Let it snow!

You need:

1. black construction paper 20 by 20 cm
2. white tempera paint
3. saucer
4. paper towel
5. fine markers in black and white
6. metallic gel pens

I found the idea of printed snowmen in one of Usborne's activity books. With music lines, I made my own lesson of it.

Draw curved music lines with a white or silver pen on the black sheet. Put a piece of paper towel on a saucer so it can serve as a stamp pad. Drip some tempera paint the paper towel. Use your thumb to stamp the bodies of the snowmen. Add a fingerprint for a head.

When the paint is dry, you can add eyes, nose, mouth, arms, buttons etc. Use gel pens and markers. Draw some music notes on the lines and write the lyrics of a winter song belof the lines.

Christmas stamp

You need:

1. brown paper bag
2. markers
3. correction fluid

Draw a little Christmas scene on a piece of a paper bag. Colour it with markers. Colour the white pieces with correction fluid. Outline everything with a fine black marker. Draw serrated edges with black marker or cut the stamp with pinking shears.

Angelic students

You need:

1. paper doily
2. black construction paper A4 size
3. silver thread
4. little silver clothespins
5. glitter
6. glue
7. scissors
8. black white photograph of the face
9. cotton wool balls

Give all students a sheet of black construction paper and a doily. Fold the doily in eight parts. Cut two wings, both 1/8 part of the doilie.
Paste a photograph of your face on the black sheet. Take half of the doily and form a dress. Paste it spatial. Paste the wings behind the dress on shoulder hight.
Cut two pieces of the silver thread, the legs, and paste them under the folds of the dress. Paste two clothespins, the feet. Cut arms from a scrap of white paper. Paste pieces of cotton wool on the hair. Decorate with glitter.

Made by students of 11-12 years old

Thanks to Anneriek Adema, Dokkum

Colourful Christmas trees

You need:

1. two drawing sheets A4 size
2. watercolour paint
3. brushes
4. jar with water
5. tissue paper
6. scissors
7. glue
8. ruler
9. pencil
10. gold or silver marker
11. white correction marker
12. glitter

Paint a background for the Christmas trees with water paint. Use different colours and let them blend into each other. Use plenty of water for nice bright colours.

Choose three colours of tissue paper. Fold the sheets several times and cut triangles and squares. Take a sheet of drawing paper and make it wet with a brush and water. Lay the pieces of tissue paper on this wet sheet. If the tissue paper is not wet enough, it won't bleed. Then make it wet again with a brush with water. Fill the sheet with these tissue paper parts and leave it to dry. Remove the pieces of tissue paper from the sheet when it is completely dry. The sheet will look like this:

Cut long triangles from the sheet that was coloured with tissue paper. You may use the schedule above (based on A4 size sheet of 21 by 29 cm - half cm will remain on both sides then). You can cut a piece from the bottom of the triangles if you want trees of various heights.

Paste these three trees with overlap on the water paint background. Don't paste the trees all at the same height, so you get depth. Cut some smaller triangles from the left overs if you want more trees.

Outline the trees with silver or gold marker. Draw a simple branch structure. Draw the strains with brown pencil or use the metallic pins. Draw snowflakes around and on the trees with a white (correction) marker or use chips from the punch. rond en op de bomen. Paste the artwork on a coloured background. Sprinkle some glitter on the forest floor.

All artwork is made by students of 11-12 years old

Wooden Christmas tree

Made by a student of 7 years old

You need:

1. plywood 14 by 18 cm
2. pencil
3. ruler
4. jigsaw
5. nails
6. hammer
7. tempera paint
8. brush
9. block of wood 6 by 3 by 1 cm
10. 2 blocks of wood 5 bij 2 bij 1 cm
11. small Christmas decorations
12. silver cardboard
13. glue

Draw on the narrow side of the plywood a dot on 9 cm. Draw two lines from the corners below at this dot so you get a triangle. Saw this triangle. Paint it green with tempera paint. Spike at different spots on the front and back of the tree little nails for the Christmas decorations.

Create a standard of three blocks of wood by pasting the smaller blocks with a half cm space between them on the largest block. Paint the standard. Hang the balls and garlands on the nails. Cut a double peak out of silv and paste the two pieces together. Paste the peak on the tree.
Decorate the tree with little clocks, balls, socks, garlands etc.

Christmas tree in strips

Made by a student of 11 years old

You need:

1. white drawing sheet A4 size
2. black construction paper A4 size
3. tempera paint
4. brush
5. advertising leaflet with Christmas decorations or aluminum foil or scrapbooking paper
6. glue
7. glitter stars
8. small piece of brown paper

Paint a white sheet with a broad brush and undiluted green tempera paint. Apply patches or streaks of different colours, to make the green sheet more vivid. Let the sheet dry.

Tear a trunk out of brown paper. Tear strips of the painted sheet that are about the same width. Place the paper strips on a black sheet in the form of a Christmas tree; the strips have to become slightly shorter. Put the trunk below the bottom strip and paste it. Paste the green strips, so that the trunk disappears partly under the lower strip.

Cut balls and a peak out of aluminium foil or advertising leaflets. You can also use scrapbooking paper. Paste balls and peak on the tree. Cut squares and rectangles (presents!) of coloured paper and paste them under the tree. Paste glitter stars around the tree.

lari washburn : artists who blog

Fresh artist interview for you today! Wonderful, thoughtful, talented Maine artist Lari Washburn will delight your senses and your soul with her beautiful mixed media artwork and peaceful words. Enjoy.

Lari's blog: www.lariwashburn.blogspot.com

Why did you decide to become an artist and could you imagine doing anything else? If so, what?

I don’t really remember deciding to be an artist. My mother was an artist so I grew up with that life…seeing creativity as a way to live. Pretty much everything in our home was made by one of my parents, or it was an antique! I do remember standing in a museum, in front of a painting and deciding to go to school and get a BFA. But I think I was motivated to do this because I saw the joy and power of creating. I can’t imagine doing anything else now.

Do you still believe “do what you love and the money will come“?

I think the saying should be “Do what you love, and be deeply devoted to the practice it will take everyday and maybe the money will follow, but for sure the happiness of being true to yourself will follow.” That’s what I want…to be true to myself.

How has blogging and the Internet influenced your work as an artist?

I see all the possibilities out there, and how endless they are, and that inspires me. I see all the ways people make their lives work, and that excites me. I see things everyday that I would never have thought of or been exposed to, and that is fun. I think everything I take in is food that will ultimately be used by me somehow. I rarely know how this will happen consciously, but I see it later in my work. And I try to take in the best nourishment possible…things that are positive.

Please name 3 of your favorite blogs and tell us why these blogs are special.

Natsumi Nishizumi I enjoy this blog for its simplicity and peaceful quality. I think this artist has a spectacular eye and sense of design, combined with an appreciation of nature that always renews me.

Pia Jane Bijkerk I think the way this artist styles everything is always so fascinating. I like all the texture she adds in her photos and graphics, and how she always focuses on magical and moody-feeling settings. I aspire to add more of this to my blog.

Stitch and Tickle I love Sophie’s blog because she is so curious and inventive about life and her work. She always has something unique and funny and refreshing to write about. She always makes me see things in new ways. And her work is stunning, and I always like to see how it is progressing.

What is your greatest fear and what do you do to overcome it?

I don’t enjoy it when access to my intuitive self is clouded or blocked by too much wishing to be like somebody else! This is a big and sad danger that I try to nip in the bud right away when I see it coming. A good dose of going into the studio and making myself do things that are “bad” and “ugly” and “trite” is my cure.

Who would you like to trade places with for one day? Why?

Oh, maybe Cy Twombly, just to see how it feels to be so in touch with that incredible flow. I love the truth and exploration in his work so much.

What are your secrets for managing your time wisely?

Having a list of things I will accomplish each day and being really diligent about working until they are done. And taking a short nap every day if I can!!

If you could live anywhere in the world – all expenses paid – for one year, where would that be? Why?

I think it would be India. There is such a rich culture there, and so many completely new things to experience. I have heard that it is a very difficult place to visit because the full force of the human condition is presented to you everywhere, but I think if I could be courageous enough to expose myself to that it would expand me. Also, think of the color!

How do you maintain a healthy balance between your professional and private life?

I have work times and not work times. My spiritual practice advises living each day so that 4 things are in balance: right livelihood, service to others, being supportive to those who are emotionally dependent upon me, and time for myself. I try to follow this.

What are your top 5 goals that you’d like to accomplish within the next 5 years?

Be a kinder human being.

Continue to develop my drawing and painting skills.

Continue to develop my textile design skills.

Find gallery representation.

Become a really good photographer.

What is your advice for someone who would like to turn his or her creative dreams into reality?

Write down what you want, picture it in detail, and make some kind of plan to achieve it. Surround yourself with like-minded people. Do at least one thing every day to accomplish what you have said you want to do. Keep swimming no matter what.

Thank you for sharing Lari. Your words and your artwork are both inspirational and poetic.