Summer Series (Week 5)

Some ROBOT fun for you :)

I made this fun little robot banner for Jackson's robot themed party and turned it into a PDF for you.  All you have to do is save it to your computer and print it out.  Color all the robots and then punch a hole in each one and string it up!

If you make one I'd love to see it!
Tag me on Instagram with hashtag #summerseries2013
Next week I'll have a little girly version :)

Summer Series 2013 (Week 3)

I'm so glad to see you've been enjoying the summer series downloads I've been creating!

I loved seeing all the Daddy day gifts that were made!

 

Last week I taught an art camp for ages 6-8.  I thought this week I would share the projects I did with them and if you make any of them, send me a photo or tag them on Instagram (#summerseries2013) to win a free 8 x 10 from my shop!

 

 

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1.  "Kaleidoscope Painting"

Paint the lid of a cup with black paint and use it to stamp overlapping circles.

Once it dries, paint inside each shape with a different color.

This is a very relaxing project for all ages!  :)

 

2.  "Hands and Feet"

Trace the child's hands and feet and let them draw the body and face.

Talk about what kind of background they'd like.  Outline all the pencil marks with a black permanent marker and then paint.



 

 

3.  "Hot Air Balloons"

Paint your background paper to look like a sunset.

On another sheet of paper, let the child draw a hot air balloon.

Using glue watered down, overlap pieces of tissue paper.  When it's dry, cut it out

and glue it on the background.   Paint white clouds in the background.

 ( The boys had fun drawing the basket with multiple rooms!)

 

4.  Robots

Using a case of donated CD cases and bits and pieces (nuts, bolts, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, foil paper, etc.), the kids created their own robots.  This is good for younger kids too!

 

5.  "Model Magic"

You can buy model magic at Michaels or Joanns.  It's an airdry clay.

We made frogs and owls, but you can make anything you want!

Paint with tempera or acrylics when they dry.

 

6.  "Batiks"

Have the child draw an image on a large piece of paper.

Encourage them not to use too much detail.  Cut out a piece of white fabric and lay it over the drawing.

Using Elmers blue gel glue, outline the drawing. Make sure it dries thoroughly.

Thin acrylic paint with water and let them paint on the fabric.

After it dries, run the fabric through water and let it soak for about 20-30 minutes.

The glue will come off and you will have a batik!  :)



Enjoy crafting with your kiddos.  I can't wait to see what all you come up with!!

Painting Self-Portraits with Four-Year-Olds

This is a great age to start self-portraits with kids.

It is one of my all time favorites.  :)

I thought I'd share a little tutorial with you if you're interested.

 

1.  I sit right next to the child and draw my own head.

I give them top and bottom marks as seen below.  Otherwise their circle or oval is usually very small.

I draw the ears, neck, and shoulders on my page and they mimic on their own paper.

 

2.  Next, they paint.

Skin color first, hair, and then their shirt.

 

I am always impressed with the hair!  ;)

 

3.  I let them dry overnight.  Next, I loosely outline their shapes with a sharpie marker.

4.  Sitting next to them again, we talk about how eyes are not just a black ball on your face.

They have eyelids, and eyeballs.  I show them how to draw a "football" shape and do the rest.

They mimic their own version.  I do the same thing with the nose and lips.

 

5.  I outline the nose and mouth shape for them, and then they use a small brush to paint the inside of their eyes, add eyebrows,  and any details they want on their shirt.

I love how original they all are.

 

 

 

The theme of our pre-school art show this year is "Fairy-Tale" ball, so we added metallic crowns to turn the self-portraits into princes and princesses.  :)

If you make any let me know.  I'd love to see them.
They make me happy!  :)

Teaching Art

After my long blogging break for the Advent season, I think I forgot to mention that I got a (part-time) job teaching art at a Montessori school.

I've really enjoyed it and I will teach an art summer camp this summer and then go back again next school year.

We made Sock Monkey Paintings this week and I thought I'd share a few.
Aren't they cute?

It might be something fun for your Summer List.
Have you made your list yet?
I'll be sure to share ours when we are finished.
3 full days and 3 half days of school left here before summer vacation, not that anyone is counting around here!  ha

Children's Artwork Based on Famous Art (Van Gogh)

I've been hard at work as we near our Pre-school art show.
I have forgotten to show you some of the projects...so I will be sure to do that this week (for those of you who like to do art with your children, these are great for all ages!)

This four year old class was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's very famous Starry Night.

I don't have pictures of the process, but I basically broke it down into 4 steps.

1.  Show the children the painting and talk about it.  We looked at the shapes, the colors, the overall feel of it.

2.  Using black construction paper and a white crayon, they drew some basic shapes.  Most of them did the moon, circles in the sky, the "mountain", swirls in the sky.  Some even did the houses.

3.  Using oil pastels, they started with one shape at a time, and drew tiny broken lines to immulate the brush strokes.  Some children did not want to do that and used the oil pastels to color in the shapes.

4.  After they were done, their teacher found some paint at Michaels with glitter and stars in it, and they were allowed to paint in some of the shapes if they wanted to.

Here are a few examples of how they turned out:

Aren't they great?  :)

Children's Artwork Based on Famous Art (Kadinsky)

I have the pleasure of "being in charge" of our beloved pre-school's art show this year.
I thought I would show you all of the projects as we work on them in case you were looking for new and fresh ideas for kid's art projects.
Even though the projects are being done by pre-schoolers, I think older children would enjoy them as well.  Just vary the level of adult help to fit the child's level.

The theme of the art show this year is "A Night at the Art Museum."
I chose a famous artist and a famous piece of work for each classroom.
This project is based on this very well-known painting by Wassily Kadinsky.
I used it for a three year old class.

Above is Kadinsky's version, below is a three year olds version.  Pretty cool-huh? ;)

Start out by dividing the paper in six sections very lightly with a pencil.
I hung the paper on an easel and the children painted in each box with a different color tempera paint.  I showed them how to outline each box with the paint and then fill them in.  They did a great job!

Next, they were given a large piece of watercolor paper.  I loosely drew eighteen circle of varying sizes and the children painted each circle with watercolor paint.

After they dried, I cut them into circles.  We actually used circle cutters, but you could hand cut them, or if the child is proficient with scissors, they can cut them out by themselves.

I used 3-D pop up foam stickers in between all the circles so they would look three dimensional.  It's hard to see it in the photos, but in real life it looks awesome!

Here's another version.  As the art show nears, we will matte them on black paper.

Sigh...you know those colors make me happy!  ;)

This post makes me ridiculously happy

Color is my love language.
I've told this story before, but when I was a little girl I would dump out my two large boxes of Crayolas and line them up in rainbow order.Something about it fascinated and soothed me, and thirty-something years later things are still the same.

We made heart shaped crayons for the kids to give as Valentines this year.

Start by soaking the crayons in a bowl of water.  A lot of the paper peels will start lifting off.

The kids took all the wrappers off and threw them away.

  Of course, for fun, we put them in rainbow order ;)

The kids and I broke them up into little pieces. The larger pieces I cut with an exacto knife.

I got my molds at Ikea.  Line the bottom of the oven with tin foil.
I put them in at 200 degrees, but I had to keep a close eye on them.  When they started melting I had to add more pieces.

Coming out of the oven, I let them sit for a minute, and then we put them in the refrigerator to cool for awhile.

We made a pink/red set, a yellow/orange set, a green/blue set, and a blue/purple set.

Finally, we made a cute valentine in picnik.com and printed them at 3 x 5.
The older kids will sign their own on the bottom instead of me typing it out.

It was a lovely afternoon crafting with my favorite littles.
They were mesmerized by the process!

Linking up here today:)