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Crafts

The Uncommon Life

Gift Lab #6: Channeling Jackson Pollock

June 16, 2010

Action Painting Kit

1) Product Name: Action Painting Set

Action Art Kit

2) Background Research: I was looking for a fun way to make some paintings but it always seemed to be too time and energy consuming.

3) Hypothesis: If I use the action painting set, I will have some vibrant little paint squares for my wall.

4) Experiment: To use the action painting set and create some paint squares for my apartment and have fun with paint!

5) Results: So, I was all excited to get started with my action painting set during the weekend. I opened the package and it had a few paint tubes, drip stick , 2 little canvas squares and sand. The instructions were pretty clear, except for the sand part. It said ‘use the sand to give structure to the painting. I wasn’t exactly sure what it meant and decided to leave the sand alone and come back to it later.

Action Art Kits

I started to mix the paints in little plates and had three watery paint concoctions. The paints wash away easily, so don’t worry about messing up the plates or your dress! I followed the instructions for using the drip stick, it was as simple as dripping the dripstick in paint
and dripping/splashing it on the canvas. However, the drip stick tends to hold a lot of paint so it started to drip big blots of paint
on the canvas. If you want to get thin lines on the canvas, drip the paint on a paper before dripping it on the canvas a few times until the lines start getting as thin as you want. I did not seem to realize this until I had finished one of the squares, but my loss is your gain.

Action Art Kits

The canvas squares are not that big, so it won’t take very long to finish your drip painting. In less than 30 minutes, I had two painted squares finished. Though I did not use the sand (since I did not figure how to use it, and forgot all about it until I finished the paintings) and did not make any specific patterns, I had twp vibrant little pieces for my wall!

6) Conclusion: The action painting set makes for a quick way to get creative and have fun with paint.

Action Art Kits
The Uncommon Life

The Recycling Bin: May Day Baskets

April 28, 2010

May Day Baskets
This is the perfect project for people who are too lazy to take out their recycling, but not too lazy to do arts and crafts (i.e. me). For whatever reason, I never feel the need to take out the recycling until there are at least four cans and a couple bottles that I have set on the floor next to the bin. I agree, it’s ridiculous and disgusting, but if I took out the recycling … I wouldn’t have been able to do this cool May Day basket project.

Let’s begin!

First, go to your recycling bin and survey the scene. Tin cans work well, as do the bottom half of plastic bottles, and milk or juice cartons. I didn’t have any small glass jars – but those would be a good option too. Anything that held a liquid before is a good choice since you will putting flowers and water in it.
Recycling Bin May Day Baskets
Now comes the gross part. If you are like me, you didn’t properly rinse out all of your containers before putting them in the bin … so you’re going to have to give everything a good rinse and scrub. Nobody wants a May Day basket that has dried tomato sauce on it!

For bottles and cartons, you will need to peel off any labels and cut off the top half to make a proper container ……… this is me waiting for you to cut the bottles in half …….. be careful – nobody wants a May Day basket with dried blood on it!

Now comes the fun part – decorating! I have decided to use this super-cool decorative masking tape. This stuff is great. It comes in all these wonderful patterns and colors, so you can create a lot of different looks when you have several rolls. I started with a few simple patterns and then went on to do layered designs.

Japanese Decorate Tape
Japanese Paper Decorative Masking Tape

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The Uncommon Life

I’m on Cloud 9

April 26, 2010

In third grade, I was the last person to pick a topic for the science fair. While my classmates got the more glamorous projects – lizards! exploding volcanoes! mold & bacteria! – I got clouds. Clouds! Can you believe it?  My project consisted of me going outside taking pictures of the sky and taping them onto a sky blue poster board. I was virtually ignored at the science fair, “Please!!!! Let me tell you about cirrus clouds!!!” “No thanks, going to see the lizards.”

If only I had had these cute paper clouds back in third grade – nobody would have been able to resist my report!

Clouds from Catalog

These happy, little (and, if memory serves me right, cumulus) clouds were leftover from our recent catalog, and since it would be a crime to throw a cloud away, they now live up in the atmosphere of the creative studio.

Missy Cloud

They make me smile whenever I come into work – I just find them so darn cute! And not only do they make lovely office decor, but they also would look darling in a kid’s room or (on a smaller scale) above a crib in place of a mobile.

Want to make your own paper clouds? It’s easy!

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