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

Happy days..

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

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