Construction Paper Play

Every week I have the opportunity to teach a children's art class. Right now, there are only 2 students (Grade 1 & 3) which is perfectly fine with me because that just means I'm able to try a wider variety of lessons since materials for two students wouldn't cost so much.

A recent project I did with them was using construction paper to create 3D sculptures. This was inspired from one of my favourite art teacher blogs, Organized Chaos. In my lesson, I gave the students 5 minutes to draw with markers as many kinds of lines as possible. From these drawings, we talked about the variety of lines (wavy, zigzag, dotted, straight, diagonal, curly, swirly, etc). 

 

Using these drawings as our inspiration, we constructed 3D lines using strips of construction paper. My students loved this idea and had a whole lot of fun constructing a "park" or "skateboard park."

After the success of this lesson, I decided to try it on my almost 3 yr old daughter by just using the strips of paper to make a "park". She seemed to somewhat enjoy it but it required a lot more help in gluing the 3D parts and folding (which meant frustration for my daughter). I would say perhaps this activity might be best left for at least 3.5 year olds but it's worth a try if you're keen on this idea. 

I also found that my husband started making one when he had some father-daughter time :)

3 Cheers

Last night I met up with some old friends to celebrate one of my friend's birthday. I don't know why I'm up at 5:30am this morning...better make good use of this time... Anyway, it's been awhile since I've been out with friends just on my own (my daughter went on a date with her dada-so cute!). We had a whole lot of fun and laughter just going to a Korean restaurant and dessert afterwards.

 This is the simple card I made for my friend.

 

I ended up using an unused clearance stamp I picked up from Micheal's ages ago. The stamp said "Cheers to you" but I just masked out "to you." It was a little tricky trying to stamp straight with a wooden stamp (hence the last cheers being slightly not aligned :( )...Also, I just ran out of the yellow cardstock so this had to do.

 I embossed it and also scored a few underlines. I'd like to enter this card into CAS-ual Fridays' Long & Short challenge this week.

12 Things in 12 Months

During the last week, I was very inspired by the project 365 things in 365 days. This is a project where a couple, Laura and John embark on the challenge of completing 365 things that they have never done together before within the timeframe of 365 days.

With the new year just settling in, I thought I would do something similar but on a much smaller scale. After all, being a mom is not an easy task and doesn't leave too much time for anything else. My idea is to accomplish 12 Things in 12 Months for my personal challenge but I'm hoping to drag my husband into it to complete a couple's 12 Things too.

Here's my list so far but I have a few backup ideas in case one of these don't pull through for whatever reason.

1. Illustrate a book for my daughter

2. Knit a scarf

3. Try a new food every month

4. Sew a piece of clothing for my daughter

5. Hand stitch a glove doll

6. Learn to swim

7. Make photo album of my daughter's 2nd year (plus 1st and newborn year later)

8. Climb the CN Tower

9. Run a race

10. Try pole dancing

11. Open an Etsy shop

12. Play a song fluently on the harp

PlayMais Sculptures

Yesterday my husband kindly drove me to a kids craft store quite a distance away. I was hoping to pick up some student grade watercolour paper for a really good price but unfortunately, it wasn't the quality I expected :(. We did end up picking up some other really neat things (actually my husband picked them out).

One of them is a box of PlayMais. When I first saw them a couple of months ago, I was skeptical so I never even thought about buying them (I thought they looked just like the packaging peanuts you get from delivery boxes plus it costed almost $20 for a box of them). When I started playing with them today with my daughter, I was very wrong about them. They are FABULOUS!  It's 100% biodegradable (made from corn) and very easy to use (a small dab of water sticks them together). The best part is it's non-toxic (I admit that in the past I did try making sculptures with the styrofoam peanuts using glue and they made this funky smell so I knew not to use it again for kids crafts :S).


A dab of water sticks them together. My daughter is almost 3 and it was easy for her to use.

It came with a little plastic butter knife and my daughter loved cutting the PlayMais in half. She said she's making "a cool nut tree."

My husband and I had as much fun with it as my daughter. Here are our collaborative creations :)

I love the hungry caterpillar. My husband made a hamburger tree :D

I'd recommend this product to children almost 3 and up-that includes big children like me ;)

Pay it Forward 2013

Earlier this month, I saw a clever post on Facebook from a past DT colleague, Marjolaine. Since I had trouble getting people to comment on my status on Facebook, I thought I'd bring it to the blogosphere and the creative people here :)

Pay it forward 2013! 

I promise to make something handmade for the first five people who comment. They must in turn post this and make something for the first five who comment on their blog post.

*The rules are it has to be handmade by you, and they must receive it before 2013 ends. You must repost this and pay it forward. 

* It can be something simple!

Please leave your email so I may contact you for shipping details. 

Circle of Moms

I recently discovered Circle of Moms, a website full of information on all topics related to being a mom and an opportunity to connect with other moms from all other the world.

Right now, they have a vote for the Top 25 Creative Moms blog so I thought I'd give my blog a little try in the running. If you enjoy reading my blog, please vote by clicking below or the side bar. 

Thanks! :)

Winter in Disguise

It was such a warm winter day that it felt like Winter was pretending to be Spring today (that's what I told my daughter).  Of course we had to go out for a walk 'cuz if you know me, I dread cold winter days. Even if it's a fake spring day, I'll jump on this opportunity for some outdoor fun with my daughter.

My daughter was super excited about going to the park. Upon arriving at the park, we saw some strange sculptures that I never saw before. I thought the school added a new sculpture so we had to go check it out.

It turns out they were giant snowballs that haven't melted away yet. lol.

That's the oddest thing I've seen.

Then we went to explore the rest of the park and playground.

Isn't this the neatest thing? We had some fun taking turns finding letters.

That's my highlight of the day. Tomorrow I'm back to work. Oh, I'm also finally better from my 3 week flu or whatever it was but it looks like my husband caught it :( Hope he gets better soon.

 Happy Weekend Everyone!

My Little Card-Maker

Like mom, like daughter. As I love making cards, I got my daughter to make some handmade cards this Christmas season too. I was inspired by the idea from Blog Me Mom.

1. Start with card stock and fold in half (hamburger fold).

2. Paint or hand stamp card. Dip card in a mixture of glitter and salt and then shake off.

3. Voila! A sparkly card to give to your child's family.

While my daughter's cards didn't turn out quite like the hand prints I imagined, it's okay 'cuz it's all about the creative expression and the fun process. Please note that there will be a lot of salt residue so try to shake it off before giving them out. :)

Exciting News!

I have my first card published in this month's issue of CARDS magazine! This is such exciting news for me because not only is it my first card published but it's also something I can check off my dream to do list :) My husband couldn't wait for the company to send me the magazine copy so he went out and searched near and far in bookstores and scrapbooking stores till he found it (such a sweet surprise). My card is on page 54 and 55 so if you ever get your hands on a copy of this magazine, be sure to check it out.

This goes to show me that...

 "If you can dream it, you can do it." -Walt Disney

:)

Use It Tuesday

Let's welcome the new design team over at Use It Tuesday along with their inspiring creations for this week's challenge: 

Stay Calm and Sparkle. 

And with that, I'd like to say thank Use It Tuesday again for a wonderful, fantastic first design team term. It was so much fun and I've stopped buying craft supplies for about 6 months now :)

  

Thank You

I made this simple thank you card a while back but never got a chance to post it. It was made to give to an interviewer when I got a job interview. While I didn't get the job, I'm glad to have gotten a chance to see and learn more another school. I feel that preparing and going to a job interview always broaden my  horizons.

All the items I used happened to be from my stash (I think I've caught the Use It Tuesday bug after being on their team :D). Other than letting my daughter use the washi tape, I've never got to use them on a card til this one. The stamp is unlinked and the thank you sentiment was previously stamped and cut but never got used for anything but lying on my craft table. 

I'd like to enter this card into this week's thank you theme challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays.

Currently

I saw this Currently list over at Amy Tangerine's blog post so thought I'd give it a try. Just for fun :)

Drinking: water...finally changed my water filter
Eating: clementines, Strepsils...yes, I'm sick :(, started taking vitamins again
Listening: any sounds of crying from my daughter
Wearing: red/pink/white checkered pyjama pants I got from Christmas and my husband's huge Homer Simpson T-shirt that even he hardly wears lol (it's comfy though)
Reading: blogs from my reading list of 200+ blogs that I happen to end up following
Feeling: tired but not ready to sleep
Weather: coldddd
Wanting: more personal time for arting/craft purposes
Needing: to sleep more and start exercising again
Wishing: my husband gets better from being sick again and for my daughter and husband to get along better
Thinking: when will I stop being sick, what to teach for art on Monday, whether I should play my age old fav RPG Chrono Cross my husband got me hooked on last night with his new PSVita -_-, and where I misplaced my cell phone
Enjoying: some quiet down time and today's memories of brunch at Cora's and family day out grocery shopping (Costco, Whole Foods)
Loving: my husband and daughter

I think I'll be making this a monthly post. Why not give it a go too? :)

Happy New Year!

"Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You're off to Great Places!

You're off and away!"

-Dr. Suess, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

---------

Happy New Year Everyone!

We were given a big bag of old tissue paper from a relative (most clever gift idea for a preschooler ever!) 

What to do with them? 

On New Year's Eve, my daughter and I had a little fun on New Year's Eve decorating her playroom wall to welcome the New Year. We took some silly pictures with the colourful background (not posting the silly pics though :P) After, we had an early countdown and we welcomed the New Year by throwing tissue paper every which way for a good 10 minutes. :)

My New Year's Resolutions:

Be a better and better mom, wife, and person.

My daughter's New Year's Resolutions:

Tell an adult when she has to go potty (she told me twice that night that she had to go and did!) and practise riding her bike.

Happy 2013!