Kirigami

Kirigami is the art of paper cutting. I was inspired by Omiyage's blog post and decided to make some coloured "snowflakes". Yes, I know Spring is here but these don't look like that dreaded white stuff. My daughterand I worked together to create our own kirigami. You will need square paper or origami paper,  a sharp pair of scissors, cardstock and spray glue. You may want to iron your "snowflake" to flatten it.














The trick is in the paper folding. It doesn't take long to master but be patient. Here are the instructions. They were written by Jessica from How about Orange. I had to do the folding for my daughter and she made the cuttings. Here are some of our creations. I, then spray glued it and pasted it on card stock. I used cheap "origami" paper from the dollar store. Next time, I am going to use origami paper. You can purchase some really beautiful ones from  Omiyage. Try it and have fun

Monday at the Art Institute of Chicago

Yesterday, my family and I went to the Art Institute of Chicago. We spent four hours there with our teenage son and 8 year old daughter.  I was happily surprised that they were engaged for that long.

Tip #1: Get the audio guide.

Tip #2: Get a list of "must see". Their favourites were Seurat's Sunday at La Grande Jatte  and Grant Wood's iconic American Gothic


Tip#3 Visit the gift shop at the beginning and take a look at the art postcards. Also visit at the end to pick u a souvenir. There is always something funky and fun. We picked up some neat art and craft kits. I can't wait to use my artist finger puppets. I have Van Gogh, Dali, Kahlo and Monet all from a company called The Unemployed Philosopher's Guide.

Tip#4: Begin at kid friendly exhibits. In our case, we started at the Touch Gallery and the Miniature Gallery.
Tip#5 End at a high note. In our case, the kids were hungry. They got to choose where to eat. We didn't get to see everything. We missed the Modern Wing. Upon leaving, my daughter was visibly torn between leaving and finding the Golden Bird by Constantin Brancusi. Her interest was tweaked by a story she heard in the Kids section. She made us promise her that the next time we come we would see it.

I could have spent the entire day there. It was just the right amount of time.  Chicago is a manageable drive and even better on the train.  We'll be back.
drive...even better by train. We'll be back soon.

International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day and thank you to all the women before me who have paved the road to change and all the fantastic women I know who are making positive changes everyday.
Here at Beyond the Fridge Door, we honour all women artists who struggle to get their message across. Thank you to Canadian Women Artists  Prudence Heward, Emily Carr, Betty Goodwin, Maud Lewis and Rita Letendre.

Restaurant Art Fun

I love it when restaurants provide crayons and paper. It keeps the kids busy. Usually, we play a game of guess the picture. Tonight, we were out  with my daughter's ringette team tonight and we sat with  Jakob and his dad, Brad. They were deeply engaged in a scribble game. Watching them, generated an interesting conversation on creativity.

The games was simple. One would make a scribble and the other would try to find a picture within the scribble. So simple and yet so engaging.

Look for the original scribble and can you see how Jakob transforms it to something more. My favourite is the one on the left.  I promised him I would put it on a T-shirt for his Dad. Come back next week to see the finished product.


What other art games have you played in a restaurant using the crayons provided?

Book Plates

Another idea from D.I.Y. Kids and Scholastic.com. Make your own bookplates. Again, you must have some computer skills and a printer. I created mine on Adobe Photoshop. There is a tutorial on eHow.

Eye Spy!

I received an email from a former colleague, Joyce Contant who shared a really nice literacy project based on the Eye Spy books.  She told them to bring in their toys or found objects. Some picked a theme i.e cars, Hello Kitty, silly bands. Others just used whatever toys or found objects around the classroom. Students had to include a heart somewhere in their collage due to it being a February display. Their riddle followed the same rhythm as the Eye spy books, ensuring at least 12 items in their rhyme to find. The students set up the collage and then they took the photos. She sent me samples. Thanks for sharing, Joyce.

 I spy a lobster, a dragon, and an “R”,
A dolphin, a turtle and a multi-coloured guitar.
I spy a bird, 4 flowers, and a colourful two,
A music note, a star, and a “C” that is blue.
By: Zheyuan Zhou

I spy a ballerina, and a mermaid doll,
A button and a little marble ball.
I spy a dime, a penny, and a snowflake,
A red car, a number 3, and a striped cupcake.
I spy a tiny pink purse and an orange square,
A small heart earring and a little white bear.
By: Fadwa Syaed Ahmed

I spy scissors, a red magnet, and a car,

802, a helicopter, and a yummy Kit Kat bar.

I spy a glue stick, and an army guy,

A heart, a fork, a knife, and two red die.

I spy an airplane, and a triangle that's green,

A rocket ship, a stamp, and a small lima bean.

By: Milo & Dawit

Valentine's Day Hearts

My daughter has been sick the last couple of days so we have been making Valentine's hearts. These ideas were found on Kids Artists- a blog maintained by Jacqueline. I have attached the links to the blog for the lesson plans. 

 This one is called Connected hearts and can be found on Kids Artists . 

Here are two variations to the Cubist Heart. It was originally a Christmas tree on Kids Artists but I changed the subject to a heart. We did it two different ways. The first one was done with markers and the second one was done with marker and acrylic paint.Which one do you prefer?

Finally, these hearts are inspired by Jim Dine. More information at  Kids Artists.

Happy Valentine's Day!