Repurposing

5 years ago, when I adopted Diesel, I bought this toy. There was a round scratch-pad in the middle made of cardboard and she would work her claws on it every day. After a while, there wasn't much to scratch off of it so I got rid of it. I couldn't find a replacement and it bugged me. A few months ago though, I saw a tutorial online to make a scratch-pad of my own. So I gave it a go. I finished it last week and Diesel has been enjoying it ever since.

Keri Smith has a thought provoking post on her blog. Go read it if you have a minute.

Time flies

I can't believe it's been already a month since my last blog post. So far, 2009 hasn't been a good blogging year for me but it doesn't have to continue this way.

Last week, I hosted another art camp with 2 of the girls from the first week. We had a blast and I showed them lots of projects. On Friday morning though, my mom and I were teaching a scrapbooking class at an artsy summer camp. Only 9 kids but 2 of them were autistic. There were 4 adults helping the kids and everything went so smoothly that we told the person in charge we'd love to repeat the experience next summer. I am loving all these new teaching experiences. It makes me realize that it's something I'm good at and I love doing. I'm still going to work at the school's daycare but whenever I can, I want to teach arts and crafts to kids outside of school.

Other than that, I've been working on a lot of stuff: finishing projects I previously started, making mini-books, doodling, organizing and re-organizing, etc. I'm keeping busy and enjoying my summer, even when it rains. And it's been raining quite a bit. I'll try to post later this week with photos of my completed projects.

Today's photo: lily-of-the-valley from my mother's yard, taken in May 2009.

Recap of Days 3 and 4

Only one day of art camp left with one of the girls. The other 2 are staying with their father for the day but they'll come back at the end of the month for another 4 days.

On Tuesday afternoon, when the dyied and finger-painted papers were dry, the girls cut them up and embellished them to make affirmation cards. They came up with the wording on their own, I barely had to help. They had some really good ones too (all in French of course.)

Wednesday, we started the day by painting and embellishing a papier maché heart-shaped box. We used the dyied paper towels from Tuesday to decoupage the bottom part of the box. This is to be their "worry box" where they can put little pieces of paper with their worries written on them. After that, we painted the rocks previously gathered and wrote kind words on them. When they were dry, we went back to the lake to leave them on and around trees (some rock climbing was done on their part while I took photos.) Other projects of the day: making a basket out of a 6"x6" piece of paper and pre-painting backgrounds in the journals using different techniques.

Today, we had less projects/techniques but were still busy all day. We made a little gift bag/purse out of 12"x12" patterned paper, decorated small match boxes and, after another walk by the lake to see if our rocks were still there (only one was nowhere in sight and we hope "a nice person took it,") we spent the afternoon making collages in the journals. They would have kept going all night long if their parents hadn't shown up! But they will be able to continue at home because I gave them all a small pile of scraps and some embellishments. They were really happy about everything and to see them enjoying the projects and the results so much put a huge smile on my face. I will definitely continue doing these camps in the future.

Art camp, Day 2

Another great day here at MissKoolAid's art camp. We did lots of stuff. And everyone was happy with the projects and results.

We died paper towels and used them to add colour and pizzazz to plain white cardstock. We also finger painted on more cardstock (forgot to photograph those papers but they turned out great!) All new papers were used to make affirmation cards. Many, many affirmation cards.

Other activities included making felt flower brooches, using a new-to-them pattern of scoubidou (gimp), going for a walk by the water to write/draw in their journal, a photo session, picking heart shaped (or simply beautiful) rocks to paint later this week. Day 2= another success!

More photos later this week.

Been busy

Yes, I have been busy. And I've had a few difficult couple of weeks before finally starting summer vacation last Wednesday. Work wasn't always easy but I won't dwell on that. I've been especially busy getting ready to host my very first Art Camp in my tiny apartment. And today was the first day for my week-long camp. Let me tell you that 3 girls + 1 adult + 1 shy cat in a 3-1/2 apt is not always easy or comfortable but we all made it out alive and with smiles on our faces. Well, maybe Diesel isn't smiling (she's still hiding) but all 3 girls and myself definitely were.



So for this 1st day, the girls had to personalize their journal by collaging + painting + stamping their covers, front and back. Then they decorated an envelop for the inner back cover and used stamps and/or journaling notes to write their name on the inner front cover. The photos show you 2 journals, outer covers only. I didn't think to photograph the 3rd girl's journal as she left earlier. Tomorrow though.

After working on the covers and watching me bind their journals with my trusty Bind-it-all, the girls were shown how to make their own stamps with self-adhesive craft foam and foam board. They, of course, had to test their new creations in their journal. With that page done, I'm sure it will be less intimidating to continue working in their journal.

The day actually went by faster than I thought. And it went really well. Day 1= success!
I'll be back tomorrow to recap on day 2.

New Do

I went to the hairdresser yesterday. Got my colour done because seriously, there was way too much white for my age. And I got a haircut. A cute haircut. Shorter in the back than in the front. And because I'm letting my bangs grow, we just tried a new way for me to wear them. I like it. Getting my hair cut + coloured is pretty much the only luxury I give myself.

Last night, my parents, my brother and I all went to see the new Cirque du Soleil show, Ovo. I loved it! I've always wanted to see one of their shows and we decided, as a family, that now was as good a time as ever. If you like that type of entertainment, you should definitely see the Cirque at least once in your life. Definitely worth it!

I haven't done much art this past week. A couple of cards with more leftover papers. I'll try to post them soon. I'm still thinking about a giveaway. If there's something you'd like to see for a giveaway by me, let me know either in comments or by email. (Inspiration has been low for quite some time...)

Some leftovers

A good way to lower your stash of bits and leftovers is to make mini cards after your main project.

For the last 2 cards I showed you, I had quite a bit of paper left. The bigger pieces were put away since they can contribute to other regular-sized cards or to scrapbooking. But the smaller pieces, the leftovers, were used to make some small "thank you" cards. They are approximately 2,5" x 3,5". They are very simple and took between 5 and 10 minutes to complete (including choice of stamps.) So far I only made those 2 but plan on making more this week in a similar way.









I've been doing a lot of cleaning and decluttering lately. Getting ready for a fun summer. My father and brother came over today to take my sofa-bed out of here and to bring in a new-to-me La-Z-Boy. I have a lot more room in my living room now and will be much more comfortable. I've also been hanging paintings and other decorative items on my walls. I'm far from being done with decoration. Lots of stuff to get framed and to hang on my walls. I haven't even tackled the kitchen's walls yet! (Well, there's only the 1 wall I can decorate in there but it's still bare...)

I have plans to keep decluttering this week and probably do some paintings too. And I will have a giveaway sometime soon because I reached 10,000 visitors this weekend. That's cause for celebration don't you think? Now, I'll just go relax with a cup of tea and a good book... I'm completely obsessed with the Black Dagger Brotherhood. *sigh*