Fall Banner Making at WBCL

To finish off the fall season we created banners from a variety of silk leaves, pinecones, scrapbook papers and a few other items pulled from the supplies. We pulled out our stencils and the ABC group's letters to use as templates for the lettering--a few of the kids decided that they wanted to hand letter the signs and use the papers for other design features. Some even incorportated the leaves from today's wacky science and feathers to create a rainbow or embelish the turkey she drew.
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.

Reverse collage dishes for cookies and more at Wells Branch

The room at the Wells Branch Library was packed and everyone was interested in learning what on earth we were going to do. This really simple project had parents and kids fingering glue and table confetti, sequins, silk leaves, packing foil shred and tissue paper into a great plate for cookies or other dry foods. We even used the gold permanent markers to give them a bit of an edge.
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.

Clay totems @ WBCL arts & crafts

What a great project this was! Trying to find things to do that are fun and different with many of our recyclables is sometimes challenging. The paper tubes are plentiful but sometimes need a bit of imagination to make them fun. This is a project we could do again and again with some variations of subject.

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.

Pumpkin Painting @WBCL

So the pumpkins were not huge but no one seemed to care as they carefully chose just the right pumpkin and just the right colors of paint. There was a bit of a line for some parts of this process--good things sometimes take time. Parents and kids and grandparents and kids were everywhere getting into the project. Some people relied on books for ideas for their designs, others just knew what they wanted to put on the pumpkin. Quite a few incorportated the spiders into the design. Lots used the paper shred to give them hair or a base.


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.

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.

Painting Animals on Rocks @ the Wells Branch Library

Just when you think there is not a new thing to paint on--rocks appear. Actually I have this great set of books by Lin Wellford: Painting Animals on Rocks that I bought a few years ago. It calls for rather nice sized landscape rocks--nice smooth rocks--but all I had was cluncky, chunky ones and tiny smooth ones. We looked at then and got a feel for the creature within and started drawing and painting. One of them looked like a snake's face to me--not to the artist who used it. Another seemed to be a perfect beaver--she says it is a dog. Parents really got into this with their kids and by themselves--the cat at the top was done by a mom. Very detailed snakes were coiled on tiny rocks with lots of stripes--are snakes blue?
The group meets every Wednesday night at 6pm at the Wells Branch Community Library using the "storytime" room.