Although cold and rain threatened, we were warm and toasty with the wonderful smell of fresh cookies in the air. Using pre-packaged pre-cut cookies from the HEB and Pillsbury we made cookies to paint with gels and colored frostings. Although fun this was really overshadowed by the stained glass process. We used a varitey of mini-cookie cutters that I borrowed to cut out a hole in the center of the cookie. The kids then used a hammer to smash the lifesavers inside an envelope. They filled the hole with the smashed candy, frequently adding bits to other places on the cookie to decorate it more. Resting on their individual pieces of foil each cookie baked and created a "stained glass" area. Everyone was amazed at how they turned out. The pillsbury sugar cookie dough was a bit too soft and did not hold up as well as homemade but no one complained. I used the directions from this website to help out: http://elise.com/recipes/archives/006213stained_glass_cookies.php
We had 3 wonderful special volunteers to help out and make this last crafts session of the year a bit more fun.
This blog features art classes in the Wells Branch community taught by Dianne Koehler, artist. The programs lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Of snowmen, snowglobes and other holiday figures at WBCL

The snowglobes are a 9 oz clear beverage glass mounted on an old CD/DVD. We added "snow" before gluing the project together. A few decided that gluing the scene to the inside of the glass worked better and did that.
This group meets every Wednesday at the Wells Branch Community Library creating arts & crafts projects from a wide variety of items on hand. Next week we'll paint cookies and learn to make stained glass cookies.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Gingerbread people & hearts @ WBCL

*recipe for cinnamon clay dough
4 c flour 1 c salt
1 c water 1/2 c cinnamon
2T nutmeg 2 T ground gloves
Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl with a spoon. Add water then mix and kneed until clay-like consistancey is reached. Add more flour if too wet. Roll out between parchment paper or wax paper to about 1/4"-3/8"
thickness and cut using cookie cutters. Bake at 300 degrees for 30-45 minutes. You can bake them at a lower temp for a lot longer if your oven will do this--mine will not. I used my dehydrator at 145 degrees overnight to finish drying them.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Family Ornament making @ WBCL

Our shell angel table, candy train, birdhouses, and cork reindeer were popular as was the hot glue and glitter station to finish off many of the creations. Thanks to the many volunteers (12+) that helped the session went pretty smoothly.
Kids of all ages strung popcorn for hanging in the tree or on themselves. A few people turned floral picks into trees and decorated them too.
Suddenly it was after 4 and time to turn off the music and put the little bit of remainder into boxes for later. This 5th annual event at the Wells Branch Community Library may be a keeper.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Making and decorating photo cubes at WBCL

We used another great donation--scrapbook papers--to cut and paste all over the boxes. Everyone was able to find the right colors and patterns to make their box just perfect. We were able to use the paper cutters we got for the scrapbook supplies and glue sticks to make the project neat. I did have to get out the hot glue for adding buttons as the weight is just too much for the other glues on verticle surfaces. As you can see, several people demonstrated putting their face in the picture spot.
This family class lets us put lots of donations and left over materials to great use at the Wells Branch Community Library on Wednesday nights.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Fall Banner Making at WBCL

This group regularly has parents and kids working together on projects--leaving the mess to us and taking home something to show off. Thanks to the Wells Branch Community Library for offering the class.
Next week no class --we'll return in December for a full slate of early winter and pre-Christmas projects.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Reverse collage dishes for cookies and more at Wells Branch

Understanding how to assembel the project in reverse was a bit hard for some and projects had to be checked regularly and reassembled a couple of time to get them perfect but everyone was able to complete this one. It can be done on glass or plastic but we chose plastic due to the age of our participants. The final layer can be done with fabric but we use tissue for its lightness and color. This can be done with any table confetti so is perfect for other holidays or birthdays or special days.
If the humidity stays down for a couple of days these will be ready to use by the weekend.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Clay totems @ WBCL arts & crafts

We started out with a slide presentation on real totems and what the various animals on them mean. We handed out the homemade clay in 6 colors, TP tubes, and set the group loose to make their totems. We had all kinds of animals with beaks, animals with hair, a couple of horses (zebra she said on one) a penguin and a turtle. Thanks to the person who brought the clear blueberry containers as the totems will make it home safely. Part of the Green focus at the Wells Branch Library is to integrate recyclables into our crafts projects--I think we did well this time.
If you missed the recipe for the clay, I'll share it again so that anyone who wants to make some can do that. I found it on the internet and am in love with it as you can make volumes of great colored clay for pennies!
Thanks to Susan Caplan at Suite101 for this great air dry clay. http://kidscrafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/salt_and_flour_craft_dough_recipes
Cooked Flour Dough
This is another play clay, although this one needs to be cooked.
· 1 cup flour
· 1 tablespoon salad oil
· 1 cup water
· ½ cup salt
· 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
· A few drops of food coloring or tempera paint until deep enough color is achieved
Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and use a wooden spoon to stir over medium heat. Stir constantly. The mixture will be soupy for several minutes and then will suddenly stick together and can be stirred into a ball. When the dough thickens, remove the pan from the heat and continue stirring. Turn the hot ball of dough onto a floured surface and knead as it cools.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Pumpkin Painting @WBCL

We used a variety of magazines from the last few years--Family Circle, Woman's Day, Country Living, All you--and 3 books I have in my stash--Pumpkin Painting by Dan McKinney, Pumpkin Decorating by Vicki Rhodes, and Haunt your house for Halloween by Cindi Fuller. I picked them up at Michaels a few years back. I think newer ones are available. The library has quite a few fall craft books and stories but most are check out. I'll have some of them out on Wednesday night.
This is the 5th year the Wells Branch Community Library has sponsored this event. In previous years the pumpkins have been sponsored by local realtors--this year we were lucky to get pumpkins reasonably at the HEB with paints donated by the Heart of Texas Tolers and Wendy Watson.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Fall art projects at the school
Fall brings to mind the stories of the settlement of the United States and the relationship of the settlers to the tribes of "americans" in place. Explaining the difference between the expected "indians" and the ones the settlers found did the trick. Explaining the bonnets the women wore was much harder.
I think they really just wanted to create the people. The paper tube project is a bit of a stretch for the 1st graders but they managed nicely, painting the faces then dressing the rolls and applying yarn hair. The tops of the hats didn't happen but faces were produced and for a 1 hour project that they did with little help--great job.
The second grade has a new task--learning to put things into size perspective as they draw. We talked about how ugly the design would be before we were done which helped a lot! Drawing with light lines will be a challenge but they are doing it--petals were a good match for the centers and a few had time to add color. We had a little time to talk about Vincent VanGogh and his sunflowers. They want to do some of Leonardo Da Vinci's work and a bit of art history about him so we will see how the drawing goes. They did a fine job on this one.
I think they really just wanted to create the people. The paper tube project is a bit of a stretch for the 1st graders but they managed nicely, painting the faces then dressing the rolls and applying yarn hair. The tops of the hats didn't happen but faces were produced and for a 1 hour project that they did with little help--great job.
The second grade has a new task--learning to put things into size perspective as they draw. We talked about how ugly the design would be before we were done which helped a lot! Drawing with light lines will be a challenge but they are doing it--petals were a good match for the centers and a few had time to add color. We had a little time to talk about Vincent VanGogh and his sunflowers. They want to do some of Leonardo Da Vinci's work and a bit of art history about him so we will see how the drawing goes. They did a fine job on this one.
Painting Animals on Rocks @ the Wells Branch Library

The group meets every Wednesday night at 6pm at the Wells Branch Community Library using the "storytime" room.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Foil fish in a stream at the Wells Branch Library

Lastly the foil fish--true to recycling we used previously used foil and cut it into fish shapes, folding over the edges and pinching in the area above the tail to make it fish-like. we were supposed to press them onto netting to get dimension but we had plenty already. We colored the foil with markers to give them a bit more realistic look and glued them onto the stream.
This worked well for all the kids from 3yrs to pre-teen. Clean up was a breeze too. This is a great program that the Wells Branch Community Library sponsors each week.
3rd Grade paints from Picturing America

The print can be viewed on the Picturing America site--#6b.http://picturingamerica.neh.gov/
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Life cylces in Multi-media with 4th grade

Monday, October 12, 2009
HOTT Tole Month display at Wells Branch Library

Thanks to Wendy Watson, Marie Welsch, Peggy Ashmore and Dianne Koehler for items in this year's display. When I was putting the display together on Saturday several people stopped to look and ask questions. What a great way to share our passion!The display will be in the cases for a few weeks--mid October through early November at the Wells Branch Community Library. A selection of books on painting that can be checked out is also part of the display.
The panda box on the bottom shelf is one of our Memory boxes for the North Austin hospital's berevement program. HOTT members paint and donate more than 40 boxes per year for use in the program that supplies parents who loose a newborn with a box for their memories to help with the grief.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Catching up on art in Wells Branch
It has really been a busy and productive couple of weeks for the artistic at the Wells Branch Community Library and the classes I teach at the Renaissance Academy. We have been drawing up a storm everywhere and with all ages. I learned to make an awesome claydough in colors for the school that let us make massive totems with the 3rd grade class. This followed last week when they painted and beaded native american medallions. Adults and teens drew and painted the best realistic sunflower (me too although mine is not complete) as a part of the Picturing America activities.
Kids at the library and at the school painted and embellished an apple tree scene for Johnnie Appleseed's birthday--including the sleeping in the tree--they all had stories about what was going on in their painting.
Next week foil fish==sounds like fun!
Friday, September 18, 2009
WBCL arts & crafts frames for Diez y seis de Septiembre

Everyone was able to make the twisted flowers from tissue paper and a bead. But putting out tissue and beads launched them on other design elements that I hadn't planned. One of the moms used the tissue, confetti and glue to create her own design paper then cut it into shapes to put onto the frame. Several of the group thought that lots more beads would make the project into just what they envisioned. It continues to amaze me that so many different projects can come out of the same supplies. Aren't imagination and creativity wonderful!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Making glass bugs is harder than it looks @WBCL

Sunday, September 6, 2009
Making hidden secret compartments from old books at WBCL

Friday, August 28, 2009
Woodsies bring out creativity at WBCL arts & crafts

Maybe we were a little more relaxed this week. Summer is winding down and some of the kids are now back in school so a much smaller group attended. Two of the group came wearing their custom made "art aprons." Finally no tickets were needed to get into the room.
Thanks to the Wells Branch Community Library and our wonderful donors for making this program possible for the community.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Families decorate minibags with jewels at Wells Branch Library

Friday, August 14, 2009
Futuristic art & mosaics at art camp

The futuristic 3D pictures got off to a slow start with each camper imagining themselves 200 years into the future, but once they got started the pictures really built up. The most elaborate included a playground complete with futuristic creatures to play on it and a home entertainment area with a swing under a foiled umbrella and a TV viewing platform with a floating chair. Another imaginative camper had a variety of wild colored futuristic caterpillers with fuzzy feelers. There was even a car with golden coils of exhaust flames curling behind it. What a great way to end the summer! Great activities for the room at the Wells Branch Library.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Painting tiles @ Wells Branch Library

What do you get when the fridge magnet is the art? We set out to make great magnets to hold the other art and notes that go onto the fridge. We used a set of 2" tiles and glass paint to create a variety of great magnets. Great thing is the paint sets totally in about a week so no baking is needed. Some of the artists did a design that spread over all 4 tiles, others did individual tiles. One was going to become a going away gift for a friend to remember her with. Our egg cartons are doing great as disposable pallettes. Now if they can only create enough stuff to hang under the magnet.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Art camp day 2 tackles recyclables WOW!


Art Campers draw their Picasso face

dilemma was how to draw a nose or ears--how to make the hair look right--the older they were, the more cautious they got. Last we got out the colored pencils and finished the portraits in "our" colors much like ones from Andy Warhol that we looked at in our art survey at the beginning of class. Lots of the drawings really looked a bit like the students. They did a good job.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Art camp day 3 Basket weaving & fabric art

Our last project proved difficult for some in the beginning but soon we had 16 woven baskets using plastic containers as a frame. I kept hearing "over and under" chanted by the kids as they mastered the technique. We found that the fluffy yarns we most wanted to use hung on everything and were the most difficult to use. The boys didn't want pink yarn on their baskets and opted for another shade of blue. At the end some of the kids embellished their baskets with a few feathers like one of the baskets we studied earlier.
I even got a group shot of some of the T-shirts we painted yesterday. The 1/2 day art camps are at the Wells Branch Community Library.
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