P is for Pig

Well, between sick children and conferences, it's been slow going in the Art teaching world lately.  But not so at home.  We've been creating up a storm!  This week was P week in preschool.  The kids are allowed to bring show and tells IF it is something that starts with the weekly letter.  So, a pig we shall bring.

We started with a thrift store sweater, some fabric and fleece scraps and a few random buttons.  The nose button was actually the inspiration for this project a few weeks ago, but we just didn't get around to it until we had our deadline of the last day of P week looming.  (Hmmm.  Procrastination.  Just another service that I offer.) Anyhow, the thrift store.  We have an awesome one in the town that we live.  Sweaters are FREE.  So the grand total for this project was $0.  Nice.

We took a pattern that we found here.  We've actually never used it to make a doll.  We've used the head and body and turned the legs into ears to make adorable bunnies.  And for the pig we just used the head and body.  We made our own pattern for piggy ears and a curly piggy tail.  We cut out all the body parts, sewed on all the decorations, then sewed all the parts together and stuffed.  Voila!!  We were even able to use the drawstring from the sweater hood as a bow.  The result?  Cutest.  Pig.  EVER.

Our pile of materials.

Finished piggy- front.

Finished piggy- the end.

Come on in and color for a while...

Welcome to Color Outside the Lines!  My name is Leah and I teach Art.  I hope to soon be sharing with you projects that I do in the classroom with my students, projects that I do at home with my children, and projects that I do for my own creative expression and well being.

I am looking forward to sharing my adventures teaching Art with the families of the students I teach as well as the community we live in and the Art Education community at large.  Art programs are in jeopardy, and my hope is that Color Outside the Lines will help advocate for those programs by showing the 21st century skills that a well designed art curriculum develops.  In addition, being featured in this blog will give my students' art a bigger audience than it would ever see just hanging on the school walls. 

I also look forward to sharing with you creations on a budget, making art out of junk, and just fun art things that my kids and I do on a weekend.  Stay tuned for photos, samples, ideas, directions, stories, and general musings about art and art education.  I hope that you find some inspiration here.  Come on in and color for a while- and don't worry about staying in the lines.  Let's have some adventures in Art!