Class Canvas's

 For our school Spring Art Auction each class is given canvas's for each child. These are then placed up for purchase as the School's Spring Art Auction at $15.00 each. I think they are pretty priceless it you ask me, although I might be a bit partial. The canvas's are yours to do with as you wish and must be 100% the child's art work. Well since our kiddos are a bit to small to do it all themselves we of course have to help them. And since I'm super anal when it comes to our class art project's, I make it a priority that our canvas's are perfect. This year we went around and around on what we were going to do. I like sticking with a theme were each child's is the same just personalized to them. I originally wanted to take the easy way out and just do the same design that we did last year. But one of my assistants wasn't crazy about that idea. Not that they weren't cute, they were adorable but she suggested we do something different and I'm so glad she did. On one of my late night dates when it was just me and the Macbook I came across this idea on FB. A friends mom's actually posted it and tag another teacher friend in it. I just loved it and though it was so fitting for our class. I showed my assistant teachers and they loved it as well. We got to work that next day on them and were done within less than a week. Once we settle on a theme or idea we don't waste any time getting them done. My afternoon assistant is extremely talented when it comes to her hand writing and we've deemed her the writer of the class. Her work is just beautiful, thank goodness she enjoys it. Other classes were still working on them up to the week of the Auction.  I was so excited for our parents to see them. It was so hard not to show them when they came in. The different teachers I showed just loved them.
*Spring Art Auction evening verdict, everyone LOVED them and we got endless comments on how everyone though they were so cute. Definitely one of my favorite parts about the Auction. I'm going to miss doing them next year for sure. #bittersweetmove

Spring Art Auction

Each year the school I work for does a Spring Art Auction this is the school's spring fundraiser.

 Part of what goes into that is the Children decorate a canvas. Each child has their own and they are to do what they want on it. There is no direction, no theme or story to go by, simply them using their imagination. Its a lot of fun for the older kiddos and seeing the out come. However with the little ones they need a bit more guidance. We wanted them to be a creation all of its self but knew some help was needed. We've been talking about this since the beginning of the year (Jan. 2013, our school year runs just as a public school August- May) and what we wanted to do. I had some what of a idea in my head that we had been talking about. We had been trying to play off that and add to it just a little. Last Friday we got out Canvas's and set on them for the week. Even though the Auction is less than 20 days away and 6 of those day's we will be on bring break we didn't want to rush into it. We wanted to make sure they turned out perfect and we didn't mess up anything. 

Well this morning we decided we would give it a try, "we will start with one", we said and go from there on what we think. One led to Two which led to Three, Four, Five, next thing we knew we had done all eight children that were there for the day. (we had a few out) We were / are very please with the way they turned out. They were completely done by the children as far as the painting goes. So with out further ado here are our Classroom Canvas's for EDS's 2012-2013 Spring Art Auction 

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I think they are so cute and I can't wait to see what the parents think of them.
Its going to be hard keeping them a secret from them till April 18th. 

What do you think, did they turn out cute?!?!? or what?!?!

 I do think they look so much better in person, but they are still cute!!!

St. Patties Day & Easter @ School

Since St. Patrick's Day and Easter are semi close together we decided instead of completely changing out board out half way through the month to put up Easter art we would just make one board into two. It worked out really well and we've been extra busy with art over the last few weeks. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of week one, I remember just as I took the last piece of art work down. 

So skipping on to Week 2 or March-

 Fruit Loop Rainbows- lets just say we wont be doing these again next year. As cute as they are, they were a pain in the booty and talk about messy to. Hand Print Lambs- these turned out super cute and were so adorable. Definitely one of our favorites. 

Week 3 of March-

Hand Print Shamrocks in a Pot of gold. Our original plan was to simply do 4 of their hand prints all on one sheet and have them over lap to look like a shamrock. Well after several attempts it just wasn't working out. So we resorted to 4 single prints, cutting and glueing. which I still think came out pretty well. Chick Feet- these little guy's turned out just darlin. Again another one were the original gave us some trouble but we change it and made it our own.

Week 4 of March-
For the last week of March we decided to to go a little simple with our art work. Foot print Carrots & Foot print Bunnies on the Easter side. They turned out super cute. For the St. Patties day side we were a little less creative as we were running out of ideas. We decided to let the kiddo's have a little fun with some extra construction paper we had laying around and they made Mosaic Rainbows. I have to say it took a little explaining of them for people to understand what it was, they we decided to Write on the "sun's" what it was. I'm glad both of these Holidays are behind us and that we don't have anymore in the future. I can't wait to do just free art and not have a theme to go by or a Holiday. 

Bulletin Boards Lately!

We have been busting out the art work at school here lately and the parents are loving it. I'm loving it, its so fun and hearing everyone comment on how cute our boards are makes it that much more worth it. I try to take pictures of the finished products when I remember but I've been slacking. Any how here are two of our January boards and one of our February boards so far. More to come in the coming weeks and months. :) 

THERE'S NO PEOPLE LIKE SNOW PEOPLE! 

Do you see a theme going on here.....its still winter and chilly weather so went with snowmen for January. 

The first one was Cotton Ball snow People. They turned out so cute!!! 

This one was one of my favorite Snow People made out of Marshmallows :) 

LOVE IS IN THE AIR!!!

 Moving into February we've got LOVE to share!!!! 

Our love people with a bit of finger painting. Aren't they adorable!!!! 

 Don't worry there's lots more to come over the next few months!!! 

3 & 1/2 more months till Summer semester starts!!!

Christmas Art Lately

We've been quite busy over the last month with loads of fun art work at school. It's been fun and the parents seem to be enjoying all the creativeness we've been sending home. Santa's beard is growing by the day, he's starting to get some fluff to him. We found Rudolph's feet last week and posted them outside on our Christmas Window. These are one of my favorite from the past couple weeks. I love the idea of splitting our bulletin board into two different boards. I definitely think we might have to do this again.

 

For our Christmas gift to the parents from the kiddos, we got a little creative. I'm so happy with the way they turned out. Other's had doubts that it would work out and look cute but we happily proved them wrong. We made imprints of the kiddo's feet with homemade clay, baked them, painted them green and then we glued red sparkle balls on the top. They symbolized Misltoe. We wrapped them and put a cute saying on the packaging that said "kiss me I found the misltoe" so the parents would know what it was suppose to be. They made super cute Christmas Tree ornaments.  

We made one other Christmas ornament that didn't turn out exactly like I'd hoped but hey when does any idea you find off pinterest turn out just right. Everyone still seemed to like them and thought they were cute. I think they would have been better if we would have had different paint, but I wasn't wanting to go around town search for it. They still look cute and I mean hey they were done by one year old's so it's ok right. 

As much as I love doing art work and Christmas project with our kiddo's I'm so happy we are finished with it for the year. We've been busy little bee's and my creative finger is ready for some rest. We've got lots of idea's for the month of January, more snowmen and snowflakes to come!!!!

Lunchin w/ a bit of Art

Today at work we had our Teacher Appreciation / Thank You lunch from the EDSPO ~ Parent Organization. The PO is very similar to PTA in a public school, they are the ones that help organize different events and what not that go on through out the year. 

Lunch was catered by Pasta Fresca, the local Italian Restaurant I've mentioned before. (same one I got the gift card for :) There was 3 different pastas, salad, lasagna, garlic bread, cookies and SWEET Tea. I surely didn't leave hungry and best part is, I still had my whole lunch hour to get things done I needed to take care of. Along with our lunch we were given yet another gift card to Target :) as well as a Tumbler with our initial on it. It was a thank your gift from them to us, I've said it before and I'll say it again "I work for such a great school".

This evening I had plans to attend a Company Social (with non other than Alpha Co., we are Delta Co but they don't do a darn thing, A Co has always included us in their outing.) We were meeting up at Mad Platter (a local art studio) to do a little painting. I've been wanting to go ever since I found out about the place back when we first got here, I've just ever had the chance to. A quick example of what you do ~~~~ you pick out a piece of art weather it be a dish, character, wall hanging, doggie bowls, magnets, etc. There are literally tons of items to choose from to paint and then you have your choices of paint colors to use. They even have confetti paint which was way cool, books and books of stencils and stamps as well. Then you go to ton designing your own personal piece how ever your little heart desires. I chose a serving dish as my piece because I wanted something I could use all the time. I started off with stenciling our last name in the center and quickly decided I didn't like it. Thankfully the marker burns off when its sealed. Its not perfect by any means and I know I could have done way way better but for my first time I have to say not to bad. Now that its done you leave it there and they do something called a firing seal. This seals off the paint and brightens the colors (so they will be much more colorful then pictured below) allowing the paint to last for years and years to come. I already have plans to go again and paint a little something for a care package I'm working on. I would have done it tonight but we ran out of time. I had so much fun with the girls tonight it was a small group of us, 3 other spouses, a Drill SGT & the Company Commander. Because the unit is coed (which I'm still getting use to) S who coordinates all of these things included the female soldiers in the company to join.

I'll be sure to post pictures of my finished piece once I get it back.
 (I'm leaving to go out of town in Sunday for a week, so it will be after I get back!)
~DAY 224~

My Chicken Art

Remember me telling you about the Spring Art Auction at school the week before spring break!!! Remember I won a art piece that I was just so excited about. Well I finally got it today. I couldn’t remember the exact bid price I put on it & much to my surprise it was less than I though. No complaints here!!! I was kinda curious of the hubbs comments when I showed him because its definitely different. I was caught off guard when he said he liked it & that it looked good hanging in our living room. I told him I wish I would have put a bid on both pieces there at the auction. Then I would have one for each side of our entertainment center. He told me we can go back & get another one made or pick one out from what he has available. I was so excited he liked it & doesn't mind getting another piece. They are pretty popular here in the South, I’d say mainly the Columbia area from what I’ve heard. I might see if we can’t made a drive down to Five Points this coming weekend to see if the Chicken Man is out. I wont be so hesitant to stop on the side of the road at his truck now, knowing what he does & who he is. 

 What do you think, do you love it or not ?!?!?!?!

 Let me just say that it looks so much better in person.

~DAY 180~

Bright Ideas

DAY 64

Being Artsy

Prepping for the SPOUSES arrival. Last night about 11pm I had a bright idea that I wanted to be "that person" holding a "Welcome to sign" for the spouse when we went to pick her up at the airport. I begged Gabe to go to Walmart when me right then to get the stuff to make it seeings the PX was closed. It was a no go, he was tired and had to be at work at 430am the next morning. BOOOOO.

So what did I have to do.....WAIT. This morning after getting up and dressed I made my way to the PX and loaded up on supplies. I wanted to get it finished before I went to work this afternoon because I had loads to do this evening and I was trying my hardest to have everything ready for her arrival the day before (today). I managed to finish up all the wording and filling in of the lettering before I left but it was still missing something. It seemed to white, on my way home from work I stopped by Hobby Lobby and picked up some Crayons to add a bit more color. Finally it was complete the coloring took forever but I'm happy with the way it turned out. It kinda looks like a 5 year old made it but that's ok I know they spouse will love it. Speaking of we were on the phone chatting away while I was working on it tonight and it took all I had not to tell her about it.

I cant wait to Welcome her to the SOUTH!!!!!