Car Art Class Drawing Project

Hey, everyone! I am super excited to share a new art project I tried towards the end of the semester in honor of Father's Day for parents or art teachers who may be interested in having their children do this project. I found that my students really enjoyed it, and they did an amazing job. I am so proud of their hard, beautiful work! I only have photos of some of the artworks, but I was really impressed. These were made by my kindergarten-fourth graders. 

I used a car calendar from the dollar store and had them vote on a class favorite. The calendar had vintage and sports cars. I gave them two options: they could design their own car with no help (maybe even their Dad's or his favorite kind), or they could follow along with a step-by-step I did on the board. I don't usually do step-by-step art tutorials because I like their artwork to be creative and original, but those who did follow along colored their cars different colors and designed them how they wanted. Plus, this tutorial helped them break a detailed image into shapes and lines, as well as showed how to draw something three-dimensional. The backgrounds were made in advance by marbling the paper in shaving cream and food dyes. Terms I taught during this project were warm versus cool colors and proportion.  

I hope to share more art projects soon. I hope this art project/Father's Day gift idea useful! 

-Lauryn 

Valentine's Day Snail Mail Inspiration (+ Filler Ideas)

 

Hello! This post may seem very random, especially following a Christmas one, but I am trying to get caught up on the past two years and although the example photos of my snail mail was for Valentine's Day, you can easily change your contents to fit any holiday or occasion. The trick is to include lightweight, small items that match a theme and harmonize through colors and designs. 

Here is a list of great snail mail fillers:

-Dried Flowers

-Small Artworks/Bible Verse Cards (Dollar Tree sells packs of these. They can also be great to slip in gift baskets.)

-Small Lotion/Hand Cream 

-Candy/Chocolate

-Hand-drawn Paper Doll 

-Stickers

-Banner (these can be handmade or printed out.)

-Confetti 

-A Letter/Card

-Tea Bags

These are just a few simple ideas, but I hope to make a longer, more comprehensive list in the future. I also like to make my own envelopes out of scrapbook paper so that they are pretty and the size I need. 

I hope you find this post useful. Thanks for stopping by! 

-Lauryn

Fairytale-Themed Girl Baby Shower Gift

 Hello! Today I'd like to share a girl fairytale-themed baby shower gift basket I put together for my friend's daughter. An important part of putting together gift baskets is making sure the colors match. The color scheme I used for this basket was mainly blush pinks, brown, and grey. I included socks, a handmade wand, an outfit, a rabbit blanket toy with rattles, and a wooden block I decorated with her name and birthdate. For the basket, I used a plant bowl (I don't know what they are actually called) from Dollar Tree, tied a lace ribbon around it, and tucked moss in around the bowl. This could easily be changed into a boy baby shower gift inspired by literature or a girl baby shower gift with a different theme, or be used for holidays/first birthdays, of course. 

I hope you find this basket idea or this theme inspiring! Also, for those starting today, happy first day of the 2022-23 school year! 

-Lauryn

DIY Marvel (Easter) Gift Basket

 To go hand in hand with the post I shared earlier, here is another themed Easter basket that could be used for any occasion, this time for Marvel fans. Again, I printed Marvel activities from the internet along with the clock from Loki, and I bought my brother a Hawkeye shirt I happened to come across in advance at Five Below. The card I handmade read "As you Marvel at the miraculous Easter story, I hope you enjoy this super gift!" But a card could say something like "I hope you have a marvelous birthday!" This gift was very simple, I like to keep celebrations Loki. Sorry, I'm going to stop now.

I hope you find this handy!

-Lauryn

DIY Beatles-Themed Easter Basket

 This post is super random, but I was looking back at gifts I put together and thought that even though this is an Easter gift, the idea could easily be translated into a birthday or Christmas gift for those of you who, like me, have a huge Beatle fan in their life. I used a lot of free printables found on Google such as the Yellow Submarine on the front. In the Easter eggs, I printed out a mini Paul, Beatles activities such as crossword puzzles, and you could also include sheet music for musicians. This gift was honestly very last minute, so those printables were a life saver. A gift saver, I suppose is more accurate. I added a decorate-your-own-mug kit (Michaels sells them), cookies that I repackaged to look fancier, and a handmade card. The card said "You can't Beatle that Jesus has done for you. Happy Easter!" or something along those lines. If you didn't get that, you are not alone, but I tried. 

I hope you found this simple gift idea useful. Thanks for stopping by!

-Lauryn

Graduation Gift Idea for Boys

 Hey, everyone! Here's a quick little gift idea I did for my brother's graduation gift last year. This can be easily customized. I titled this as a gift for boys, but it could also be a gift for girls too, of course. My gift had four parts:

1. A lunchbox (which my brother was in need of and got to use at an upcoming camp. This could be replaced with a different sort of tote, bag, backpack or suitcase.)

2. A water bottle (again, this was something I knew my brother needed, but could be replaced with a mug or even kitchen appliance.)

3. A card (I hand made mine to make it more personal.)

4. A gift card/certificate (I did one to my brother's favorite smoothie shop, A to Zinc. Go by what you know the person loves, and conceal it inside of the bag/lunchbox.)

That's it! 

If you're looking for a last-minute, easy but personal graduation gift, I hope this comes in handy!

-Lauryn

DIY Director/Teacher Thank You Gift Sets

 

Hello, happy Friday! Here is a thank you gift idea that is especially great for when you need to make several thank you gifts at once. I made these for my theater directors, choreographer, and stage manager, but they could work for other occasions such as bulk teacher appreciation gifts. This gift sets are very simple to put together. 

Here is what they included:

-Cups (mine were from Walmart)

-Thank You Cards (mine were from Dollar Tree)

-Dishcloths (I bought a set from Walmart)

-Tea/Drink Packets 

-Lip Balm (I bought mine in a set from Marshells)

-Donuts/Treats (again, mine were from Walmart)

-Sandwich Bags 

-Ribbon

-Containers/Baskets (Mine were from Dollar Tree)

Of course, these items could easily be replaced by alternative items based on what the recipient likes. 

I hope you find this helpful!

-Lauryn

10 Simple, Cheap RAK Ideas

Hey guys! Today I am just sharing a quick list of simple, cheap RAK ideas that you can probably make with items from your home or for $1-2 (for a lot of them), depending on where and how you buy your materials. I am not going to describe how to go about creating them since they are pretty self-explanatory and very open-ended. That is for you to decide. These are just some ideas for inspiration, but there are plenty of examples of them on the internet. I also suggest adding a Bible verse to uplift people and share the love of Christ. Some people will write to pass on the kindness and challenge recipients to do an act of kindness in return. I prefer to avoid that since that might stress the recipient out and make them feel like they need to pay for the gift. If they are inspired, they will probably do that on their own anyway. Another item I suggest avoiding unless you know the recipient well is food such as candy since so many people are on such a vast variety of diets. As for the balloon dogs, I will share a tutorial and free printable for that in the (hopefully near) future. I hope you enjoy!

RAK Ideas:

 -Balloon Dogs or Helium Balloons

-Magnets

-Stickers

-Snail Mail

-Painted Rocks

-Kindness Letters

-Flowers

-Practical Pun Gifts (for example: "You are stupendous!" with pens.)

-Banners/Cards/Confetti (there is a free printable sunshine banner here.)

-Bubbles/Chalk/Glow-sticks (or other items that will probably cheer someone up.)

I hope you enjoyed these ideas! I hope you visit again next week for a new post I look forward to sharing with you! 

-Lauryn

DIY "Fun in the Sun" Gift Basket

 

Hey, everyone! I am sorry that I have not posted in forever, I am so behind and I have so much to share. I hopefully will be able to post weekly as I did before, maybe even more, but I am not sure. Today I would like to share a summer gift basket I call the "Fun in the Sun" Gift Basket. I created this as a family gift that hopefully children will love, along with refreshments for the family. 

To create this, you will need:

-Lemonade Packets (I used True Lemon packets, which my family uses all the time. They have dye-free, caffeine-free, sugar free products, so I'd say this is a pretty safe choice.)

-Fresh Lemons

-A Jar (to put the lemon supplies into.)

-Sidewalk Chalk

-Glow-Sticks (or other Glow-in-the-Dark alternatives.)

-A Book

-A Basket (of course!)

-Yellow Tissue Paper

-Optional: A Card/Letter

To create this basket, I am not going to break the process down into steps because as you can tell, this is pretty straight forward. Simply put the lemonade supplies into the jar, and the lemons that don't fit can go in the basket. You can create a jar label by cutting brown card-stock or an alternative paper into a circle to fit the Mason Jar lid, writing "Lemonade in a Jar" on it with a black pen, unscrewing the lid to put the paper inside, and then twisting the lid back on. Fill the basket with the yellow tissue paper, and try to spread the paper out and fluff the paper up as much as possible. Place the book against the back of the basket. I used a book I published called "Meet Balance". I need to edit a few things, I found, so I unpublished the book temporarily, but you can find "Meet Texture" here. Both are part of a series I am writing called "Meet the Elements and Principles of Design". Next, tuck in your glow-stick package and jar, a card or letter if you decided to add such, and lastly the sidewalk chalk and extra lemon(s). You may need to rearrange depending on how your supplies look, but the idea is tallest items in the back, smallest in the front, and do your best to make sure everything can be seen. I hope you enjoyed creating this fun, simple summer gift! 

Thank you for visiting! I have lots of events and craft tutorials I hope to share with you soon!

-Lauryn