Victoria Norman Home

Memorize the States and their Capitols

2018-10-23T19:17:00.000-07:00

Song for memorizing the 50 states and their capitols

STATES AND CAPITOLS BOOGIE

Massachusetts has Boston, Texas Austin,

Littlerock Arkansas, Salt Lake City Utah

Bismarck North Dakota, Oklahoma city Oklahoma,

Pierre South Dakota, Saint Paul Minnesota,

Columbus Ohio, Boise Idaho,

Phoenix Arizona, Santa Fe New Mexico

Juneau Alaska, Lincoln Nebraska, Salem Oregon, Olympia Washington

Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Charleston West Virginia

Helena Montana, Indianapolis Indiana, Dover Delaware, Baton Rouge Louisiana

Augusta Main, Honolulu Hawaii

Concord New Hampshire, Frankfort Kentucky

Raleigh North Carolina, Trenton New Jersey

Jefferson City is in Missouri

Sacramento California, Wyoming has Cheyenne

Lansing Michigan, Providence Rhode Island

Montpelier Vermont, Columbia South Carolina

Madison Wisconsin, Montgomery Alabama

Springfield Illinois, Tallahassee Florida

Annapolis Maryland, Des Moines Iowa

Hartford Connecticut, Jackson Mississippi

Richmond Virginia, New York has Albany

Topeka Kansas, Nashville Tennessee

Georgia has Atlanta as its capitol city

Carson City's in Nevada and there's one more state to go

Because Denver is the capitol of Colorado

4 Roll Leaf Blower Toilet Paper Canon

2017-10-22T20:53:00.002-07:00

This was another VBS (Vacation Bible School) project like the jet airplane from one of my previous posts. The toilet paper canon holds four rolls of toilet paper and shoots toilet paper into a huge streamer at the rate of 4 rolls in 60 seconds. At VBS this canon was set up to shoot over the crowd of grade school children and they loved it! The canon is built from an old leaf blower and 4 paint rollers. Everything else is just decoration to make it look fanciful and fun.

Easy To Make Flower Balls

2017-10-22T20:31:00.002-07:00

Well my daughter was having a baby shower and we rented a community clubhouse to hold the event. I was put in charge of the flowers but there were so many other things to do that the last thing I wanted to worry about was trying to preserve and decorate with something as fragile as live flowers. The answer? Make arrangements with artificial flowers. I think they came out pretty good for a first try.

Paper plane

2012-06-30T14:25:00.003-07:00

First off, this craft project is neither fast or easy. Maybe with some practice it might be easy. It is however in my nature to volunteere and say "yes" prior to knowing how to do the thing that I have volunteered for and this is a prime example of that. If you should take on a similar project perhaps there are some tips here to save you time with your do it yourself large scale paper mache project. In the end it was a good experience and I had help and support from my church and neighborhood friends.
The project is an airplane model for our Vacation Bible School. The wingspan is about 33 1/2 feet wide and the engines are made from plastic 55 gallon drums.

I first made a computer drawing from a photo that I found online.

I printed the drawing to the size I wanted in order to make a small clay model. By covering my drawing with wax paper I was able to make the clay model right on top of the drawing.

Now that I had a model to take 3 dimensional measurements from, I started scaling up the size and making plywood outlines that I built up with sheet foam panels.

Next I covered the whole thing with chicken wire. The wire was screwed to the plywood base every 6 inches to make sure that the whole front would not fall off when I mounted the plywood to the wall.

Next came lots of paper mache. If I had it to do again I would have reinforced the chicken wire more. It seamed that no matter how round I made the plane, once the paper mache dried it would shrink causing the plane to become an octagon instead of a circle. I also finished off the strips of paper with paper mache clay, a layer of drywall mud, and then a good sanding.

Engines started out as 55 gallon plastic food storage containers.I cut about 4 inches off the bottom and then removed another 4 inch ring. The ring was thrown away but the remaining 4" deep "dog dish" was mounted to the wall first, then the engines were slid over the dog dishes and screwed in from the sides.

I cut a hole in the bottom leaving about a 1 1/2" rim. The rim was covered in round foam plumbing insulation from the hardware store. It even had self sticking tape already attached.

White duct tape, my new best friend. I filled the gap with tape so nothing would start moving later.

I then added a layer of paper mache clay followed by a layer of traditional paper strip paper mache to the foam area only.

Engines about ready for their insides.

1/4" plywood disk with a paper mache cone plus some freehand radial spray paint turbines.

My engines are ready.

All wing outlines were drawn on plywood.

1/2" foam sheets formed a pyramid shape on top of the plywood to create the 3 dimensional effect. Every thing was taped together with white duct tape. 3/4" pvc pipe was used to form the front edge of the main wings. I just used tape alone on the tail foam panels.

I had to get up on a 12 foot ladder to take this picture of the final fitting in my back yard.

This was my concept drawing pieced together from a picture of the auditorium, a picture of the clay model, and some freehand clouds and vapor trails.

We test mounted the plane to the wall and traced an outline to help us put it back up again later. After taking the plane back down, my friend Laurie Steinfeld came in and painted in the clouds and vapor trails, Thank you Laurie!

And the finished plane.

More Paintings From My Sister

2011-02-21T09:09:00.000-08:00

My sister sent me this new painting over the weekend. She is a real inspiration to me.

The subject is my niece Paige who is just beautiful anyway.

This is the original photo that she worked from

And the finished piece. Note the added details on the side

Portraits Of Our Valentines Day Guests

2011-02-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

I have been having so much fun painting black and white prints on small canvases. I was never good at getting a portrait likeness but with this technique I don't have to and everybody thinks it was a big deal to do. I especially like adding detail to the sides of the canvas and adding some whimsey with fun details.

Tomorrow we are having some good friends over for a Valentines dinner and I was able to get some photos of them to paint. Here are the results. I will give them the canvases as gifts before they leave. .

Little Canvas Portraits, I Give It A Try

2011-02-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

Well as I said in my last post, my sister would be coming over to show us how to paint these little canvases. She did and we had a blast. Here are pictures of some of the pieces we worked on.

Little Canvas Portraits

2011-02-03T21:01:00.000-08:00

This is a craft my sister does and she sent me the following pictures and instructions. We are going to do some of these this weekend, can't wait. She has been taking old family photos and giving them a modern twist. Who wouldn't want to receive one of these? Very cool.

The process isn't difficult or very time consuming. Deciding on paint colors is what takes the most time for me.

As you can see, I make black and white copies on the computer and cut them to fit onto the canvases. I don't worry about precise cutting. I use Gel Medium and a paintbrush to adhere it.

To give the finished pieces "depth", I start by painting around the images in charcoal grey liquid acrylic paint.

The paint dries quickly, but even more quickly with a blow drier. Takes about a minute.

The only one of these I've somewhat finished, is the one of Rob's mom. I still plan to add a little detail to the one of her on the edges.

The second coat of paint after the grey, I add by thinning with water, sometimes. It's obviously more translucent with the water.

I paint over the grey in sections and then smear the paint around with my finger to let some of the grey show through in places.

I paint on the clothes, and I use cotton swabs to add color to the face and hair with artist's chalks. I use a charcoal pencil to outline or add details and then smudge it with a dry or slightly dampened finger. It's a fun, messy process but I keep a rag nearby to keep the mess on my hands a little controlled without running to wash up all the time.

You can also use the colored chalks to add more dimension to the background at the end, or to tone down or adjust colors if you don't like the shade the paint dried. Then it's fun to add details around the edge of the canvases. Or you can glue on other dimensional details like paper, fabric or whatnots.

The canvases can sit on a flat surface to display, or you can hang them without any need for adding anything to the backs.

Today, I picked up a couple of 5-inch square, and a couple 5 x 7-inch canvases, but I also have plenty of the 4-inchers we could use.

You can see on this one of Zacky, especially (he's a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman, we decided), you can see the outline of where I cut the paper. I don't think of that as a flaw, but more the beauty of the handmade imperfect look. You can lessen it if you cut the paper more the size of the canvas. You can also see that there's a darker color showing through the top layer of paint. I actually have 3 layers going on with this one. After the grey, I painted a color of orange that dried unattractively. So I added one more color. But it gives you an idea of the different look of using other colors as a base.

I paint the bottom side to extend the photo, freehand. So simple.

Christmas German Bell

2010-11-26T10:20:00.000-08:00

Here is my Christmas version of the German Bell. You can upload the template here. The instructional video is at my German Bell Ornament post from last month.

German Bell Ornament

2010-11-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

The German Bell is an easy project with an elegant shape that creates a great blank canvas for all types of decoration. Printed patterns, script, wall paper, photos, gems, beads and tassels, here is your opportunity to really get creative. Download templates here. I also have a youtube video that shows how to fold this project.

Popup Rubber Band Cube/Dice

2010-10-26T17:32:00.001-07:00

This Dice is made from printed cardstock and can be pressed flat for mailing or storage. When released it pops up and automatically becomes 3 dimensional. When finished simply press on the corners to flatten again. Video instructions here, template download here, printed instructions here. Get free printable template here.

Tie A Heart Shaped Knot

2010-10-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

Want to impress somebody you care about? Pull out a piece of heavy cord and tie a heart right in front of them! Here's a video tutorial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI_qtrY_X8c

A Gingerbread House Pop Up Card

2009-12-05T19:25:00.000-08:00

For a color gingerbread house template click here
For a video tutorial click here
For webbased assembly instructions click here

Cottage Pop Up Card

2009-07-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

I've been having some fun playing around with pop up cards and came across a pop up gingerbread house at the extremecards.blogspot.com site earlier this week. After making the project a few times I decided to make a template of my own changing the gingerbread house into a cottage. I will attempt to provide the template in my blog here and you can see the video of how to assemble it at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tskxHiWgNRw.

Here is a link to the template