Lipstick art

Okay....okay..I used to be a makeup fanatic - any free gift with purchase from Estee Lauder, Clinique or Lancome and I was there!!...so, over these many years I have collected a lot of truly unflattering lipstick shades. Being the pack rat that I am...and convincing myself that one day I will wear that bright Candy Apple Red (maybe it would match perfectly with my Christmas party dress)...I stashed them all. Going through my old makeup hoard the other day I had almost convinced myself I would never really wear any of these when I thought "hold on a minute, these are kind of like neatly packaged oil pastels."

Four of my grandkids were coming over to work in the art room and cook up some fudge so how fun would it be to use up grandma's old lipsticks and create some art. Well as you can see they enjoyed this project. We spent a few minutes brainstorming ways we could create art with lipstick, then Lyndsey ,the youngest, immediately applied a luscious hot pink to her own lips and set about drawing a gingerbread man, we trimmed around the edges with scalloped scissors and pasted it to a piece of black construction paper for a frame. The lipstick picture is sprayed with a matte acrylic so it isn't quite so messy.



Lauryn totally smeared paper with the lipstick and used a toothpick to carve her picture, again it's a good idea to spray with an acrylic spray, otherwise lipstick takes awhile to dry completely.



Dylan took a different route and used the tubes and some clay to make lipstick man!!...and ..well not every kid gets into every project so Taylor took tons of pictures of the group and their art work.

Christmas is a comin'

Christmas is approaching ..and fast...which is my excuse for not attending to my blog writing. Note to self...the holidays are not the time to begin a new project!!!

With eight grandchildren I have a lot of gifts to buy. It seems the older I get and the more I understand about the world the less I care about showering my grandchildren with more stuff. I am hoping my legacy to them will be more of who I am and how we spend time together than how much money grandma spent on them. Giving them time is one of the most important things we have to give as grandparents. Unfortunately, four of my grandkids live in another state, with the four that live near me we are getting together tomorrow for our usual "bake and make stuff" day.

One of my favorite memories is of my mom making fudge on top of the stove (she did this a lot)....and by the way Mom, I blame you for my thing about chocolate! Anyway, after she took it off the stove she would stand there and beat the hell out of it with a spoon....I mean she could make that spoon move and not spill a drop!! ....so tomorrow we will make a batch of fudge, and maybe sugar cookies with sprinkles of course. There is also a planned art project which I will post on Wednesday.....sneak peek!!!...it involves lipstick!!

How to make a jewelry box from an egg carton

Know your egg carton.....some are great for this project...some are not. The pink one is your standard styrofoam, the blue one is a lumpy cardboard.



PINK JEWELRY BOX

materials used

egg carton, acrylic paint, pencil with an eraser, circle sponge dabber
acrylic spray or brush on for topcoat, cotton balls, white glue, construction paper

Easy to do - paint the egg carton with 2 to 3 coats of paint and dry. Using a pencil eraser dab it into one of the acrylic paint colors and dot it onto the surface of the painted and dry carton. Add larger dots with the circle sponge dabber. Kids absolutely love dots, and my granddaughters love this pink. Let them put dots everywhere.....on the sides, the bottom....encourage them to use contrasting colors. When dry spray with an acrylic finish for durability. Be careful using spray paint on this type of egg carton, (they melt).......really!!!

My granddaughter added some of her artwork to the inside lid, a special surprise for mom. She used basic white glue to attach some black construction paper to the inside lid and then glued her art work over it. The black paper makes a nice frame for her work.

When all is dry use half a cotton ball and place in each egg section, or you might want to have some without cotton, better for earrings. We also used dry rice in two compartments to place rings so they can easily be seen.







Blue cardboard jewelry box

This egg carton is a little porous so it was first painted with gesso or white primer in order for the acrylic paint to adhere in one coat.
A teal blue paint was applied after the gesso was dry. The center picture is art from Ten Two Studios, the other images are from old magazines. Once the images were applied with white glue we put glitter around them. To finish the jewelry box it is a good idea to spray all with a clear matte acylic. For an extra touch an old costume earring was glued to the center of the lid.

Wow....I'm in the blogosphere!!

First off, why Rowdy Grandma.....cause kids like ROWDY!!!

My suggestion to all grandmas is become a Rowdy Grandma.
Rowdy grandmas yell with joy and often sing really loud when a favorite song comes on (even if they can't sing)...like me.
.....in fact my family teases me - when my son was small I would sing things like Zippity Do Dah, I don't want a pickle (Arlo Guthrie ...if you don't remember) and Santa Claus is coming to town.

He would say ...stop singing!!! Well, I tried the same thing with the grandkids - they all said ...stop singing...couldn't believe it!!

I am also a crafty grandma, my grandkids have been making gifts for Christmas and other holidays since they were little....one of their favorites is to use an old egg carton and turn it into a beautiful jewelry box. If you have a grandson who poo poos this idea just mention how much his mom would love this gift from him - little boys love making a gift for Mom. Of course no persuasion is needed for the granddaughters...being girls they love jewelry and all things associated with jewelry.

....and, oh yeah....Rowdy Grandmas are messy and let the grandkids get messy.....if you have a grandchild that seems a little nervous getting paint on their hands be sure and tell them that's the fun of arting and crafting - a little paint on your hands. It is also a good idea to have an apron or some old clothes they can wear so mom and dad don't consider you a little too rowdy!!

......tune in tomorrow for instructions and ideas for an egg carton jewelry box you can make with the grandkids.....see ya then