Painting cookie ornaments

With a selection of lots of little cookie shapes the group painted their hearts out making an array of cookie ornaments to take home and use. Sugar cookies are an easy pallette for the artist armed with gels and stiff brushes. We put stripes on candy canes, decorated little trees and just let our imaginations run wild. This is such a fun way for the family to do something together.


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.
You may also want to take a look at the new Art &crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. Check the library website for details.

Making jewelry & gift boxes @WBCL

Just in time for some kind of a holiday we got out all the gift boxes we had and many trays of beads and wood shapes to create jewelry for the participants or friends and family. Members of the HOTT painting group and community members have given me so many beads and wood shapes that this class was just waiting to happen!


The boxes were also donated, just needing the right decoration and a bow or ribbon to give them out. We decided that painting the wood with markers and then using it would best. One of the boys learned to thread beads on elastic to make a bracelet for his little sister. Older kids made gifts for school friends.
There were bracelets, necklaces and clips created. No one went home with less than 2 gifts--some were able to create a few more. The tree boxes and bows were a big hit as you can see.
Last class of 2010 will be painted cookie ornaments/decorations complete with ribbons on December 22nd.

The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. Check  the library website for details.

Snowglobe sceenes @WBCL

This was a great recycling project with shiney CDs and old plastic snow! started with 1/4 sheets of white cardstock and folded it in 4 sections and folded the bottom up about 1/3" to give a base. Everyone then drew and colored scenes on all of the sections and cut around the tops of each scene. There were snowmen and buildings and people and trees. Lots of great drawings. We then glued the paper together and onto the CD with tacky glue. Lastly we added a 9 oz cup over the whole thing to act as our globe.


My idea was to limit the mess and put the snow through a paper cone into the hole in the CD. Most of the class decided it was easier to put the snow into the cup and put it back onto the CD.
It was fun and did not break like the baby food jar ones. Definately had more creativity with the drawings.
The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. Check  the library website for details. 

Thanksgiving figures @ WBCL

Thanks to my painting friends at HOTT  for the wooden cut-outs this week. We were given a box of wood cut-outs of pilgrims, turkeys, and "indians" all ready for painting and using to decorate at Thanksgiving. Lots of the adults got into the act this week with nearly as many grown-ups painting as kids. Some decided the lines were not for them and did their own thing. Others added details until they were well pleased with the figure. My favorite was the pilgrim girl with Happy Thanksgiving written on her apron.
We will be doing quite a bit of holiday oriented painting and crafting in the next few weeks and will apparently have a full house every week. This class is for families to do these projects together--keeping the mess at the library and letting them socialize with others.
The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. Check  the library website for details. 

Pinecone turkeys roost @ WBCL

What is more fun than using clay and feathers? This group would be hard pressed to find something they like better other than painting. We used 3 colors of home-made clay for the head and added a blob of clay to the back end to mount the feathers for the tail. I had lots of left- over bright colored feathers in addition to the fall pack of brown and orange. As you can see, many turkeys got brightly colored tails. We used little plastic beads for eyes--some had extra detail around them provided by yellow or clay. Some even added feet with the yellow clay--mostly to stabilize the pine cone so it would not flip over.

The Family Arts &; Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. Check  the library website for details. 

Painted gourds @ WBCL

First question "what is a gourd?" The answer is a little pumpkin-like ball that we grow and dry to paint on. The concept that these balls had been grown and even had seed in them seemed to impress some of the students. One of the gourds cracked open and had to be patched with brown paper and glue. All in all everyone had fun painting and decorating them and showing them off. A few of the participants got the long necked gourds when the supply of round ones was depleted.

The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. Check  the library website for details. 

Spook-tacular Pumpkin painting @ WBCL

The threat of rain did not deter the crowds who came to claim their pumpkins and make one of a kind creations to set out at home. Families painted together--most got covered in paint as they turned out all kinds of pumpkins. Some were works of art, others were "scarry" or not but within an hour most had their pumpkin ready with cobweb hair, spiders and a variety of self cut shapes to make them "exactly right." We even had glow-in-the-dark paint to add for final effects.


There were acts of heroism as tickets that would not be claimed because of sick children were passed on to others who were unable to get tickets. At the end of the day a mom generously gave her pumpkin to a little girl and her dad who came late so they could do one as there were no more to be had.


This was a totally volunteer staffed event headed by Dianne Koehler who teaches the arts and crafts classes weekly at the library. Thank so much to the wonderful people who turned out to help and to HEB for a cash donation and Heart of Texas Tolers for donating paint and some other materials.

Scarecrows come to life @ WBCL

It was messy and a bit complicated but the scarecrows that resulted were a real hit! I was given a sack of raffia and a baggie of home made hats by a friend and had corn husks left over from another project to use as the inspiration for these little scarecrows. I also scavenged enough tea dyed fabric for all the faces so they look a bit more aged.

We were able to create a whole field of them to scare off any crow==we never did make the crows though. This was a step by step project and the class was definately up to doing this--even some of the younger kids cut raffia, put the faces on their scarecrow, and dressed them in ponchos or skirts.We kept to using raffia ties on the arms and legs although some resorted to twist ties to secure the ends of the arms.

I am putting the step by step instructions on my website if you didn't make the class and want to make one or more for your fall decor. http://sites.google.com/site/woodenitbewonderful


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the library website for details. 

Using one stroke techniques for the holidays

The adult/teen drawing and painting group stretched a bit this month and learned how to create some fantastic holiday decor using the One Stroke painting method. The library has 4 video DVDs demonstrating this method and I have a number of pattern books in my collection. 
We started with the cornucopia with a few simple fruit to complete it. From "oh that looks hard" to "wow, that is really simple" didn't take long. The grapes were especially popular.


We then moved on to a fluffy evergreen wreath with berries. We discussed using it for window decor or Holiday or Christmas cards. As all the wreaths were pretty big so we added a snowman in the middle complete with hat and birds.


We moved off the thick paper and created a wooden door hanger as the last project of the day. By this point the class was a bit tired and ready to go home but not before signing up for the next month's project of a watercolor poinsettia.


The drawing and painting group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library the 3rd Sunday of each month and is taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the library website for details. 

WBCL hosts Columbus ship building night

First we had a little discussion of who Columbus was and when he sailed his ships to discover America. Then the fun began. Using Styrofoam packing materials saved from various purchases shipped to the library over the last year, I cut the bases and captain's bridge at home to decrease the mess and chances of knife cuts at the class. I haven't cut myself yet but sharp blades and kids do not mix at the ages that attend these sessions. 

Everyone also received pre-printed sails to cut out and fix onto the craft stick masts. Most of the boats got a wrapping of brown paper to simulate wood. Some got cannons and other attachments including oars. The last step was to add the Spanish cross to the sails or some other detail. One of them transformed into a pirate ship at this point!

The most fun part of the whole project is that the ships will float and many may make it to the pond or the creeks for a tryout in the next week or so. Watch for them!

The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated or recyclable materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the library website for details. 

Getting ready for Pumpkin painting@wbcl

Taking a look at the Pumpkin Painting books and other websites always puts me in the mood. I found a few more pictures to love--Cheryl Horan's and ones by Rick Buziewicz and a few by Monica Konechne all on Ask.com and of course my favorite books and Better Housekeeping's website and on and on. Best of all, the DecoArt website has 40 great examples of painted pumpkins using the paint that has been donated to us. How cool is that!

I was able to find spiders, spider web, lots of great colors of paint, lots of yarns, fun foam for ears, eye patches and other add-ons and even a site for stencils although the kids have never needed them before. I am on the look-out for glow in the dark paint to finish the pumpkins with and make them even more fun. 

Of course some of them may need a hat or even a bat circling on a wire.

Only 12 more days until painting day.We'll be painting on October 23rd from 10 am until noon at the Wells Branch Community Library. This special event is partially sponsored by our local HEB and the Heart of Texas Tolers who graciously supply paint and other crafts items  for our programs.

Drawing Animals brings out the artists @WBCL

All it took was a sheet of white paper, a pencil and a budding artist to create great drawing of a number of great animal drawings.We used a number of books right off the shelves to direct us and the concept of circles, eggs and triangles being at the heart of drawing. We started with the mouse in Scott Sutton's book  The group then moved on drawing dinosaurs and fish. 


The group did a great elephant and a cat with a long tail. We finished the night with a shark and a sea monster with scales. Most of the books I used check out to the participants to do extra drawing at home. This is a real bonus to using the books off the shelf to teach the class. k


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the library website for details. 

Pebble Mosaics @ WBCL

Pebble mosaics or pebble art has been a hit everytime we have tried it. I have been looking for a new glue to hold it all together and think I found one. It was so simple and produced an old-fashioned paste kind of like I used as a kid. I love these cook-it-up-in-the-kitchen items.


We used thick cardboard as our base and drew our designs. Any design was fine as long as the 4 colors of stone I brought would work in their project. We had green, blue, lavender, and red stones to use. The nicest part about using paste is that you can see the lines you have drawn so the design is much easier to complete. 
The kids, all the ages of them from parents down to about age 3, slathered on the glue and created dogs, flowers, t T-rex, fish, and even the Titanic.
I found the recipe for the Paper Paste on the web and made it up in about 10 minutes. 


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the library website for details.

Watercolor Fall Leaves @WBCL

This was definately a project that got wows and oohs and aahs! We started with large sheets of heavy watercolor paper (120 lbs) and student tube pigments. Everyone traced around wooden leaves with the direction to have the overlap. Then the fun began.


We used foam brushes to wet the paper which was actually hard for some of the group. They kept wanting to take a paper towel and blot the water back off the page. Once they started adding a bit of color though, everything changed. Showing them how to make the color run by moving the paper and push it around with a brush turned them into Jack Frosts. Finally we used pallete knives to scratch in veins which got more oohs and aahs.


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the library website for details.

Drawing and Painting Pumpkins @ WBCL

What a fun project and everyone was able to draw a grouping of pumpkins and gourds then paint them and take home a finished project. We used cardboard from shipping boxes as our surface and drew with chalk until we had the composition how we wanted it. Amazing that they we quick and great shapes.


Everyone used acrylic paints and a variety of techniques to complete the paintings. It did take a bit longer to complete but was well worth the effort.

The Drawing and Painting group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every month on the 3rd Sunday and is taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets teens and adults try out their artistic abilities.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the library website for details.

Picture collages @ WBCL

This really turned out to be fun and more creative than ever before. 3rd time charm, I guess. I precut pictures from travel magazines and cut foam core into 6x7" squares then put out construction and scrapbook paper and some confetti, silk flowers, and fuzzy yarns.


This was a full room crowd again so I think we'll be back to tickets. The creations were great and the number of parents doing a "me too" project was about 100%. It is great to be able to craft and create with the kids and "leave the mess behind."


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donated materials and imagination into great projects.

You may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the library website for details.

Creating sculpey clay magnets @ WBCL

It is like a treasure hunt to go through the cabinets and drawers for supplies to use in this class. Almost 2 years ago we accumulated a boxful of sculpey clay for summer projects then packed away the remainder for later. Much later!


Using a cute resource book called Make your own Fridge magnets and a free guide from Michael's/Americana on SmoothFoam we again launched our imaginations. Everyone learned how to knead the clay and roll it out using a dowel as a rolling pin. 


What a great group of magnets! sure beats the boring ones on my fridge advertising last year's calendar and what day to push the trash out to the curb.


Parents and kids alike got into the act and created bugs, elephants, fish, jewelery, and more.
Using the directions on the clay, we baked them for 15 minutes @ 275 degrees then added self adhesive magnets. For more projects like this check out sculpey.


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donations, left-over supplies, and imagination into great projects.

Summer ends with back to back painting sessions @ WBCL

 We used the giant sunflowers on the wall for our guide and drew sunflowers to paint. 
We used our fists and fingers for gauging the size of the center and the petals but had to revert to the size of mom's finger for some of the smaller attendees. 
As you can see the outcomes are totally different and the others were just as varied. Hate it when the battery dies on the camera when you have fabulous examples to show off!


The next session started off with a quick slide show of the Talavera tiles and other painted and fired Mexican tiles. Each of the participants (including most of the parents) painted on glazed tiles using Liquitex Glossies paints. I offered up all the leftover tiles I had, 4", 2 1/2", sets of 4 2" tiles and let their imaginations and creativity run wild. At the end of the night I had my example and NO tiles left. 
Such a great variety of outcomes. Most chose to add magnets to the backs but several will sit on a desk or other surface. 

One of the best comments last night was from a parent who has attended with a pre-school child for a couple of years: She did this all by herself and I can really tell how well she does. Kids younger than 7 do attend regularly with parents and really grow in their art over time. 

The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donations and imagination into great projects.

you may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the website for details.

Dogs & Cats from paper bags @ WBCL

The heat of the summer and the beginning of school didn't slow this group down in their efforts to customize paper bags into a brood of cute puppies and cats. 


One of the cats has a long tail that we made stiff with a pipe cleaner. I think these were better than the ones in the book and certainly have a great deal more character.


We used the book "Look What You Can Make With Paper Bags" Judy Burke, ed. for direction. 


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donations and imagination into great projects.

you may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the website for details.

Wacky Art in Science is way too much fun

We started the week constructing volcanoes from water bottles, shredded paper, plaster and a great product I found at Michaels called Rigid Wrap. Getting the campers to understand that the paper needed to be fluffed not packed took some doing but soon everyone had their volcanoes forming well. We plastered any holes with the leftover grout from the mosaics and let all of the dry.

We finished the first day drawing the designs on our T-shirts. The imagination they showed was impressive. We used permanent sharpies for the designs which are line drawings. Later we'll flood them with rubbing alcohol to make the watercolor type shirts.

The second day we created shapes from colored pipe cleaners then put them into a borax solution to make crystals. All day long the kids went to the window sill to see if their crystals were making. Some of the kids put too much borax into the jars and caused it to precipitate instead of make crystals. The jars had to be reheated for the kids to get their crystals. What a great project this was. It only takes 5 TBS of Borax to 2 Cups of water and 24 hours. 





There was such a lot of excitement to see which volcanoes would erupt best. It takes 1/2 cup water, 1 TBS baking soda, 3 drop of dish washing soap, and a couple of drops of food color in the bottles to start the project. We measured 1/2 Cup vinegar and held a funnel over the top of the bottle and quickly poured in the vinegar. Red and yellow foam spewed out and shot up to the accompaniment of squeals and screams from all the kids. They decided that the wide mouth ones did not shoot as high as the narrow mouth ones.

We did a section on "what makes it work" taking some electronic items apart with screwdrivers and chisels the using some of the components to make robots and other creations. 


Our last project - making ice cream - was not very successful. It was already over 100 degrees when we went out to roll the cans. we were able to get the ice cream to the consistency of milk shakes but no more frozen. We drank them anyway. 


The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

Sand painting @ WBCL

It was a full house as it has been most of the summer and the creativity was flowing. Everyone got a sheet of blue paper and 6 colors of tempera paint. We added sand to the paint to thicken it and then painted with the crafts sticks using them to create the textured detail that the sand can provide. 


As you can see the variety of designs was superb and of course several of the parents were asking for paper too so they could paint along with their kids. We get a wide range of ages participating so it is sometimes tough to have projects for all ages but this on was not hard at all. 


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donations and imagination into great projects.

you may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the website for details.

More mosaics 2 at mini-art camp in Wells Branch

These are the rest of the project we did this week for the small group at my place. We had fun creating our T-shirts then creating the Talevera tiles and discussing the types of mosaics in the library books I brought.


One of the most uniques projects was our metallic eggs. We looked at the website for the American Society of Mosaic Artists and examined the egg on the site then created our own from a plastic egg and a little base. we used metallic tissue, sequins, metallic ribbon and special jewel glue to do these.


The Arts mini-camp is held in Wells Branch and taught by Dianne Koehler.

More Mosaics at art mini-camp

What a great time we had this week! We met at my place this time and successfully created more than 8 projects. The masks and banners went very smoothly with lots of new ideas for the banners including dragons and more detailed drawings than the 1st time. The kids also learned how to play "telephone" and a couple of other "quiet" games.


Our large tiles were mostly a "crazy quilt" type but we did create a dragonfly, a phoenix and butterfly too. It was fun to sort through the types of materials from broken dishes, glasses, and mirrors to colored rocks and glass beads.


The Arts mini-camp is held in Wells Branch and taught by Dianne Koehler.