Library Roulette, Class 700: How to Draw Kawaii Vegetables

For the fifth (and final) craft in my Library Roulette Class 700 project, I drew vegetables. Cute vegetables, that is. 

This time, my random number was 745, the category for Decorative Arts. I chose the book Crafting Cute: Polymer Clay the Kawaii Way by Dani Banani. (Affiliate link here and throughout the post.) The book begins with an introduction and an explanation of kawaii ("cute" in Japanese) and chibi (an exaggerated, minimalist drawing style). Next is an excellent explanation about working with polymer clay. The rest of the book has detailed instructions to make 50 adorable anthropomorphized projects using polymer clay. The writing is excellent and the many step-out photos make this a great book for beginners. 

Rather than work with polymer clay, I opted to take inspiration from the Pickle Charm project to draw kawaii vegetables. 

Looking at this project and the others in the book (the finished clay pieces, not the illustrations), I identified characteristics of Banani's work that I wanted to include. 

• projects are done in a solid color, in a lighter shade than the real item would be
• the proportions are shorter and squatter than in reality
• all edges are rounded
• details are minimal or non-existent
• the faces consist of a tiny smile and two dots, done in black, and lined up with each other

This project gave me the perfect opportunity to test out the Marker Sketchbook I received from Ohuhu. The smooth, heavyweight paper is designed specifically to use with Ohuhu markers and they colored like a dream in this sketchbook. 

I started by putting vegetable-shaped blobs of color onto my paper, trying to keep them short, squat, and rounded. I started with the carrot and eggplant (since I'm left-handed). I didn't plan ahead with overall placement; the next vegetable I drew was whatever fit nicely into the remaining space I had, both in terms of space and not repeating a color. The mushroom and the bean were last, since I hadn't left myself much room in the left-hand side!

Then I used a Black Honolulu to add faces. I outlined each vegetable, then added tiny lines to imply dimension to the carrot, eggplant, radish, tomato, mushroom, and bean. I made full lines on the bell pepper - in retrospect, I wish I hadn't. I added small lines to both the top of the onion and the root end. Finally, I added a few small spots on the potato. 

I've really enjoyed trying to mimic different artists' styles in the past and this was no exception. I've never drawn anything with a kawaii and/or chibi style, so it was fun to try something new. The happy vegetables make a great first page in my new marker sketchbook. Every time I work in it, I'll have these smiling faces greeting me!

Library Roulette, Class 700: Adventures in Improv Quilts

For the second craft in my Library Roulette Class 700 project, I made this paper quilt using patterned papers from a Valentine's Day collection (affiliate link here and below). 

The book I chose for 746 (Textile Arts) is Adventures in Improv Quilts. As you know, I'm not a quilter and almost never do fabric crafts, but it didn't matter. I LOVE this book. I learned so much about improv quilts and how they are made through the well-written text and plentiful photos. 

Pretty much all of the exercises, tips, and tricks that are intended for designing with fabric are applicable for designing with paper. The guided exercise I tried was called Retro Circles. 

I chose four coordinating papers and cut them each into 4" squares. 

I stacked the papers and cut three gentle curves. 

Then I shuffled the cut pieces and created four blocks, each with one of the four papers. When working with fabric, you chain piece them together. Paper is so much easier - just glue the pieces to a 4" background.

I repeated that process three more times to give me a total of 16 squares. Then it was time to arrange them. I played with a lot of different possibilities....

..... before settling on this one. Then it was just a matter of gluing the squares to a 16" background. 

Obviously, with fabric you would go on to quilt it. With paper, that isn't necessary. But it could be a lot of fun. I'm strongly considering making another paper quilt and experimenting with both real and faux stitching. 

This was such a fun project! There are so many other fun ideas in Adventures in Improv Quilts that I would like to try in paper. 

Fall Library Tic-Tac-Toe

Remember the Library Tic-Tac-Toe game I shared over the summer? I've made a fall version!

Feel free to print this out and enjoy it at your library. Full instructions for how to play Library Tic-Tac-Toe are here. After the library visit, try a fall-themed craft or two!

Library Tic-Tac-Toe

We're a library family. We visit the library several times a month to check out books, for Trevor's book club, for special events, to borrow movies or audiobooks, for Library Roulette... and the list goes on and on. If you were to visit our house, you'd find a pile of library books waiting to be read and a pile ready to go back. We love everything about the library. Now I've come up with a new way to enjoy the library. I'm calling it Library Tic-Tac-Toe. 

To play Library Tic-Tac-Toe, find a partner and head to the picture books. While this is technically the children's area, I have long felt that picture books are for everyone. I mean, who wouldn't want to read When Cows Come Home (affiliate link)? It has a clever rhyming plot and hilarious illustrations.  

When I was getting my teaching credential, our literature instructor emphasized that no matter what grade level we ended up teaching, we should incorporate picture books into our curriculum. I wholeheartedly agree and regularly used them in my 5th grade classroom. Even though the reading level was too low for most of my students, picture books have so much more to offer: rhyme, rhythm, meter, plot, and pacing, for example. The illustrations are a great jumping-off point for student artwork or to teach art concepts. Reading picture books aloud is a great way for kids to become more fluid in their oral reading. They're great for English Language Learners. Long story short, I'm a fan of picture books, no matter what your age. 

How you play Library Tic-Tac-Toe depends a lot on the age of the child. With a very young child, have the child name the pictures on the paper (vocabulary development) and then work together to find the pictures in books (reading conventions - left to right, prediction based on the cover, turning pages gently to 'be nice to the book', etc.). Introduce the concept of getting three in a row. When you've found three, sit down together and read the books. Repeat as desired!

With grade school children, you can play cooperatively (like above) or competitively. To play competitively, agree ahead of time who is X and who is O. Each person searches through books to find an illustration matching the picture on the tic-tac-toe board. When you find one, mark your space with an X or an O. Three in a row wins. Then sit down and enjoy the books you found. Here, O has found a pictures of bees and will circle the bee on the card.

I made the cards using PicMonkey. It was so easy - I just created a grid and dropped their adorable overlays into the spaces. It only took a few minutes per card. Feel free to print my cards and try them out! Or, head over to PicMonkey and make your own. 

Interesting, Fascinating, and Inspirational: My Most Memorable Biographies from A to Z

Steve, Trevor, and I are all avid readers. We regularly have Family Reading Night where we sit in the same room and read. We read individually. We listen to audiobooks in the car when we travel. Trevor belongs to a book club. We discuss the books we read over dinner. The three of us truly share a love of reading.

What we do not share, however, is a preference for the same genres. Steve loves science fiction, fantasy, and thrillers. Trevor gravitates toward fantasy, humor, and books about animals. I am all about memoirs and biographies. We each read some of each other's favorites, and there are plenty of books I could name that all three of us adore. This month, Trevor's book club discussed Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians (affiliate link). It's a good example of a book all three of us really enjoyed... enough that we're arguing over who gets to read the next books in the series first. 

While Trevor is at Book Club, I use the time to browse the shelves for interesting memoirs or biographies that catch my eye. An idea popped into my head. I should think back on all the memoirs and biographies I've ever read and pick the most memorable person for each letter of the alphabet. After making my list, I'll fill in any gaps by searching the stacks specifically for those letters. Then in part 2, I'll ask you guys to challenge my list. If you have read a memoir or biography about a person who is more memorable, fascinating, inspirational, or interesting than the one I listed, let me know and I'll read that book and see if it bumps someone off my list. 

To clarify, this is not a list of the most important biographies, nor a judgement about the best literary works in the genre. It is a a list of books that have stayed with me for some reason or another. I am not saying that the autobiographies of Steve Martin and Anne Frank are in any way similar. Obviously they are not. Each is memorable for completely different reasons. On with the list! Full disclosure: Each of the photos is as affiliate link. If you make a purchase after clicking them, I receive a small commission.

On with the list!

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Most Memorable Biographies from A to Z

    A:  Nujood Ali                           B: Anthony Bordain                     C: Julia Child                         D: Tomie dePaola

               

E: Auguste Escoffier                        F: Anne Frank                         G: Chris Gardner                     H: Homer Hickam

                      

                                                   J: Rachel Jeffs                              K: Helen Keller                     L: Jenny Lawson
             
                       


    M: Steve Martin                     N: Dr. Jerri Nielsen                                                                       P: Bill Peet

                

                                              R: Leigh Platt Rogers                      S: Jehan Sadat

              

                                                    V: Karl Vogt                       W: Stanley 'Tookie' Williams              X: Malcolm X 

                

                                                  Z: Louis Zamperini

       

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A few notes about the books I chose:

• It was painful narrowing down some of the letters. I've read a lot of great biographies and many of them could have made the list. But I had to ask myself which one left me thinking, or smiling, or raving about it the longest. 
• There are at least two people on this list I am virtually certain you haven't heard of. Leigh Platt Rogers is a local author who came to my classroom to speak with my students back in my teaching days. What a storyteller! Her books are riveting, but she's even more interesting in person. Karl Vogt is my mom's uncle. He was one of at least 11,000 Germans and German Americans interned by the US government during WW2.
• I have eclectic taste.

OK, I need your recommendations! Have you read any memorable biographies about someone with a last name starting with I, O, Q, T, U, or Y? Let me know in the comments!