Art Room Happenings! In The Art Room Make, Create, & Share!- Make, Create, & Share!

Art, Art activities, card making, Craft, DIY, Holiday, Make, Create, & Share!, origami, paper art, pop-up

Father’s Day Pop-up Fishing Card

June 15, 2020June 15, 2020 Intheartroom

Could you even fish for a better Dad? Make him a special Father’s Day card to let him know how Fin-tastic he is 🙂

What you need:

Card stock in the color you’d like for the outside of your card – 8.5″x11″, folded in half to make a 5.5″x8.5″ card
Card stock in the color you’d like for the inside of your card – 8″x10″, folded in half to make a 5″x8″ card
Watercolor paper – 8″x10″
Watercolor paint
Sea Salt (table salt can be used instead, however, the effect we’ll be creating will not be as dramatic)
A piece of a mesh onion bag (or any mesh bag you may get fruits of veggies in)
Tin Foil
Sharpies
Scissors
Paint Brushes
Pencil
Ruler
Glue stick & Craft Glue

MAKING THE WAVES:

Step one: Prepare your watercolor paints. I prefer watercolors from a tube and mix them with some water. I used cool colors – shades of blues, greens, & purples for my waves.

Step two: Cover your entire piece of watercolor paper with your paint – Work quickly to achieve a “wet on wet” technique where your colors will move and blend together while all your paint is wet!

Step three: While your paint is still wet sprinkle sea salt all over your paper! The salt creates a cool effect on your watercolor paint that gives us a unique look for your waves. Your paint still needs to be wet for the effect of the salt to work – the wet paint will pool around the pieces of salt, creating the textured effect! Adding too much salt can cause the effect not to show as well. If you only have table salt you will still get the effect just not as dramatic as the larger pieces of salt!

Step four: Let your paper dry completely – the salt effect works best if your paper dries naturally vs using a hair dryer to speed up the process (you can move onto one of the other card making sections for the time being). Once it’s dry, brush off the pieces of salt.

Step five: Cut your watercolor paper into stripes – you need one strip that measures 8″x 2″ and two strips that measure 8″x1.5″

Step six: On the back of your strips draw a wave pattern and cut out – you can use your first cut out wave to trace on your other strips or create a different pattern on each strip. I saved pieces of the wave I cut out to use a splashes of water later (you can also cut splashes out of your leftover watercolor paper).

MAKING THE CARD BASE:

Step one: Fold your card stock papers for the inside and outside of your card.

Step two: On the folded edge of your inside card stock, complete the measurements shown in the photo.

Step three: Cut on the lines shown in orange.

Step four: Open your card and fold in the sections cut in the last step – use your fingers on the back of your card to push the sections through. Fold the sections on your same center crease line, just in the opposite direction! Create new crease lines at the point you cut to. (The top image shows what your card should look like when it’s closed and the bottom image shows what it should look like open)

Step five: Fold your card back up and cut on the orange lines.

Step six: Open your card back up and fold in the sections you just cut – the same way you completed step four. You will have two sections to fold on each of your original sections or blocks. (The top image shows the cut lines before folding, the image on the right shows the folds, and the bottom image shows what your card should look like folded)

Step seven: Once you have cut and folded both sides your inside card is finished and should look like the photo!

MAKING THE FISH:

Step one: Gather your sharpies, tin foil and piece of mesh onion bag.

Step two: Tape your mesh to your work surface and then tape your tin foil on top.

Step three: Draw and color your fish on the tin foil with your sharpies – the mesh creates a scaly texture for your fish! My fish are not much larger than an inch.

Step four: Carefully cut out your fish!

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER!

Step one: Glue your fish to your wave pieces with a craft glue.

Step two: Glue each of your wave pieces onto the blocks you created.

Step three: Use a glue stick and add any splashes of water you’d like from your watercolor paper.

Step four: Close your card and using a glue stick, glue the inside card to your outside piece of card stock – your outside card is slightly larger so you’ll have a nice border around your inside piece!

Your card is complete! Decorate the front of your card and add a special message for your dad! Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads!

Art, Art activities, Craft, DIY, Drawing, Make, Create, & Share!

Scratch Art

June 11, 2020June 11, 2020 Intheartroom

Scratch art or scratch board is a fun type of art where you typically scratch the surface of a paper or board, of a darker color, to reveal a lighter color or white. This easy project is a fun way you can create your own scratch art at home!

What you need:

Oil Pastels
Black Acrylic Paint
Card stock
Toothpick or Wooden Skewer
Paint Brush

Step one: Cut your card stock to the desired size (mine is approx. 6″x6″) and color it in completely with your oil pastels! Make sure to press firmly and fill in any white spots of paper.

Step two: Water down some of your black acrylic paint – we want to thin the paint out just a little but not enough that it’s dripping off your brush. Paint your entire piece of paper – going over the oil pastel you colored in the first step!

Step three: Let your paint dry and then use your toothpick or wooden skewer to scratch the black paint off the surface of your oil pastel! If you make a mistake you can cover it up with a little more black paint.

Continue scratching your design until you’re finished!

Not sure what to draw? Try a scratch art zentangle – check out this post on how to create a zentangle and apply the method to your scratch art! Send me photos of your scratch art to add to the followers gallery!

Art, Drawing, illustrations

Westside Series

June 8, 2020June 8, 2020 Intheartroom

These are a series of small watercolor and pen paintings inspired by the area where I live here in Maryland. It’s a place that’s a bit outta the way and many think of it as the end of the earth – but I love it here. It’s full of history, plenty of nature & wildlife, it’s quiet, and you know your neighbors. Between where the Nanticoke & Wicomico rivers meet the Chesapeake Bay, we have several little towns including; Quantico, Tyaskin, Bivalve, Nanticoke, Waterview & Whitehaven – together known as the Westside. The Westside doesn’t have much in the way of stores or shops, however, we have a few post offices, a thrift store, the Westside Fire Department, Antique shop, Churches, community center, a Bed & Breakfast, marinas & parks, Campgrounds, Wades Repair, and a couple restaurants!

Building at Roaring Point Campground entrance

Former Tyaskin School House (over 100 years old)

A lot of the houses and buildings here date back to the 1800’s and many of them are no longer in habitable conditions, though, we do still have quite a few from that time period that have been kept up. I like to think about what it may have look liked here a hundred years ago when it was a bustling port town, filled with people and shops – all the buildings new. Then, there were oyster houses, canning factories, general stores, a saw mill, skip jacks, schools, steamboats, and later a shirt factory, town hall, hotel, & seafood packing plant. And even before that, when it was home to the Native Americans – the Nanticoke Tribe, what it must have looked like.

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, est. 1798 (rebuilt 1845) –

The Westside is also filled with nature and wildlife. During a walk in the Spring you’re guaranteed to see Ospreys that have just arrived back from winter migration. Eagles and many song birds also call the Westside home – some of my favorite sightings are Bluebirds, flocks of Cedar Waxwings, Flickers, and Buzzards gathering to sunbathe. Fox, Deer, groundhogs, hawks, muskrats, frogs, rabbits, turtles, and snakes are often seen. Of course it’s also home to much marine life! And we can not forget about the insects – yes, there are days when some of these bugs make you regret going outside, but, butterflies, bees, praying mantis, & ladybugs, fill the gardens. The summer evenings glow with lighting bugs, cicadas and peepers, clear skies filled with stars. Not to mention the best sunsets all year round!

We may not have a lot in the terms most think of – and yeah, we’re a bit outta the way, but I can say we have a certain nostalgic community feel that not a lot of places can claim. It’s a place where time slows down, people wave and stop to talk, it’s a place that causes you to take in what’s around you – something I find inspiring!

Tyaskin Pink House and former Post Office building

I hope you enjoy these little watercolors from the place, and surrounding area, I call home. Prints and originals are available in the shop section – I plan to keep painting more!

Art, Art activities, Craft, DIY, Drawing, Make, Create, & Share!

Shrinky Dinks

June 4, 2020June 4, 2020 Intheartroom

These have always been a student favorite! It’s like a magic art project – you draw on the shrink film, heat it up, and watch it shrink! Shrink film is so much fun, there’s really a lot of different ways you can create with it – it’s not just for kids!

What is it? Shrinky dinks are a type of plastic – polystyrene. Certain types of polystyrene are often used in food packaging and containers, it’s got the number 6 plastic code…..which also means if you have a take out container or some other type of plastic with the number 6 plastic code, you can make a shrinky dink out of it!

You can also buy Shrinky Dink sheets. I used the “Ruff n’ Ready” sheets. They’re my favorite, with one side that has a sanded surface, which, takes mediums really well! However, you can re-create this with recycled plastics too – just use some sandpaper to scratch up your plastic!

Shrinky dinks shrink about 1/3 their original size when heated – I use a small craft oven; a toaster oven, kitchen oven, or heat gun, can also be used! When they shrink, the colors on your artwork become more condensed, making them darker. I typically use colored pencils or markers on the shrink film. I’ve also use chalk pastels and pens. You can cut shapes out of the shrink film before you shrink it, as well as punch holes in it for key chains, etc.

For this project I’m making a key chain but check out some other ideas of things you can create at the bottom of the post! I’ll also be drawing my own design but as this shrink film is transparent you can also trace a page from a coloring book, magazine or book!

What you need:

Shrink Film, or #6 Plastic
Scissors
Hole Punch
Colored pencils or Markers & a Sharpie pen
Pencil
Paper
Key Chain – unless you plan to make something else!

Step one: Cut your shrink film to the desired size – keep in mind it shrinks to about 1/3 it’s original size! Trace your piece of shrink film on a sheet of paper.

Step two: Draw your design on your sheet of paper with a pencil – once you’re happy with your design trace it onto your shrink film with a sharpie pen. You can tape your shrink film to your paper to help keep it from moving!

Step three: Color in your shrink film design – I used colored pencils but you can use markers or pens as well!

Step four: Once your design is colored, punch a hold in your shrink film, using a hole punch, so you can turn it into a key chain later!

Step five: You can also cut out around your design if desired!

Step six: Bake your shrink film! 325* F for just a couple minuets – You’ll notice it crinkles up and then will flatten back out as a much smaller and thicker piece of plastic.

Let your shrink film cool for a few minuets. It’s fun to see how much it shrinks compared to your original drawing!

As it shrinks your colors also become more condensed, so they appear darker!

Step seven: Add your key chain pieces to your shrink film!

Trace a coloring book page instead of drawing your own design

Besides a key chain you could also turn your Shrinky Dinks into zipper pulls, magnets, pins, hair clips, jewelry, mini artworks, or anything else you can think of! I use the Shrinky Dink “Ruff n’ Ready” variety but they also offer several other types that you can use for different techniques!

Send me your Shrinky Dink creations to add to the Followers Gallery!

Art, Happenings, illustrations, Make, Create, & Share!

Milkweek & Monarchs

June 3, 2020June 3, 2020 Intheartroom

Going to my Grandma’s house as a kid was always one of my favorite things to do. We were always up to something – baking or cooking, gardening, canning, going for walks or tractor rides, exploring the attic and all it’s treasures, watching Wheel of Fortune, or just hanging out – didn’t matter what we were doing, we always had fun. In the summer months and early fall we would walk to the fields behind her house and search for caterpillars on milkweed. The waxy looking caterpillars, striped with black, yellow, and white, some as big as my fingers, some as small as a grain of rice. The milkweed just as interesting as the caterpillars, living up to it’s name when a leaf would get broken.

We’d take a jar or two with us and collect a few caterpillars to bring back home. I remember my family creating a “cage” for them out of a frame from an old wire lamp shade, stretching a stocking over it to keep them contained. The makeshift container was filled with fresh milkweed and hung on our screened porch. My siblings and I, watching the caterpillars, waiting for the moment they found a place to hang upside down in the shape of a J. Then that beautiful jade colored chrysalis with a little golden stripe would appear not long after!

We’d watch the chrysalis turn darker and darker, eventually becoming clear, being able to see the patterned butterfly wing right through. If we were lucky enough we’d get to see the moment when that butterfly finally emerged!

Monarchs still fascinate me – they’re pretty amazing creatures. And I still look for them each year, though, milkweed has been planted outside my art room window, making the search easy 😉

Monarchs are special because they are one of the only migrating insects. Throughout the spring and summer months there are several generations of Monarchs and finally, in the early fall months, the migrating generation of butterflies is born. For our area, this generation makes their way to Mexico where they will spend the winter months inactive before making their way back to repeat the cycle. During the flight to migration, many Monarchs head right through the Delmarva region. You can read more about Monarchs and their life cycle here.

This photo was from a walk on Roaring Point in early October a couple years ago….though hard to tell, the flying blobs and specks are actually Monarchs 😀

Milkweed is important for Monarchs as it’s the only food source for the caterpillars. Monarchs have had a huge decline in population since the 1990’s – one of the reasons being habitat loss. Check out these sites for getting milkweed seeds and plants for your own yard! Milkweed seeds & Milkweed seeds here

Can you spot the two Monarch caterpillars?

Check out these sites for more info on Monarchs as well as, native pollinator plants, activities, photos and coloring pages! Xerces Society, Monarchs NWF, Monarch butterfly info

Art, card making, Craft, DIY, Make, Create, & Share!, paper art

Paper Quilling Art

May 28, 2020May 28, 2020 Intheartroom

Create unique and decorative designs out of paper! Paper quilling involves nothing more than rolling strips of paper and utilizing these rolls by forming different shapes, designs, and patterns. It’s a simple process that can create, what looks like, complex pieces of art! Here, we’ll make a finished design with the paper quilling process that can be turned into a greeting card or decorative piece of art, however, paper quilling can also be used to decorate boxes, make jewelry, ornaments, and embellish other works of art with!

What you need:

Paper for quilling – I suggest a thinner card stock, typically copy paper is too thin, experiment with what you have and see what works best! I’ll be using papers in shades of blues and greens for this example, however, feel free to change up your design!
Card stock – cut to 5″x5″ (or desired size) or folded into a card
Glue – A glue stick and craft glue (I used Tacky glue – Elmer’s would work too).
Tweezers – these may come in handy to help hold your glued areas and place your paper rolls!
A needle or toothpick – these are to help roll your paper strips, try both and see which works best for you! I prefer the toothpick!

Step one: First take your paper for quilling and cut one piece that’s 1/4″ wide and 11\

” long. Then cut several other pieces it into strips 1/8″ wide and about 6″ long – A paper cutter is the easiest way to do this but you can also use a ruler and xacto knife! Take your 1/4″ x 11″ strip of paper and glue the ends together, overlapping about 1/2″, to create a circle. Glue your circle to a piece of card stock (cut to your desired size or folded into a card) with craft glue. This circle will be what we fill with your quilled paper!

Step two: Now we will be quilling your other strips of paper (1/8″ x 6″), first, take a strip of your paper and using either your needle or toothpick tightly roll the paper around it. You can either roll the entire piece of paper upon itself, while still on the toothpick/needle, or just use it to help get the roll going an roll the rest by hand (this is the method I find easiest).

Step three: Carefully remove your paper roll from your toothpick or needle (if your roll is still on it) – it’s okay if it unwinds and loosens up slightly. Use the glue stick to glue down the end of your roll. If needed, you can tighten back up your roll by gently pinching the roll between your thumb and index finger and pulling your end piece and then glue. You can use your tweezers to help pinch the glued area until it’s stuck!

Step four: Now we can take your roll and use it as it is, or pinch the ends to form different shapes to use in your project! The next few photos we’ll go over some additional ways to create different rolls with your paper!

Create a half roll – by only rolling a portion of your strip.

Create an ‘S’ roll – by rolling half of your strip and then roll your other end in the opposite directions.

Create a triangle – Start with a rolled circle and pinch into a triangle.

Create a heart – Roll half a strip, then roll the other half in the same direction, pinch the strip in the center of the rolls to form the heart.

Create a square – Start with a circle roll and pinch corners to create a square.

Create an eye – Start with a circle and pinch ends to create an eye shape.

Step five: Create several quilled pieces of paper – for my example I mostly used the, half roll and S roll methods. I wanted it to look like my circle was filled with wavy water – these methods allowed me to create that effect using line!

Step six: Arrange your quilled pieces in your circle as desired. If you have gaps you can use single strips of your paper to fill in more spaces or create more quilled pieces to fill gaps. Glue all your pieces down with craft glue (I found it easiest to apply a thin layer of glue inside my whole circle) use your tweezers to help hold your pieces in place – you can even use your toothpick or needle to help move pieces around, if you have some tricky pieces to get to!

Step seven: Complete your project by adding a small cut-out on top! I made my quilling to look like water so I added a shark on top! If you made yours to look like water some other ideas for your cut out could be: a turtle, jellyfish, fish, sail boat, sea shell, octopus, etc. Instead of creating your own cut out you could also use stickers or 3D elements such as pom-poms, shells, silk flowers, etc. The same method could also look like wind or clouds – cut outs could be birds, kites, tree branches, rainbows, etc.!

Some other ideas would be to start off with a different shape to fill – you could do another simple shape or create a more complicated outline, like a letter, to fill with your quilling! You also can just create quilling that’s not inside a shape – like the flower in the video. Get creative and have fun with the possibilities of this art form! Send me pictures of your paper quilling masterpieces to add to our followers gallery!

Art, Happenings, illustrations, Make, Create, & Share!

Spit Happens Have Arrived!

May 24, 2020May 24, 2020 Intheartroom

Recently, I shared that I had completed illustrations for a little book called “Spit Happens” – I’m excited to let you know that I now have some books in hand! This cute little children’s story is written by Annie Trice, and is about her “alpaca squad”. Working on the illustrations was a lot of fun – check out my original post for more info and copies of the book are available in the shop section!

Art, Happenings, Make, Create, & Share!, student artwork

Student Spotlight! May 2020

May 21, 2020May 21, 2020 Intheartroom

Each month I will be spotlighting a student and their artistic endeavors! I work with students of all ages and abilities – you’ll get to learn a little bit about these amazing artists and their work in this monthly series! This is our first of the series – however, you’ll be able to find future spotlights here!

Our May spotlight is on:

Sarah Milbow

My Name is Sarah Milbow, I will be 15 this upcoming June. I am a homeschooler who lives in Tyaskin, MD and have been taking art with Ms. Jenell for about six years. Being homeschooled has allowed me to pursue my interest in life and in the arts. I love to dance, which I have been doing since age four. My favorite form being contemporary. I have always enjoyed art and crafts of all types, but my favorites are sketching and painting. My inspiration comes from my inner self which is so important when doing any form of art because it helps channel your feelings.

Do you enter your artwork in any shows or contests? “I have entered many art shows and contest, all of which have been with Ms. Jenell.”

When you’re making your art do like to listen to music or watch tv for inspiration (if so what)? “When I am creating art, I like to listen to music and if the weather is nice, sit outside.”

Is there a certain style, or type, of art that you’d like to someday try? “In the future I would like to work more with pottery and its different techniques.”

Do you have a favorite color? “My favorite color is purple.”

How has your artwork improved/what have you done to keep improving as an artist? “I play around with different methods of art to help me improve my artwork.”

Sarah puts forth her best effort into all of her artwork. She’s never afraid to try out new mediums and methods of art – which easily allows her to continue to broaden her talent and skill, while discovering where her passions lie and developing her own personal style! Her positivity and self motivation towards improving her artistic abilities is inspiring. I can’t wait to see where she takes all of her creative ventures!

Art, Craft, DIY, Make, Create, & Share!, origami, paper art

Origami Bookmark Monsters!

May 18, 2020May 18, 2020 Intheartroom

A quick way to get creative and have some fun while making a little piece of art you can use to mark the pages of your favorite books! We’re going to be making our bookmarks into monsters but after folding the base you can turn your bookmark into anything!

What You Need:

Paper – I used white printer paper, cut to a 5″x 5″ square, for the bookmark
Construction paper or colored paper for details on your monster
Markers or colored pencils
Scissors
Glue stick

Step one: First we’ll be folding your bookmark – start with your 5″x 5″ square of paper and fold in half, and then fold in half again. Open your paper back up – you should have a horizontal and vertical crease that runs through the center of your paper.

Step two: Fold your paper, corner, to corner, forming a triangle. Unfold and then fold the bottom corner to the center mark.

Step three: Fold the bottom edge up on the center crease. Then take the two bottom corners and fold up to the top point.

Step four: If you carefully look inside your origami piece you’ll see there’s a little pocket that’s been formed – Take the two point pieces you just folded up in the last step, pull them back slightly and then fold them down, inside the triangle pocket.

Step five: Now you have your origami bookmark! Let’s turn it into a monster! Cut a piece of colored paper into a 2″x 2″ square and glue it inside your bookmark, so half of the square is visible (make sure not to glue the pocket together as this is how it stays on your book corner) – this will be the inside color of your monsters mouth. Cut pieces of paper to use as teeth for your monster, I used small triangles and rectangular shapes for my teeth. Cut circle shapes for you eyes or spots on your monster – you can use paper punches or a hole punch too.

Step six: Color your monster with your markers or colored pencils and add details like scales, fur, spots, etc.! Color your eyes on the circle pieces you cut.

Step seven: Assemble and glue all of your elements together!

Slide your book page inside the monsters mouth to mark your page!

Make a whole bunch of fun monster bookmarks! You can also use googly eyes, stickers, glitter, pom-poms, pipe cleaner, etc. for details on your monsters! Or get creative and turn your origami into something besides a monster! Send me pictures of your bookmarks to add to our followers gallery!

Art, food, Happenings, Make, Create, & Share!

Put a fork in it!

May 14, 2020May 14, 2020 Intheartroom

While I really enjoy drawing and painting, sometimes it’s nice to take a break and get into other mediums. Put a Fork in it, is a little series of bookmarks I like to create out of polymer clay. Based on some favorite or classic foods I add these little sculptures to a fork, spoon, or knife, that have been flattened out – making the handle of the utensil a perfect bookmarker!

I’m not 100% sure how I got started with these but they’re a lot of fun to create and tie in my love of food 😉 I use Sculpey products – usually Sculpy III & Premo clays, liquid Sculpy & sculpy glaze. If you haven’t used or heard of Sculpy before definitely check out their site – there’s products for kids, adults, amateurs, professionals and endless ideas of projects!

Here’s a look into how I make my bookmarks…….

I first mix up my colors and prepare my liquid sculpy (which acts as my milk) and start to sculpt!

Ever wonder why I keep all those old paint brushes? Texture. They make the perfect cereal texture 🙂

I use some chalk pastel dust on a soft brush to add a little depth to the Sculpy pieces.

For the cereal I bake the marshmallows and plain pieces slightly and then place them in the liquid sculpy “milk” and bake the whole piece. I have a little craft oven I use (like a toaster oven) but Sculpy can be baked in a regular oven as well.

Pickles & Pancakes in progress!

The snack that smiles back 🙂

I have some polymer clay tools that I use but really a toothpick is one of my favorite tools. Texture & color are really important when making clay food look realistic – they can both take a lot of practice so sometimes it’s fun to get started on something like a piece of cake – which can come in various colors, shapes & textures! Once I’ve baked my pieces I use the glossy Sculpy glaze to cover areas that should be shiny – like the milk, pickles and syrup!

It’s a bit of a mess, but I like to keep my Sculpy clay colors separated in this box from Harbor Freight . It’s perfect size to hold the blocks of clay, and the bins within the box are removable, so I can re-arrange the colors, or pass a color bin, rather than the whole box if I’m teaching a class.

The process of making the food sculptures with polymer clay is not too complicated and if you’re interested in learning more, my favorite book on the subject is The Polymer Clay Cookbook by Jessica & Susan Partain. Even though their directions are for mini pieces of food you can use their methods to apply to larger food sculptures – or any polymer clay sculpture!

Check out the shop section of the site to purchase your own Put a Fork in it bookmark!