Weaving

Weavings are all the rage right now.  Actually, if you grew up in the 70s, you are probably giggling. Didn't we have weavings everywhere!?  I'm giggling as they have made a huge comeback.  As they should because they are pretty fun.  And crafty.

You can check out a great Weaving 101 tutorial here or take a class here (which is no where near me). I was pretty excited this spring as some of the older children at Lil O's Montessori school learned how to use a real loom with pedals!

To celebrate the comeback of weavings, I purchased a mini-loom for Lil O.  If you know someone who would like one,  I purchased this one for around $25 - less if you live near a Joanns and have a coupon.

Time to weave!

xo,

Jen

PS - The loom link above is an affiliate link.  That means, if you click on the link and purchase anything, I earn a commission from Amazon.  Can you say "summer play money?"

PSS - The photo at the top of this post is from here.  I like the shaggy part of the weave.

PSSS - Lil O is on her second weaving using the kit above.  She digs it.

PicMonkey {for Tech Tuesday} + Free Download

Since still mourning the loss of Picnik, I have at least embraced PicMonkey.  It is almost the same as Picnik - easy to use, lots of cool fonts, neat effects and it's free.  I do miss Picnik's ability to connect directly to Facebook and Picasa photos, though.  That made photo editing sooooo easy.

With that said, PicMonkey is doing the trick lately as evidence by the faux chalkboard art I created above.  If you want to make your own faux chalkboard art, download the chalkboard backgrounds here.  Then, upload your favorite background into PicMonkey.  To make the chalkboard art, I chose fonts that looked semi-chalkboard-ish and then faded them about 25% and blended them using the "difference" option.  You can see those features in the PicMonkey screenshot below.

PicMonkey is also easy-to-use for photo-editing, in case you want to embrace it for what is was most likely intended for.  Also, if you'd like a free download of the art I created above, click here and enjoy.  I think the art would look snazzy framed or on a bulletin board in your classroom.  Plus, I love that quote by Sue Monk Kidd.  My dreams are definitely lined up in a queue.

Onward, you photo-editing-art-creating-amazing-blog-reader,

Jen

PS - Special thanks to Kellie at Nest of Posies for the post that inspired this new pastime. 

DIY Artwork

Want a customizable gift for a colleague or loved one?  Visit the tutorial on DIY Artwork here.  In our ski bungalow in Colorado, I made a completely customizable DIY piece just for there - it hangs in the lou and another mini-one embellishes our ski locker.

Too fun,

Jen

Subway Art {Free Printable}

Fun gift-giving doesn't get any easier than this!  Simply print and frame (remember to use a 40% off coupon at Michaels or Joann's to purchase your frame).  Heck, even a Dollar Store frame would do!  Go to this generous blog, Smile Like You Mean It, to download your free subway art for the Christmas Holiday.

Cheers,

Jen

{A Month Long Series}

Printable Artwork {for your classroom and home}

I don't know about you, but I appreciate easy.  Easy day.  Easy dinner.  Easy gift.  Easy artwork.

Last time I blogged about easy, printable artwork, I ended up printing off a bunch of cool artwork for myself - though I really did plan to frame some of the artwork and give 'em away as gifts.

Anywho, enough of me blabbing on a Saturday, why don't you check out Laura Winslow's Memorable Words Monday - lots of great, free printables for your classroom or home.  I mean, great printables to give away as gifts, geez.

Happy Saturday, Upcyclists,
Jen

Mod Podge for Education

A perfect world:  Combining crafts and education into one.  Craftucation, I might call that.  Me?  I craftucator.

Happiness.

To bridge my two  three loves, I combined Mod Podge, some basic craft supplies and my trusty assistant, little O.  Our task:  To make something that is crafty and educational.

Hmmm...what to create?  How about a reflective tool?

At our local craft store, Jo-Ann, we located these fabulously, inexpensive wood blanks.  Jo-Ann had so many shapes and sizes.  I think we paid $.29 for each wood blank.

Next, little O and I painted them with acrylic paints we had around the house. 

Using leftover scraps of patterned paper, little O traced each shaped and I cut out the shapes.  We broke out a must-have, craft companion...Mod Podge!  Here you can see little O gluing on the patterned paper to the painted wood blanks.  Mod Podge is a craftucator's best friend.

After letting the Mod Podge dry (about 20 minutes), this is what they looked like.  Kind of fresh & engaging, no?

To help transform these gems into a reflective tool to be used in the classroom, little O traced more shapes for me.  This time, she used plain, colored paper.

I then cut out the traced shapes and wrote reflective prompts on them in black Sharpie marker.  The reflective prompts included:

• Describe the main idea from today's lesson.
• Describe something new you learned today.
• Explain two new terms from today's lesson.
• How can you apply today's lesson?
• What other topics relate to today's lesson?
• Why is today's lesson important to you?
• How would you improve today's lesson?

Don't you love reflective questions?

The finished product, the reflective prompt side, looks like this......

To protect these Mod Podge, craftucation treasures, little O and I brushed on two layers of Mod Podge on each side.  We let the Mod Podge dry about 20 minutes between layers.  They are sealed and student-proof now!

Not that my college students are destructive, however, now they can happily risk a vanilla-soy-latte being spilled on them.

Oh, craftucation and happiness!
Jen

PS - I just used this reflective tool with my college students after teaching a lesson about identifiying gifted and talented students in preK-12 settings.  When I polled my college students about the tool they described the colorful prompts as "cool, fun, unique and playful."  More happiness.

PSS - Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  I personally don't need a week because I appreciate you all the time.  True.

Preparing for St. Patty's Day

I thought I would never be one of those teachers (or moms) who lived from one holiday to another, alas, I have semi-become that educator.  I still don't wear decorative sweaters for each holiday, but I am unafraid of celebratory artwork. 

Option #1:  "Lucky" artwork from the Funky Polkadot Giraffe blog

I love the upcycled buttons in this one.  Wouldn't this one be cute framed or as a gift?  In the meantime, you could do a quick color print on your home printer and hang the artwork on your classroom door.  Your students are "lucky" to have you, aren't they?  To access, click on the image below and download the file.  You can choose from three different sizes to print thanks to Kyla from the Funky Polkadot Giraffe.  I added the green frame around the edge myself for more St. Patrick's day flair.

Option #2:  "Rainbow quote" from the Simple as That blog.

As you can see, I am embracing St. Patrick's day, but not focusing on the "saint" part.  I am all about a good rainbow.  To access, click on the image below and download the file.  From Rebecca, you have just one option on size (though, you could resize it in Publisher or another program).   I added the green frame around the edge myself, again. 

If you have other St. Patty's day artwork leads, please post them in the comments section below. 

Cheers,

Jen

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

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