'Crafting BEAUTIFUL BIRDS' from Clay, with lashings of jewels & sequins and lovingly finished off with smothers of PVA...VERY excited about this one!

This activity proved to be an absolute winner!  

The children LOVE working with clay.  I have just had my third lot delivered - have gone from 2kg, to 5kg to now 12.5kg as its so in demand!

This activity is called 'Crafting BEAUTIFUL BIRDS'.

You will need:

Airdrying clay

Beads/sequins/Sparklies

Feathers

Googly eyes.

PVA Glue

1.
Take a palmful of clay and begin to mould into a bird shape.  It doesn't have to be brilliant but we googled some bird shapes and worked from those.

2.
Applique is the way here.  Enjoy every moment of applying all your sparkles.  Glitter might work really well here too.

 3.
Once your bird is looking lovely it's off to the airing cupboard with it.    24hrs in the warmth is all thats needed.  If you don't have a warm space pop it on the radiator and leave well alone for a day or two.

4.
When your bird is dry, you need to cake it with PVA glue.   The glue dries clear so don't worry about layering it on.  Once again, leave to dry overnight.

5.
When your bird is dry, she is ready to enjoy.

Much love, Sam x

Let's make...'Dreamy Dream Catchers' Perfect for a rainy afternoon in with the babes..

'DREAMY DREAM CATCHERS'

Perfecto for rainy afternoons indoors, another gem from the wonderful Marion Sweet...now retired childminder after some 20 years and all round general superstar in all things make & do-ey!  I adore her. 

Righto:

Gather all the materials that you can muster, Marion have tried to use all things that we might have around the house.

You will need:

A paper plate with the centre cut out

Colour felt tips

Tissue papers and shapes

2 circles of sticky back plastic which is slightly bigger than the cut out shape in the paper plate

Thread

Beads, etc

Blu tack

Pencil

1.

Decorate the back of the plate

2.
Place one of the sticky back plastics on the circle cut out.

3.
Put the shapes and tissues onto the sticky back and then place the other circle of sticky back in place.

& turn it over...et voila!  Looking gorgeous.

4. 

Take some blu tack and place at the BOTTOM of your plate.  With the blu tack in place, take a pencil and make 3 holes through the blu tac and the plate (this adds weight).

5.

Take your thread and place 3 lengths into the holes and make them secure.  Hang anything you wish onto the threads, beads, feathers, etc.

6.

Repeat again to make a hole at the top of the plate so you can hang your dream catcher and tada...we are there with a BEAUTIFUL Makey-doey!  Well done you!

Much love

Samantha Barnes, but much more Marion Sweet..(well done again Marion!)

Quick...am on the run but l@@k it's the Easter Art Workshop flyer!! Yay x

Yesterdays' February half-term children's art workshop...what a ball!

It's Movietime!!  

(Scroll down after the movie)

Isn't that just the nuts?  We had the most wonderful day yesterday.  30 children, lots of doing, making, drawing, colouring, dancing, story-telling and cake eating!!

Thanks to everyone for making it such a brilliant day.  Creativity in everyday life is SO important.  We can suppress it for years and years then rediscover it when the time is right.  Our confidence is low and it grows when we begin to practise it again.  

When we are children, our natural state is to launch in and get messy.  As we grow we somehow lose the abandon to explore life through art - this is a huge shame.  The good news is though that it comes tumbling back whenever we want it to, we just need the keys...and the keys are....(are you ready?) the keys are.... allowing ourselves to do it.  accepting that it might take us a while to get 'good' (whatever we deem to be good) and simply allow ourselves to actually do it, to pick up a brush, a pencil and just 'do'.  

It's peasey...I promise!  Come on one of my workshops...that's my favourite bit... working with someone that hasn't done any art for a gazillion years...let me hold your hand...literally!  

Much love

Sam x

Utterly lovely hearty-bunting... a make-along with me (er Marion!)

Its deep dark January now.  

As we speak my two babes are screaming in joy at being allowed to play a round of 'Jump on the Sofa as hard as you can' in the sitting room...  deep joy (don't get involved, don't get involved, don't get involved Mum!)

Now then, I don't know about you but I believe it's really important to give children the space (occasionally) to get bored.  Poor old ds has been home ALL week with a weird viruses-temperaturey thing that sweeping through our village...9 children off in his class since Tuesday.  Not to have a ripe old moan or anything but coupled with being snowed in ALL of last week and the week before that it being half-term - let them have bored...I'm all out of ideas!

Queue Marion, my gorgeous childminder and fellow artist, she is a plethora of all things creative and saved the day.  I had some plastic and she did the rest.  Here's what she did:

Hearty Bunting with Ribbons

List of items you need:

Sticky back plastic, a sheet of.  (Book covering is good)

A heart shape to cut around, hand-sized is good.

Tissue paper shapes

Scissors

A hole- puncher

Ribbons

1.

Cut the sticky back plastic to the same height of the heart shape.

Place the shiney side of the plastic on to the table then peel the backing off.  Place the colours tissues shapes on to the sticky back (not too close together, lots of spaces)

Fold your plastic over on itself, securing the tissues and sticking the plastic back onto itself.  Place your cut-out heart shape underneath and cut around it.   

Then cut each heart shape out leaving you with this..

At the top of the heart place the hole-puncher and push down to make the holes that the ribbon will go through...your'e doing great!

After you made all the hearts (do about 6) trread the ribbon through the holes and create the banner. 

Beautiful!  Well done everyone, Marion especially for saving the day!  Beautiful bunting.  Hope you like the cloudy shed too!  Much love, Sam x  

My lovely moment in silver glittery shoes...

Londonisms are go...

I had a lovely moment this weekend.  We were in London visiting our dearest mates to eat Samuel-Peypesesque celebratory nosh, drink our own bodyweight in fizz and red wine, sing carols by the tree (whilst knocking off all the decs as we brushed past the table laid fair for 16) laugh stupidly, talk stupidly, engage in secret-santa's,climb out of silvery glitter heels at every opportunity and eventually dance to 'don't you want me baby' too loud and far too early in the morning..we had a ball.

Ah yes, my lovely moment.  Seeing my 'Londonisms' in Town & Country Living Magazine, as just popped through the door of my friends house...thank you Gods...nice touch!

http://samanthabarnes.co.uk/home/all-paintings-and-prints/londonisms.php  follow the link to find yours special place in The Big Smoke.

Much love

and this Certificate is awarded to....

Children LOVE rewards.  Sometimes when we (as adults) get out of whack with things, we can learn a lot from children.

My after-school artypops art group finishes next week and its time to look at what worked, what didn't, what can be learnt from and what can improved on...something of a SWOT test (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats? am off too google...be back in a mo)  thats right indeed.

Firstly, the children LOVED all the activities, from dip-ink drawings using peacock feathers to making decs for the tree, all the activities were enjoyed.  They particularly enjoyed not knowing each week what they were going to be doing, they loved the surprise...perfect.

Secondly, they loved the snacks - marvellous.  Jammy dodgers win out every time..

Thirdly, the singing....I know.  Helped along am sure by Christmas play preparations but am thinking of taking a small iPod in for the next classes...there are only so many times I can hear 'Away in a Manger' in one day.

Fourthly, the carrying system for getting all our wee treasures home once we bought them.  Must get some more paper bags, they worked a treat...(swoon) just imagine if I had 'artypops' printed onto them...they would be just gorgeous...yummy.  (get the logo sorted first Sam).

Lastly, certificates.  Ah yes, I deliberated but in the end I remembered just how much my babes love recognition.  All the children in my class have done so well, kept themselves beautifully occupied and behaved wonderfully, they all deserve one.  I have written them out and encapsulated them (not a big fan of lamenating as its not very eco-friendly, but for longevity have gone ahead and done it.)

So there we have it, the first official course of 'artypops after-school classes' are completed.  Well done everyone.

If the children get certificates...do I get a medal?  And, is it normal to feel quite so sad about them being over?

Much love

Sam

All hail the 'Christmas print-out' (perfect emergency activity for the Christmas hangover)

Good morning the world

Ah yes, the morning after Christmas party number one...ouchy heads all round.

No pinchy craniums for the babes of course and off they are with their lovely (loud) voices and excitable babbles about our installing a Christmas tree today... time for emergency bacon and eggs me thinks.

Back in 20.

Much better, yum and groan.

My post today is in celebration of the Christmas print out.  Very very simply...we're talking about these at cbeebies among others (you'll find some more listed below at the end of this post.)  The only downside to these is that your printer has to have both ink and paper in... if you're luck is in and you have both, print away dear hearts and occupy little minds for as long as it lasts.

Below is a quick screen-shot of some of the many gazillions on offer. Invest in good felt-tips and have them on stand by at all times.  I bought dd some Crayola tips nearly a month ago now and they have survived a bashing twice to three times a day and are still going strong.

I wanted to find some really gorgeous ones but alas I can't find any that really stand out from the crowd...hmmm, perhaps next year I will make some of my own as I love to produce line-drawings.  Here are two that are consistently in my best-sellers list 'Polar Bear' & 'Goosey Goo'.  Hope you enjoy!

Other places to find Christmas printables.  (will be adding to the list)

http://www.mumsnet.com/christmas/printables

Pushing, lifting, bending, scooping, walking, scoffing, Grrrring and woofing...read on, read on...

Ah yes, it's all getting proper snuggly, cosy and baltic.  Yesterday, as much of the family as possible was summoned to my aunt's house, who lives deep, deep in the countryside to help stack the huge pile of logs from pile to 'dry-log-room-in-shed' (all very rural.)  We worked like little elfs, loading up the wheelbarrow (flat-tyred wheelbarrow of course) tipping out, stacking and bending over and over again..and again...singing merrily as we worked.  

And then there was the real version.  Summoned to my aunts house in the freezing freezingness with teenagers and toddlers to move a gazillion logs...marvellous, yay...no really.   Our part of the family swung in to our local bakery to purchase hot pasties, sausage rolls and mince pies for the whole team to scoff once our work was done.  They tasted goooood and we ate them next to the real fire with the (really) big dog looking lovingly at us/our pasties.    After nosh, we walked said massive lab dog in beautiful countryside.   Our bellies full and thoroughly exercised, we waved, laughed and jollied ourselves into our cars to reverse through the garden and back onto the lane to be off our our merry ways...Oh such fun, tra la la.  

The car didn't start.  Nice.

Butting up to two cars to try and jumpstart said motor, no avail.  Rush into nearest town to purchase new battery..an hour with the babes in the cold..nice.  Hurray they are back, battery in...no start.  Bugger it.  Left car in the village and went home driven by aunt.  Grrr.  

Home, hot baths all round.  Hot choc all round.  Bed by 8pm for all apart from Daddy to watch two lots of The Killing (apparently brilliant but bit too gruesome for me in places).  Woken at 10 for two lots of puke from darling son and then back to bed, via a quick dip into twitter after loading wash 1 of 20 in the w. machine.  

Hurray for rescue services.  Fresh-faced and jolly once more (it being the next day) we all arrived at the broken down car at the same time...  The nice man started our car and instructed us not to stop or stall until we get to our local garage (no pressure there then).  Once there, dump the car.  We did as told.

Back into the maroon Corsa that we purchased last week for 450nicker to be runabout for me, allowing me to get to art classes, etc etc.  We jammed ourselves in, along with a big big box that my mum had given me sheepishly and told us to open when we get home.

Back at home, babes (one very white one) jammed in the back of tiny Corsa with massive box, out we spilled..or planned to but snap - the handbrake on the Corsa snapped, amazingly this time...I didn't and neither did Darling husband.

Once untangled from the far-too-bigger-bodies being in a far-too-smaller-car for us...home home home.  Sofa day for wee boy, wee gal on and off it too all day in sympathy.

So where is the art in this post then eh?  Well, dearest readers. the art is in the everydayness of life. The beautiful countryside that we walked the dog in.  The fire that we scoffed our pasties by...from every situation we have to find the  good bits...

My best bit was seeing my teenage nieces pushing the car, along with my mum, aunt, massive dog, Darling husband and babes!  It felt distinctly 70's!

A new post coming about what was in the box...its very very special.

Merry December everyone...no really!

x

New Saturday Morning 'Artypops' Art Classes in Kingsclere, Hampshire...

Hello all.
It's looking mighty likely that we are going to be running some Saturday Morning Art Classes in the very beautiful village of Kingsclere.  1hr 30 minutes of making, doing, drawing, glueing, and model-making.  Ages from 6 - 11 years.  Prices and actual dates to be confirmed but...likely to begin early February and lasting until Easter holidays...yay!

Register your interest for your little darlings at info@samanthabarnes.co.uk or call me on 01256 773 552.

Marvellous stuff!

Easy-Peasy Hangy-uppy Christmas Signs..P.E.A.S.E.Y (promise)

Hangy-uppy Happy Christmas Signs..

You will need:  

Ribbon

Labels (any size is good)

Paint/stickers/etc etc

Beads of some sort (if you have them)

Lovely to hang over any pictures you have in the house, to give away to Granny or perhaps to hang on the tree..

1.
Gather your bits and bobs.

2.
Paint up your labels.  I have used acrylic paint here making it really bright and strong, but it's great to use poster paints too.  I have only painted them on one side.  Once painted, leave until bone dry.  When so, paint on your letters in any colour you wish...white on red is great too.  I left them to dry then redid the letters with a second coat to make the colours stand out big and strong.

3.
Once dry, remove all the strings that came with the labels and begin to thread the labels onto the ribbon on each side of every label, I have used a bead to make more of the decoration (this also fleshes out the activity for the youngsters to enjoy).

4.
Tricky bit I know.. but to hold the labels in place, I have attached a tiny bit of selotape/masking tape to the back of the label to making it secure - bit fiddly but very doable.

So there you have it...if you wanted to you could keep adding and make ceiling decorations...using the bigger labels...ooooh, I may have to have a go at that one!

Much love, Sam x

Beautiful Birds by Mark Hearld...LOVE.

In terms of finding thing that inspire new collections, thoughts and new ideas..these birds by the very talented Mark Hearld 

These go a long way to getting my creative juices flowing.  They are just fantastic!  Outstanding and outspoken, I can imagine them hanging everywhere in my house and making me smile each time I biff my head on them.

Believe it or not these are greeting cards. I know.  £3.00 from this link  I will be ordering some for sure.  

Uber lovely Paper Snowflakes and Stars...

In preparation for my children's art-classes am doing all sorts of research for good art activities that last about an hour, keep little fingers and minds busy and hey presto...make something gorgeous to take home.  Suitable for all ages between 6-11, not too expensive and plentiful in materials.

Am struggling.

Last weeks class if proving hard to beat...we had a ball, making these Christmas Hearts & Stars.  So..onward.  This week am thinking Paper Snowflakes...I LOVED making these when I was little.  The best ones I have found are here by Vintage Junky.  They are beautiful, so beautiful in fact that am going to have to show her picture of them in situ...swoon.

See beautiful.  Now all I need is a super sharp pair of scissors, a beautifully painted wall, some original cornicing like hers and we are away.

Back to the drawing table.

Scroll down for next possibility....

I loved these stars too.   Please forgive me friendly blogger, I can't refind you anywhere to link this to you but please rest assured, I love them.  These are distinct possibility for my class.  Very doable, although am probably going to have to cut a gazillion stars out myself first me thinks.  Great to paint and decorate, lovely with ribbon.

Onward with my quest.

Will bring you results soon...I promise.

Much love

Sam x

Making 'Doodle-balls' (LOVE them...as do the tweenies)

It was after-school art session number 3 yesterday.  The heat was on.  The children were tired as, (am sure its the time of year) so out came the choccy biscuits (SO not homemade however good my intentions) as a bribe  treat to bolster them all up for some making.

I actually needn't have bothered with the biccies, the children LOVED the activities this week.  We made Christmas Decorations, the green Decorations from this tutorial (See below) and also...(See even more below... we made Beaded Hearts...

 

The Session practically ran itself and the children found it impossible to tear themselves away.  Its incredible how much these offerings engage them.  They LOVED doing them and loved watching them.  The immediacy of the making definately had a part to play here - they could see their makings coming along nicely every step of the way.  To find out how to make hearts, click here.

Further to the beading and sequins, I also ran an option to make a 'Doodle-ball'  I think the idea of these is truly inspiring and love the way it stretches out our thinking about drawing.   Pure thanks to these fabulous people at Accessart for coming up with the idea.

Righto, a 'Doodle-ball' is just that, a ball covered in paper that you can draw on and all over, letting your thoughts wonder as they will.  They are FAB for active learners and can be added too at anytime...just pick them up and carry on.

To make a Doodle-ball you need:

A hand-sized ball.  A tennis ball or Christmas dec is good, try to remove the nobbly bit first though.
Glue, PVA is best
Mid-sized paint brush
Paper, cut up into double-stamp sizes
Pen or Pens for drawing..

Gather your wares together...

2.

Take your small pieces of paper and layer them onto your ball, all over until its completely covered. Two layers is great too.  Lashings of glue here until the paper is flat with no sticky-uppy bits!  Then dear hearts, when its fully covered pop it into the airing cupboard or on a radiator to dry.  Don't do any drawing until fully dry..

3.

Here we have our ball fully covered and about to dry.

3.

Once your ball is dry it's good and ready to go.  Begin drawing and let your drawing go where it wants to go.  Enjoy the process, its a lovely way to draw.

Here is a 'Flower Ball' made by the originators of this fab idea at Accessart.

Enjoy x

Today am in 'The Times' Bricks & Mortar Section...very nice!

Today, dear hearts...I am in 'The Times'  Bricks & Mortar section...muchly pleased x

The (occasionally dreaded) Christmas run up and Let's get making. Starry Stars for the Christmas Tree! (Tres simple I promise!)

It's coming, we all know it.  

Sadly, I catch myself going off on my instant reaction to Christmas.  You know the old 'Oh Blimey no...already?  Am not ready...where are we going to find the extra few hundred that dribbles out of my wallet into someone's else's, etc etc etc...in short, proper MRS MINUS thoughts about the forthcoming Season)  Easily done and with good reason, especially in current climates with two freelance parents.

BUT, dear readers it doesn't have to be this way.  Christmas day is really just a day, when thought of as a proper snuggly Sunday, we get to be with those that we love, eat good nosh, play games, watch movies and lounge en famille under a duvet on the new (second hand) sofa that now seats all of us (at a real push!)

Hmmm, am beginning to feel a flicker of excitement.

My children now are 8 and nearly 5 years of age.  This means that they have now reached an age where they can actually get involved, get excited and get making independently given the materials, some instructions and a finished article to work to.  

I don't know about you but previous to this age, when doing creative activities with my babes, the art session was much more of a 'damage limitation' hour that involved, setting up, manhandling the mess created by the (very happy it has to be said) children and then another hour clearing up.  All for the five minutes of actually doing the activity, until darling children lose interest and off they go - I know ALL about that trust me.  

But, once again dearest reader, for however long, for very little thanks and in the name of creativity...puhleeze continue with said activities for all ages of your babes.  They LOVE it, will remember it and guaranteed when they are older (like me now with DS) you look at the odd thing that we haven't lobbed out as it was broken (& quite crap) and think aww...I loved doing that with them, its a trick of parenthood, you may have a rubbish time making with them but guaranteed you won't remember it this way!

So...onward to making.

Dead simple to start with.

'A Starry Christmas Tree Decoration'

You will need:

3 x lollypop sticks

Lashings of glue

Sequins or can be made perfectly nicely too with buttons.

Cotton or fishing wire (to hang star on the tree with)

1.

Take your lollies and glue together one on top of another in starry-like fashion.

2.

Apply lashings (love that word) of glue, stick by stick.  Take your sequins and place on one by one.  I wouldn't try the glitter effect (that is pouring the sequins over the glue) as they stick in all the wrong places.  I did it by hand but with the help of a wee pen (with the lid on) just to help me place them.  Once your lolly sticks are covered, step away from the decoration and leave to dry for a good 24hrs...

Tada!

The only thing left to do with this baby is to hang my cotton from the top of one end of the sticks and  it's all done and ready to hang on the tree.

Well done everyone!