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