Art Club: Artist Trading Cards

Artist trading cards or ATC as they are called for short, are tiny works of art that people make and trade with each other. This is based on the idea of other cards that have been traded for things like sports or animated characters, only these cars are for artists. The teens and I got to experience making artist trading cards thanks to Kate Hufnagel, a fantastic artist.

To make Art Club more interesting for the summer I decided to bring in some guest artists. This also ties in with our Summer Reading theme of heroes because I wanted to have the teens possibly think about how artists can be heroes. Kate came with an amazing array of supplies and was helpful and instrumental in getting the teens to make art and trade it! http://www.flipsidepa.com/ci_25685212/artist-trading-cards-are-focus-new-york-art

A way to make this program happen in you library is to see if the artistic community in your area would be willing to make a few cards with the teens and get them started trading and making. Or you could simply start it within the teen group at your library. Or partner with another community organization outside of the library (senior center and teen group trading cards?) There are lots of possibilities with this program, so go big! For supplies you need various papers, images (old magazines will do), paper towels, table coverings, brushes. glue, and some card stock cut to trading card size. Most likely this stuff is already in your library! So gather it up, get a group, and make some art! Email me for questions and information! dstates@yorklibraries.org

Dawn states: Vincent Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists. Who is yours? Leave a comment!

Nostalgia Party!

Okay to put the sprinkles on the nostalgia cake, the teens wanted to top it off with a 90's party. (Yes, nostalgic about the 90's, I know....what) Anyway, this was a super awesome and fun party and super easy to do. These basic things that were done at this party can also be done for any decade and it is so easy to pull together! Basically you will need to pull off a similar decade party the following items: music from the decade, food from the decade (we got a popular cereal from the 90's, so it can be that simple), a couple of activities from the decade and then you are good to go! For the activities, we had musical chairs to 90's music, watched the Rugrats, colored Lisa Frank pages, had a 90's dress contest, and took some instax pics of the group. It was easy, fun, and well-liked! This could be done for multiple decades. Email me with questions or for more information! dstates@yorklibraries.org
Dawn states: Nirvana makes me nostalgic!

90's Dress contest winners! 

My boss in 90's dress! 

Group pics which we then printed using the Instax printer for that 90's feel! 

Ring pops and Lisa Frank! 

COOOOOKIE crisp! 

grunge 

Nostalgia goes on!

Nostalgia week even visited game night! The N 64, game cube, and yes even the original Smash Brothers made an appearance! (I voted for things like pick up sticks or jacks, but video games took first place) The teens really loved playing these games, even though the graphics are not quite what they are used to.
Everyone took turns smashing away, laughing at the graphics, and marveling at the controllers. They are used to the new Wii U so it is good for them to change things up and check out something different. They knew some of the different components of the games from playing them before, but some things were different and took a little adjusting. It was really fun to see the teens playing these games.
See what nostalgic games you would be able to bring into your library! It is a good experience for the teens and such fun to watch. For comments or questions please feel free to email me at dstates@yorklibraries.org
Dawn states: My favorite nostalgic game is freeze tag!