Painting with a Twist {Mom's Night Out}

Moms need time to refresh and renew.  My dear group of friends understand that so we try to schedule Mom's Night Out about once a month.  I dream of painting like Bob Ross so I always love it when we go on painting outings.  

For December we went to Painting with a Twist to paint a cute Christmas truck. Painting with a Twist is a cool place to spend a few hours with friends.  We had a private party so our group chose the picture we wanted to paint and scheduled the day and time that worked best for us.  You can bring your own snacks and drinks (yes, wine is fine!).  The instructor is at the front of the room and he walks you through step-by-step as he teaches you how to paint the selected picture.

It was so much fun painting with all of my sweet friends!  We talked as we painted and may have even cut up a little, perhaps encouraged by the wine.

And we all went home with a cute Christmas painting to hang on the wall.

This was my second class at Painting with a Twist and I just love it.  It is perfect for a Mom's Night Out or even a birthday party.

Little Kid Art Supplies

Rachel loves making art.  She loves drawing, painting, pastels, and more.  She has been doing some art lessons online and I have let her use some of my nicer art supplies.  

As we were getting ready for the new school year, I had her help me clean out the art closet.  She was excited to find some supplies that had gotten buried and forgotten about.  But she also turned her nose up at what she called, "little kid art supplies".

While I'm always happy to get rid of stuff on my de-cluttering mission, I found myself actually sad about giving away these particular items.  It was a sudden reminder that my babies are growing up and we are getting rid of our last Crayola crayons and big foam stamps.  As a parent you don't usually know until after the fact when will be the last time your child will ask you to push them on the swing or the last time they will want to sit in your lap while you read a book to them. This was just one of those moments that stuck with me as we got rid of those "little kid art supplies".

Savor the days.  

Creating a Masterpiece {Review}

We have been using a wonderful homeschool art curriculum called Creating a Masterpiece.  It offers an online art program taught through videos by art teacher, Sharon Hofer.  This is really a great product and I'm so excited that we had a chance to review it.

It is an online program so you are purchasing a subscription.  We reviewed the Monthly Plan that gives us access to all of the projects for the month that we have paid.  There is also an Annual Plan and you can purchase Individual Levels.

The art projects are divided into levels - Beginner and then levels 1 to 5.  The Beginner projects are short with just one lesson and could probably be completed in about an hour.  The art projects for the other levels are broken into multiple lessons with each lesson taking approximately an hour to complete.  These more challenging art projects have about three to four lessons each.  I had planned to have my children complete a lesson every other day but honestly they enjoyed them so much that they kept going through more lessons on their own!

We started with a Level 2 project using oil pastels.  My kids both love animals so they wanted to create the panda bear.  I think they were especially intrigued that it was made on velour paper so it would be soft and fuzzy like touching a real bear.

They watched the videos and completely their preliminary drawing.

Ms. Hofer taught them to draw the bear by starting with basic shapes and then going back to add detail.  My kids did great with this.  Drawing a panda bear can seem like quite a challenge but the way the steps were laid out, my kids weren't intimidated at all.  

Next they transferred their panda bear to the velour paper.  Isn't he already adorable?

I was really impressed with how much my children enjoyed these art lessons.  They were excited to get started each day and they moved through the lessons on their own. 

Here are their finished panda bears.  They had a lot of fun creating him and they are so proud of the way this art project turned out.


Nicholas, age 12

Rachel, age 8

They also made a Level 4 project using copper tooling to make seahorses.  This one had some unusual supplies like copper sheets and liver of sulphur to create the patina.

I love teaching art to my kids but I really dislike having to run to the craft store all the time for supplies.  Plus if I'm unfamiliar with the supplies then I usually end up questioning if I've bought the right items, correct sizes, etc.  So I really appreciate the fact that with Creating a Masterpiece, not only is there a list of all of the supplies that you need but you can even click on a link to purchase supplies.  When you click to purchase supplies, you are taken to the Dick Blick art supply webpage where all of the supplies for your particular project are grouped together and you just click on which ones you want to add to your cart.   What an amazing partnership between these two great companies! I wasn't sure where to buy velour paper or liver of sulphur so I was glad to be able to order it through the website and know that I got just the right product.  It was quick and easy.

We reviewed the monthly plan which costs $39.99 per month and gives you access to all of the online art lessons which includes over 144 lessons and additional tips.  There are other options available though.  You can save some money by signing up for annual access for $349.  This is really a bargain because it is so much cheaper than a year of art classes for my two kids!  You can check out other membership options HERE.

Please check out some more reviews for Creating a Masterpieces from the Home School Review Crew by clicking on the banner below:

Mom's Night Out Painting Party

We have a wonderful group of homeschool families that we enjoy spending time with.  We go on field trips together, hang out at the park each week, and occasionally have Mom's Night Outs where Dads watch the kids and Moms get to have some fun time together.

We recently had an amazing Mom's Night Out!  One of our mom friends teaches painting classes at Michael's craft store so for our get together she taught us how to paint a picture of flowers in a round vase.  It cost about $25 per person and she provided all of the supplies that we needed.  We met at a friend's house and everyone brought an appetizer or dessert so we had some yummy treats while we worked.

We were taught step-by-step how to recreate the sample painting at the front of the class.  Here is my painting in the beginning stages.

I was a little slow and fell behind in the steps so I just winged it a little and did my own thing for part of it.

It was fun to see how everyone's picture was unique and different even though we were all trying to recreate the same painting and all following the same steps.

Inti, the Inca Sun God Craft

The kids are learning about some ancient American cultures such as the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans.

While reading about the Incas, we got to go into detail about the amazing discovery of the ancient Incan town of Machu Picchu.

Like the other ancient American cultures, the Inca were a polytheistic society meaning they believed in many different gods.  The Inca most revered the sun god whom they named Inti.  He was often represented as a sun disk like this.

The kids used clay and made their own Incan representation on Inti.

They used air drying modeling clay so no baking was needed.  It is soft and easy to work with.  We have clay tools so they had fun using those to help with their creations.

I love how they each made their own representation of Inti.  They love working with clay so this was a fun way to pull art into our history studies.

Renaissance Self-Portraits

As we have studied famous artists of the Renaissance, we have noticed that most of the great artists have at least one self-portrait that they have painted of themselves.  I decided that before we left our Renaissance studies that the children should make their own self-portraits. 

We watched a video on how to use a mirror to draw your own face then I gave each of them a mirror and a printout of called Proportions of the Face to help them place the ears, eyes, mouth, etc in the right place on their faces.

They worked hard and seemed to really enjoy the project.   I was already thinking that we will need to do some more drawing studies like this in the future.  Then Nicholas said that he would like to learn how to draw faces and people better.  Hopefully I can find a good art curriculum or class to help with that.

Christmas in DFW: Irving Arts Center

The Irving Arts Center is celebrating Christmas with their 24th annual Christmas Tree Decorating contest so we stopped by to see some of the amazing trees that students from different schools have created.

At first we just thought they were nice trees but then we realized that there was a theme to them.  They were all decorated with recycled materials!  How cool is that?!  Nicholas was the first to discover it when he noticed this poinsettia was made from a water bottle!  How creative!

Once we realized how special these ornaments were, it became a fun game to look over each tree in detail and see who would discover the next really unique ornament on a tree.  It was a lot more fun than what I had expected.

This tree below was made with a nature theme - butterflies, lizards, turtles, etc.  It was my favorite of all of them simply because of the cute critters all over it.

There was one tree that was computer/electronics themed complete with an antenna tree topper!

There were several more amazing trees there but I don't want to give away all of their hidden treasures.  You'll just have to go there and hunt for them yourself :) 

The walls of the exhibit room and covered with art work from school children.  It was fun to look at the different subjects and different skill levels on display.

At the end of the Christmas Tree exhibit room there was another exhibit called The Book Forest.  Old books and magazines were the media used to form trees and various decorations throughout the room.

I don't know that I could actually do this to a book but the finished project does look pretty cool.

While we were there we also checked out the National Geographic Rarely Seen: Photographs of the Extraordinary photography exhibit.  The photographs are unbelievable!

A lot of the pictures are of natural wonders like this picture of Thor's Well.  It is a real salt water fountain in Oregon that is driven by the ocean tide.

Nicholas just stood and stared at this picture of the Northern Lights for a long time.  He read the plaque and told me all about it.  This picture is actually two pictures that have been joined together.

Of course this picture got a smile out of my little dare-devil.  It's called Dangle if you Dare and it's a picture of some crazy guy's feet dangling from a skyscraper in China.  I wonder if his mother knew he was doing that?

Look at the detail and perfection you can see in this snowflake when viewed up close!  It's such a beautiful example of God's handiwork.

Nicholas really enjoyed looking at the details in the photograph of a white tiger but every single one of these pictures were an amazing sight to see.

Nicholas was entranced by the whole exhibit.  He slowly went through and looked at every single photograph AND read each and every plaque describing the photograph.  He was really studying each one intently.  He especially like the picture of the Man o' War here.  He will be quick to tell you the differences between a Man o' War and a Jellyfish.

He was already interested in being a field photographer after our recent trip to the Perot Museum but now he is more interested than ever in nature photography.

Rachel stared dreamily at the giant chandelier for a long time.  Then she announced that we needed one for our house!

It really is a work of art by itself.  Here is the view from beneath the chandelier.

Finally, we headed outside to check out the sculptures and the water features.  I didn't notice any new structures since the last time we were here.

But its always a fun place to run around and get the wiggles out after being in a quiet art exhibit for a while.

And play hide and seek.  I wonder where Rachel could be?

The Irving Arts Center is located at 3333 North MacArthur Blvd. in Irving.  Gallery Admission is FREE!  Gallery Hours: Mon, Tues, Wed and Fri: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Thursday: 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Saturday: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sunday: 1:00-5:00 p.m.

Great Ideas Journal (Leonardo DaVinci Activity)

The kids have loved learning about the amazing ideas of Leonardo DaVinci.  One of the things they found interesting was that he was constantly writing down his ideas in journals.  They could be random ideas or sketches.  They were partial thoughts...not plans for a complete invention.  We talked about how we all get neat ideas for things but then never go back and finish thinking them through or doing anything about them.  Having a journal to put down your great ideas on paper is a fantastic way to encourage creativity and inventiveness.

So the kids made their own Great Ideas Journals.  Leatherwork was a common art form in the Renaissance times so I picked up some leather book cover kits at Tandy Leather.

The book cover kit is all put together and ready to go but it allows for creativity in decorating and customizing the look of their journals.  First you use a damp sponge and moisten the leather.  This makes it softer and easier to use the leather stamps.  We have lots of leather stamps and a mallet so I let the kids do their own thing with those.

Nicholas made a border around his then wrote "Great Ideas" in freehand on the cover.

He added some swirls on the cover as well.  Then he used a leather stain to really bring out the beautiful color of the leather.

Here is his finished journal cover.  I bought some plain sketch books for their journal.  They just slide into the pockets on the inside.  The journals can be replaced when they get full and they can still keep the same leather cover.

Rachel used a more tropical theme for her journal.  I love the sea shells and hibiscus flowers together.

She added a title and a few other decorations to her cover and then stained it as well.

Here are a few ideas from Rachel's Great Ideas Journal.  A huge multi-level tree house.

I like this idea below.  It is a robot that does her homework for her.  I think it might could be adapted to do housework too so I'm really encouraging her to pursue that idea a little further!

A journal is a great way for kids to get their thoughts on paper.  Kids should be encouraged to use the journals however works best for them.  Some kids might choose to draw sketches of their ideas to tinker or plans for the future, Others might want a journal with lined pages to write out their thoughts and feelings in words.  However they choose to use it is fine.  And they don't need a fancy leather cover.  A cute notebook from the dollar store works great too.  They can decorate the cover with markers and stickers and make it personal.