Thursday, March 26, 2009

Gimme Some Sugar



Okay so I totally stayed up until like 11:15 last night getting these cards done. In teacher time, that is pretty late...I generally get up at 5:15, but today it was more like 6:15....it was worth it though!! I had the best idea for a card for this week's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The main goal is to use bright colors. I love using bright colors!! I also love glitter and sugar and sweets so this is an awesome challenge for me. I could've probably stayed home and made stuff all day today actually...Anyway, I saw this great card in Paper Craft Magazine. It had some paper with cupcakes printed on it. At Hobby Lobby yesterday, I didn't find anything like that so I decided to make my own using a CTMH stamp set. Also, I have been experimenting with embossing on vellum. I decided to go with "Hey Sugar" but the 'hey' stamped a little blurry so I covered it up with a popped, glitter cupcake. My dad calls me sugar or sug sometimes and I think it is the sweetest thing ever, it makes me feel like a little kid again....


After finishing that card, I had to keep going....I made several more using my cupcake punch. I got this really cute patterned paper at Hobby Lobby yesterday. I know I should go through my scrap box for little pieces to use in my punches, but this paper is sooo cute!!





I also have a funny story about cupcakes. We have been working on a unit at school centered around the artist Wayne Theibaud. He paints all sorts of sweets. We made the cutest cupcakes out of clay and this week we are painting them and adding glitter. Well, I was talking to one of my classes on Tuesday about being careful with their cupcake because if they drop it, it will break, and I was explaining how to paint it and how to add the glitter. The entire time I was talking, I had a cupcake in my hand and I was mindlessly waving it around.



Suddenly, just as I turned to put it down I dropped it in front of the entire class. I drop stuff all the time. This time, it shattered into about 4 pieces. "This has never happened before" I told the class. Everyone gasped when they realized that it belonged to someone in their class and they braced themselves to hear whose name I called. I picked up the shards and found the one with the name carved in the bottom...."Oh no....I don't want to say, this person is going to be so mad..." "WHO IS IT??" the class wanted to know..."Eric...but I think I can glue it back and it won't show the cracks..." Poor Eric's little face just fell...I felt so bad. Immediately I plugged in my glue gun so I could fix it for him. Here are a couple of examples of the cupcakes, this glitter is totally beautiful!!!




After painting their clay cupcakes we had one more thing to do in art. The students were finishing a tempera resist painting. The final step is to cover it in a layer of black India ink and after it dries, rinse it off in the sink so that the ink settles into the white of the paper. Right after school I went to work rinsing off the papers. It is a very delicate procedure because wet paper rips easily. I rinsed off about 40 papers with only a few moderate edge tears that can be easily taped and will go mostly unnoticed. Suddenly, I grab one of the last papers and start to rinse it off. Freakishly, it begins to disintegrate like an old crumpled map. Tiny pieces are floating around the the sink. I carefully gather all the pieces and put assemble them on a bigger sheet of watercolor paper. When I flip the paper over to discover whose it was, I am silently praying, "Don't let this be Eric's"....when I flip it over, "IT IS ERIC'S PAPER!!"" I was able to tape it up after it dried and I don't think it is completely ruined, but what are the odds???



Here are a couple of fun pictures from my art room! Enjoy!!


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! I'm on cupcake overload! (If there could ever be such a thing.)

scrapperjulia said...

Love all the cupcake crafts! I really love how you did the embossing on vellum, great job!

Sarah said...

Holy smokes! Those cupcake cards are amazing. Your vellum card blows my attempt out of the WATER.
SO GOOD.
I love your teacher story...poor Eric.
Wish you were the art teacher at my kids school!

zukesgirl said...

I think you owe Eric a "real" cupcake! :) What awesome cards and a fun story - you sound like a GREAT teacher!

Libby Hickson said...

Wow I love this post - so much cupcake goodness! Poor little Eric though! You seem like such a great teacher, I wish *I* could come take your class, forget my kids... LOL!

Sankari W. said...

Oh these are awesome Nellie!!! Seriously - I can't believe all the sugary sweetness you ot going on here!!! LOVE that vellum - sugary card! It is just stunningly beautiful! I love all the cupcake punches and that story is soooooo ::( about Eric.... awww.. poor little guy... you are such a good teacher!!! They are so lucky to have you!!!

Thank you for playing with the Cinema Challenges!!! I always love seeing your name and coming over to your sweet site!!! YOU are just the sweetest!

Cupcake hugs,
Sankari :)

Shari said...

love the cards and everything else!