For this project I used my Cricut machine and a simple lantern pattern which you can find on the system if you search “lantern”. I cut it out as big as I could using the 12”x24” mat. I drew four images on a transparent piece of paper. You could use something like vellum or even tracing paper then add color with markers or colored pencils. Cut or trim your images if you have to in order to glue them into the frames of the lantern. Then, assemble the lantern and place a flameless tea light candle inside!

The subjects you choose to depict are of course totally up to you, I have chosen to show balance of power, civil rights, environmental issues and gun violence.

Take a close look at how I’ve assembled this project in the video below. I hope you guys enjoy it!

It is Halloween time again folks, my all time favorite! And I’ve recently been obsessed with molding Model Magic by Crayola. This clay like material is so versatile and fun to work with, it’s very malleable and the best part is that it’s super clean, so you can let the kids make art with it at the table or in the classroom without the mess that’s made from other clays. Here I’m going to show you a few examples of the spooky Halloween sculptures I’ve made. However, I didn’t make photo tutorials for these but I will tell you all about ‘em!

Above is this chic and scary scene, I think I went a little modern spooky on this one and I’m so happy with how it turned out. So don’t forget that Model Magic works great in molds. You can of course buy silicone molds online but I went to the dollar store and bought hollow plastic decorations like skulls and pumpkins too. The plastics are cheap and thin enough to cut with an Exacto knife or craft knife so that they can be used as molds. Ice trays are also fantastic for molding Model Magic and creating your own sculptures.

The frames are a silicone mold I bought on Amazon, they are great and came in a set of 7. After you press the Model Magic into your molds just pop them out and let them dry overnight. The Model Magic doesn’t fully harden for at least a week or two but you can start painting the next day. Paint the Model Magic with craft paint and embellish how you’d like. For my skull above I glued on some plastic gems!

​Check out my photos below for a quick look at the rest of the materials I used!

Check out this guy laying exposed in his grave, poor soul! Ok so for this guy I casted my own mold using something called mold gel. The skeleton is one of the little plastic decorations you find in the dollar store. You mix the mold gel according to the directions, pour it into a small, deep tray or receptacle and then place the plastic toy/decoration or whatever it is you want to cast into the mold gel, let it dry then pop the plastic figure out, the remaining result is a mold very similar to a store bought silicone mold. You can then use it to create your sculptures. The tombstone and pumpkin were molded from an ice cube tray.

I just love this little spooky scene! It’s like a complete piece of Halloween heaven! Oh and I’ve also added some glow in the dark paint to this sculpture for a bit more of Halloween magic!

Definitely the most gruesome of them all is this zombie head. I took one of the larger plastic skulls from the dollar store, cut it in half and used it as a mold. After I had my skull I added Model Magic features like, eyes, ears and a nose. This helped it to look less like a skull and more like a zombie’s face. All of the details help too like the flaps of skin, lips and some texture like forehead lines and the holes in the chin. Some great tools to use for sculpting are plastic palette knives and toothpicks!

Be creative and have fun, Halloween is also about imperfections so remember that your sculptures don’t have to be perfect!

Ever since I was a kid I could always remember being absolutely enchanted by Halloween, there is such a fascinating magic about it's uniqueness and the traditions we’ve grown to love. I truly love this time of year and kind of wish it would last forever!

​I’ve partnered with Treetopia.com to create this mysterious black Halloween tree which really brings that feeling of the spooky season into the room, the orange lights, the skeletons, pumpkins and paper houses all compliment this fantastic Halloween tree. In this post I’m going to share with you a few things, one, my cute little Halloween paper houses which you can find in the shop here at The Art Dream! And two, this awesome giveaway presented by Treetopia!

I just love these little paper haunted houses for Halloween, I think they hold such importance for the season because without our loving neighborhoods where would the kids go trick or treating? These houses are a symbolic reference to the neighborhood we love all haunted and ready for Halloween! Houses play such a pivotal role in our communities, they’re our homes and where all of the memories of Halloween are made. I’ve created many of these houses over the years and this time they’ve ended up on my Treetopia tree as ornaments. If you like these paper haunted houses then you can find them in the shop here at The Art Dream!

I’ll show you how I’ve added the bases and bottle brush trees as well as how to construct the houses themselves!

Take a look at my video tutorial for constructing these houses, it seems complicated but it’s really fun to do and so rewarding when they’re all finished!

If you’d like to turn them into ornaments for your Halloween tree then check out my photo tutorial below.

Materials:

• Haunted paper house printables found in the shop
• Bottle brush trees
• Thin cardboard or chipboard
• ​Black cardstock paper
• Craft paint
• Tacky glue
• Glitter
• ​Ribbon or string
• ​Hot glue
  

Directions:

Step 1. Cut out equal numbers of both cardboard and black cardstock paper circles at about 3 1/2 inches.

Step 2. Paint your bottle brush trees like candy corns with craft paint, let them dry while you work on the rest of the project.

Step 3. Spread tacky glue evenly on the cardboard circles and glue on a black circle.

Step 4. Spread glue on top of the black circle and sprinkle on glitter, allow the circles to dry well. You can even sandwich them in a book to be sure they dry nice and flat.

Step 5. Lastly, hot glue your houses to the base along with your bottle brush trees. Glue on string or ribbon for hooks. Add whatever other details you’d like!

If you want to check out the tree I used in this post then just visit this link here to Treetopia!

Have you been looking for some elements of art posters and always end up finding the same ol’ thing? I do, that’s why I created these fun posters to hang in my classroom so my students can reference them any time! The elements of art are the foundation of art making which is ever changing, let’s change our reference right along with it!

If you like these posters then get them here in the shop at The Art Dream! Might as well check out my other fantastic printables while you’re at it!

So yep, I’m kind of bored and tired of the elements of art posters I find in art supply catalogues, aren’t you? They’re all the same and they don’t reflect my art making or teaching style. Plus they are dated and not very pleasing to look at in my opinion and they are so expensive!

​So I thought well I’m a creative artist, why don’t I make my own? Although they aren’t going to be the biggest posters, they’re still 7 of them which is great for a small bulletin board or a tri-fold foam core board display, something I could whip out when needed. I actually have a long and narrow bulletin board along the top of my classroom that is too short for posters so these will be perfect to occupy that spot!

There are 7 posters included in this purchase, color, line, shape, texture, form, space and value. All of them designed by me to convey the elements in a fun and trendy way. I want my students to be able to look at these posters and immediately understand why each element is important so they can apply the techniques to their own artwork!

These posters can be stapled right to a bulletin board, trimmed down, laminated, framed or however you choose to display them! Be sure to put a big “Elements of Art” sign above them so everyone knows just what they are. Have fun and be creative.

​The download can be found in the shop, just follow the link!

Pull kids away from the game once in a while and create a fun project like my stuffed felt Loot Llama, it’ll teach them a new skill (sewing/stitching) while still feeding their appetite for Fortnite! We have to learn to pick our battles too so why not take some of their current interests and turn them into fun, engaging art projects?

The llamas above were created by myself and my 11 year old niece! She did an amazing job, and it was completely made by her with minimal help from me!

I’ve collaborated with Trixi Symonds over at colouredbuttons.com on this project for “Sew a Softie” month. You can find some great sewing tutorials and tips from Trixi so be sure to visit Coloured Buttons for more info on how to sew. If you’d like to see my full tutorial and get the pattern for this loot llama then keep reading!

It’s the perfect time to make some fluttering friends with the kids, students, your family or even your friends! Just try my free printables from The Art Dream! All you need is a toilet tube and some imagination. If you like these then check out my shop too for even more fun and exciting crafts for everyone!

I’ve gotten such nice feedback on these cute butterfly and Bee papercrafts and I thought with the nice weather finally approaching that it be nice to share these crafts with you again. So grab some materials and get outside to make these little bugs.

Download the bee below right here at The Art Dream! If you like the butterfly then visit the link to hellowonderful.co for the download!

Above is an example my friend Cara from raisingkinley.com created with her daughter Kinley! They came out great! So glad t0 hear you guys had fun making the butterflies!

Please right click the file and save it to your computer before printing. If you are having trouble with the printed size of the image, make sure that you select "fit to page" or "print actual size" in your printer options window. Do not print from the open window of your internet browser after clicking on the file, your printout will be very tiny!

Materials:

• Printer
• White cardstock paper
• Toilet tube or paper towel tube
• Scissors or craft knife
• Glue
• Stapler or tape
• Markers, crayons etc

​
Directions:

Step 1. Print the color your own bee, then color with your choice of markers, crayons etc.

Step 2. Cut with scissors or a craft knife.

Step 3. Wrap around a toilet tube. Secure with glue, tape or a stapler.

Step 4. Fold back tabs on wings and glue them to the sides of the tube.

Step 5. Add your own details if you'd like.

This was actually the first art show our school has ever had, can you believe that? Art has always been important to the staff here, they have some incredible paintings hung in the halls by former students. Now, we are introducing an art show where we can show off a little bit of everything that all of our art teachers and their students are producing through the course of the year. The theme for our art show was “Inspired by Nature” so we tried to incorporate the idea of nature with the projects we presented to our students. It all turned out so much better than we expected!

We also conducted two paint-a-long classes for our visitors and students, everyone had a blast making their own creations. We showed our guests some special techniques and just let them go to town! I highly suggest that you consider adding a little activity to your art show, it creates a nice atmosphere and then everyone leaves with a takeaway at the end.

I’m already thinking about how we can make the art show even better next year. Check out the gallery below to see more of the artwork and the fun time we had painting!

Have you witnessed one of these large paper flower backdrops for parties and other large events? They are truly awe inspiring and leave you feeling mesmerized! Try making your own large flowers, if I can do it than anyone can. I used the Cricut for these and although it was a lot of work, it was easy work and the results make it all worth it.

So once in a while I use my Cricut for projects, it was always especially helpful when I worked with special needs kids and preparing for their art projects. This year I am teaching High School and our art show is nature inspired so it gave me the chance to use the Giant Flowers cutouts. I cut 33 flowers, the rose, poppy, peony, daisy and blue bell. I am really happy with how these turned out!

I first prepared the images by making them the size I wanted in the Cricut app. I wanted them large but not too big that each petal would take up too much space on one sheet of paper. I used about 4-5 sheets of 12”x12” colored paper for the flower petals. I also prepared 3 cutting mats with the cardstock paper so that once one cut was finished cutting the next mat was ready to go into the machine. For directions on putting the flowers together just check out the link here.

The smaller flowers were made with some of the Flower Shoppe cutouts and I used them to fill in the empty spots. I also cut out a bunch of leaves to give it that complete organic look!

This magical papercraft will give you all the feels, a unicorn, rainbow and a cloud are all included in this download, add your own special details to make it even more majestic! I worked with the fantastic hellowonderful.co on this printable papercraft and she did a fantastic job at adding her own details! Just head on over there to check it out! If you want to make this awesomely enchanted craft then get the download right here at The Art Dream below!

​Be sure to also check out my original printables in the shop as well!

I wanted to create an accordion type of craft, one that’s movable and fun to play with, I just love interactive projects, it breathes a sense of life into the craft. Movement is such an integral part of our lives too, let’s make sure that the crafts and projects we do with the kids expreriment with motor functions that give kids a basic understanding of how things work!

To get a list of materials and see some directions on how to put this together visit hellowonderful.co, but first download the printable below!

Check out my short video for a peek at my super cool flying unicorn! Isn’t it a beauty? Be sure to tell me all about how you made your unicorn special.

I added some iridescent cellophane paper t0 the back of my rainbow that I cut up with hand shredding scissors to give my craft some extra sparkle, I think this makes for an even more magical experience. Be sure to get creative and try out different materials and techniques when making your own projects!

I’ve also been telling my students to make art more meaningful, to think about the subjects, colors or patterns they choose. I want them to make art that reflects something important to them or that reflects their own personality in some way. Being able to make art is a very powerful tool when you want to share an opinion or turn your feelings and grief into an external reminder of what you believe in. So remember to make art with intention and passion, you’ll never know who you’ll inspire by doing so.

The storm cloud represents the turmoil and tragedy turned into a powerful force, one that will rain down and wash away old, dated views in hopes that new positive changes will come into effect. Each person killed is represented by a raindrop who’s deaths will not be in vain because I’m hopeful that laws will change to make us all safer! Over the past couple of months I’ve witnessed some of the most brave young people determined to make a difference, I commend them for their resilience and tenacity.

My cloud was actually pretty easy to make, I cut two pieces of felt exactly the same then stitched on all of my details with bakers twine to one piece of the felt. I then cut out the raindrops and stitched on some beads. I glued two raindrops together with the string in-between. I glued the top of the string to the inside of the cloud and then began to use a blanket stitch to seal up the cloud. Just before finishing the stitch I stuffed the pillow well with fiber fill and sealed it up.

Have fun making felt creations and be sure to make it meaningful too!