Gramma Camp Day 2

painting our Fairy houses to have ready for our Fairy Garden Day tomorrow.  quesadillas for lunch and Banana split boats.   the kids made stamps using magic foam, glue guns and paint and ink.  played inside all day as we had yet another rainy day.  they were singing and drawing comics in their notebooks.  Dain is such a big help for me with the little ones and Mary entertained baby Jack when I was busy.  just love these sweet kids. 

               

Gramma Camp Day 1

We started the morning making trail mix to munch on while creating art.   Our first project was making sun catchers by pouring glue into plastic lids. Like sour cream or cottage cheese container lids.  Then we used food coloring to add color drops to the glue.  About eight drops using different colors.  Then you pull a tooth pick through to make designs.  This doesn’t take long but takes about 4 days to dry, so we did these first then set them aside.

next we got out 4 inch square glazed tiles.  Purchased these at Home Depot for 46 cents each.  A brand new package of colorful Sharpies and had the kids draw patterns and designs on their tiles, you can even just scribble lots of colors all over the tile.  Then we used pipettes to drop rubbing alcohol on to the tiles to make swirly cool patterns.  If you use too much alcohol it will fade all the color out.  If this happens, take a paper towel and wipe it all off and start over. 

                       Next we cut the bottoms off of small water bottles, covered the open end with a small sock and secured it with a rubber band.  I filled paper bowls with dish detergent and a little water and the kids dipped the sock end into the soap solution and got it very wet and soapy.  We had big blue buckets used for ice at picnics, around $5 at Walmart on the table.  The kids blew into the mouth of the water bottles to create bubble snakes.  this was a big hit and lots of fun.  Be careful to blow out and not suck in the bubbles. 

           It was now time for 3 large pizzas for lunch.  even baby Jack was enjoying chewing on a little crust. 

     After lunch we decided to explode soap in the microwave using bars of ivory soap. 

   We then had time for a chilly dip in the pool and some cousin silliness in the daybed. 

     The final art project for the day was musical paint instead of musical chairs.  We stood around the paper covered table each person with a paint brush and a different color of paint.  I played music and each person started painting in front of them.  When the music stopped we all moved one space to the right and continued painting on that persons picture until we filled the whole paper. 

           needless to say Gramma is very tired.  Heading off to bed now as we have another fun day planned for tomorrow.

Goodnight and I hope you live an artful life.

handmade stamps from pool noodles. book covers and Herbs Finds

Getting ready for Gramma Camp starting tomorrow.  Sun catchers, fairy houses and gardens, exploding soap and much more.  Will share photos and how tos each day.  I love art in so many forms from beautiful gardens, food and pastries artfully prepared to a simple basket of strawberries.  Beauty in its natural form is all around us and all we have to do is look.  Dandelions, bark on a tree, a rusty old metal door with little chips of green paint still visible.  Wabi Sabi every where we look.

another favorite of mine is old book covers.  The colors, the fonts, the graphics.  I love them. so I thought it would be fun to share a book cover each day.  I believe this book is maybe danish.  It’s a small book about 4 by 4 inches and has funny little line drawings inside.  

my fun crafting tip to share is slicing up an old pool noodle to use for stamping.  Works with ink or paint. another part of my blog will be to share with you whenever my husband brings home treasures from his sales, pics of HERB’S Finds.   and he finds great stuff!   here is what he brought home yesterday along with a 1957 Syracuse city directory for $1.00 Enjoy your day and I hope you live an artful life.  Cindy

                 

Beginning an Abstract page in my journal

Because I have been working on so many other projects lately, I. Have neglected art journaling everyday. Got the journal out last night and prepped a couple pages to work on this weekend.  decided this morning to play with an abstract idea.  Never sure how this will turn out but have fun experimenting.  One thing I. Do while painting with a brayer is that I roll the excess paint off on the heavy paper covering my work table.  Paper can be used later in a mixed media project.  I had some small scrap boards on the table next to my journal and instead of rolling off the  excess paint on the paper, I rolled it off on the boards.  I liked what happened and will use the boards later for mini abstracts. 

 Background  page I am starting for my journal abstract. 

   Little scrap woods that hold rub offs from the brayer.  Think these will develop into something interesting.

more introductions

    Little mixed media abstract houses I am currently working on. 

     Pages and tabs from my phone book journal I am creating.

I hope You will check back each day to see what I. Am working on or ideas I have to share.

 Live an artful life.  Cindy

Taking that first step into Blogdom.

I’ve wanted to do this for a very long time, but hesitated not knowing if what I am doing is what Bloggers do! I guess I. Should start by saying welcome and I hope that what I. Put here will be of interest to you and others. I would like to give a brief summary of who I. Am and what I do.

I am a wife of 47 years, Mother to five beautiful grown children and proud Grandmother to 8 of the sweetest kiddos in the world.  I guess I have always done creative things while my children were growing up, having five kids and being a stay at home Mom makes you get creative fast.  In the last year and a half I have found a little artist living in me and have encouraged that other person to come out and play with me.   My husband and children are all super talented and I was nervous about putting pen, brush or pastel to paper knowing their capabilities.  Don’t get me wrong, they are my biggest supporters along with my sister Michelene.   in fact my sister is the one who talked me into sending in my first project to get published in Somerset Studio.  Anyway, I just wanted to give you a brief bio and I would love to share with anyone out there that is interested art I am working on, great recipes you might want to try,  some of the family fun we share and traditions that we have enjoyed over the years.

I currently take care of my two youngest grandchildren Elijah 3 and Jack 10 months along with being responsible for the care of my Mother inlaw who is in a wheel chair and lives with us.  I offer art workshops in my upstairs studios when I have time,  usually 4 times a month and I am constantly working on art in every free minute I have.

For this first introductory post I would like to share a few photos.  

  my Husband Herb and my grandson Elijah picking strawberries from our little patch.