"What's On Your (Work) Desk" Still Life

Several of my blogging friends participate in 'What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday'. If you haven't heard of this, it's not a particularly hard concept to grasp: people share photos of what's on their work desk on Wednesdays. Depending on who is sharing, what their work is, and how prolific they are, it can be very interesting or quite repetitive. 

Today is a Wednesday, so I'm sharing my own version in the form of a craft. This easy still life is a fun way to document the supplies I regularly use for work in 2018. If I'd done this fifteen years ago (back in my teaching days), you'd completely different stuff: chalk, a red pen, a whistle, paper clips, a protractor, and not a tape runner in sight. It makes me wonder what will be on my work desk fifteen years from now. 

This would be a really fun project to do with students. Their school supplies would reflect their age and abilities. A kindergartener might have rounded scissors, a fat pencil with a grip on it, a large eraser, and paste. A fifth grader might have colored pencils, a pencil sharpener, scissors with pointed tips, and a glue stick. It would make a neat snapshot of their daily lives.

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"What's On My Desk" Still Life

Materials:

• white drawing paper (affiliate link here and throughout the post)
• pencil
• the items on your desk
• crayons
• scissors
• black construction paper
• glue 

Steps:

Start by tracing one of the larger items on your desk. I started with the scissors. Remove that item and place a different item on the paper so that it intersects with the first. Trace the second item, taking care not to draw through the lines of the first item. Continue to trace new items, making sure they intersect with at least one item you've already traced and do not cross existing lines.

When you have traced all the objects, use crayons to color them in. You can be as detailed as you want. I chose to ignore printing and just do shapes of color. 

When everything is colored, cut away the white paper. I had a bit of a meta moment using my scissors to cut out my scissors.

This is what my still life looked like after cutting away the exterior areas of white paper. At this point, it's a good idea to show kids how to cut away interior spaces (without folding the paper or stabbing themselves in the hand).

When the interior sections are cut away, add glue to the back and put it on black paper.

Don't forget to label it with the date, either on the front or the back. Years from now, you'll want to know when these were the items on your desk!

P.S. Do you recognize all of my items? Most of them are in my Gift Guide for crafters. :)