Memorize the States and their Capitols

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.