Project 4: Jewelry

This was our fourth creative endeavor that I forgot to post earlier.  Jewelry making was one of my most enjoyable classes.  Jewelry making was a lot of fun from sorting the beads to playing with them, and making necklaces and bracelets,  it was thoroughly enjoyed. We had a chance to create a few pieces of jewelry that was a style of our own.  I had a few animal beads that went fast.  The transparent  beads were also popular.

Some of my younger students got creative and  used chenille sticks, also known as pipe cleaners to string there beads as pictured as the bracelet that is on the far upper right portion of the picture.

I found that using  elastic string over the plastic string for beading works best.  I also used a dab of glue from the glue gun to seal the knots we made with the plastic string so it would not unravel.

Project 7: Sun Catchers

With Spring right around the corner, I thought it would be nice to paint sun catchers. Everyone painted at least two sun catchers which all came out lovely.

I can't wait for the them to sparkle in the sunshine!

Project 6: Cookie Decorating

On Valentines Day, we had a very sweet class- literally.  Each student tried their hand at using a pastry bag.  I interchanged tips for those who wanted  to make lines or writing on their cookies, with a tip for making mini stars.  We used homemade butter cream icing that was either white, pink or purple.  For a special touch we also had a small batch of chocolate icing.  To make the heart shapes on the cookies, after they were iced, a small heart cookie cutter was placed on top and red sprinkles poured in.  Once the cookie cutter was gently lifted, it left behind a small red heart.  This was a very yummy day!

Project 5: Valentine's

Valentine's day is always a favorite.  My students  made foam Valentine's  to exchange with friends and also magnetic Valentine frames  and pictures to go on the refrigerator.

Project 3: Calendars

Our third project was calendars.  There was a choice between  pre-printed and "draw your own" month's picture.

 The students have the opportunity to color in each month's picture with either colored pencils, crayons, or markers.  This also gave them a chance to fill in special days like "birthdays" of  family and friends. This was a great useful project for both younger and older students.

Project 2: Painted Rocks

This was a fun project.  We made painted rocks with acrylic paint and smooth river rocks.  I think painted rocks work well for paper weights, shelf or desk buddies.

dog

 ladybug

pig

Project 1: Journals

Here we made journals using various scrapbook paper, chipboard, magazine cut outs, and printed scripture verses. Below is  some of  the finished products.

This is the front

This is the back that reads, "And they lived happily ever after".

I love the use of the sparkly pink chipboard letter in the center.

Welcome to our studio!

I am so excited to showcase this blog featuring the projects of my students who attend my arts & and crafts class. This year, I opened my home to an awesome group of home schooled artists to explore their creative side through arts and craft projects and friendship building activities. This has been a dream of mine for quite sometime and it affords me the opportunity to share my talents and also to have fun at the same time. I truly believe everyone has a an element of creativity just waiting to be discovered.

My hope has been to provide a venue where children could create "functional art". Functional art, is a term I coined myself which means "art that is useful without creating clutter". So far we have had projects such as covered journals, jewelry making, and a host of others. I look forward to sharing our up coming works.