Friday Art

One of the changes I made to our schedule was to add art projects to Friday. I found this project through a link at Hearts and Trees. The original instructions called for Art Stix, but said that pastels would work as well. When I compared the prices (and Amazon is much cheaper than Michael's!) , I decided pastels would work just fine for us.

I wanted to share Ruth's final picture. The picture doesn't do it justice, however. It is really very pretty. She wanted the hills to glow from the sunlight, so she added orange and yellow. I never would have thought of doing that, but it gave just the effect she wanted. I think it's lovely, and shows that my daughter is much more artistic than I am. :)

Winter Art Kit from Hearts and Trees

I've talked in the past about purchasing the Fall art kit from Hearts and Trees. We had a great time with it and I've been looking forward to the winter kit. (we did not finish all the fall projects, so I have things to save for next fall or fill "I'm bored!" days - yea!)

Well, the Winter Kit is now available! There are some great projects, including a fleece hat and a winter nature study lapbook. Those are just a couple of the projects available.

If you pre-order by December 7th, you are guaranteed a kit. After that, it's while-supplies-last. She's already had to increase her estimate, so I don't expect them to last long after the 7th.

You can find all the details here.

(BTW, I get nothing for recommending these kits. I'm just a very satisfied customer!)

Free Mark Kistler Video Drawing Lessons

We are big Mark Kistler fans here. Ruthie took a week-long class with him this summer and had a blast. She had been wanting to learn how to draw 3-d and he was able to teach that to her. If you ever have the opportunity to send your children to one of his classes, I highly recommend it. He encourages parents to stay for the class, so you will get a free art lesson yourself. :)




The exciting news: Mark Kistler has put some drawing lessons on Youtube. There are 8 minutes long and FREE! He currently has 6 lessons available.

As we all know, Youtube can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a very scary place for children. Mark Kistler put these on Youtube for adults to have easy access to his drawing lessons. He strongly recommends (as do I) that you do not let your children have access to these without 100% parental supervision. So, can you take 8 minutes out of your day to have an art lesson with your child? I think so. :)

Mosaic Boxes

We finished our mosaic boxes this weekend and I wanted to show them off. I think the kids did a great job on them. (Please keep in mind that none of us have ever done any type of mosaic work before, unless you count construction paper.)

When I first showed the kids what we would be doing, Robert was not interested. However, when I mentioned he would get to break up the tiles into smaller pieces with a hammer, he was in.

We worked outside because the tile adhesive we were using said that we need to be in an area with cross-ventilation. I didn't want to take a chance, so we worked out on the back porch. This was definitely one of those times I wish we had some sort of table out there.

First, we divided up the tiles. I felt it would be best to decide on colors before beginning. (I'm smart that way.)


Then the hammering began. I think this was one of their favorite parts.


A practice run to get a feel for how many tiles would be needed...


Gluing... With all the warnings on the bottle, I was a little worried about this. No problems were encountered, however.

Both children lost patience with the small pieces after awhile, so we filled in the middle with whole tiles.


Gluing is finished. Now we just have to wait for them to dry before grouting.


I did the grouting. I think that's my own impatience coming through. :)

Here's a picture of the finished boxes. The kids were anxious for me to finish with the picture-taking so they could start using them. I think they are very proud of the work they did. I know I am.

Online Watercolor Painting Lessons

I have wanted us all to learn how to paint with watercolors, but haven't wanted to spend the money on books (or lessons!). I did find some books at the library and have requested them. However, a few nights ago I had the brilliant idea to google it (duh!) and came across this web-site. It seems to be just what I was looking for.

You just gotta love google. When you remember to actually use it, that is.