Cookies for Santa

Okay, I know it's a little late in the game to be suggesting a craft project, but this turned out so well that I just had to share it. I had all the supplies I needed when the inspiration struck me, but even if you have to go out and buy the glass plate, it's an easy project and your kids will love it. You'll love it. Santa will love it.



Supplies - clear glass plate
- acrylic paint
- acrylic gloss medium (this is your glue and sealer, any art store should stock it, though you could probably thin out some white school glue and use that....try 3 parts glue to 1 part water...both will go on cloudy but dry clear.)
- colourful pages ripped from old magazines

Step 1 - cut out your letters and any other decorations from your old magazines. (Most other paper will be too thick.) We made a simple tree, and used a single-hole punch to make perfect circles for the ornaments.

Step 2 - paint the underside of your plate with the gloss medium, and stick on your letters and decorations, so the good side is in the glue. Remember that your writing needs to go backward, so that it will be in the right spot when you flip the plate over. Brush more gloss medium over the back of your letters and decorations.

Step 3 - let it dry

Step 4 - paint the underside of your plate with acrylic paint in the colour of your choice. Go right over your letters and decorations.

Step 5 - let it dry

Step 6 - repeat steps 4 and 5

Step 7 - add a few coats of gloss medium to seal, and you're done! Because all the paint is on the underside of your plate, this is totally foodsafe. It is not, however, waterproof. So wash carefully, the bottom won't take more than a gentle wipe with a damp cloth.

The gloss medium and acrylic paint both dry pretty quickly, so you can complete this in an afternoon. Just let it dry well overnight before setting it down right-side up.

I hope Santa's good to everyone....Merry Christmas!!!



xo Badness

Cupid made me do it....

All week I've been seeing darling Valentine's crafts all over the internet, and I've mocked them to myself, because it was that or feel guilty about not doing anything with the Princess beyond the requisite class cards. Then, this morning, Cupid hit me with an arrow right in the middle of my jaded black heart. There's no other explanation.

It started when the Princess was playing with a set of paper dolls that some eejit (that would be me) bought her for Christmas. It came with all sorts of supplies for designing your own paper doll clothes, including a set of textured pieces of cardboard. It was these that the Princess came running over with, forcing me to abandon my coffee to peel a crayon, and show her how to do a rubbing over the textures. As she struggled to roll the crayon without crumpling or moving the paper, I decided that a better tool was needed. And that's when my heart gagged and bound my brain.

I got out our enormous box of crayons and while the Princess fished out all the broken specimens, I peeled them. Breaking all my fingernails in the process, I might add. We sorted them by colour into a heart-shaped silicone muffin tin, preheated the oven to 375 F, and picked 3 268 crayon fragments up off the floor. Twice. Thanks Bad.



I boiled the kettle, and made those crayons their very own little bain-marie.



We turned on the oven light to make it easier to peep, and after catching Bad opening the oven for the second time, I took up a guard post in the kitchen. About 20 minutes later we had this:


Pretty!

By the time lunch was finished they were hard again.



I'm such a sucker. But at least they'll be easier to clean up this way.

Oh! And yeah, they work great for the rubbings!

art lessons

The Princess loves to draw, to colour, to cut, to glue, to paint. I love all of that too, but because we don't have a studio or even a corner where I can leave a project out indefinitely I don't do it very often. And I hate to be interrupted when I'm painting, which doesn't make for a very good mommy.

Sometimes though, I give in to the constant refrain of "let's do a craft Mommy! Let's make a picture!"; and on Monday I pulled out some old watercolour supplies and taught the Princess how to use them. She blew my mind.



" the sea " watercolour by the Princess, January 2009



Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? (Cheap frame from Ikea - fabulous for displaying children's artwork)

Watercolours are the perfect medium for children. The mess is minimal, and they are entranced by the way the paint glides and flows on the paper. Besides, the best results come with loose free strokes, which is natural for them. If you know a child who loves art, this is what you should get them for their next birthday.

A few tips: 1. buy a watercolour block, which is a pad of paper that is glued all around the edges except for a small section where you can slip in a knife and pull each finished painting off once it's dry. This keeps the paper stretched and flat.

2. And real paint. It doesn't have to be expensive, but get a student quality set from an art supply. Pans are better than tubes for little ones.

3. The paper can take a lot of water, have them brush clean water over the entire surface of the paper before starting.

4. The paint will dry lighter, so if they want vivid colour, have them load it on.

5. Give them some salt (I like sea salt best for this, but experiment!) to sprinkle in the wet paint to make a speckled effect.

6. Although some pigments are more permanent than others, sometimes paint can be removed from the paper by wetting and blotting with a tissue or paper towel (Q-tips are good for small areas)

Let me see your kids' best work. I love all of it.

And it only took me 3 1/2 years!

I painted the background of this canvas 3 1/2 years ago, but I didn't like the way the subject was progressing, so I propped it on the mantle to ponder. It has sat there and mocked me ever since. Then, just before Christmas, I was doodling and colouring with the Princess and we made a big picture together that I loved. I laid it on top of the canvas and the juxtaposition of the two really struck me. Inspiration! At last! The result (and sorry for the crappy photography, I need a new camera!):





'just the way love grows' - mixed media on canvas

NaBloPoMo Filler....

Well, Hubs would tell you that it's not possible, but I feel like I don't have anything to say. My kids have left me without any fresh material. Brats. Even Hubs has been well behaved this morning, actually getting out of bed before me, so I can't bitch about that. Jerk. I signed up for this NaBloPoHo thing though, so I feel obliged to see it through and post something....

Do you want to see some of my work? I have half an art degree, and a diploma in Interior Design. I love to draw and paint, but since I can't stand to be interrupted while creating, I haven't done much since the babes were born. (Bit of an understatement there, when interrupted I can make the Wicked Witch of the West look like Grandma!)

I did get a chance to teach art for a week this summer to a group of kids 5 - 14. The Princess's ballet teacher runs the camp and she mentioned to me that her Art teacher had quit. In a moment of either inspiration or insanity I volunteered. I had never taught before. The theme of the camp this year was Japan, something I know almost naught about. It was a challenge to do the research, and try some techniques I hadn't used. A real challenge. Japanese art is detailed and intricate and meticulous - I am more of a slapdash instant gratification type girl. I tend to destroy any project that requires patience!

The best part, for me, was designing and overseeing a huge mural that was used as the backdrop for the kids play and was eventually installed in the Kindergarten playground of a local elementary school. I had huge half scale mock-ups taped up all over my hallway and living room walls where I could sketch and scribble ideas as they came to me while holding Badness in my other arm. The challenge was that I wasn't painting it all myself - I had to find ways 35 kids could contribute. I had to use exterior latex paint so that it would withstand the elements and there wasn't a lot of time in the program allotted to the mural. I think it turned out amazing - the kids were fabulous. What do you think?

SummerStage Arts Camp 2007 - Mural at Alliston Union