Comments (9)

By Mom Unplugged, September 20, 2009 9:48 pm

We all had a lovely time flipping rocks this morning for the 3rd Annual International Rock Flipping Day! Honestly, I could not have imagined that rock flipping could be so interesting, but my children, my husband and I all had the best time wandering around flipping rocks (and putting them carefully back of course).

The children ran through our yard and the woods by our house searching for perfect rocks:

We learned that our rocks here are quite beautiful, very volcanic and full of holes:

This one actually showed a distinct lava flow pattern on it:

Under our rocks we discovered:

Mold:

A small mushroom that grew up in the shade of two tightly stacked rocks:

A baby centipede - a teeny tiny yellow thread with lots of legs. I apologize for the bad picture, but much of what we found was very small and hard to photograph:

Strange white beetles with legs and antennae, barely the size of a grain of rice:

The much expected “Rollie Pollies” or Pill Bugs, but these guys were whiter than we had ever seen before:

Ants, LOTS of ants and eggs. Much to our surprise we found that ants don’t just live underground, but actually use the holes in our volcanic rocks as homes and nurseries!

You can even see little dots inside the ant eggs in this photo, Each collection of eggs seemed to have a “nurse ant” to go with it:

A peanut that had been buried (and probably forgotten) by a squirrel - round thing in the middle of the photo:

A small cricket:

Mystery eggs? Not ant eggs and about the size of small beads. Any ideas?

A spider on a pretty rock. Can you see it?:

What did you find under rocks where you live? Email Susannah of Wanderin’ Weeta with a link to your post, or upload your photos to the Flickr International Rock Flipping Day Group.

I will post our feather Unplugged Project and the Linky tomorrow afternoon or evening.

Hope to see you then!

PS. Thank you Susannah for our Junior Rock Flipping Badge. The kids will be excited about this tomorrow morning!

Comments (10)

By Mom Unplugged, September 8, 2009 1:18 pm

As I am sure you all know, September 20th, 2009 is the 3rd Annual International Rock Flipping Day.

Oh, you didn’t know that? Well, on September 20th take your kids outside, choose a rock to flip, then:

1) Record what you find. “Any and all forms of documentation are welcome: still photos, video, sketches, prose, or poetry.”

2) Replace the rock as you found it; it’s someone’s home. But if there are critters underneath, move them to the side before you replace the rock and let them scurry back. You don’t want to squash anyone.

3) Post on your blog, or load your photos to the International Rock Flipping Day Flickr group.

4) Send a link to Susannah at Wanderin’ Weeta. Her e-mail address is in her profile.

5) Susannah will collect the links, e-mail participants the list, and post it for any and all to copy to their own blogs.

6) She also says: “Maybe we can Tweet it, too, this year. Use the hashtag #rockflip.” (NOTE FROM ME: This information is totally beyond my comprehension, but if you understand Tweeting, then give it a go that way and I will be impressed.)

(All instructions are from Wanderin’ Weeta’s blog - edited slightly by me)

I love this idea because it reminds me of something I did in very early elementary school (Kindergarten? 1st Grade?). We went out and measured a one foot by one foot square of dirt behind the school, and then we had to look closely and draw what we saw in that square. Obviously it made an impression since I remember that lesson VERY many years later!

So go ahead, take the badge, the link, and the instructions, and pass it on.

It’ll be fun and interesting, so please join in! We’ll be there! (…and September 20th is even my sister’s birthday…)

NOTE: More on the history of Rock Flipping Day at Wanderin’ Weeta’s.

Comments (13)

By Mom Unplugged, September 6, 2009 9:41 pm

This week’s Unplugged Project theme was ocean. Not having anything in mind when I chose the theme (it was the first thing that popped into my head as I wrote last week’s post), I decided we should try an art technique that I have been wanting to experiment with for some time.

Well, my plans fell through a bit. The two oldest were invited to a sleepover tonight and the little one needed to go to bed, so I decided to go solo on this week’s Unplugged Project.

I am not sure what this is called, but I call it “sandpaper transfer.” It is super easy and produces really remarkable results!

All you need is sandpaper (I used a coarse grain and a fine grain to see what different results I would get), crayons (we have PLENTY of those), and an iron.

Draw a picture on the sandpaper and color it in with crayons. Of course I chose an ocean theme (plus sand is found by the ocean, so sandpaper fit the theme too, right?).

I drew a colorful fish on the coarsest grain of paper and a green/blue/brown artsy ocean wave scene on the finest grain. Be sure to press hard for best results.

The next step is the really exciting one! Place the sandpaper picture-side down on top of a sheet of paper (or cardstock, which I used). Iron over the top. It will only take one or two passes of the iron to transfer the image.

NOTE: Don’t iron too much or you might notice wax soaking through the sandpaper backing and onto your iron. Also, if you use paper rather than cardstock, I would recommend putting an old towel underneath the paper so melted wax doesn’t soak through onto your ironing board.

Peel off the sandpaper and you will “ooh and aah” over what you have produced!

This is the coarse-grained fish:

Here is the fine-grained ocean:

Quite different results.

These are very pretty on their own, or they would make a great backdrop for more coloring, collage, paint, stickers … anything you want!

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If you did an ocean Unplugged Project this week, then thank you! Please link to your project post below. If you don’t have an ocean project to share, then please do not link. You can read more about how to join in here. Everyone is welcome, and the more Unplugged Projects we have, the more fun and inspirational it is for all of us!

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be:

Sound

I don’t know what we’ll do yet. What would you do?

Have fun and please join in!

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Comments (6)

By Mom Unplugged, August 17, 2009 9:05 pm

This week’s Unplugged Project theme was pocket and we made pocket-sized art, Artist Trading Cards.

Artist Trading Cards are so much fun because:

• There is only a small surface to work with (easy and less intimidating).
• You can really do pretty much anything at all to your cards.
• It’s social - you can trade the finished product with friends (or strangers), just as you might trade a baseball card.

I didn’t invent this, although I wish I had. Artist Trading Cards have been around for a little while (since 1996) and are sort of the art version of baseball cards. They are even the size of baseball cards and can fit in standard trading card protective sleeves.

There is only one real “rule” about Artist Trading Cards, they must be a standard size: 2.5″ x 3.5″ (64mm x 89mm). This ensures that they fit into trading card pockets. Also, it is best that they be made of durable card stock.

The tradition is that these cards are traded among artists, not sold, and many swaps by mail exist.

Like last year, I have been involved in a babysitting coop with some friends for the last two weeks before school starts, and have found myself with seven children at the house. This has given me a great pool of willing “guinea-pigs” for my Unplugged Project!

Creating our cards was a fun and easy group activity which culminated in an exciting swap among friends.

♦ All you need is some card stock to cut to size. I actually used thick, high quality watercolor paper that I cut to size with a paper cutter.

Then - cover your table, get out ALL your craft supplies, and let the kids have at it!

We used paints, markers, pencils, hole punches, magazines, tissue paper, feathers, stencils, stamps, even salt (to sprinkle on the paint or glue for texture) and googly eyes (the most popular element, as you can see from our finished cards).

♦ Finally, the swap. We put the dried cards face down and everyone picked an equal number. Those who ended up with one of their own, traded it with someone else. Once the kids had their final set, everyone signed the backs of the cards they had made, and even added messages. Very fun!

♦ Some of our finished cards:

A few kids deviated a bit from the one and only “official rule” (size) by adding on to their cards or sticking them together with remarkable results! (Since this was just a project for ourselves, I was certainly not going to stifle any creative impulses):

TIPS:

- Paint Modge Podge or watered down white glue over the finished cards if they have papers stuck on them. This makes a nice clear, shiny finish and seals all the edges and corners of the collage.

- If the cards curl when dry, leave them overnight under a very heavy book and they should be flat by morning.

TEACHING IDEA:

Why not incorporate this idea into an art history lesson by having students create cards in the manner of a certain artist, or style of art?

CONTEST:

Artist Trading Card Contest in School Arts Magazine (a great magazine by the way!) for art teachers and their students, kindergarten through college. Click the “Artist Trading Card Contest” link for information, entry form and contest rules. Deadline is December 1st, 2009.

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If you did a pocket Unplugged Project this week, then please link to your post (not just your blog) in the Linky below. I look forward to seeing what you did! If you did not do a pocket project, then please do not link, but read more about how to join in here. We’d love to have you!

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be:

People

Enjoy and be creative!

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Comments (15)

By Mom Unplugged, August 9, 2009 9:39 pm

We’re back from France and finally over the jet lag. Time for the weekly Unplugged Project to resume!

The theme for this week’s Unplugged Project is photograph so we came up with a super-easy photo project using some of the many photos from our trip.

Inspired by a very old, hand-colored black and white photograph of my mother as a child, I thought it might be fun to turn some of our trip photos into old-fashioned, or maybe even funky-looking colored pictures.

First we each chose a few favorite trip photographs to play with. Since our pictures were all digital, it was easy to transform them into black and white using my photo editor (not exactly “unplugged,” but this is just the first step).

After experimenting a bit, I found that for darker pictures, or those with many dark colors, the result was improved by lightening the exposure slightly (any simple photo editor can do this also).

TIP: Before altering with your photos with the editor, make a duplicate of your photo and use that. You don’t want to permanently change your one and only copy of that favorite picture!

We printed the new black and white pictures onto plain white document paper. Regular paper is easier to color on than photo paper, and even if the picture appears a bit grainier on ordinary paper, that simply adds to the old/artsy effect.

Wait for the ink to dry completely before moving on to the next step. This might take a little while if the picture has lots of dark bits.

When everything is dry, you can start coloring. We used colored pencils since they allow the picture to show through the color.

• You can try to reproduce the real colors (more or less - of course the cat wasn’t really yellow!), such as here:

• Or have fun and do crazy colors for more of a modern art look:

• Experiment with pressing hard, or lightly.

• Keep the colors in the same family, or vary them.

• Try coloring some areas and leaving others black and white.

Whatever you decide to do, the effect is really beautiful, almost luminescent sometimes!

The children and I found this fun and easy, even my 3 year-old. She wanted to color a baby picture of herself. I love that green hair:

Use your pictures for a scrapbook or album, frame them, or make a collage out of them. You could even turn them into cards or family gifts.

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If you joined in this week’s Unplugged Project with your own photograph project, then please put a link to your project post (not just your blog) in Mr. Linky below. Please leave a link in a comment too since Mr. Linky has been having problems lately. If you didn’t do a photograph project, then please don’t link, but read more about how to join in here. We’d love to have you!

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be:

Pocket

Have fun!

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