Biker Bear dude--leather jacket, pants, kerchief, chain dangling from his belt, US flag on his jacket front, "Freedom" and eagle on back of jacket. 15 1/2" alpaca wool panda. Now if he could find his motorcyle, he'd really be cool!
Aviator Bear--flying high, well grounded at the moment. Satin hat, jacket with fur collar, satin pants, and goggles. 15" alpaca wool bear.
http://terryspear.tripod.com/celticbears/biker_aviatorbears.html
We made a magic wall in our kitchen - ok, actually it's magnetic not magic... But, it's still pretty cool and gets lots of curious inspections from visitors. (=
We got some magnetic paint from Home Depot and painted the section of our kitchen wall that is our Art Gallery. Once we painted over it with our white kitchen paint it blended right in. Then Riley and I painted a bunch of clothespins and glued some super-strong magnets to the backs of them - VOILA, our own magnetic Art Gallery. (we recommend the super strong "Neo magnets" so they stick through the paint and hold big art projects - we found them at the Storables store by us)
Riley likes to arrange the clothespins into houses. (=
By: Shena and Riley (age 4)
Mommy and Riley
Riley and I tried our hand at junk-a-doodles this weekend. First we gathered some junk and then we decided what to make out of it. It was a little difficult finding a way to incorporate all of the junk after we decided what we wanted to make. You'll see what I mean in our first image -which is supposed to be a bunny. (= But, Riley had a great time painting and arranging so we will definitely try again!
When we were done with this one Riley said, "This doesn't really look like a bunny..." Then he studied it for awhile and decided it was a balloon maker. "Voila..." the balloons come out up where our funny supposed-to-be-an-ear thing is....
Riley liked the next one we did better.
By: Shena and Riley (age 4)
Mommy and Riley
Riley and I recently discovered Artist Trading Cards (ATC) and he's super excited about them. I'm not sure if it's the fun of creating cards for people, or the idea that he is going to get fun mail that makes him more excited. (=
Today we created a Signature Card to mail out with all the swaps we do. We decided it would be cool to make it look like magnetic poetry, so Riley told me what words to use and where to place them. Then we signed it with our blog name. We did this in Photoshop so we can easily print it out to go with our handmade art when we mail it.
Riley has already started working on his cards for Jo (see "Introducing Wendi and Jo below) and is so excited about them (we won't post them until after Jo gets them in the mail so we don't ruin her surprise though). He would love to have more people to share cards with, and Wendi said that Jo would love to have more people to swap with too!!
If anyone else is interested in joining the Kids ATC swap just reply to this post and we'll share addresses via e-mail - that way they won't be on the internet for everyone to see. We hope we get some takers! (=
Don't know what Artist Trading Cards Are? Here's some info we copied from the Internet:
Basically Artist Trading Cards are any handmade art on card stock weight material. The only rules are they must be 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" ( the same size as sports trading cards) and they must be signed/dated by the artist on the back of the card. Artists then trade their cards for ones from other artists, just like kids trade sports cards, pokemon cards, etc.
Signature cards: Many ATC artists create a "business card" ATC that features a self-portrait on the front and a fact sheet about themselves on the back. They then send it out with sets they are trading. This is a lovely idea that allows artists to get to know each other more.
By: Shena and Riley (age 4)
Mommy and Riley
I was reading about Artist Trading Cards online and Riley thought they sounded cool and wanted to do some. So, I got to thinking it might be something fun for the kids on this site to do-- being as they are all into art and have a grow up to help them out. (= Plus, we could put them all on the site to see.
Basically Artist Trading Cards are any handmade art on card stock weight material. The only rules are they must be 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" ( the same size as sports trading cards) and they must be signed/dated by the artist on the back of the card. Artists then trade their cards for ones from other artists, just like kids trade sports cards, pokemon cards, etc.
If anyone is interested in doing this with their kids you could just reply to this post. Then we could e-mail our addresses offline so they wouldn't be out there for all in internet-land to see. (=
I hope we get some takers, Riley said he would "LOVE to do those cards, let's get started."
By: Shena and Riley, age 4
Mommy and Riley
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I love this idea - and Jo is crazy about trading cards. Count us in! My email is blockhead at wendigratz dot com.
GREAT! I e-mailed you, Wendi, let me know if you don't get it, ok? (=