Preschool Song Cube

I consider myself a very creative person, and working with 2 and 3 year olds every day makes my creativity soar!! being trapped inside for days on end due to weather/temperature inspires me to come up with new and fun ways to make it to the end of the day. my latest creation: THE SONG CUBE. Purpose: the children roll the cube to determine what song we will sing,.

 I found that every day at afternoon circle time we were always going through the same songs, day in, day out. So, I decided to find a way to make the song choosing more interactive for the kids. if I can create something that they want to do (ie. rolling the song cube) then I will have more of their attention. my husband had wooden cubes he was using as dice for students he works with, he had a few extra so I commandeered them for my purposes.

SONG CUBE STEP BY STEP PROCESS:

MATERIALS

- 1x1 in. wooden cube (as many cubes as you desire)

my pictures are ready to go!

-  6 pictures/illustrations for your songs
- decoupage glue, I used modge podge
- paintbrush for modge podge

1. PICTURES ON CUBES:
my for pictures I used clip art I found either on Microsoft Word, or images I pulled from the internet. once you've for your images in a Word document, use the sizing tools to make the picture 1x1 inch.

2. PRINT PICTURES, CUT THEM OUT

3. APPLY IMAGES TO CUBE using modge podge. I found that it works best to wait until the ink is completely dry, otherwise the images will smear

4. USE CUBES IN YOUR CLASSROOM!
have children take turns rolling the cube to choose a song!




1x1 inch cube

FINISHED PRODUCT

ALL DONE HERE!

SING YOUR HEART OUT!

Proud as a Peacock

So here I am once again w/ yet another recycled book project, this time around I've made a beautiful peacock. I created this piece to be sort of a sister to the L project I've already completed. They harmoniously reside on the same wall. :)

Just like my other book projects the main materials needed are book pages. Pages with words are what I used as my background. Using illustrations from the books I cut strips about centimeter wide to use as the border on the canvas. I also used the illustrations to create the feathers on the peacock. I'll break it down step by step in a bit.


MATERIALS:

• Book pages (with writing and illustrations)
• Scissors
• Modge-podge decoupage glue (matte or glossy, your preference)
• Brush for decoupage glue
• Sharpie (I used a Sharpie to outline the edges of my feathers to give them more definition)
• Solid color cardstock (for the peacock body)
• Small rhinestones (optional)
• Hot glue gun + glue sticks

STEPS:


1. Use modge podge to glue the book pages for the background.
2. cut centimeter strips of book illustrations for the border, used modge podge to adhere them to the canvas.
3. I cut out illustrations from books for the feathers. I used cardstock to make a pattern for the shape I wanted. Once I had all my shapes cut I used a sharpie to outline them to give them some definition against my background.
4. I created the peacock base (the blue part in the picture) using a dark blue piece of cardstock. instead of using modge podge at this step I used a little hot glue to put this on the canvas.
5. back to the modge podge--- carefully place the feathers on the body of the peacock and glue as you go.
6. Once I had all my paper pieces glued on-- the peacock body, feathers and head feathers--I did a final coating of modge podge on the whole canvas.
7. I'm a gal who loves sparkles so to add some sparkle to my piece i glued a few (maybe 5) rhinestones to the feathers.

VOILA! a lovely peacock I am proud of!

Leslie

Library Letters

My latest project involves using pages from children's books to create 4 panels that spell out READ for my school librarian. She's the one I got all the books from so I thought I'd make her something to show my appreciation. I'm really proud of the final product, I think they turned out beautiful!

Supplies:

• modge podge decoupage glue (glossy or matte, doesn't matter)
• brush (for decoupage glue)
• cut up book pages
• cardstock
• hot glue gun
• scissors/exacto-knife type blade
• 8 x 10 canvas panels

Steps:

1. Using the modge-podge glue randomly place the book pages on your canvas. While I try to be random about the placement, I still like to make sure that my colors are evenly spread out across the canvas. **For this project I used the book illustrations as my background instead of the words like I have used in my previous projects.
2. Once the glue has completely dried I cut off any overhanging/excess paper from the canvas using my scissors and my exacto knife.
3. To create the letters for the panels I drew the letters on regular cardstock paper. Once I had the size I wanted I glued the written book pages onto my cardstock base.
4. After the glue dried, I trimmed off the excess paper from my cardstock letter. *to add an extra pop of color to your finished produced you can reglue your letter to a colorful piece of cardstock like I did w/ orange paper.
5. I used hot glue to adhere the letters to the canvas .
6. As a final touch for my project I put a final coat of the modge podge on top of each panel.

A close-up of one of the letters.

Harry Potter and the creature from the Black Lagoon are keeping my letters company.

VARIATIONS: I think this would be an awesome project for a kids room, spelling out their name would look so cool!!!

Salvaged Book Project

Books... not just for reading!

I've become good buddies with the librarian at the school I work at, and I recently found out that they had to get rid of books that had been printed before a certain date (I think these were 70's or before). The librarian told me that she tries to give away the books but often no one wants them because they're old or maybe a little bit moldy/dusty. If she can't find a taker for the books they end up getting thrown into the recycle bin, perfectly good books getting thrown out--what a shame! I asked if I could look through the stacks and repurpose some of the books, and repurpose i did! I've used the books to make such projects as valentine cards and paper flowers, but I think my latest is by far my best!

Using a 16x20 canvas I created a piece of monogram magic! okay, well i don't know if its really a monogram because it's just ONE letter, but I'm gonna call it that anyway...

To begin I tore out pages from one of my books, I wanted to use only book pages without illustrations. I cut them up in pieces of various sizes and decoupaged them onto my canvas.

 

I used cardstock to create the letter I wanted to use in my artwork.
(note: at this point i didn't glue it to the canvas, it's just sitting on the canvas for this picture.)

I went through several of the books I salvaged and cut out colorful pictures that I like. Once I had them all ready, I decoupaged them onto the L that I made out of cardstock.





Once the L was finished I decoupaged that onto the my canvas and created a border (about 1 cm) out of my leftover book scraps.

I am really pleased w/ my finished product, I hope you like it too!

-Leslie