Mom's Chocolate Painting Inspired by Ms. Julie

My mom has become so annoyed by my lack of posts that she went ahead and created her own. I guess you guys missed me.

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I have been looking at your chocolate painting post for so long now that I decided I needed to give it a try. First I needed to pick something to copy and I was inspired by “Parrot Paradise” on Ms. Julie’s Place – She however is much better at creating art than I am. Next I printed out her picture at a size that will fit the cheesecake it will grace. I then taped the picture to the back of a piece of parchment paper, traced a circle the size of the cake top and set it into a cookie sheet




I next collected all the different colored chocolate melts that I had and decided which colors to use as I did not have any purple. I have found from past experience that you really can’t make different colors with these melts. They are not pure colors so you mostly end up with different browns.



I then started filling in the various sections letting it cool and harden between colors. I used some drip painting to represent the leaves as it is quite difficult to paint with too much detail (artistic license?). A white chocolate background would look better with this picture so I painted a border around the edge with the intention of pouring the rest of the chocolate to hold it all together.

Then I put the picture in the refrigerator to harden. I have now discovered that white chocolate doesn’t melt thinly enough to pour so I had to spread it with a knife which had the unfortunate effect of smearing some of the painting. And there for next time I will use a true chocolate background.

Now I must go make the cheesecake!

To Peter: My chocolate art won’t last long either. But I did make it 24 hours ahead of the cheesecake, so it should last at least that long.

Chocolate Painting

I haven't dropped off the planet. I'm here! I hope you are all enjoying poetry month and the poems Gregory K has been posting at his site this month. I've been doing a little traveling so I haven't been around much. I haven't even done much writing, though I had planned to get to work this month!

I promise you all some real posts this week, but in the meantime enjoy this project. Turn any picture into a chocolate painting.

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Sculpt Your Own Clay Birthday Cake

Today I am 24. Unless I can somehow have a party in a hot air balloon, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate than to do a birthday art project with you all.
So today, sculpt your own clay birthday cake.

Supplies Needed:

Clay (flour, salt, water)
Paint
Paintbrush
Pipe cleaner
Wax paper
Aluminum foil
Scissors
This project would be much simpler if you use colored, store-bought polymer clay rather than making your own clay and painting it. That said, if you enjoy a challenge, follow these to directions to make your own clay for this project. A warning: it’s tough to mix the clay so an adult should at least help.

In a bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, ¾ of a cup of water, and ¾ of a cup of salt. Mix with a wooden spoon until it becomes too difficult to do so. You’ll want to add a little more water, about another 1/8 of a cup, as you continue to mix with your hands.
Spread a sheet of wax paper over your workspace. Begin with a ball of clay that is about two handfuls big. Roll it around in your hands until it is a smooth ball. Then, shape it into a rounded square by pressing each side gently onto the wax paper. When it is the shape of a small cake, set it aside.

Roll out a long snake of clay. This will be the icing around the bottom of the cake. When the snake is smooth, wrap it around the base of the cake.
Cut a square of aluminum foil. This is the cake tray. Place the cake on the tray.

Cut four pieces of pipe cleaner, about 1 inch long each, and press them into the cake. These are the candles. Remove them from the cake so you can paint.
Let the cake dry. It needs to dry at least over night before you paint it.

Mix a little bit of yellow paint with white to make a butter cream frosting (no vanilla on my cake!) and paint the cake with it. I had trouble making the paint look smooth so I used a palette knife to even out the paint, just like you would use a knife to smooth out frosting.

Choose a color for the icing around the base of the cake. Carefully paint the icing.

Paint decorations onto the top of the cake.

Finally, push the pipe-cleaner candles back into the cake.
Remember, this one’s just for decoration!

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Awesome April Events

So many awesome things happen in April and I want to be sure you know about some of the things I'm exited about.

First, April is Script Frenzy! If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you'll remember that National Novel Writing Month happens in November every year. Script Frenzy is hosted by the same wonderful group of people. In April, adults are challenged to write a 100-page script in 30 days. For kids 12 and under, or classes of students in kindergarten through 12th grade, there is a Young Writers Program complete with a writer's resources section that teaches you how to write a script. The site even offers safe, kid-friendly chat rooms.

I will not be participating in Script Frenzy but I will be working on a new novel in April while some of the members of my writing group work on scripts. I will set a much smaller word-count goal for April than I did in November but I will post a word counter in the sidebar so you can keep track of my progress if you're interested. I hope you'll write along with me!

Second, April is National Poetry Month! I urge you to check out 30 Poets/30 Days at GottaBook where Gregory K. will poet a new poem for kids everyday of April. The poems are all previously unpublished. The poets who are participating include Jon Scieszka (who wrote Seen Art and Math Curse, which you've read about here) and Jane Yolen. The celebration begins on April 1 with a poem by the former Children's Poet Laureate, Jack Prelutsky.

If you want to write some poems of your own, you might consider looking to art for inspiration!

And finally, April is the first full month of spring! Warm weather is on its way. Make sure to get outside and enjoy it! If you live in the D.C. area, the National Cherry Blossom Festival is underway. The peak bloom period is expected to begin on April 1 and continue through April 4, but the cherry trees have already begun to blossom. There will be a parade in the city on Saturday, April 4 and there are sure to be tons of people enjoying the cherry trees.

I took the above photo last year. I'm not sure if I'll be able to see the cherry blossoms this year, but I am certainly going to try!

What does any of this have to do with art? Well, script writing is an artform, poetry is an artform, and if you take photos at the National Cherry Blossom Festival, photography is an artform, too.

I can't wait for April!

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Two Year Old Artist

You all must go watch this video! Of course, videos like this pop up from time to time, but they always amaze me.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if all two-year-olds were given tubes of paint and canvases to play with?