Crafts: Hearts Mobile

Just (not) in time for Valentine's day..

A mini mobile with hanging hearts !

Materials:
2 popsicle sticks
string
red and pink construction paper
scissors
glue

Time needed:
15-30 mins

1. Criss cross two popsicle sticks, making right angles. Using string, wrap around each corner several times, to make the popsicle sticks cross tight.
2. Cut four long pieces of string and individually wrap them around the center of the cross and branch out to one of the popsicle sticks. Tie two knots to secure the string. These four strings will be the strings your hearts will hang from.
3. Now you should have four strings hanging from each end of the popsicle sticks. Using pink and red ... or whatever colour construction paper, cut out hearts (or any other shapes if you'd like!) in duplicates. There needs to be two copies of the same heart/shape.
4. Position the hearts wherever you like on the strings and glue them on sandwiching the string.
5. A paperclip can be used as a hook. Hook one end to the wrapped strings in the center of the popsicle sticks cross and the other end, wherever you'd like to hang the mobile.
6. You're done! :)


Step 3.


The final product

Crafts: Papermache Snowman!

I figured I should start a series of crafty creations. Remember not all these ideas are just for kids!
Most of you know I work part-time teaching children arts and crafts.. so I should have ideas from every week!

Though this winter has been extremely mild without much snow..today I will be talking about this papermache snowman!


It's fairly easy and can be done with children from 4 years old. Obviously, more help would be needed for the younger ones!

Materials needed:
two balloons - one blown big and one small
newsprint/newpaper
white tissue paper
felt
white glue
water
scissors
paintbrush
masking tape
(styrofoam cup)

Time needed:
3 hours + drying time (overnight)

1. Rip the newsprint/newspaper into tiny pieces.
2. Blow one bigger ballon for the snownman's body. Using the glue mixture and a paintbrush, paint the newspaper pieces onto the ballon. Around 2-3 layers of the newsprint need to be on the balloon. Then an additional 2 layers of white tissue paper need to be painted on.
3. Let dry sitting in a styrofoam cup. Repeat step 2 for the smaller balloon.
4. While both balloons are drying, cut felt to make the accessories and eyes, nose and mouth for the snowman
5. Once the balloons are dry, cut a bigger hole in the big balloon where the balloon opening is. Remove both balloons from inside the now hardened body and head. Then stick the smaller balloon into the hole, using masking tape, tightly tape the two balloons together.
6. To cover the masking tape, use white tissue paper to layer on top.
7. The facial features and accessories can now be glued on!
8. And..you're done! :)


Step 5.
This wasn't mine! Important to note though, try to make sure the final tissue paper layer is stuck on flat!


Just another example. The facial features and accessories can be glued on prior to taping the head and body together.

The final product!



..I already have another craft lined up. Here's a sneak peak.. in the Valentine's spirit :)


<3

Good Intentions

So I work at the Doris McCarthy Gallery at school, every four weeks or so, a new exhibition is put into place. I was fortunate enough to be helping out during the opening nights of the exhibition! So here's a bunch of pictures from the event.

The exhibition is titled Good Intentions by Jon Sasaki, a Toronto based artist.
The premise of the whole show is the idea of having good intentions and earnestly trying hard to achieve something but failing miserably. You'll understand more with pictures..


So first off, this welcome mat.. it's being put there for good intentions however, seeing it's white and all fluffy and pretty - it obviously is not a good choice for a welcome mat. The artist's intentions were for the mat to actually get dirty and gross by the end of the show.. It's on its way there.


This is a blow up doll however, the air blowing into it never seems to be strong enough to get it all the way up. You actually have to be in the gallery to see it in action, all it does is.. hopelessly flop up and down. It really makes you feel sorry for it! Good intentions..


I realized I didn't have photos of the short films that were displayed as artwork throughout the gallery. However, this is a shot of most of the work. There were three video installations in this room and another in another room. All of them went along with the theme.. For one, a person is seen trying to climb a ladder to reach somewhere up high. It is never seen what he is trying to reach or get to however, he is seen constantly stacking ladders on top of one another. It indeed is kinda nerveracking to see it.


This piece was also apart of the exhibition. It's a real person pretending to be a statue. Named Spirit of Individualism..



Artist talk for the evening



The gallery also got a new mascot, so cute!



Free snowcones are also being given out as apart of the exhibition. The idea of giving out snowcones in the middle of the winter seems bizarre but obviously with good intentions of generosity!

Good intentions is on until Feb 24th! You're free to come visit me on Wednesdays.. I'll personally make a snocone for you :) heh

somebody to love

Oct 1: Art show thinger at school, had 5 of my photos on display. It was okay... All stars afterwards! First time.. lol.

the sea of love

Distracted from doing school work, I decided to make the DIY heart bokeh for my prime lens!
I used left over cardboard from the build it yourself pinhole camera, it took like 2 minutes.

Result:


The effect is that the .. normally circular bokeh would be in heart shapes! It's still bright outside for now.. so this is a picture of my night light in the hallway. lol

Very exciting! I'll maybe take more pictures later when the sky is actually dark :) Yay.

Oh, I've also started shooting in raw format. We'll see how that goes, it eats up memory like no tomorrow but at least I have two fairly large memory cards!