Glue--Salt--and Watercolor Art

 I don't know how we missed this art project...but kids number 8, 9 and 10 got to enjoy it.

It's very simple but I just loved the results. 

 We made designs with white glue and then liberally sprinkled salt over the glue.

Some kids were more liberal with the salt than others...pour the excess salt off of the glue.

We then used liquid watercolors to "paint" the salt.  Really, you just need to touch the paintbrush with paint onto the salt

 It was something we had never done before, and it was fun to see what the paint would do on the salt.

Luke was very patient with his intricate design.

 Kimberly's pretty flower.

 Grace was in the Olympic mood...

After art, Kimberly made us delicious chocolate chip cookie bars with an Olympic flair.  

Flextangles

 

We found a real fun project on the babbledabbledo website.  On this site you can find a printable template and complete video and written directions.  I did fine that rubber cement worked best for this project and I had to use a little more tape than expected on the final flap.  This looks like a fabulous website with many fun projects....I just haven't had time to investigate it completely. 

The Story of Stained Glass

 We have enjoyed our study of the Middle Ages. We are starting to wind down and head into the Renaissance era, but before we did I wanted to do one more art project. 

Trying our hand at stained glass art was fun last week. Today we made "stained glass" luminaries.

 The book, The Story of Stained Glass, was just the right length to read aloud before starting our craft.  It gave us the history of stained glass, the purpose of stained glass and how making stained glass has changed over the centuries.

All you need for these luminaries are:

plain jars

Mod Podge

tissue paper

foam brushes

 The first step is to make a design by cutting up and arranging the tissue paper.

When you have the tissue paper ready, start slapping on the mod podge onto the jar.  

Arrange the tissue into its previously planned design.

 Kim had a plan, and that was to have a nice big
"k" on the front of her jar.

Luke's candle looks like a Syracuse basketball inspired luminary.

We made luminaries in the past:

You can see Halloween luminaries  and 

Autumn Luminaries

Fun, Fun, Funprint..Fingerprints

 We found the most fun art book from the library this past week.

Ed Emberley's Complete Funprint Drawing Book.

 

 We discovered the best way to make fingerprints was to use slightly wet watercolor paint.

Whatever you do, DON'T use something like these pigment inks we had. 

They never, ever wash off hands, (or towels, or clothes)---BIG mistake!

 Simply make fingerprints onto heavy (I use 24 pound) printer paper.

Next you decorate with a black sharpie thin marker.

 You can see the difference between a regular sharpie and a thin sharpie....the character on the far right was made with a regular sharpie.  (Kimberly wrote "iH" and then was quite embarrassed when she saw her mistake...so cute!_

Gracie's completed folks.  This was a lot of fun.

Stained Glass Art

 We have been studying the Middle Ages and yesterday we learned about the importance of stained glass windows.  The windows didn't just present the most beautiful artwork most people would ever see, but they were used to tell the stories of the church with pictures of bible stories and saints for the illiterate. (Which was the great majority of people during this time period.)

We started by finding a picture we liked in a coloring book.  

Next, we covered the back of the picture with a thick layer of pencil.

 Tape the picture onto watercolor paper with easily removable tape.

Trace the image onto the water color paper.

 Luke's shark

 Next, we took regular Elmer's white glue, emptied 1/4 of the glue into another bottle and then added black tempera paint.....shake well. (It took a lot of shaking to get the black paint mixed into the glue).

Trace over the picture with black glue.

 Luke's shark outlined with glue. It took several hours for the glue to dry.

 Kim chose a monkey.

 We then added straight glue lines, freehand, to the paper around the main image. 

 Using watercolors, fill in the spaces...we used bright colors for the border.  The black glue is a barrier between colors. 

 These came out so awesome!! The kids were able to make them all on their own.  

Here you can see the raised glue....This was a fun project which we will definitely make again.  

I'm thinking a heart in the center with warm colors in the heart and cool colors for the border.

Artwork for the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross

I remember seeing this artwork somewhere out in the internet world in the past, but I was reminded of it when Kimberly was smearing oil pastels yesterday while doing an art page.

On a sheet of heavy paper we drew and then cut out a cross.

We then got out of oil pastels....one of our favorite art resources right now.

On the edges of the cut out cross, use the oil pastels to color the edges of the cross, alternating colors.  The thicker and darker you color the better.

Gracie working on her cross.

Luke's coloring is complete.

Next, place  the cross on a piece of heavy paper,

Hold the cross in place and smudge the oil pastel onto the heavy paper.



Continue until you have completed the whole outside of the cross.
Remove the paper cross and admire your work.

Our final results...they all turned out beautiful!!

Wampum Designs For Kids

We have been learning about Native Americans this year and these past two weeks we have been learning about our local Native American Nation...the Iroquois Nation.

I wanted to add some artwork into our studies so I decided to have the kids make wampum "belts".

Wampum were made from seashells.   They were typically made from the quahog (purple beads)  and the whelk (cream/white beads) shells. Wampum were used between tribes to send messages or to tell stories. (We mistakenly thought it was used for money...it was not)

First I printed out graph paper for the kids to make some practice designs. 

I used graph paper with 3 lines per inch.



After picking their favorite design, I had them string pony beads onto white chenille stems. We used the traditional colors, white, purple and black.

The grid we used was 12 squares by 6 squares.  This was a good size for the finished product.

I then cut an 8 inch square piece of matte board.  I cut 6 slits in the edges of the board to bend the  6 chenille stems into place. This secured them nicely.

Kimberly's final product.

Luke's final product.

I found this great idea at Create Art With Me!