How to Make Foil Frames

I've been having so much fun on vacation. It's time to get inspired for a new year! Today I went on amazon and ordered some more art teaching books. I also reserved some through the library. I have so much to learn as I pursue excellence as an art teacher. Awhile back I said I would tell you about the foil frames we used for the Mexican Christmas project. When I was a kid, we spent a lot of time in Mexico. I loved the tin Christmas ornament we bought. Search for Mexican tin art to find some beautiful examples. I ordered a roll of 38 gauge decorator foil from Dick Blick art supplies. I also ordered a bunch of special tools, but came to learn that dull drawing pencils work better! I cut the foil with the exacto knife which I carry in my purse at all times. I found that if the foil is scored, it tears pretty easily. It might be good to tape the edges so the student's can't cut themselves. I know there are a lot of choices, including heavy duty foil that you can just buy at the grocery store. I'm certainly open to suggestions. This one I had to figure out on my own. I also used this foil for a lesson on Ghiberti and the gates of Paradise. In that case the foil was the whole picture, not just the frame.

Polymer clay Fimo Snow Globes

My last Christmas workshop yesterday was perfect. Nine children came and I was very impressed by their creativity! My last task for the year was to assemble my student's snow globes. It was a lot of work. I hope my students were half as excited about them as I was. Sometimes though, I wonder what I've gotten myself into! There are lots of great lessons out there to tell you how to make snow globes with baby food jars. However, I had always wanted to find "real" snow globes. I finally found the kits at National Artcraft. They come in several different sizes, and you can even add a musical component! I didn't use the rubber seal they provide because it was simply too hard to work with. I just made a base out of fimo and glued the student's projects with silicone glue (found at hardware stores, not craft stores). Supper-fine glitter works beautifully.

Fimo Teddy Bear and Present

Last Friday I had three students come to my Christmas workshop. We had so much fun! After class I overheard one of my students saying that her teddy bear was the gift that she was most excited to give this Christmas. Can't beat that! I snapped this picture when I was leaving. What a beautiful winter evening it was! Tomorrow is my last Christmas Workshop.

Fimo Stocking Stuffers

See the free tutorial page here.

These stockings don't need to be hollow. I have the students make a hot dog and then slightly bend it into the shape of a stocking. I inserted wire into the projects before baking so that they could hang as ornaments.

How to Make Bead Ornaments

Speaking of snowflakes, look at these sparkling snowflake ornaments. I make them with my students every year. Once year, for my Christmas workshop, I read the picture book Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant. It's such a lovely story, I hope all of you look it up! After I read the story, we wrapped our ornaments in silver boxes just like in the story. That was two years ago and my students still remember. This year I made these with the preschoolers. You may have to order beads online. I find most craft stores have a very limited selection. I search Westrim crafts, tri beads, or paddlewheel beads. Sparkling chenille stems are great for beaded ornaments. For the snowflakes, I took three stems of equal length and twisted them together in the center so that there are six rays. The students can choose any bead they want as long as the put one on each of the rays. The beads have to be equally spaced from the center. I thought I made up this craft, but I found another great version of it on Kaboose crafts. This blog isn't usually about crafts, but I just love these!
I made these up when I was just a kid. I would spend hours playing around with chenille stems (then called pipe cleaners!) and beads. I love leaving it open ended and giving the students a chance to make up their own projects. Just a package of chenille stems can keep kids busy and stretch their creativity.

How to Draw Intricate Snowflakes

I made the lines as light as possible so that they wouldn't show up as much when you design your snowflake!

I love snowflake patterns! I draw them on cards, paint them on my windows, cut them out of paper, and frost them on my cookies! Do an image search for Wilson Bentley or "Snowflake Bentley" to see some absolutely stunning photographs of real snowflakes. I give each student, even preschoolers, this basic template.

I show them how to make a basic shape, one at a time, on each of the "spokes". This is a great way to talk about patterns, symmetry, and design. This is also a great way to teach a very important concept in the creative process. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you work from simple to complex. One step at a time. If you continue adding one little detail at a time, such as a line, a triangle, an x, all the way around, you eventually have a very intricate snowflake. If the students are patient and keep with it, they won't be able to believe what they can draw. This makes a great challenge. Trying to be creative from a strictly graphic design point of view.

I used this as a warm-up for one of my oil painting class. It's fun to see how the blue and white mixes together and it's a great way to practice painting technique. I also used in on a lesson in pastels. I used pastels to make my Christmas workshop poster.

Christmas in Mexico Art Project

This project has a lot of possibilities. These drawing are colored pencil. The first time I taught this, we used chalk pastel and smeared the pinata and the candy to show movement. This also could look great with acrylic paint or scraps of paper. If you use this, I'd love to see what variations you come up with. I love this book I found. It is a very authentic look at making pinatas. Of course actually making them would be the best, but the focus of the class is drawing. I will write about the foil boarders in a future post. Have fun!