Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Justice League of America #42

Donna Troy, Dr. Light and Starfire. Variant cover art by Adriana Melo and Mariah Benes.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Batgirl

Stephanie Brown aka Batgirl



Cover for Batgirl #9 (April 2010) - cover art by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau

Interactive Olympic Art Project


Well here is an Olympic Art Project that has actual led to fights among my kids over who gets to play with it.
You make a sports venue and then an athlete which is able to move using a magnet.

The kids love it and have grand plans for making a bobsled run, skeleton, speedskating track, etc.

You need some popsicle sticks, glue, some coins (dimes and nickels work well) and some heavy duty magnets.  I got mine at the dollar store....8 for a $1.00.  You don't want to use the magnetic tape.  It is just not strong enough.

Glue your heavy duty magnet to your popsicle stick and set aside to dry. 
Find some cardboard to mount your background to.  A cereal box would work great.  You can test it to make sure your magnet will move a coin thru the cardboard.
I glued a piece of paper to my cardboard first as I needed to cover the colored cardboard...this was not my background.  The color was so strong on the cardboard I could see it thru one layer of paper.
I then took a second piece of paper the same size as my cardboard and sketched out my design.
I added some color with watercolor pencils but you can use crayon, pencil crayon, felts, whatever you wish.
I then made a little alpine skier. I sketched it out and then added color.  Make sure it is as big as your coin.
I then glued a dime to the back.  If you want you can just use tape.

Then glue your background onto your cardboard.
Flatten the best you can.
You can put some heavy books on top to help it dry flat.
And that's it an interactive picture....place your athlete on the background and using your magnet wand on the back you can make your athelete move thru the course winning Olympic Gold!
One last thing to show you after Maya posted about the "Sparrow Post" from Tasha Tudor's book she got me thinking about my dollhouse...which has been sitting in the box for the last 2 years. I finally started it this weekend...here I'm gluing in the floor for the second level. I hope to keep working on it a little each day.  It's a 3 storey and I hope to turn it into Jane Austen setting.  (just don't know which right now)
Take care and I hope you make an Olympic venue or two.  I'm sure we will be doing this activity at school.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Batwoman

Batwoman from the cover for Detective Comics #860.

Celeste Morne

Celeste Morne from Star Wars.

Anna Mercury

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Framed Valentine Art


Well....... I was in my favorite dollar store (Dollarama) on Thursday when I found these wonderful shadowbox frames for $1.25......I started thinking and next thing you know we had a Valentine craft for Grade One on Friday.
These are the Grade One's version...they were so happy that they got to use their new markers for it. We just have to glitter our hearts.
Sorry for the poor picture quality but I took the picture with my Blackberry.
(desperate times call for desperate measures) My husband took my good camera on his ski trip.


So here are the frames I purchased along with a 12 pack of Styrofoam hearts for $1.00.



If there are any rough edges you can sand them down. Save the insert for measuring your art work.



In honor of Valentine's Day we painted our frames red but black would look nice as well.





I stuck the hearts on skewers for easier painting and we painted them red as well.





You then can add a little glitter when the paint dries.




Using the insert measure a piece of cardstock or watercolor paper for your artwork.











Have the kids sketch out a picture of themselves. I traced out where the heart is going to go to help them compose their picture.




Using paint, markers, or pencil crayons add some color.









You can use a fine marker to add detail if you wish.









You can glue your heart on at this time.












Using stamps the kids stamped "I Love You" on their picture. I taped the letters together for "Love" and "You" so they only had to stamp once.













Glue your art into place and slide in the glass cover.






That's it....a very adorable Valentine gift all ready to hang on your wall and what parent or Grandparent wouldn't love one of these.
See you next time.