Quiet

Many of my blog posts about our little Glanworth library show kids participating in crafty activities. I love being surrounded by their creativity! I also love catching patrons in quiet activities.

Happy Reading,

Judy Ann

Printmaking

The first craft book for kids that I wrote, well over twenty years ago, was called Prints.

It was filled with lots of neat methods of printmaking including using vegetables, sponges, pipe cleaners and more. One of the methods I liked best was to cut designs into erasers. It's a method of printmaking that I still enjoy, but I haven't made any new stamps in ages. A while ago I spent a day in Toronto with Emily and she introduced me to one of her favourite shops, Kid Icarus. They have awesome printmaking supplies, so I was re-inspired to cut a few new stamps. 

This first one is a replica of a tiny drawing of a dog that Emily gave me when she was just eight or nine years old. I've had it on my desk ever since!

I photocopied the drawing to make it a wee bit bigger. Then I traced over it with pencil, and turned it upside down onto the white eraser. 

I rubbed it so that the image was applied to the eraser.

Then I used my X-acto knife and wood-carving tool to carve the stamp.

I pressed it onto a blank ink pad, stamped it onto paper, and this is how it turned out.

Emily loved it!

 This next stamp that I carved isn't very complicated.

This is what it looks like when pressed onto a black ink pad

 and  stamped onto paper. It looks fine, 

but I knew I needed something more to go with it...

...so I cut this one. It's quite rough looking, 

and doesn't look like much of anything...

...even when it's stamped on paper.

But, when one is stamped on top of the other, I think it looks kind of cool.

Then I used different colours and shades of ink to make what I hope is an interesting-looking card.

I'm really glad to be back at doing some printmaking!

All the best,

Judy Ann

Monkeys in the Library!

Little monkeys...

...a baby monkey...

...a bunch of monkeys...

...all monkeying around!

Enjoy your day,

Judy Ann

Nature's Artwork

The other day when we were out for a lovely Spring walk, we noticed a Baltimore Oriole nest. 

It's incredible that these birds can weave such a complicated nest out of whatever

grasses and string they can find. Quite awesome!

The other awesome gifts from nature at this time of year are

 all the flowering trees and bushes. 

 Every backyard seems to have some type of flowering beauty!

How is it possible that I forget from one year to the next

 how gorgeous they all are?

It's all quite inspiring, isn't it?

 What a great time to start some artwork of our own.

 Enjoy your day,

Judy Ann

Flowery Ballerinas!

Recently at our little library, we had fun making flower ballerinas. I bought inexpensive silk flowers from a dollar store and pulled the blossoms off of the wire stems. The hole in the flower is just big enough for a  doubled pipe cleaner to be threaded through. Along with beads, buttons and yarn, we were able to make very cute ballerinas with blossom skirts!

Two of the ballerinas had a grand adventure! They danced on the table...

...they danced on a book...

...and they danced high on a shelf!

I lost track of them, but then I noticed some bright colour in a pot of dead flowers outside.

We will soon plant real flowers in this pot, but in the meantime, they certainly are a lovely addition.

Happy crafting,

Judy Ann

Collage

We were busy at our little library last week making collage art with various materials such as alphabet squares, rhinestones, patterned paper and markers. Loads of fun!

Parents and kids all got into the creativity...

...everyone busy and absorbed in their artwork...

 

...and the results were terrific!

Happy crafting!

All the best,

Judy Ann