Craft Your Own Sandblock Instruments

The finished sandblocks are ready for music class.

      Children and or teachers can craft sandblock instruments for their music class, a performance or just for fun. All you will need are blocks of wood, felt and a medium weight sand paper. I used a wood glue to adhere my sandpaper to one side of my wooden tablets after I cut and glued a layer of felt to the wooden blocks. The felt acts as pad to extent the wear of the sandpaper over time. Eventually, you will need to adhere more sandpaper to your instruments as the gritty surface wears down to the felt layer.

The felt pad is sandwiched between the wooden surface and the sandpaper.

      I applied a layer of acrylic sealer to the surface of my sandblocks after gluing these vintage pictures onto the top halves of my sample instruments. The acrylic sealer will help to protect the instruments from wear and tear over time. If you would like to make sandblocks like the ones pictured above, you may click on the restored vintage graphics below to download and print the same images that I used for my teacher's samples.

Vintage pictures of a hound playing musical instruments.

The Metropolitan Baptist Church Cherub Choir (ages 3-5) sings 

"What a Mighty God We Serve!"

The Last of Summer by Nell Brinkley

I have cleaned this lovely cartoon butterfly girl by illustrator, Nell Brinkley. Brinkley has long since flown from the earth but her work is still just as endearing. If you'd like to see more of it, I could include a category here at this blog of her work only. She really was quite a popular artist in the early 20th Century. What do you think?

Nell Brinkley Says:

      Butterflies go with the ending of Summer ---butterfly girls go with the ending of the gay night that is their lives. Butterflies grow rare and at last do not flicker gold anywhere, when the sumac turns scarlet and the aspen on the far hills changes into little golden coins; butterfly girls vanish and are no more dimples and sparkle and laughter when there is no more fun to have, when the lights are out and real work comes. But I love a golden butterfly in the sun; and who doesn't joy to watch the butterfly girl dance her way through the sober faces and the earnest!

      Somebody said, " A butterfly lives but a day-- and what if that day is rainy!" So, little butterfly girl whose day is so short, may it be sunny and clear.

More About Illustrator Nell Brinkley:

• Biography and sample illustrated medallions by Brinkley

"The Butterfly's Ball"

The Butterfly's Ball Poem

On the smooth-shaven grass by the side of the wood,

Beneath a broad oak that for ages has stood,

See the children of earth, and the tenants of air,

For an evening's amusement together repair.

And there came the Beetle, so blind, and so black,

Who carried the Emmet, his friend, on his back;

And there came the Gnat, and the Dragonfly too,

And all their relations, green, orange, and blue.

And there came the Moth, with her plumage of down,

And the Hornet, with jacket of yellow and brown,

Who with him, the Wasp, his companion did bring;

They promised the evening to lay by their sting.

Then the sly little Dormouse peep'd out of his hole,

And let to the feast his blind cousin the Mole;

And the Snail, with her horns peeping out from her shell,

Came fatigued with the distance, the length of an ell.

A Mushroom the table, and on it were spread

A Water-dock-leaf, which their table-cloth made,

The viands were various, to each of their taste,

And the Bee brought the honey to sweeten the feast.

With steps more majestic that Snail did advance,

And he promised the gazers a minuet dance;

But they all laughed so loudly he pull'd in his head,

And went, in his own little chamber, to bed.

Then as evening gave way to the shadows of night,

Their watchman, the Glow-worm, came out with his light;

So home let us hasten, while yet we can see,

For no watchman is waiting for you or for me.

Color A Celtic Resurrection Butterfly Cross

       I used metallic ink pens to color in my teacher's sample cross drawing. These inks really stand out if you draw with them on dark or black construction paper. Although, I chose to draw on a nice acid free paper for this particular activity (construction paper fades rapidly). The project is designed for students fourth grade and up. I've included patterns for the butterfly and cross below for those of you who would like to draw a cross very similar to mine. I colored the floral part of my design with Rembrandt colored pencils. These have a nice velvety texture that sharply compliments the metallic inks.

      The butterfly in the modern Christian church, and when I say modern I mean within the last 100 years, is used as a symbol for resurrection. This is because the metamorphosis that takes place during the life cycle of butterflies mirrors the lives of regenerated Christians in both life and death after the Holy Spirit indwells them personally. The cross, in turn, symbolizes the beginning of this resurrection process because of the ultimate price of salvation paid for us through Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection from the tomb.

      Encourage your students to frame their work if they are pleased with the results. I have found that many parents love to receive simple drawings such as these for a birthday or Mother's Day and/or Father's Day gift.

This is my teacher's sample of a Resurrection Butterfly Cross.
Students can use all kinds of metallic ink pens to color in their
 sketches. They will need to use a white or yellow colored pencil
to trace around their stencils before applying the inks. Although I
chose silver for my sample, this pattern would look just as
 attractive in gold or copper inks.

Click directly on the image to download the largest possible file.
 You will need to fold an additional piece of paper and
place the dotted lines of the cross template on top
 of the fold to cut out the entire cross pattern.

More Links to Cross Drawing/Coloring Projects:

• Bible Verse Easter Cross from The Glitter Queen. Also more cross projects here and here again by Kids & Glitter.
• Color Crucifixion Symbols
• Color a Early Pectoral Crucifix
• Jesus, died for our transgressions
  

Craft An Empty Tomb Easter Egg

The finished empty tomb Easter egg, front and side.

    I crafted this empty tomb Easter egg with air dry clay, a half shaped, Styrofoam egg and paint.      The egg form also has a hollow interior and I will post a photo of what these look like just as soon as I can take a picture. 
      For those of you who may be a bit intimidated by shaping your own stones from clay, there are shallow molds for sale in craft and hobby shops for the very purpose of crafting stone walls. The results are so nice that the purchase of one of these is an excellent investment. 

      After pressing the air dry clay into a mold, (shown below) simply adhere the printed clay to the Styrofoam egg with tacky white glue. You will then need to continue working while your clay is still wet. Use a toothpick or a fork and work the clay surface a bit by pushing deeper crevices between the stones to create a more three-dimensional stone wall surface.      I let my stone tomb egg dry over night then I painted it's interior with black acrylic paint. Next, I painted the exterior stones with shades of grey and pale browns. Being satisfied with my final results, I then pasted a cross shaped sticker to the interior of the egg shaped tomb and gave my entire Easter egg a coat of acrylic varnish.

• Color The Women at the Sepulchre
• "He Is Risen Indeed!" Butterfly Coloring Page
• Color The Pieta