Warm and Cool Hearts

This is a project I'm currently working on with Grade 2. Valentine's Day is always a challenge for me in terms of art projects. I think it's because I feel locked into a heart theme as well as the traditional colour scheme.

I have been doing Valentine inchies , (post 2) with Grade 2 for a few years now but this year I paired it with a lesson on warm/cool colours. I love teaching inchies as I can show kids lots of techniques in one project.

These inchie hearts are also a great addition to the art journal.






I'm using a lot of my painted paper scraps here.

This background is a glue resist. You draw squiggles with white glue on the inchie background, let it dry and then paint over it with disk tempera or watercolour.

Another interesting background is to dab on some waterproof ink, I used my PITT pen and then go over with disk tempera or watercolour.






Now this is the materials list I used but inchies are meant to be done with what you have on hand.  I sure you can make amazing "little works of art" with what you have in your stash.







MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- 6 inchies, I'm using 3"x3" watercolour paper for Grade 2.  You can make them 2x2 or even 1x1
- disk tempera paint or watercolours
- thin cardboard, like from a cereal or cracker box
- drywall filler
- pencil crayons
- plastic wrap
- textured wall paper or sandpaper, you could even use paper run thru a crimper or texture plate(cuttlebug)
- coloured cardstock
- small embellishments, I'm using stick on gems from the Dollar store
- oil pastels
- contact paper
- some sort of stencil, I'm using sequin waste
- scraps of felt or fabric
- bubble wrap
- silver paper (leftover Christmas wrapping paper)
- glue
- black paper for mounting

PROCEDURE:
This is a 2 session project.

When I do inchies with a class we work on several at once. I'll give you the order of the steps I use at the end.

But when I'm posting the directions it's easier for me to show you each inchie from start to finish.

Inchie #1

Out of a thin piece of cardboard draw a heart in pencil and then cut it out.


My cardboard is roughly the same size as an inchie. My biggest challenge with my students on this step is to get them to cut out a good sized heart and not a tiny one.

Coat with a layer of drywall filler.

Set aside to dry until the second session.

Have the students paint the inchie background. They choose a warm or cool colour.


For our purpose our warm colours are RED, ORANGE and YELLOW.  Our cool colours are BLUE, GREEN, and PURPLE.  Now purple can go either way depending on it's hue. Our purple at school leans  towards the warm so a touch of blue helps.  My square here is looking pretty warm.

When the drywall has dried, (second session) paint the heart with acrylic or liquid tempera.

Add some sticky gems.

and a little card stock heart.

Inchie #2

Paint inchie background either warm or cool.  While paint is still wet lay on a piece of bubble wrap and press down.  Leave in place until paint dries.

On a scrap of white paper have students make a pattern using pencil crayons.

Cut a heart out of that patterned paper.  Add a small card stock heart.

Inchie #3

Paint your inchie with 2 or 3 warm or cool colours.  While paint is still wet lay on a piece of plastic wrap and scrunch it a bit to make wrinkles.
Leave on until paint dries.

Take a piece of textured paper, (I'm using textured wall paper) and paint.

You could also use sand paperer paper you run thru a crimper or cuttlebug with an embossing folder.

I'm using acrylic because tempera won't stick to the wallpaper.

To show off the texture I dry brush on a little metallic paint.

Cut a heart out of the textured paper and then a smaller one out of card stock.

Inchie #4

With oil pastels draw a design on the next inchie background.



I ask students to ensure that some white is still showing.

Paint on top of the oil pastel with watery disk tempera.

Out of black card stock we cut a heart frame. (cut a large heart and then a smaller one out of that one)


Glue onto inchie and then add small card stock heart.

Inchie #5

Paint inchie background either a warm or cool colour.

Stencil on some paint to black card stock.

Cut out heart shape from black card stock and then add small heart from felt or fabric.

Inchie #6

Out of a piece of contact paper cut a heart and stick to inchie.

Paint with stripes right over top of contact paper.

Let dry.

When paint dries peel off contact paper to reveal heart shape.  I added a heart cut from silver wrapping paper and a small card stock one.

Finally mount on black card stock.

That's it….whew!



So here my steps:

Session 1
- cut out cardboard heart and drywall
- paint one inchie warm colour
- paint one inchie cool colour
- paint one inchie 2 or 3 colours and add plastic wrap
- paint one inchie warm or cool and add bubble wrap
- use oil pastels on inchie and then paint
- if time do contact paper  on inchie but I usually don't have time

Session 2
- do contact paper inchie, set aside to dry
- paint drywall heart, set aside to dry
- paint textured paper
- do stencil
- complete inchie #2
- complete inchie #4
- peel contact paper off, complete inchie #6
- complete inchie #5
- complete inchie # 3
- complete inchie #1

Here are some of the Kindergarten snowmen from the last post.

See you next time.

Gail

Poppy Inchies

I recently completed these Poppy inchies with a Grade 5/6 class in honour of Remembrance Day.

The students made all 4 and then picked their 3 favourite to be mounted on 1"x 4" boards that are cut in 12" lengths.

Here they are up on the bulletin board. We completed them in two 1hr. sessions.

Please note: Like all my inchie projects each one of these squares can be done as a large project.





MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- 1"x 4" fence board cut into 12" lengths, you could also use black paper
- 4 watercolour paper inchies, we used 3"x 3" inchies
- cereal or cracker box cardboard, about 3" square
- scraps of corrugated cardboard
- drywall filler
- masking tape
- acrylic or tempera paint in red, blue, black, green, yellow and white
- disk tempera in red
- black and red paper scraps
- white paper, about 3" square
- old book pages
- tacky glue
- black button
- black pony bead
- black pencil crayon and/or fine black sharpie
- oil pastels in yellow and orange

PROCEDURE:

We started by painting our boards with black acrylic paint.  We painted the front and the 4 sides.

Set aside to dry.

Now when I do inchies with the kids we work on several at once, when one stage is drying we are working on another step/inchie.  But it's easier for me to explain the steps for each inchie one at a time.





We will start with our Georgia O'Keeffe inchie. I tell the kids that O'Keeffe took a bee's eye view when painting flowers.

Give each student a length of masking tape, about 6 inches or so.

Have them cut it into 3 pieces.

Have them cut each piece in half lengthwise using a wavy or curvy line.

Choose 3 and tape off 3 corners.  Make sure the tape goes from one side to the other.  It's OK if a white corner peeks out.

Take the orange and yellow oil pastels. Make a outline next to the tape.  Then do a inner outline.

Using disk tempera paint inside the tape.  The kids can mix up a second shade of red to add. Just add a touch of blue for a darker red or a touch of yellow for a lighter red.



Set aside to dry.

Remove the tape.


Use a sponge and add some black acrylic to the one corner that had no tape.

Using black pencil crayon add the stamens.

Now we will do the inchie based on Irish painter John Nolan's work.

Draw a horizon line in the upper 3rd of the inchie.

Paint the upper portion with blue acrylic.  We used a nice electric blue.

Paint the bottom portion with green acrylic.



Let dry.

Mix a lighter blue (original colour + white).

Add some of this to the upper edge of the inchie.

Add some yellow and lighter green (original green + yellow) to the meadow.





Let dry.

Using a very small brush add some poppies to the meadow.  I asked the kids to make tiny ones in the distance, a few medium ones and then a few large ones in foreground.



Let dry.

Using a fine sharpie add the stems and a few buds.

This inchie is based on a project I did 2 years ago.

I gave the kids 2 small pieces from a newspaper or phone book.  They glued them randomly to our next inchie.

With the leftover paint from the last inchie dilute it a bit with some water and then paint this wash over the square.


You want to still see the bits of paper.





Let dry.

Take the piece of white paper and paint red.

Using a little piece of cardboard (this is not that 3" piece), add some lines to the red paper with  dark red acrylic paint.

With the red and black papers cut 2 circles out for the flower (1 large than the other) and a stem for the poppy.

Glue onto the inchie.

Glue the black pony bead into the centre.

I printed "is for poppy" off the computer and we added a P stamp to our inchies.

Our final inchie.

Take the 3" or so piece of cardboard and cut out a poppy shape.

Add some drywall to the front for texture.



Let dry, it takes about 4 - 6 hrs.

Cut your old book page in half.  Spread some glue on your inchie.

Stick your book page on the inchie.

Trim to fit.

Take some black acrylic paint (maybe the leftover paint from the O'Keeffe poppy), water it down a bit and give your book page a wash.

You can also splatter a bit of that black paint as well.





Let dry.

When your drywalled poppy is dry paint with red acrylic.  We used 2 different reds.

Cut a circle out pif a scrap of black paper, glue to the center.  Add a black button on top of the black circle.

Pick your 3 best and glue on your black board.


Great work Grade 5/6!

Gail