard for a while. And it was love at first sight. As I said in my previous post (Where there is a chance to win a party favor!) I am obsessed with taking pictures and photography in general lately. Lucky for me, my husband believes in me and supports my creative endeavors or else I would have been short a little bit of dough. Thanks honey!! Now on to the unplugged project.

STICKY

We cut a piece of contact paper, pulled the backing off and taped it down to the table. OUTSIDE for those that are mess-phobic! Now let them shake the glitter all over the contact paper.