Foam Cube Friends

Started the new year with an easy project that was more exciting then I knew. All I took to the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market were foam cubes donated to reDiscover Center and sharpies. I knew the permanent markers would be exciting. Many children are not allowed to use them at home because they are not easy to clean up. But in an outdoor environment with an exciting target no one seemed to draw on anything but their cubes. And the cubes! The children drew everything from faces to animals and outdoor scenes to Minecraft characters.

    

Pipe Cleaner Market

What do you need to entertain children for a couple of hours? Pipe cleaners and scissors. That is all I brought to the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market to use for craft making at the reDiscover Center‘s booth in December. That and my fantastic assistant Richard Heaven. The both of us entertained and encouraged children of all ages to create their own holiday decorations out of pipe cleaners.

Here are some fun images from the day.

Paper Covered Containers

Luckily it was not a blustery day on the first Sunday of November. I brought many scraps of tissue and wrapping paper, empty containers, glue sticks, scissors and markers to the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market for my arts & crafts booth for reDiscover Center. I was a bit late that day because I had been asked to be in a video about being an artist and reDiscover Center. It is a short three minute video for Santa Monica local television. An honor to be asked. I love talking about art and reuse. Although I may have been nervous and flubbed what I said, however they edit it down it will be fun… or funny…. or both. ha ha

So when I got to the market there were all sorts of activities in progress. Two parades, one for Day of the Dead and one Native American inspired. The second group danced in front of my booth which brought even more people over. Lots of containers were turned into baskets.

Pumpkin Decorating

For the month of October I worked one extra Sunday at the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market. The two weeks before I worked at creating tiny witch hats out of felt and hot glue. Many finger burns later (luckily hot glue doesn’t burn just the surprise of touching the hot part of the glue gun hurts for a second) there were about 50 hats created. Thank you Mary Beth, Director at reDiscover Center  for helping cut some out! Needless to say with 250 pumpkins 50 hats were used up quickly leaving others to create their own versions. It was impressive what the children came up with. Thanks to my friend Carolyn for volunteering her time and helping at the tables. Many many thanks to Richard Heaven for being my awesome assistant for the day and taking most of the pictures!

 

Girl Scouts

A group of girl scouts from Redondo Beach came to the reDiscover Center and created their own mini forests. I read The Tin Forest to them and then they each created their own version of the forest.

Flying through the market!

The first Sunday of October brought super heroes, flying princesses, caped crusaders and other protectors of humans to the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market! Starting from the reDiscover Center‘s booth for the Big Draw LA and running throughout the market were children of all ages clad in their own drawings freshly done and worn as capes! It was so much fun a few children came flying back with friends to make capes for them. Some came just over with excited parents asking if this was were they could make capes. It was a special day as I had my lovely assistant Richard Heaven by my side photographing and assisting the super children!

   

 

Mending by hand

On Saturday, September 13 I taught an intimate sewing class for Trade School LA at reDiscover Center. We went over invisible and visible mending. We hemmed skirts, sewed on buttons, practiced hand stitches, and even set up the foundation to machine sew our own reusable t-shirt bags! I will definitely be teaching this class again. Keep posted for dates. And feel free to let me know what you would like to learn and/or review.

There was a male sewing student, facilitator and photographer (we were all busy sewing that I forgot to take a picture of Richard!). All images by Richard Heaven.

 

Artist Trading Cards at reDiscover Center

I taught Artist Trading Cards for Trade School Los Angeles at reDiscover Center on Saturday, September 6, 2014. The turn out was small, but huge in rewards. A neighbor was a student, along with Richard Heaven and Mary Beth Trautwein, Director of reDiscover Center. We talked about all sorts of events in the area along with creating ATCs. Trading was done at the end and fun was had.

Photos by Amy Bauer and Richard Heaven

 

 

Stamps & Ink Pads

September 7, 2014 was a fun day at the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market. Children who stopped by played with stamps and markers. One made a birthday card for a friend, another a card for their mother and the rest created 8 1/2″ by 11″ master pieces that they proudly showed to their parents. I had with me supplies from reDiscover Center. A tin of ink pads, markers, colorful paper and a plethora of stamps. Everyone (included the table-cloth & myself) was covered in ink and full of smiles.

I have a super fun recycling project for October. Perfect for Halloween!

Canister Puppets are for Adults too!

Sunday, August 3 was a busy day in the reDiscover Center‘s booth at the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market. It was the eighth year and it was quite a celebration. Instead of a DJ there was a live band and a booth to get glitter tattoos! The theme was Country Faire. I had already chosen my project based on the fact that it was International Friendship Day. I believe it worked. We created finger puppets out of empty film canisters, pipe cleaners, and markers. Lots of new friends were made including Kings, Queens, Princesses, flying friends, superheroes, and a dinosaur. I must say this was an activity that was really enjoyed by all. Adult friends too stopped by and created some great samples. I think I will use them to make a mobile.

Here’s a look at some of what was created that day.