Preschool Art {the original}

What with looking at other moms' blogs and Pinterest, I can get a little overwhelmed with all the cute educational things I'm not doing with my kids.  This day was about forgetting all that and getting back to basics.  What kid doesn't like finger paint?!

It is so fun to watch them go from

tentative-----to----->all in!

I'm sure you can do a Pinterest search and find a recipe to make your own finger paint but don't do that to yourself.  The kid is not going to know the difference and you just saved another hour of your day.

Keep it simple.

Simple is fun!

Paper Mache Project for Me

So, while the kids were working on their paper mache project,

I started my own little thing...

paper mache beads!

The night before I had grabbed the bag of shredded paper from my husbands office and

let it soak in water until the morning.

Squeeze out the water and add paper mache paste

until you get a sticky dough consistency

Next, I took handfuls and squished it into balls.

I had trouble poking a hole through it after forming the ball so I formed the ball

around a toothpick and then removed the toothpick when I had the desired shape.

Let it completely dry.

You will have a very, light, hard, paper mache bead.

Now, you get to paint them!

I should have made more because I had a hard time deciding what colors to do.

I used water colors because I wanted the texture of the paper to really show.

Acryllic paints would give a more opaque covering.

Then give it a coat of clear acryllic spray for a bit of shine.

Here are some of the necklaces I made out of my beads.

I made one bracelet out of some beads I left white... 



Now the question is--

is this cute or

does it look like I have a string of spitwads on my arm?!

Tell me the truth, people.  My reputation as a fashionista is at stake.

(if you know me, you should be laughing at the thought of me as a fashionista.  but still, i need to know.)

Summer Art Project #1

This summer I had a little art class with my two older kids (they are 9 and 7), a few of their friends and whoever else happened to be around.

 

I picked up this Childcraft book at a thrift store months before summer and had decided right away that this paper-mache project would be one of our projects.

Is that clown not the cutest?!!

Step 1.  Find some empty bottles. 

The book says plastic, we used glass, they both work.

Put a little sand or gravel in the bottom to keep the bottle from tipping.

I actually forgot this part but it turned out fine because the glass bottle had enough weight on its own.

Step 2. 

Crush a piece of paper into a ball about the size of the head you want. 

Place the ball in the center of another piece of paper. 

Pick up the four corners and tightly twist them together.

Step 3.

Put the twisted end into the opening of the bottle.

Paste four layers of paper-mache over the ball and top part of the bottle.

You can also use a little tape to start with and then paper-mache over it.

Step 4.  Cover everything with about 4 layers of paper-mache.

(This is super fun!)

This is when you take strips of newspaper or magazine pages (non-glossy works better),

dip them into the paste and

smudge them onto the bottle.

Paper-mache paste can be made different ways:

--3 parts water to 1 part flour

--1 part wallpaper paste to 3 parts water

--2 parts glue to 1 part water

(we used the glue method)

Step 5.  Let it dry.

I kind of liked them at this stage. 

I can see trying this again with some different shapes and just leaving them in the unpainted stage.

But a some of the kids came up with really cute painted people.

And that brings us to..

Step 6.  Paint your bottle figure.

Use acrylic paint.  Add hair or other accessories if you want.

A couple kids added paper hats. (no pics of the hats, sorry)

Here are a couple of our finished products.

Blue-haired Fairy and Raiders Guy!



Ador.

Tomorrow, I'm going to tell you about the project I was doing while they were busy with Bottle Figures!

Kids' Craft : Marble Art

I tell you what, sometimes the simplest things are the most entertaining!  I saw this done in Joe's class when he was in preschool.  They used white paint on black paper to make super cool spider webs.  I might have to get this back out closer to Halloween.  Today we just used white paper.

Place a piece of white paper

(we used freezer paper because it has the wax coating on one side)

in a gift box or shoe box.

Put a marble in a small drop of paint on your paper.

Roll the marble around by tilting the box.

We tried adding more marbles.

We tried adding different colors.

This was a perfect preschool project.  Trek could handle rolling the marble around and he "scored" if he got the marble to roll back through the paint.  I had no idea my big kids would be just as excited about it.  When they got home we got the paints out all over again!

Don't they look AMAZING!?!  Very Jackson Pollock.

Paint like Jackson Pollock on your computer! 

Go to this website and drag your mouse around where you want to drip your paint. 

A click of the mouse changes the color!  So fun!