For the love of wolves. . .

B is going to a birthday party tomorrow for a homeschooling friend who is turning 8. This little girl absolutely loves wolves so we thought we'd do a wolf theme for her gifts. First, she let us know that presents are optional and that she would really love it if everyone made a donation to a canine charity. So, we'll be doing that but everyone needs a few presents on their birthday, right?

Here's what we made :

I know the gifts are lacking color but I just couldn't decide on a color for the t-shirt and then I wanted to do a picture frame and I couldn't figure out a way to make it work with the cut out wolves on white background (without taking a huge amount of time to cut right along the edges). So, this is what she'll be getting. Hope she likes black and white! ;)

Happy Martinmas!

B's glow in the dark owl craft

Today B finished up an owl he has been working on for a couple of days. The inspiration for the owl came from That Artist Woman. We changed the craft a little by using our triangle paper cut-outs for feathers, pipe cleaners for claws and we painted over the whites of his eyes with glow in the dark paint. The eyes really do glow! I think we may make black cats with glow in the dark eyes next.

Silly socks and more crafting fun

Yesterday was silly sock day at B's soccer practice. We decided to decorate B's socks with felt faces and silk leaf fairies. He won some tie dyed socks for his creativity. The cold, rainy weather has kept us inside and we've been doing more fall crafts. We made these trees with a water color background and then made the trees by blowing the paint around.

We used some square and triangle paper cut-outs for the leaves.

J and B also finished up their leaf salt dough decorations.

J remembered making houses out of paper in second grade and wanted to try this out again.

Here's a happy little cat decorated by B.

Lastly, we strung up some peanuts for the squirrels.

Fall art projects

This morning I was thrilled to click here and see two art projects I wanted to make and I was even more thrilled that I already had all the materials I needed. Isn't that the best! Here's my little fall fairy hanging over the nature table.
We used a silk leaf to make some salt dough creations (I guess the veins of actual leaves don't show up as well on the salt dough). I finished one of mine and it is on the nature table.

J and B will hopefully finish their projects tomorrow.

Chocolate, water guns, veggies, clay

Today we visited Lake Champlain Chocolates factory. It was fun learning about chocolate production and watching them make the chocolates (and, of course, eating the samples).

When we got home J and B wanted to try out their water guns and I thought we could do some art.

I call this one of B's Scrambled eggs and fried eggs.

Then it was time to collect clay at the beach with some friends.

I think I have about 20 lbs. of clay in the car!

Happy stuff this week

Enjoying wishing wells.

Look at that happy face and the little upturned toe. I love it!

Pretending to be a baby.

This is an adult cradle at Shelburne Museum. I was told by the guide that the cradle was built by the Shakers (this one is a replica) and the elderly and infirm would use this as a sort of day bed. It would be placed in the kitchen by the hearth.

Growling like a bear-yes, my kids do this a lot!

Climbing trees before the rain comes.

Creating spring napkins.

Coloring on rocks with rocks.

Little kids, little dog, big dog, big sculptures. . .all in NJ

Scenes from NJ

Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ