Doodle Art (continued)

Along with the Adult Coloring Book Craze that exploded in 2015, there is a type of doodling sweeping the nation (the world, really) trademarked Zentangle. Actually, Zentangle has been around a few years and doesn't seem to be just your average "doodling". There are RULES to Zen tangling. After studying up a bit on this art form, I've come to find out my art doesn't always follow the "Zentangle rules".

Zentangle was created by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts.  The idea surrounding Zentangle is that you set aside 20 minutes or more to draw something repetitive and abstract on a small 3.5 x 3.5 inch card (also known as a tile), with a black marker or pen (no erasers, no colors). You just let the creativity flow, and ultimately go into a comfortable, meditative sort of state. You don't draw anything recognizable, it is all abstract. There are special Zentangle patterns (over 100 of them), some quite intricate. Most can be found on the internet.

Here is my first attempt at a tangle piece.  (It's actually too large to be a "true" Zentangle, being 5x7 inches.)  My husband actually asked to take this one to his office to have on his desk.  That kind of made my day.

　
In order to teach Zentangles to others, you have to be a Certified Zentangle Teacher. There are three Certified Zentangle instructors in North Dakota.  I wish there were more because I'd really like to take a few classes.
Want to learn more? Here is the official website. https://www.zentangle.com/

While I really want to learn more about Zentangle, my art is more "doodle art".  So, this is my new "Doodle Art" box.  It has a top layer and a bottom layer that snap together.

 

 

The bottom layer holds my small binder, extra cardstock and 3.5 x 3.5 cardstock tiles that I made myself.

 

 

I found the small binder at a garage sale (score!).  I bought extra page protectors for it at Target.  The binder is divided into sections.  There is a section for step-by-step instructions, for the more complicated tangles, most of which I find on Pinterest. 

 

 

It also has pages covered with the same small squares for simple patterns that do not need to be broken down step-by-step. 

 

 

There is one final section of completed 3.5 x 3.5 cards (two per page) that I have finished doodling.  I backed these on black cardstock to help the doodles to "pop" off the page. 

 

I made my own cardstock tiles using a paper cutter and my old Creative Memories corner rounder. The actual Zentangle tiles are made with special paper and can be found in stores and online, but I only need a few at a time, so I just make my own.

 

 

Inside the top layer of my doodle art box, I have another smaller snap-box that holds my pens, pencils, eraser, etc.  I've had the Micron Pens for a very long time and some of them are close to being empty.  Sakura Micron pens are my favorite art pen, I've been using them for years, and nobody pays me to say that haha! 

 

 

I also keep a small sketchbook in the top.  This sketchbook fits in my purse and goes with me (along with a pen) to the Doctor's office or anywhere I might need to wait in line. 

 

 

This is a small tangle that I did while waiting for my daughter at choir practice.  Yup, there's a mistake in there.  Can you see it?

 

 

It has been nice to be drawing again, and I'm excited to learn more about "Zentangle" as time allows!  As I get into the doodling groove, you can expect to see a few posts about my progress in the future.

That's all for today!  Until another time, have a happy, creative day!

Daycare/Preschool Curriculum Organized

I know this isn't a daycare blog (maybe I should start a daycare blog?) For the last month or so I've been getting my preschool curriculum organized for the upcoming school year.  Like I said earlier, I will have four daycare kids ages 3 and up, and would love to set aside some time each day for preschool/ learning time.  We have a learning time now, but it's not as structured as I'd like it to be.  It's good to be flexible, but sometimes it's good to also have a plan.  That's what I've been up to lately....planning.

 

I want my everyday items to be accessible.  At first I thought one of these would be GREAT! 

A little background on this...I watched this episode of the TV show The Apprentice YEARS ago when one of the teams developed this product for Staples. 

The Desk Apprentice

At the time of the show my husband laughed and said that NO ONE would buy such a monstrosity and they were fools for producing them.  Weeeelll, I kinda wanted one for my daycare/teaching supplies, but really didn't have the space for one (they are a whopping 16x16x11inches)!

 

Then I saw one in action in a Kindergarten classroom and wanted one even MORE!

 

Now I'm seeing them all over Pinterest.  Homeschoolers, teachers, and daycare providers are using them to store their "everyday use" materials.  This is just what I need!
 

 This summer I have been making all sorts of file folder games, wipe-off marker sheets, and other activities.  And what have I been keeping them in?

 

That's right Ladies and Gents...it's a cereal box. 

 



The cereal box is not my friend.  It's flimsy and difficult to hold onto when I'm getting it in and out of the cupboard.  So the desk apprentice would be great....but.

 

There is a problem with the desk apprentice, it won't fit in my daycare cupboard!

Sigh.  So in early July I began searching for something similar, just not quite as big.
First, I tried my old purple file box I used during my student teaching time.
It worked okay, but wasn't very convenient, and again, it didn't really fit in my cupboard.

Finally, I found this blue, file holder with handles at Target!  I wish I'd bought two or three!

This file holder fits in my cupboard and holds all of my "activity" sheets and file folder games!

One problem solved.  Now on to organizing our curriculum.
I have THEME binders that I've used for a very long time and they work great.  With the help of page protectors and a 3-hole punch, I can store songs, finger-plays, craft ideas, posters, worksheets and even small books, all in one place.  For example ALL of my apple stuff is in the "Apple Binder". 

But for reproducing worksheets they are kind of a pain.  I have to take the binders to Office Max, fish out the originals and make copies one-by-one.  It takes FOREVER.

I kept the theme binders mostly intact, but I took out all of the pintables I want to do with the kids, and organized them by week.

We are going to work week-by-week, instead of theme-to-theme.
Each week will have:
 an alphabet letter page
a cutting page or activity that involves using scissors,
a math activity, 
a couple of coloring pages,
a craft project (or two) related to our theme,
 and a story book with activities linked to the book. 

Each week has three page protectors.  One for originals, copies, and plans.

A page protector of originals.

A page protector of copies (to be handed out to the children to be colored, cut and what-have-you).

And a page protector for the week's plans with plenty of space at the bottom to make notes, jot down finger-plays, etc. (to be filled in).

 

All of the page protectors containing "originals" go into the "originals binder"
The page protectors full of copies go into one of two "worksheets/activities binders"

 

WHY on EARTH did I do all of this?  One reason was to separate the originals out and have them all be in one binder.  I can make copies at my husband's office for about 1/2 of what it costs at the local copy center, but he says he'd like me to do it all in one shot (as he has to sit there and watch me make the copies), and it can't take all day.  (Haha, he knows me so well).  It will be SO much easier to grab the originals binder, copy the activities need for all of the weeks and place the originals BACK into the binder. 

 

And if I REALLY feel like getting crazy with the planning, I can sit down some Sunday night and put each day's projects and supplies into their own daily envelope.  (I've had these forever...at least 13 years, if not more).  I've done that before and it works really well!  If we don't get to an activity on Monday, I just move it to the Tuesday folder or to a day when we don't have much else going on. (I keep Friday either open or light with activities and use it as a "catch-up" day.

 
Well, I've got to run. Whew!  That was a lot of organization for one post!  I hope it was all understandable. 

Until another day, happy organizing!

 

 

 

 

Daycare Circle-Time Board

This is what I worked on last Saturday...pretty much all. day. long.  And it still needs some changes.

 

It's a "bulletin board" of sorts for circle-time. 

I will have four children this coming fall who are ages 3 and up, and would like to spend a few minutes each morning doing "preschool" activities while the two babies have their morning naps.  I know morning naps won't last forever, but we'll see how well we can squeeze in some preschool time at some point or another during our day.  Some days it might only be 10 minutes, sometimes longer. 

 

 

We will talk about colors and learn our color words by sight.  A couple of the kiddos already know them, but could use some practice.  We will say the ABCs together, then have fun picking different letters at random.

 

I used baseball card sleeves that I picked up at the Goodwill for my color flashcards.  I will remove the colored cards, leaving the color words.  Children will say the color word and I will put the corresponding colored card into the space below it.  I would like to do this with learning numbers and number words as well, but that will have to come along later.

 

 

 

I'd like to do something different with the shapes as well, but I really like the look of the turquoise behind all of the pastel colored shapes.

 

I have different "opposite" cards than the ones shown for the four squares of green below the shapes.  The opposite cards I will use are by Carson Dellosa and fit much better than the taller, Sesame Street ones.  I may trim the 4 squares down to only 2 squares in order to make room for a different shape poster.

 



 

It's a work in progress, but has been keeping me very busy.  There are so many things to do this summer to prepare for a good year of daycare preschool!  I'm finding that if I have everything ready: worksheets copied, arts-n-crafts supplies ready, and some plans written out ahead of time, it is much easier to stay on track each day and week.  Unfortunately, with all my free-time going towards daycare projects, I haven't had much time for quilting and embroidery.  But, I suppose that's what the winter months will be good for.

 

That's all for today!  Until another time, have a happy, learning day!

 

 

 



New Embroidery Floss!

The local craft store had a sale!  Around here, DMC thread only goes on sale once or twice a year, so this time I went prepared with a long list of DMC colors I've been needing.

Once each thread was properly wound onto two bobbins per color, the next chore was fitting them into the thread boxes in their correct DMC order.  That took a couple of evenings to do.

With the bobbins in their correct places, the boxes look so full and pretty.

 



 

That's all I have for you today!  Have a happy week everybody!

The Summer of Mailbox Magazines!

This past June I was lucky enough to stumble upon a former teacher's garage sale.  For those who don't know it, I'm a sucker for all of the stuff that comes with being a teacher.  Especially Preschool and Kindergarten teaching. I love the stickers, the plan books and room decor.  I love the organizational products with pockets and binders with page protecting sleeves.  Again, it is a sickness.  But in my defense, I use much of it with my Daycare kids and they love it too.
At the garage sale, this retired teacher had tons of stickers for the little miss of the household and a whole year's subscription to the Mailbox Magazine for Kindergarten.  So I counted out my quarters and scooped them up. 

I had so much fun looking through them and finding little projects for my daycare kids to do!  Because they are kindergarten and not preschool mailboxes, some of the activities are a bit too difficult for my kids, so I'll glean from this set what I can than donate them.... 

Because in August....

...I found these at our library book sale.  They weren't library copies either, they were donated by someone who used them and loved them well.  Some of the activities have been removed but for the most part they are in great condition.

Yeah, that's a lot of Mailbox Magazines and they are ALL Preschool.  I felt a little bit greedy buying them all, but I did leave a few...okay, only four.  But here's my plan.  Not only will I donate the Kindergarten ones I don't need any longer, but will also go through each one of these, photocopy the pages I like, copy great ideas onto note cards and donate most of them to my two friends that teach Kindergarten here in town (they would love to have a few I'm sure).  So I won't be keeping the majority of them.
Problem is, there are so many of them to go through!  I've been setting aside time each week (3 hours/week, while the little miss is in choir practice at the college), to copy ideas and mark pages I want to photocopy.  So, instead of driving back and forth across town, I just park my behind at a table on campus and get to work.  I suppose it could be considered "career enrichment" ha!
It's actually quite fun!

The small stack on the left side (6 magazines) have been browsed through, ideas written onto note cards, and pages already copied and put into theme folders.  It takes awhile, but it's like Christmas everyday, opening up a new Mailbox!  (This doesn't include the six Kindergarten ones I'd already read).

THIS is one of the reasons I haven't been embroidering? 

Until another day, have a happy one!

Embroidery Floss Storage

Last Saturday we took a little trip over to our local Walmart, and as I wandered down the crafting aisle I spotted this COOL bead storage bag. 

Finally!  After years of looking for a bag in which to store my embroidery floss, I've found one that works!  I still love my train case and will still use it on occasion, but this will be easier and lighter to travel with when I go to crafting get-togethers.  And the best part is...it comes with FOUR clear, divided cases for floss!  My floss fills two of the cases rather tightly, so I may expand to a third and will also be able to carry all of my variegated floss and Gutermann thread as well!

And I love that the zip-up top is clear so that I can see all of the beautiful flosses together.  The zipper is a little temperamental at times and I hope it holds (for a few years at least), but all in all it is an excellent case for the 20$ price tag.  Perfect for floss storage!

 

 

Now to get stitchin' on those squirrels!!

 

Until next time,

Happy Stitching!!



Embroidery Floss Organization (yes, again)

In April I got the itch to, once again, re-organize my embroidery floss.  It was getting harder and harder to keep my collection of colors restricted to only one box.  And if I was using a particular color fairly heavily, I would run out so quickly because I had made the bobbins as thin as possible.  The situation was frustrating.  The only alternative I could see was to combine all of my colors (in most instances two bobbins of each color) into two boxes instead of just one.
But why stop there.  Why not put them in DMC color order?
Why???  Because it dawned on me that the "new colors" were added as part of previous color scheme groups and the only way to really "see" that was to buy the color chart.  (Clear as mud, right?)

I had studied the DMC color sample card at Hobby Lobby a couple of times, but thought they were only for more professional stitchers...but I decided that I really needed one for this project. 
At the time I purchased it, I had no idea that DMC used to have a card on the market with ACTUAL thread samples inside!  A little more pricy, but more accurate color-wise.  But I'm not a professional, or a counted cross-stitcher, so this DMC "printed color" card will do.  Besides, #1 I had a coupon and #2 I never had an actual thread sample card before, so really don't know what I'm missing.

When unfolded you are able to see six pages of all the beautiful DMC colors.

 

In order to know which colors I have available in my floss boxes, I decided to mark the numbers with tiny black dots.  Hmmm, looks like I might have to pick up some 3760, 517 and 3842.  They are really pretty colors and would finish off that turquoise color scheme nicely.  Maybe I'll wait until floss goes on sale.  Ah, that will be a good day....a fun day.  (Remember, it's the simple things in life...)

The pages on the other side of the card are filled with pictures and descriptions of the different kinds of threads DMC makes, so a person can know just what kind of thread they will need for each particular project.

So, with the new chart set up in front of me, I began sorting out my threads, one color-group at a time.

Here are the two boxes before.  The box on the left was for everyday use and contained one bobbin of each color I have and the box on the right held the extra "doubles" of each color.

The process moved along quite slowly.  It took around 5 hours over a few evenings to get all of the flosses marked on the card, sorted and into their boxes in number order. 

After.  Now all of the floss is still in two boxes but all together.  This arrangement makes so much more sense.

Now I'm all ready to stitch.  Maybe some cute little squirrels patterns will be next!
Until another day, Happy Stitching!!

Art Organization

Organizational tools make my heart flutter.  I love, I love, I love them.
Sometimes I seriously think that I have so many hobbies, just so I'll have stuff to organize.  It's like a sickness, I mean check this out.

My sea shells all have little plastic compartments that they live in.  I spend more time organizing and cataloging them than I do just looking at them.

My rubber stamping stuff lives in a giant Sassaby Cosmetics Caboodle type of thing.  Again, lots of compartments for all of the little things that go along with stamping.

And don't even get me started with my children's book collection...(I think I would have enjoyed being a librarian).

Now, even my embroidery items have been organized.

But the hobby that really takes the cake when it come to organization is scrapbooking.  
The organizational companies took one look at the scrapbooking craze and jumped on it like a duck on a June bug.  They produced a wide variety of boxes, folders, binders and totes, each with a gazillion little plastic pockets and compartments to stow tons of scrapbooking essentials.  And thank goodness they did!  Scrapper girls were able to clear the dining room table of scrap supplies and feed their families again in proper style!

I used to watch QVC's Scrap and Craft day and they would have a whole hour set aside exclusively for organizational items.  There were Art Bin boxes, Solutions boxes, and totes of all kinds, ones with wheels, pockets, and flaps that opened and held all of your pens. All items that would get my heart beating faster. 




And even though I no longer scrapbook, I still love to organize my craft supplies and artwork.And these sweet organizers from Creative Memories are AMAZING for artwork and sketches!

http://www.creativememories.com/Content/Shop/Product.aspx?pr=InspectOffering&s=640218&dpr=BrowseCategory&ds=/Hierarchy/Paper%20Scrapbooking/Organizers

Back in college, I had an elementary education professor who liked the word "packetize". Everything was done in packets. There were packets of worksheets, packets of note cards, etc.  She was actually delivered to class in a packet, would unfold herself and begin to teach.   She would love this product, and would probably create an assignment around it!   I can just hear her saying, "For tomorrow class, I would like you to create 5 reading and language arts file folder games with manipulatives that can be stored in the pockets of this packet, and every pocket must be used."  (I'd have loved that assignment!)

But I use mine for drawings.
Each folder has large center pocket that can hold 12x12 paper, and has pockets of other sizes on the front and back.
Here is the front side...I labeled the photos because the pockets are hard to see.

 

 

 

And here is the back side of the file.

And then the big 12x12 pocket in the middle holds large drawings!

If you were counting along, that is SIX pockets in all!  Woo Hoo!  That's a lot of packetizing!

Until another day,
Happy Crafting and Organizing!