Old Tray Redo

Afternoon crafting... there's no better way to clear your mind.  Maybe there is... but this is fun too.

 

I bought this old tray at an estate sale in it's yuck oxidized green state.  I cleaned it up somewhat.  The grime didn't really want to go anywhere.  So I decided to throw some chalk paint on it and give it a different look and use.  Still usable as a tray but painting it opened up more uses!  This took about twenty minutes total.  Chalk paint dries pretty fast.

 

 

 



Drawing & Chalk Pastels

I love to draw.  I love to create.  When the crayon hits the paper... it's all me.  Though I never really thought I could until I realized that all I had to do was transfer my thoughts on to paper.  That it didn't matter if it was good or not to any one else.  The image in my head - come to life. 

What you have to do is trust in the finished product.  When you start out, get frustrated and rip the paper as it heads to the trash, you simply weren't patient enough with yourself.  Then again it may be what you are working with.  If you are working with a pencil and not happy with the results, stop and use paints.  Or if you are using paint, stop and use a crayon.  I am personally in love with chalk pastels.  I first discovered using them when I obtained an art kit from a family member's estate.  I adored the box full of old paint brushes, real drawing pencils and colored pencils.... and chalk pastels. 

Pastels are easy.  They are messy on your hands and so very fun to use.  You can make a line or begin to fill in and take your finger tip and start smudging to get a whole nother look and dimension.  You can get tons of colors for under ten bucks at the art store.  And they can be used on any kind of paper. 

I've not been to art school (obviously).  Matter of fact, I still have a painting that I got a D on in art class in high school.  How does that happen?  Is there no encouragement to be yourself in art class?  Harsh.  But... I don't know if I use the tools that I have correctly or not but I sure have fun.

What's your favorite art utensil?

 These are my Johnny Cash tributes.

I did this one on freezer paper for the bulletin board at the day care.
I like Rudolph photo bombing.

The art kit and my doodles of my pictures.



Planning a Garden with Kids

I consider myself lucky that I have two gardens to plan.  We have a rather large garden at home and a smaller one at the day care.  I have showed you plans for our garden at home, so here's what we are doing at the DC.

Several months ago, I purchased chalk board contact paper from Amazon.com.  For some reason I didn't think I would like it and didn't do anything with it right away.  I was lucky to have it when this project came to mind.  I found a spot of wall space in the kitchen, measured it and cut out the appropriate size of the contact paper.  I then stuck it right on the wall.  It is utterly fantastic!  It takes chalk writing really well and once more when I am finished I can peel it off and no harm done to my wall! 

So, after the back drop for our plans was in place, the kids and I got out the Burpee seed catalogue.  This is the one I get in the mail, mostly because it is where I have wound up ordering garlic seed for the last two years.  I have been asking the kids what they wanted to grow in our garden this year for weeks.  So it wasn't to tough to look through and find pictures to cut out.  We taped them on to the contact paper and I wrote what each of them were next to the picture. 

Next, all we have to do is the layout of our garden and then on to actual planting! 

 

 

 

 

Now this puts me in the market for kid sized tools for the garden!