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Proud

Each summer, I get to take on new challenges, and this summer was no exception. My job, has morphed from simply teaching Arts and Crafts into greater responsibilities including costuming our camp play, special events programming and this.

Three years ago, on a whim, I decided to create a little movie for our end of season banquet. Traditionally, at camp, we celebrated the end of the summer with a "themed" dinner party complete with decorations, centerpieces and even tablecloths (a big deal in camp world!) Anyone who knows me well, knows I love to throw a party, and love good surprises even more.

The theme 3 years ago was a Fifties Soda Shop. "And let's make a movie, too," I thought. Before I knew it, I recast the iconic movie Grease starring members of our camp upper staff. We whipped up some costumes, created a script and somehow, my colleagues were ready and eager to participate. Blessedly, my "Danny Zuko" was so excited by the endeavor, he dove in and took over editing responsibilities. And so, our little production company was born.

Somehow, I'm not sure how, in four days in 2007, we produced a movie that thrilled, surprised and enthralled our campers. This summer banquet has changed from being an exclamation point at the end of our summer, to a favorite and beloved event for our campers and staff.

The theme we chose this summer was also reflective of a special era in our history. The Eighties. Amazing that a time that is so fresh in my mind has now become nostalgia. Defining the '80's of course, is MTV, the inspiration for our video.

For a creative person, there is nothing cooler than taking an idea and turning it into reality. I'm so proud of this endeavor and am so glad to share it with you today!


PS: If you look closely, you may even see the "Camp Art Lady" in this video...she's hanging out in a room with a Jukebox!

Camp Saginaw Banquet 2009 from Jason Darnell on Vimeo.

Setting up Your Camp Arts and Crafts Program

Seven years ago (!) when I was first offered my position as Camp Art Lady, I dove in eagerly, not knowing what to expect. Over the years, I've learned a lot of little tricks, that have been so helpful to me, and, lucky you, I'm going to share some of those tricks right here...right now!

1. Camp lasts for only 8 weeks, but planning your program is a year-round job. Expect to be researching ideas, materials and projects constantly.

2. The internet is your best friend. I am able to find inspirations and project ideas all over the internet. How budget friendly!

3. I look for inspiration in fashion trends and pop culture. I stalk ETSY for other crafters ideas and then look for ways to convert them to camp friendly.

4. My favorite products are: Aleene's Tacky Glue, Fiskars Scissors, Mod-Podge Decoupage Medium (please don't call it "MODGE PODGE"), Sculpey Polymer Clay. Accept NO Substitutes!

5. No need to plan projects for different age campers. Offer the same project to every age group, sometimes making adjustments for older children. It makes your planning simpler, and I promise you, campers always do well.

6. We see campers of all artistic abilities. Arts and Crafts is not Fine Arts. I'd rather keep projects simple, and allow campers to find success than make things so complex that they get frustrated.

7. Always plan projects in advance, and take the time to "work out" how a project is presented before you see your group. Inevitably, adjustments will need to be made.

8. Order Tempera Paints, they can be used for a variety of purposes. We also have smaller amounts of Acrylic Paint on hand for painting directly on wood surfaces.

9. Everything is better with Glitter. Seriously. Some campers will finish projects very quickly, and say..."I'm done!", but you still have lots of time left in your class session. Have plenty of glitter, gems, rhinestones, puffy paint available. Stretch your projects out with lots of embellishing!

10. I always try to have "back pocket" crafts ready to go. You never know when you get a rainy day, or a disruption in the schedule and you need a quicky little craft to present with little notice. Oriental Trading is a great resource for "decorate your own" type crafts that require very little preparation.

11. If you run an all Camp Tie Dye at an overnight camp...be wary of the LAUNDRY! You don't want campers ruining other laundry by throwing a freshly dyed shirt into the general laundry!

12. If wood projects or plaques will need to be hung up on the wall, make sure you provide the proper hardware for campers parent to easily hang them in their home.

13. Of everything your campers do at camp, Arts and Crafts projects are the only thing they get to really share with their parents. Their work is very tangible evidence of their parent's summer financial investment, not to mention, an enormous source of pride for everyone.

14. Be flexible! If there's one thing I've learned in my years at camp, is that no day is typical or predictable. We always have surprises, and the way we respond to those surprises defines us.

Happy Crafting!

Yummy!

I'm a sucker for anything to do with fake food. I came upon this lovely little website, PincStuff.com. She has great photos of adorable jewelry projects made from polymer clay to look like fake food.

I thought I would share with you for a little yummy inspiration!

Popsicle Sticks? Okay!

Anyone that knows me, knows I have a personal dislike of Popsicle stick crafts. Given that I'm the Camp Art Lady, I should really love them, just like I love glitter. But, alas, I don't, I think stuff made out of popsicle sticks looks weird, and unattractive, and who wants that lying around the house?

But yesterday, I received a wonderful suggestion for a super cool, super pretty, super fun craft, made out of the dreaded popsicle stick. I'm so excited about it, I'm offering the link right here.

Thank you INFUSEDgoods!

More Bottle Cap Fun

I have been inspired very recently by Kathy Cano-Murillo, "The Crafty Chica". Her spirit and sense of fun, not to mention her great ideas, have been so helpful to me.

She recently posted a great project for Bottle Cap Magnets. This is a winner of a camp craft. Cheap, easy, and hard to mess up.

I made a similar set today, to try it out, and here they are:
I attached the cute little graphic (I got these from Jelly Bean Lab, an Etsy merchant, and printed them on my computer) with ModPodge to the back of flat backed glass marble.The whole marble then gets glued to the inside of the bottle cap. I filled in the open area with glitter glue, and then embellished the glue with tiny li'l seed beads.

A good magnet goes on the back, and these'll dress up any old boring refrigerator.

I love it when things work out!!!

Jagged Necklace

I'm working so hard trying to complete my programming and projects, that I lost track of time today, just in time to miss taking my daughter for a check-up! Oh no! (I guess I'm not going to earn the Mother of the Year award this year) . We've already rescheduled for next week, plus I found this wonderful project idea along the way.

This would take at least 4 days to complete, and is really more appropriate for our older campers, but the end product is really, really pretty!

Click here to see full tutorial on Beadage.net

Personalized Name Plaque

The kids are back to school today, so that means I'm back, looking for new fun ideas for my campers. I came across this one today, on the PLAID website (which is chock full of sweet inspiration).

Full instructions can be found here.

Stamp-a-Pin

Envirotex Lite is one of my very favorite products. Pour it on any project, and it gives a clear resin-like finish. Colors POP...and it just gives a very finished, professional look to your crafts.

I came across this little project for pins made with Rubber Stamp. It seems simple enough. Stamp a design onto card stock, color it in, cut it out, and then watch magic happen by adding Envirotex Lite with a paint brush.

Click here for project instructions.

For the Real Girlie Girls

I actually really think this is a great little craft, appropriate either in a jewelry program, or a general arts and crafts program.

Decorate silk flowers with rhinestones and beads, and then attach to a barrette, for a stylish hair flower.

I love to shop at Walmart, where I always find super cheap silk(ish?) flowers.

Project directions can be found here.

Great Resource

I always have my eye out for websites with great tutorials and ideas. Here's a new one I've found. Enjoy!

www.cutoutandkeep.net

Sparkling Beaded Candleholder

I've been holding on to this one for a couple of years (no kidding!), and I think this is the year we're going to do it. This is a great way to use up random beads that we've acquired over the years.

Votive holders can be purchased fairly inexpensively through Candles 4 Less.

Instructions for this project can be found here.

Polymer Clay Pens

I love crafts that are useful. Here's an old favorite of mine, that fits the bill perfectly!

Click here for HGTV tutorial.

More Chihuli Inspired Art!

Last week I posted a beautiful project inspired by the renowned glass artist, Chihuly. I came upon this project today, which is another lovely option inspired by the same artist. Enjoy!

Initial Necklace

(Oh, how I love to find new craft websites! Crafty Chica is my latest favorite!)

This initial necklace is made with polymer clay, which is then painted with a metallic paint.

So adorable!

Safety Pin Bracelet

Here's a chic safety pin bracelet courtesy of the Crafty Chica. We've made these in the past, and I can tell you that my 15 year old daughter still wears her DAILY! This is a perfect camp craft, but careful, this is a lot more time consuming than you might expect. Allot 3 hours to complete this!

Water Balloon Votives

Each year, I include some kind of candle making in our curriculum. Last year, we rolled candles from beeswax. In years past, we've organized a carefully choreographed "Candle Dip" where campers take turns dipping wicking into crockpots filled with melted wax.

I saw this tutuorial for a variation on our classic candle dip, and am eager to give it a whirl. Instead of dipping candle wicks, a water balloon is filled with cool water and dippped into the wax several times until a thick shell forms, which then serves as a votive holder for a tea light candle.

We'll be right back after this moment of silliness...

Just got a kick out of this video, I've felt like this myself many times!

Laurel Burch Inspired Earrings

For our upcoming summer, I'm making an effort to find inspiration in popular artists works and apply them to camp projects. I found the Laurel Burch felines so charming, and I think our campers will find them appealing as well.

The earring's pictured above are cloisonne, sell anywhere from $20 to $30. I think we can get a similar effect using (my FAVORITE) Shrinky Dinks. We will provide campers with a template of the outline of these adorable kitties, as well as some pattern ideas. They'll color them in, using colored pencil, and outline with Sharpies and cut them out.

We'll punch a hole in the top of them before we bake them and watch them shrink....

Shrink Film can now be found in a variety of colors(!) through Nasco , and that will certainly add to the fun of this great little project.

Classroom Chihuli

Blick Arts and Crafts has been around for years. I was very lucky to meet with two of the representatives at a recent camp convention. I've mentioned before that they have some of the best lesson plans and ideas for Art Teachers.

They now provide beautifully detailed video lessons on a variety of their projects. What an incredible help for the Camp Art Lady! I normally don't get to "try-out" projects prior to our summer sessions, as our materials are shipped directly to camp. With these videos, I can be more comfortable selecting projects that I feel will work within our curriculum.

The Classroom Chihuli was originally presented a year or two ago, and it's always struck me as an attractive project, but honestly, the written directions confused me! Click HERE to see the video tutorial for this beautiful project!

If you prefer, here is the PDF version of the instructions.

Pretty in Pink Bracelet

Oriental Trading is a great resource for art supplies and project ideas. What's even better for the group leader, they break down each craft and show you exactly the beads you need to complete the project.

We strive to offer jewelry projects that will be treasured and appreciated. This bracelet certainly fits the bill. For variety, I might order the beads in a second color to offer campers a choice.

This beading project can be found here.

Marbleized Paper

In my first summer teaching Arts and Crafts, we offered paper marbling to our campers. It remains one of my favorite crafts, as it truly appeals to all ages. Below is a clip from Martha Stewart on marbling, you can see how much fun it is.

She uses a gelatinous water thickening agent and acrylic paints to cause the separation of liquids that creates the funky marbleized design. We have used marbling dyes that can be ordered through enasco.com. They are oil based, so there is no need for any thickening agent.

In a group setting, we use one pan of water shared between 3 to 4 campers. They agree on a "color palate" between them. They each take turns dipping paper in the solution. You can marble nearly any kind of paper. (We've used blank stationary).

Enjoy!

Eco-Friendly Shrinky Dinks

Who knew?? You can shrink recyclable plastic containers marked "6", very much the same as Shrinky Dinks...

Check out this tutorial for a very cute bracelet...

Eco-Friendly Bracelet

My Favorite Craft Book

I wanted to share a really cool craft book I picked up once at the bargain rack at Borders. It has some really beautiful craft inspirations, great from camp and home use.

It's still a bargain, only about Five Bucks (and Change) at Amazon...

Follow this link

Enjoy!!!

Flower Pot Pen

I kid you not, this is one of my favorite classic crafts. The "flower" you see here is really a pen in disguise. Totally cute, right?

For this craft, you'll need:

Artificial flower
Plastic encased ball point pen
Floral Tape
Mini Clay Pots
Beans or rice to fill pot
Little Plastic Bags to wrap craft
Paint or rub-ons to decorate pot

Before your campers join you, prepare flowers by removing stems. Discard stems. Remove little cap from back of your pen (depending on the brand of pen you choose, this can be a little tricky...pliers help). With a glue gun, use a drop or two of glue to adhere the flower into the pen.

Have your campers choose their favorite flower, and wrap floral tape around their pen, stretching the floral tape as they wrap.

Decorate the flower pot as you please. We've done decoupage, paint (that can be really a mess!), stickers, rub-ons, etc.

Fill the inside of the pot with dried beans,then insert the pen.

Helpful hint: So you don't spill the beans (literally!), The Camp Art Lady recommends wrapping these in plastic favor bags tied with ribbon or raffia. Makes a really pretty gift, too!

Uses: We made these once for a Girl Scout Mother Daughter Dinner. The girls each made slightly larger pots than pictured, and filled each with 3 pens. They served as centerpieces, and then each mother was given one as a party favor. So CUTE!!!