365 Days With Kiddos - #29 - Decorate for Valentine's Day - More Free Vintage Downloads

We are decorating for Valentine's Day today. Quin and I need to make her Valentines and I need to work on the heart book mark project I am teaching at the After School Club tomorrow so we are in full swing with preparations for the Day of Love. While we are at it, I thought we should print out a couple of my vintage valentines, on card stock in a larger size, for wall and door decorations. We may be a little behind, since tomorrow is the big day, but on card stock these should hold up for years to come. Why not start adding to your decoration collection? Just right click on the images, add them to your computer, print them out, cut them out, and hang them up. You can also use them for card exchange Valentines, by reducing the size and laying them out on one sheet, then printing and cutting out.

If you would like to look for your own free downloads on the web, you can thank my friend, Maureen, who posted a ton of links on my Facebook Page. To find them you can go to the post on the wall that has a link to my vintage Valentine blog post.

A Week of Birthday Posts - #4 - Birthday Party Food and Little Touches

This is post number four in the series on my daughters' birthdays. This one has some cheery photos of handmade details from my four year old's tea party.


As an artist, I pay attention to visual details. I love color and so do kids. My daughter Quin's birthday had a tea party theme, which she chose. In the past couple of years we have attended a princess and pirate party, an art making party, a dancing party, and recently we sadly could not attend a fun crazy hair/make your own pizza party.


Of course, not all parties have a theme but I am always game to work within a theme, so a tea party it was. Each child's place was set with a real tea cup from my collection. They drank fresh squeezed lemonade from them.


I don't go crazy with party decor. I do wish I had had the time to make a cheery banner but we focused on the table. Quin LOVES balloons so we made sure there were a few on her chair. I love the orange polka dot one :)


Colorful tissue paper flowers make me swoon. I stayed up until 2 AM making one for each guest to wear on their wrist as a corsage. And I don't say that like it was work, I love making them so it was fun. I will write a post someday on how to make them, but you can always google it. There are many good tutorials out there. The kids were tickled with their flowers. I showed them to Quin when she came down for breakfast and they made her day! The ones that were not taken home are still on our dining room table and I gaze at them throughout the day and remember the party fun. We made play dough for favors but these made great additional favors for the kids who remembered to take them home.


Tissue paper flowers in a vase...


...became corsages on the day of the party.


One important element, along to napkins, plates, and balloons that I purchased were the party hats, or tiaras. I am going to make each of my kids a birthday crown, something the like the one my friend, Serena, made for her little guy, but it was not to be this year.


We couldn't have a birthday party without a craft...


The kids made bejeweled butterfly place mats. I folded construction paper in half and drew a template on one side of the paper, then had them cut out the butterfly along the drawn lines.


Voila, a blank canvas butterfly, that they covered in jewels.



Only one more birthday party post, stay tuned! Number five will include recipes...

Recycled Art for Kids: Painted Rocks Project #2 - Rock Houses For the Garden

My sweet little houses...

Rain, rain... not that the grass and I are complaining, but it can be hard on the kiddos. Here is another painted rock project that came from the recycled art class I taught this month. These are great for kids of all ages to work on. They look awesome in a garden. And the possibilities are endless. Your child can make a whole neighborhood.

Painted Rock Houses
by Tiffany Teske



What You Will Need
~ Rocks
~ Acrylic craft paint
~ Paint brushes; one for covering the rocks with solid all-over color, and smaller ones for detail work
~ Clear glossy spray lacquer



Directions
1. Select your rocks. Wash and let them dry.
2. Paint your rocks a solid color (as in the photo above). You will need to paint them all on one side, let them dry, then flip them over to paint the other side. Acrylic paint dries quickly.
3. Repeat step number two, 2-3 times, depending on the color of paint and how well it covers. Dark colors cover better, faster, than light colors.
4. Paint your house on the rock, filling it in with color. Using a small detail brush, paint dots, strips, flowers, and any other kind of design on your rocks. I like to outline my details with black paint once all the colored paint has dried.
5. Let everything dry well. Overnight is good.
6. Spray with sealer according to manufacturer instructions. This it to make the rocks more durable so they can be out in the elements of the garden.
7. Place your rocks outdoors, preferably somewhere you can see them from inside.


One of my student's houses, I believe she is 9. Isn't it adorable?

Decoupage Your Child's Art Table With Vintage Book Images

I have been wanting to get to this project for, oh, a couple of years now. My eldest daughter turned four this week. She has had this table and chairs since she was old enough to sit on a chair by herself. It is a simple wooden table and chairs, unfinished, with a particle board top. I got the set at Ikea but you could easily adapt this project for use with any wooden table and chair set you own. My daughter just turned 4 and was able to help me with parts of this project.

How to Decoupage Your Child's Art Table With Vintage Book Images
By Tiffany Teske


You Will Need:
- a set of wooden chairs and a table
- mat finish acrylic gel medium (although you could probably use thinned PVA glue)
- brayer (rubber roller) or credit card (to get rid of bubbles)
- a vintage children's book that is worse for the wear
- scissors or utility knife
- Satin finish Varathane (water based, low odor, cleans up with water)
- sponge brush


I had a book in mind well before starting this project. Our local library always has a bookshelf of books for sale near the entrance. Sometimes, the kid books that used to be circulating in the library's collection, are pretty beat up. In good shape or bad they are a steal at $1, which the library uses to buy more books. The day I saw a 1981 copy of Brian Wildsmith's Bear's Adventure, and I snapped it up. Even though it had pages that were almost completely ripped, it didn't matter to me, because I LOVE this man's books and his art, and I knew right away what I would do with this wonderful story. Cut it up and paste it onto something... By the way, Bear's Adventure will soon be re-issued by Star Bright Books, which publishes many wonderful children's books.


Step One
Select the images from your book that you would like to use. Your child can help you with this. I like to use parts of images, overlapping them, not just laying them out next to each other. You can decide what you like best.


I like to lay everything out, with my daughter, so we can decide what we like best. We do this BEFORE even thinking of gluing the items down. I am pretty fast at making compositional decisions but some people like to look at things for a day or even a week before committing. Select the images for both your table and chairs.


Step Two
Once you have cleaned your table and chairs you can start gluing your images onto them. You can use whatever decoupage technique you might know. I like to use mat finish acrylic gel medium straight from the jar. There are pros and cons to this. I need to get the paper down pretty much perfect the first time, but I find it is nice and thick so nothing curls up on me. I prefer a mat finish because I think it is much more forgiving than glossy, since you see every bump and bubble with a gloss finish.


Here is the gluing process, step by step.
1) Brush your glue onto your table top or chair top. If you prefer, you can put the glue on the back of your image instead but it will curl and you will need to handle it with care. Remember to glue the images that will have parts that are underneath other images down FIRST.


2. Lay down your image how you want it. Using the brayer or your credit card, smooth out the image, pushing any bubbles to the edges. Continue to glue the elements of your composition onto the table.


3. Once everything is glued down you can brush glue over the entire table and chair tops. Don't worry too much about bubblse, they should break on their own. Put everything somewhere that is not dusty while it dries.


A finished chair that needs to dry.

4. Once your table and chairs have dried, repeat step 3. at least twice more, letting the glue dry for several hours between each application. These layers of glue seal the paper on the table so that they will not get soaked during the Varathane process.


Step Three
It is now time to apply Varathane to your table and chairs. I used satin finish. DO NOT SHAKE the Varathane can. This will create bubbles. Open the can and using a paint stir stick, stir the Varathane for a couple of minutes. It should appear milky, like in the image below. IT WILL DRY CLEAR. Apply the Varathane with a sponge brush, from side to side, making sure to cover the whole surface. You can gently break any bubbles you see. Let the Varathane dry for 4 hours, then apply at least two more layers. I did four layers. You want your table and chairs to be durable.


Let your table and chairs cure for one week before using. When ours was ready we took it outside for a little tea party. You can wipe your table and chairs with a damp cloth when necessary, otherwise just dust with a dry cloth.



Voila!! We love our new cheery. colorful table and chairs! We like the wood unfinished, but for even more color and fun you could paint the wood. I would suggest doing this BEFORE decoupaging, to save yourself some headache of protecting the images. As always, I would love to hear if we have inspired you to try this. If you have any questions for me please leave a comment. Have fun!

Raising Money for the Banff Community Greenhouse

On Wednesday we held a fundraiser for the Banff Community Greenhouse. I am on the committee and this fundraiser was the culmination of many meetings and lots of effort. And it was flawless! It was held at the Banff Legion. The weather was AMAZING and all the hot mamas in town showed up in their little sundresses. There was Crazy Larry, our local balloon animal guy and kid favorite. There was tons of food from tons of local restaurants, for $5 a plate, along with organic beef burgers on the patio for $2 each. There were many generous silent auction donations from 12 cupcakes from Cozy Cave Bakehouse to a gorgeous mosaic entitled "I Chose to Grow" by my amazing friend, Cindy Gibson, to a four person VIP ski day at Mount Norquay to a 3 day $5,000 heliskiing package from CMH (if I had a list of everything I would mention it all). There was a drawing for one of the greenhouse spaces. And a worm composting demonstration for adults, along with one for kids that involved gummy worms, oreo cookie dirt, and chopsticks. There was a garden talk by a local arborist. There were tunes spun by a local DJ. And there was me, at the craft table, over seeing tons of kiddos designing, cutting, gluing, and coloring everything from terracotta pots to collages to garden themed coloring sheets. And did I mention, there were balloons! And that at last count we had made more than $8,000!! For more on the greenhouse, I will include all the details after our next meeting...

Easter Egg Craft With My Senior Friends

I enjoy the time I spend with my elders at the local senior's residence, Mount Edith House. I visit them from time to time to teach crafts with the Banff Senior Support Coordinator, Sue Smythe. Easter is always a fun time for crafts and this week, Sue and I stopped over with two dozen blown and dyed eggs each (it is a wonder I have any brains left after all that blowing...). We then proceeded to make the cutest little group of chicken, bunny, and chicken-in-bunny-disguises I have ever seen. Give it a whirl this weekend. All you need are dyed eggs, felt, and some imagination. Fun will be had by all!


How to boil eggs: Place the eggs in a large saucepan. Add enough cold water to
completely cover the eggs. Place on medium-high heat and bring water to a gentle boil. Reduce heat and simmer eggs for 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and fill with cold water. The eggs must be completely cool and dry to decorate successfully.


A note on dying eggs: You can use food coloring and water to dye your eggs. Red food coloring turns your eggs pink and red and blue make purple. Both of these colors will produce good results with just the food coloring. For the best yellow, green, and blue you should add vinegar... Combine 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon of food coloring with 2 tsp. vinegar in a cup that is deep enough for the eggs. Add water to about the half way point. Gently place the eggs into the cups. The longer they are left in the dye, the darker the color.


How to blow eggs: You can see my post on onion skin dyed eggs from last year. These eggs will float in the dye water so you need to such fresh water in through the hole until it is quite full to weight the eggs down in the dye water.