Open Ended Art-black and white

This week's theme for Open Ended Art was "black and white".

For Kim and Luke, I simply opened a big package of different types of paintbrushes, handed out black construction paper and poured out the white tempra paint.

Kimmy was eager to get started and wanted the BIGGEST paintbrush.

Luckily, there were two BIG brushes because that is what Luke wanted also.

I had hoped they would explore the other brushes, but for them, it seems that the bigger the better!
Kimmy really painted white--a lot of white--we couldn't see any black when she was finished.

For Gracie, I sent her out to find some nice autumn leaves to go along with her white paint and black paper.

She did exactly what I hoped she would do.

She painted one of the leaves, "spilling" paint over onto the paper. This made a great leaf shadow. She then turned the leaf over and used it to stamp the leaf onto the paper.

It turned out great!

It was a good thing that Kim and Luke were using the big brushes because they really liked to cover a lot of paper with paint.

Notice both of their pictures above--they said that they were making ghosts for halloween.

Kimberly then continued with her painting to paint her hands and then "wash" them with a little more paint. (Washing her hands in unusual substances is becoming a "thing" with her lately)

As is usual, Kim was the last crafter remaining.

Here she made Dora the Explorer and some friendly ghosts.

Mommy's open ended art was inspired by Gracie!

A table full of finished artwork. Notice that we ran out of black paper and I had to get out the blue!

Make sure to stop by Mommies Wise Little Bookworms and check out everyones Open ended art this week.

Next week: Pumpkins: Real, Collage anything goes

Open Ended Art--orange and black

This week's Open Ended Art theme over at Mommies Wise Little Bookworms was: orange and black.

I began by making our own little stamps, using wooden spools and foamie shapes.
I just glued the shapes onto the spools using my new favorite tool, Glue Dots.

Ta da!! Autumn stamps to use with orange paint.

Luke stamping a bat.

Luke can't paint unless he adds a personal "fingerpaint" touch.

By-Luke

Gracie made a nice leaf, pumpkin border to decorate her picture of "5 little pumpkins".

Kimberly working hard.

Next week's Open ended Art is: Black and White:Glitter, Chalk, Paint anything goes.

Open Ended Art--Fall Colors

This weeks Open Ended Art theme was: fall colors.

I got out orange, red and yellow paint and autumn cookie cutters.
I put a little of each color paint onto a plate (our usual palette) and let the kids have at it.
Gracie was very careful with the colors and kept them slightly seperate. I just love the look of her pumpkins.

Kimmy was quite "stamp happy" and had a great time layering her cats.

I also was happy with the affect of painting on the green and black paper.

Working hard....

Our final works of art.

Check out other Open ended art-here.

Next week's theme is orange and black

Open Ended Art-Egg shell mosaic

We have been saving our egg shells in anticipation of this week's Open Ended Art: Eggshell Mosaic.

Half the fun was coloring the egg shells!

We used the traditional food coloring, vinegar and boiling water technique.
We were all well stained after this portion of the project, but did you know, baking soda will get all the food coloring off your counter and off everyone's hands.

The colors were great, especially the inside of the shells. Every egg shell had two distinct shades of color.

We got our shells ready after they were very dry-AKA-the next day.

These are a very neat medium to work with.

I printed some leaves of card stock for Kim and Luke to work on.

A paint brush and slightly water downed white glue helped get "a little" glue where it was needed.

Luke at work.

Laura at work.

Mark, deep in thought, planning his mosaic.

Gracie at work.

Laura's mosaic--a fill in the spaces doodle

Kim and Luke's leaves

Gracie's flower

Mark's "shades of blue" flower

Check out all of this weeks Open Ended Art at Growing and Learning by Leaps and Bounds.

Open Ended Art-Mixed Mediums-Bean Mosaic

This week's OpenEnded Art theme was "bean mosaics".
I drew some pictures on the cardstock to guide the kids and then handed out the beans and glue.
I also put out some rice for them to use, which was a mistake, because of the rice they developed the "glue and dump" technique, which is good for glitter but not mosaics.

They also lost control of the glue bottles, so I ended up putting glue into bowls and they used popsicle sticks to put the glue just where they wanted it.

Kimberly, 3, and the youngest, was definetely the most patient and did the most careful work, putting one bean on at a time.

After a bit of rice free-for-all, Gracie recieved more instruction about mosaics and then did very well.

Kim's (3) flower

Luke's (4) train (notice the rice dumping-after very careful wheel work)

Gracie's (7) flower---no rice next time!