teapot cozy

These little teapot cozies will be available at the sale on December 9th. Don't let your tea get cool and tepid. A teapot cozy is just the thing for those who want their second cup of tea to be as satisfying as their first.

Made from recycled sweaters and topped with handmade pom-poms, this is the ideal gift for your favorite DIY enthusiast.



If you have a small head, the teapot cozy can double as a hat with pigtail holes.


This teapot cozy evokes the natural affection shared by tea drinkers and horse lovers alike.

pom-pom mania

The art club had access to a top secret pom-pom making machine last week (patent pending). The pom-pom addiction that swept over art club was quick and absolute. Pom-pom mania caused art clubbers to abandon the tea cozy project for pom-poms of various sizes and colors. Pom-poms can be juggled, used as hair decoration, or placed in pleasing grids of puffy color. If you choose to learn the art of pom-pom making use extreme caution and give yourself ample time to be mesmerized.

No art club student shall pass the winter with naked ice skates.

door snakes

These playful door snakes will be available for purchase at the craft sale on December 9th. Keep out those winter breezes in style.

These snakes are filled with lightweight, moth resistant Hi-Dri for a lifetime of energy saving fun.

Remember that door snakes are not a weapon.

crafty cozies

The art club is part of a holiday craft fair on December 9th. I started the students working on some cozy crafty items for the sale. We are making tea cozies and door snakes out of my old wool sweater collection. I felted the sweaters in the washing machine and they feel nice and fuzzy. The kids want to put pom-poms on the top of the tea cozy, so next week we will have a pom-pom making session, stuff the snakes with a bit of sand, and give them some button eyes. I will post the finished photos. They are all turning out super cute.

The hard part of having students make things to sell is that they get attached to the things they make and don't want to sell them. I guess I'm not really that different. It's weird to hear them talk about how their parents had better buy the things they are making or else.

Thanks, parents!

We are trying to raise funds for future art materials. I actually already spent a bit too much on wool batting recently (for teaching felting this winter), so I hope the cozies are a great success.

Save all wool sweaters. Wool is easy for kids to sew with. Wash the sweaters in warm water and shrink in the dryer. A stash of felted wool sweaters is the basis for any good cozy. I would recommend a wool cozy for your cell phone, nintendo, and digital camera, but not for your toaster.

paper game

We have officially started the paper game in art club. Last week we explained the rules.
Team leaders pick a theme. Draw their teams. Draw their home base game boards. Role Play.

Fifty points of offensive attack points are allowed per team.
Fifty defensive points are allowed per team and the barricade structures are part of the home base game board.
There are twenty chance cards allowed per team. Chance cards are creative expressions of good luck for the home team or disaster for the opponent.

The art club is getting into it. We have teams made of animorphs, dancers, global musicians, fancy ladies in red dresses, tough babies, really tough old people, Russians, monsters and more.
Stay tuned for future encounters.

the paper box

I took out my stash of fancy paper for the art club to use in their scrap books. I save wrapping paper and keep my eyes open for vintage wrapping paper, wall paper, crepe paper, doilies, and cards at rummage sales and thrift stores. I store all the paper in one plastic box in the basement and every time I bring the box out the students are instantly inspired. I never spend much money on any one thing in the paper box, but as a collection it is a true treasure.

This is a good time of year to score gift paper at thrift stores, so keep your eyes open and start a paper collection of your own. You won't be sorry. When the paper is spread out all over the kitchen table and a few glue sticks have been distributed, there's no way to lose.

scrap book sharing

The art club shared their scrap books this week in class. This was by far the best show-and-share period we have ever experienced. The students seemed extra engaged in their memories from childhood. They shared photographs of themselves as kids, their pets, and their relatives. They shared special postcards, drawings, and letters. As an adult I was particularly interested in the acute nostalgia experienced by the nine year old set. They were letting out squeals of laughter and sighing at every special moment. The "when I was little. . ." approach these nine year olds voiced reminded me of how they situate themselves in a brave new world of preteen interests. I was surprised to see Lindsey Lohan featured prominently on a page of one youngster's book. It makes sense, I just have to keep up with the times.

The project was a great success. One mom shared with me how proud her child felt when showing her the memory book, and how he had been sleeping with it next to his bed.

scrap books

We finished our scrap books yesterday and they look beautiful. I think this was a pretty hard project because there were so many stages that required patience and perseverance, but all our work paid off and the kids seemed really happy with their efforts.

scrap books

scrap books

The kids glued on their covers and went crazy with glue sticks and mod podge. Some of the students put movie tickets, drawings, special photos, letters and other special memory materials inside their new scrap books today, but most of the kids forgot to bring things from home. I am still having trouble getting the students to remember the collecting and gathering part of this project. Next week we will dedicate another class to putting special things in our new books and hopefully everyone will have collected something to scrap with. The kids who remembered to bring things were extremely thoughtful about what they selected. I am blown away by how heartfelt and individualized their scrap books look.

sketching outside

We spent a beautiful fall day outside drawing the leaves, barren trees, dried up flowers and such. The art club groaned when I suggested sketching from life -- they much prefer to use their imaginations. I tried to keep it interesting by having them switch positions every few minutes so they only had time to go for the quick, gestural sketch. I have the sinking feeling that we won't be making art outside for awhile. We have to take plein-air when we can get it.