Fun Friday Dinner: Art Theme

I just want to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to my friend, Leslie, who donated so many amazing art supplies to the homeschool co-op!

In her honor, we made Art the theme of Fun Friday Dinner. (This is a weekly themed costume contest. The winner gets no actual prize... just prestige.)

Natalie, age 15
She came in sporting an adorable vintage apron, flour spilled all over her clothing, an enormous yellow mixing bowl, a metal whisk, and a huge patch of flour on the tip of her nose. "Don't you know that Cooking is an Art?"

Leah, age 13
She came in with black heeled shoes, opaque black tights, a lovely pale pink lace dress, and a black coat with an asymmetrical zipper closure. And rouge! And she was carrying a long mailing tube (presumably with a world-famous painting in it). Pure glamour. "I heard that there's an Art show here tonight?"

Becca, age 12
She came as a free-spirited girl named Art... with flowers face painted on her cheeks and chin, the word Art in yellow face paint across her forehead, layers of headwear (a crocheted headband, a dyed bandanna, a felted wool hat), plus a lively pink flowered dress and colorful polka-dotted rainboots.

Renee, age 41
I wore extremely silly slippers made entirely of adhesive bubble wrap. (Zac's new enamelware dishes from Nova Natural came wrapped in the stuff. At first I just wanted to get him the little creamer so that he could pour his own milk on his cereal, but I gave in and got the entire set.) I carried a tube of orange fluorescent acrylic paint in one hand and a paintbrush in the other. I told the children that I was an artist who squirted paint on the ground and then walked in it. So Becca said, "What is the brush for?" I replied calmly, "It's ART, Dahhhhling."

(By the way, there's a very cool picture book about the invention of day-glo paint. We read it when we learned about Famous Inventors.)

The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors

Anyway, back to the family dinnertime costume contest. Natalie won!

Here is a list of the new goodies we got from Leslie. I'm so inspired! And positively giddy. It was great timing because my birthday was Tuesday; my friend didn't even know that when she brought the supplies to my door. Golly, my head is swimming with great new art ideas for my Summer Camp!

set of 72 Derwent Inktense pencils


8 inch round gel printing plate


watercolor paper:
9 x 12 inch watercolor block
10 1/2 x 14 1/2 inch watercolor paper sampler
12 inch x 16 inch watercolor block

acrylic paints:
fluorescent orange-yellow, grass green, cobalt green, veridian, iridescent copper, red-violet, caribbean, cadmium orange, aqua, sweet mint, ultramarine blue, titanium white, light buttermilk, buttermilk, pistachio mint, raw umber, sap green, lake, cloud, interference blue, interference green-blue

Liquitex acrylic iridescent medium

paint markers:
yellow, red, titanium white

two boxes of washable kids paint, 10 bottles each box

paintbrushes:
set of 6 Grumbacher brushes
Winsor & Newton Wilton fan brush
plus 13 more assorted bristle brushes
plus an assortment of foam brushes

1 lb scrap pack of assorted cardstock pieces

9 x 12 tracing paper

box of carbon paper

9 x 12 construction paper
white, orange, red, blue

8 bottles of glitter glue
shamrock, silver, icicle, Christmas red, gold, aquamarine, emerald, confetti

12 gel pens (these went in the Easter baskets!)

box of 50 Cray-Pas student oil pastels

She also brought some rocks and minerals from her collection for us, which was fantastic! And they'll go really well with our Summer Camp topic too.

Summer Camp Theme: From Lava to Life
June 12 - 23, 2017

From Lava to Life: The Universe Tells Our Earth Story

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