DIY Artwork

If it isn't obvious, I am passionate about education, Colorado, art and craft.  There are probably a whole host of other topics I am passionate about - like Montessori schools - but I will keep it short today.  It is Friday after all, correct?

(Students Rock)

And speaking of which, you have until midnight today, March 4, 2011 to enter the first Upcycled Education giveaway.  Trust me, you want to win this prize.  Click here for the 4-1-1.

In efforts to help you create an inspiring classroom, you and your students need something fun to look at on the walls.  Voila, this customizable artwork (see above) you can create for any content area or any grade level.  I should also add I made these as holiday gifts for some lucky friends and family this year.  Funky and fresh, no?  To make your own artwork, I will link to the online tutorial from the My 3 Monsters blog here.  Amy, the mom to the monsters, used a free program called Gimp to manipulate and resize her images.  I used Microsoft Publisher to do the same and found it quite easy to do.  Here are my value-added tips:

• Follow Amy's tutorial
• Use Microsoft Publisher - if you know how
• Choose a blank 8.5 x 11 document to create; Choose either portrait or landscape orientation
• Visit Leo Reynold's Flickr stream and choose your letters, numbers or symbols; Download those
• Insert the downloaded photos into Publisher; Resize as necessary to fit onto your 8.5 x 11 paper
• Save your document in two ways - as a Publisher file and as a Jpeg file
• If you save as a Jpeg file, you can go to Costco (great photo prices) or any photo place (even Fedex Kinkos) and have the document enlarged or reduced
• The artwork looks great in enlarged sizes (11 x 14, for example) and also looks swell framed (look for online for coupons to Michaels or Joanns; I also like IKEA's frames; great prices)

Can you tell I am thinking of Colorado and three sports I like to do there?

Here I am showing off my Spanish....Enjoy life. 

Oh, go have fun...it's Friday....Final hours until the giveaway ends and the winner is announced Saturday, March 5th!  Click on the image below for details.

Yippee,
Jen

PS - If you missed this post, find more cool (and free) artwork here.

Graphics Fairy

My husband and I have a 5.5 year old little girl.  On the blog, I refer to her as little O.  Little O sometimes refers to her age as 5.5.  How 21st century of her, no?  30% of little O's time is spent dreaming of fairies (and mermaids).  Yesterday when the HVAC repair guy came to our house, I even referred to him as a "serious tinker fairy."  That made little O smile.  And the repair guy.

Since my life is steeped in fairy- and mermaid-hood, it makes sense I visit the Graphics Fairy often and like to download her finds - graphics.  The Graphics Fairy, aka:  Karen, posts daily and highlights interesting graphics dated pre-1923.  She cleverly does so to avoid copyright laws as the images from that time period (and before) fall under "public domain."  Of course, in education, teachers have that fair-use-I-am-educator-using-this-one-per-student leeway, but sometimes I use my stuff over-and-over again, thousands of students later - using public domain materials is safer and....prudent.

Check out the Graphics Fairy and see what you think.  I mix in vintage graphics in my handouts, documents and presentations just to keep my students guessing and engaged.  Variety is the spice of life.  Do you agree?  Special tip:  Within the Graphic Fairy's web page, you can search for graphics or look at specific categories of graphics; look for the search window and categories on the right side of the web page.

If you are looking for backgrounds, Karen does offer the Background Fairy site, too. In fact, the blog header above is mostly artwork I downloaded  from Karen's site.  Thanks, Graphics Fairy.

Guess what?  The Graphics Fairy herself visited Upcycled Education and left a comment below! 

Friday love and pixie dust,
Jen

Paint swatch activities

I don't know about you, but I am haunted by things that are free. Two of my biggest haunts - FedEx envelopes and paint swatches.  Paint swatches, in particularly, are like sirens calling my name at Home Depot and Lowe's.  I can barely walk by the paint section without caressing a colored swatch and dreaming how (or why?) I need a swatch collection.  Must be genetic, little O loves them, too.

Thankfully, teaching gives me an excuse.  Free swatches + gorgeously inspiring colors + students = An activity.  Here's what I've come up with so far....

Pick a color.....

Convenient way to group students (Thank you, Linda, Nathan and Jordyn)....

Choose a swatch.....

Colorful way to debrief a lesson with exit tickets.....

Pick up some of the multi-color paint swatches.....handy for mini-KWLs.....

And mini-KWLS....

Mickey friends, I bet you have a way to put these to teaching and learning use.....

Fabulous blog reader (or follower), what clever ideas do you have for paint swatches?  Are there free items that haunt you?  As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Please use the comments section below (no password required, so comment away - Yippee!).

UPDATE:  Here's another idea how to use paint swatches.

Best,

Jen

Free art for your classroom

Who doesn't love free?  Who doesn't like an aesthetically pleasing classroom? 

Simple: Go to Feed Your Soul.  Browse the free art work, print, and post in your classroom.  I wanted crisp copies of the artwork, so I saved the PDF files onto a flash drive and had FedEx Kinko's - with their ultra-clear printers - print them out for 69 cents a page.  A bargain if you and your students like them.

If you are looking for an inexpensive gift for a friend or colleague, these are super framed, too.  IKEA and craft stores like Joann and Michaels have great frames and low price-points.  Of course, don't buy anything at Joann or Michael without a 40% off coupon.  That would be so pedestrian if you did.  Need a Joann coupon, click here.  You're welcome ;)

Enjoy the weekend!  See you on Tech Tuesday next week.

Jen