Busy Little Bees Part 2

Since I haven't posted a lot this year, sometimes I have technical difficulties.  I couldn't get Blogger to let me add more info to the last blog- so I decided just to go with the flow and split the post in half.

Love the dangle earrings!

As I was saying- we have had some successes lately with our Poly Clay Jewelry classes.  Another of our recent winners is our Mokume Gane earring and bracelet sets.  Here is an example of one of my ladies' jewelry.

This summer we have also completed a lot of painted wood projects.  From small birdhouses to plant pokes, to decorative butterfly and flower glass pebble embellished projects-  Wood has been our friend!  Here is a great example of our butterfly and flower projects class.

My ladies at Chambrel hard at work!

The finished project

Great Colors!

I love that every time we do a project- they all turn out so different and really show each individual's personality!

Our last Summer project was a 3-D Paper Piecing Floral Design.  I have to say that this project was one of the all time favorites of the year.  With a little adjustment, this project was actually appropriate for all of my seniors- from those in Memory Care to Independent Seniors.  I simplified the design slightly for my Memory Care residents, but their projects turned out really great!  Here are some of my students in action:

Working away at Atria in Carrollton

Close up of her pretty bouquet!

I even have had one of my ladies do about 10 of these in her room.  She's planning to give them to her family and friends as Christmas presents this year!

Well that's about it for the Summer projects- wish I had taken more pictures because we did some great room diffusers, tumbled stone decoupaged tile coasters and some fun patriotic door hangers as well.

Next up- Fall projects!

Until next time- Have Fun and Stay Creative!

Stephane

Busy Little Bees Part 1

Happily, my class schedule is getting busier every month, and I have not had a lot of time to post.  Summertime was a very busy creative time in our "Get Your Craft On" classes, Dirt Therapy classes and Poly Clay Jewelry classes.   I would like to share with you a few of the projects we completed over the last few months.  Unfortunately, I sometimes forget to take pictures, so many of our projects go unrecorded- including some great tumbled stone decoupaged coasters, reed diffusers with customized fragrances and decorated vases and patriotic door hangers.

Going all the way back to July 4th- Here is a fun watercolor/ mixed media flag inspired project. I taught this project to seniors in Assisted Living and modified it for my Memory Care students as well.  Everyone was very happy with the results!  We painted the design in watercolor, applied glitter to the stars and dimensional paint to the frame.  We raised the stars with small pieces of foam core for a three dimensional look.

Patriotic Art Created by one of my students at Winters Park in Garland

One of the most popular projects of the summer were our painted tote bags with felt button embellishments.  I found some great tote bags at the Dollartree and used DecoArt fabric paints.  We embellished with Felt flowers and buttons from Michaels.

Pretty Tropical Bag for a Pretty Lady!

Another Happy Customer at Horizon Bay In Arlington, TX

In addition to our regular Arts and Craft classes- we sometimes work on Garden decorations.  Here is a great example of our completed pots for the patio at Silverado in Plano Texas.  These pots were made by my Memory Care students.  The designs were made by using our fingertips as the body of our butterflies.  The black painted details really make the designs stand out.  We placed the pots on their front porch area where they sit and enjoy time outside when it is nice.

Fingerprint Butterfles and Felt Flower Plant Pokes

Painted Pots with Summer Hardy Annuals

In addition to planting out our pots, we started vegetables from seed and planted them in our raised beds.  Here are a few of our sucesses.  Cucumbers, peas and radishes did pretty well until the really hot summer weather kicked in.

Cucumbers and Peas on the Bamboo Trellis

Cucmber on the Vine

We also have been having fun in our Poly Clay Jewelry Making classes.  I have found the secret to success- always keep all my students working on the same project.  In the past, I had the ladies make lots of different styles of beads and they would end up working on different projects- and many times, nothing ever got completed.  Now I choose one project and we all do the same design (then put our own spin on the project).

We recently tackled making Polymer Clay Calla Lily pendants and they came out beautifully!

Close up on our Calla Lily Pendant

Dee Dee and June at Signature Place in Dallas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Busy Summer!

Wow!  I can't believe I have not had time to post anything all summer!  We've done a bunch of great projects, and I only have a few pictures of recent projects.  I've been really bad about taking photos this year.  And now we are sneaking up on Fall already!

I'll share a little of what we have been doing lately:

I recently started a new class- Yummy Bites Cooking Class.  Although many of the Retirement Communities offer occasional simple cooking classes- I wanted to do something completely different.  And armed with ton's of Pins from my Pinterest pages I have found some great fun and YUMMY food for us to try.

We've already tried Pie Pops- and they turned out just OK.  We used Berry and Cherry filling, but found we had too much crust and not enough filling in the little pies.  We all agreed that it might be tastier to use creamy filling like chocolate, pumpkin or coconut creme.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the finished products.  Recently we baked rainbow cupcakes in ice cream cones.  They were a big hit with the ladies.    Here are a few pictures of our finished cupcakes- they are not perfect, but they tasted good!

Rainbow Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

We made Apple Pie in a jar as well- and these were really yummy.  To tell the truth, we didn't actually use a recipe- we just eyeballed the ingredients, used premade crusts and they came out just fine!  We all agreed that baking in Mason jars was something we wanted to try again!

Ready to go in the oven!

Our finished project- Yummy!

Last week we made Peachy Keen Bars-  and they were very simple to make with only 7 ingredients- French Vanilla cake mix, canned peaches, eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla and cream cheese.  We were supposed to let them cool but they smelled so good, we dug in right away so they didn't quite keep their bar form, but nobody seemed to care.  We all agreed that the best part of class was sitting around the table visiting with each other (reminded us of old times visiting around the kitchen table with friends and family). 

I'll post again soon so that I can share some of our fun craft projects that we completed over the summertime.  Until then-  Stay Creative and Have Fun!

Stephane

It's my "almost summer" post!

Wow!  This is year is just flying by.  I am having so much fun working with my Seniors and am teaching more and more classes every month!  I just have not had a chance to post much this year or tell you about our Spring projects.  This is only a small fraction of the projects we've done since half the time I  forget to take pictures of our completed projects.  I would like to share some of the fun projects and classes we have been busy with the last few months.

In February we made some great Polymer Clay heart necklaces using a few simple additional charms and silk cording.  These projects were great projects for my ladies in Assisted Living residences and we had a wonderful time making them.

Polymer Clay Heart Necklaces

 In March we made some fun Door Hangers for St Patty's Day using paper plates, tissue paper, fun foam shamrocks and pipe cleaner hangers:

We also had a lot of fun this Spring with gardening projects- not to mention making some fun plant pokes:

This project is our container garden at Autumn Leaves in Rockwall- we started all these plants by seed!

Fun Wooden Spoon Flower Plant Pokes

We had a great time planting out the large planters at Winters Park in Garland- hopefully the plants will get regular watering and will grow throughout the summer months!

In March we started working on Spring Door Hangers, Spring Wreaths and Spring Topiaries:

My Ladies at Franklin Park in North Richland Hills!

Punched Paper Flower Topiaries at Atria in Richardson

In May we celebrated Cinco de Mayo by making festive Paper Flowers  at Horizon Bay in Arlington and they turned out as pretty as the ladies that made them!

Dollar Store Embellished Canvas Bags- just in time for summer outings:

And let's not forget our Cinco de Mayo Latin Rhythm party with the Seniors at Chambrel at Club Hill!  We had a fun afternoon being silly and making music together!

The Latin Music class has been lots of fun for both my Independent Seniors and Seniors with Alzheimer's.  It is a great form of exercise and a good deal of fun.  We encourage dancing as well as playing instruments!

I guess that's it for now!  Off to teach a Latin Rhythm class tomorrow and am going to scour Pinterest for a few arts and crafts ideas for my class tomorrow afternoon!

Till next time--Have a great Memorial Day holiday and always Stay Creative and Have Fun!

Stephane

Valentine's Day Inspired Projects

I admit it, I am now officially addicted to Pinterest.  I just love trolling the site for hours at a time but my Pinterest habit has seriously eaten away at my blogging and creative pursuits this year.

But Pinterest is a great source of ideas and we have been very busy doing some great Valentine's Day and Winter themed projects inspired by some of my great finds out in the blogosphere, so I'd like to share a few of our fun crafts we have been doing so far this year.

Since it is one of my most popular projects- no matter the season- I've brought back Fabric Topiaries for Valentine's Day.  They have been a big hit with my ladies and always turn out pretty- and so unique- even though everyone starts out with the same exact supplies.  Here are a few of our creations at Franklin Park in Plano.

  

Valentine Topiaries at Franklin Park

Close up of the fabric topiary

I just love this picture of one of my ladies heading home with her masterpiece!

This project takes a good amount of prep time in advance- I estimate that each topiary- and these are very small styrofoam balls- takes at least 1/3 to 1/2 yard of material cut in 1 1/2 to 2 inch squares ( depending on how fluffy you want your topiary to be.

And it takes my classes at least an hour and a half to paint their clay pots, paint their stems and poke all their fabric into their styrofoam balls.  Then they have to que up for me to do the finishing touches.

I have never had anyone leave that was not completely happy with their project no matter the season, or their skill level so I would highly recommend this project for all ages!

Button and Scrapbook Paper Framed Hearts

This project was actually inspired by a couple of crafts that I found on Pinterest.  With a couple of tweaks, it was great for both Active Independent Seniors and my Memory Care Residents as well.  Unfortunately I did not get photos of the projects I did with my Memory Care folks- but did catch a few of my ladies at Franklin Park Canyon Creek before they could run out the door with their finished projects.  

This project is fairly inexpensive but the finished product is quite cute!  I always try to use the $1.00 frames from Michael's and love it when they have their 25% off everything coupon.  I used old book pages, pretty Valentine's day Scrapbook papers, buttons and ribbon to embellish the frames in some of my classes.  My small round hole punch came in handy- and I made a template for the large heart out of cardboard.

Here are a few shots of the finished projects:

When we did these projects with the Memory Care Residents, we just left off the background book page and the buttons, otherwise the project looks much the same and my ladies were all very pleased with the outcome!

January has been a very busy month full of fun crafts, Latin Rhythm Classes, Gardening and so much more.  Will share much more in my next post!

Until next time- Stay Creative and Have Fun!

Stephane

It's A New Day!

Late last year I became really busy with my fledgling Seniors Activity business, and did not have much time to post here on my blog, but as the song says:

It's a new dawn,

Its a new day,

Its a new life for me-

And I'm Feeling Good!

I thought this year I might take a different tact with my blog and share more than just craft tutorials and pictures of my proud students.  Since I am a rabid, er, avid Pinterest junkie, I have found loads of great ideas and sources for everything from free printables to use in our crafting efforts to really unique craft ideas to yummy vegan recipes (in honor of my newly vegan daughter) and I am adding more great ideas every day!  I've also started teaching spa indulgence classes and started playing with all kinds of wonderful spa recipes and will share those with you as well and am expanding my jewelry making classes to not only include polymer clay but shrinkable plastic, paper beads and other mediums as well.

This year, I hope to learn how to link to other people's blogs and get more involved with the blogging community at large.  The projects we do at Elder Life Engagement are not only fun for Seniors, but are also great for kids and younger adults as well, so I'd like others to benefit from the creative crafts  and projects we create. So I hope you will embark on this exciting journey with me and let me know how you like the projects and ideas I share with you in 2012!

Hope it is a great year for us all!  Have fun- and Stay Creative in 2012 along with me!

Stephane

Pinecone Turkey Centerpiece

This is one of my favorite projects from last fall so I had to bring it back for my classes this year.  The supplies needed for the Pine Cone turkeys include So far they have been a big hit with everyone who makes them or sees them!

• Medium to large size Pine cone
• Pair of Google Eyes
• Red Felt for Gobbler
• Yellow Felt for Beak
• Orange Pipe Cleaners
• Styrofoam Disk
• Brown Paint
• Foam Paint Brushes
• Moss
• Silk Flowers
• Hot Glue/ Tacky Glue

Pinecone Turkey Closeup

 Here are my ladies from Atria in Carrollton, TX.  They really had fun making their turkeys!

We've also been making some great hand warmers made from denim.  Will try to put a tutorial together for that project soon.  Since most of my students have a touch of arthritis, they are looking forward to using them this winter.

Till next time-  Have Fun and Stay Creative!

Stephane