Valentine Snowman

This is a cute Valentine project for your bulletin board, art journal or to go home for Mom and Dad.

You can also add text if you want.



















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- wc paper or heavy painting paper for background
- blue disk tempera
- rubbing alcohol spray or piece of household sponge
- white liquid tempera or acrylic
- white cardstock or poster board
- black, red and orange paper scraps
- glue
- oil pastels
- glitter glue and text, optional

PROCEDURE:

First off I'm having camera issues so bear with the inconsistent photos.

Tape off your background paper.  Using blue disk tempera paint your background.

To give your background texture and make it look like it's snowing try one of these techniques:

- spray on some rubbing alcohol, I just buy it from the dollar store (supervise the kiddos for this one)
- spray some plain water (not quite as effective as alcohol but works)
- sponge on a little white tempera

When background has dried paint some snow on bottom of page.

Out of some white cardstock or poster board cut 3 circles.  I traced around 3 different tapes I had lying around.

Cut out circles.

I want to define my circles a bit so I took a white oil pastel and outlined the circles.  I have kids place it on a scrap piece of paper and colour on the outline so that it is half on the circle and half on the paper.

Repeat with a touch of black.  Just a touch we don't want a muddy snowman.

With your finger smudge that pastel around the outline, you should get a grey smudge.

Glue on your circles, overlapping them.

Now add your details.  Cut out a hat from the black paper scraps and glue it on. Use oil pastel to add eyes, mouth and arms.
Add a red paper heart and an orange paper carrot nose.

Finally you can add some glitter glue to the snow and snowman for that extra sparkle.

You can also add some text if you want and that's it.





I think they are adorable!

Gail

Snowman at Night Portraits

Hi everyone. Hope you had a great holiday break. I'm back at it with a new residency.

First up Kindergarten snowman portraits.

For a kindergarten project I like to incorporate lots of tactile elements.
















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- substrate or base material, I'm using 12"x12" hardboard but you can use cardboard, canvas, or poster board
- blue acrylic paint, if you are not planning to seal this project you can use liquid tempera
- corrugated cardboard cut into a large sized circle and a medium one
- drywall filler
- loose snow glitter
- Crayola model magic in white
- snow fabric
- coloured cardstock in red, orange, brown, and black
- assorted buttons
- tacky glue
- fabric snowflakes or paper punched snowflakes
- small scrap of black felt
alternate hat option:
- scrapbook paper scraps
- small pompom

PROCEDURE:
This is a 2 session project, approximately 45 minutes each.

Like most of my sessions we work from the cleanest activity to the messiest.  This limits our hand washing until the very end saving time.

We start with the model magic.  Give each student a piece of model magic about the size of a large cherry.

I ask the kids to roll it between the palms of their hands to form a ball and then squish it flat to form a circle.

Each child is given a paper towel with their name on it.  Place the circle on the paper towel.

Next I hand out the cardboard circles.  For kindergarten I have pre cut these.     For higher grades I would have them cut it out themselves.



Put some drywall filler on a disposable plate and hand out to students.  I have them share.

While the drywall is still wet sprinkle on the snow glitter.  It will stick on the surface.



Set aside to dry.  I have the kids place it on that same paper towel that has their name on it.

Hand out the substrates.

I initially was only going to use 1 colour of blue but the class I taught before kindergarten was using 2 colours of blue so I just re-used the plates of paint. I must say the backgrounds turned out much more vibrant with 2 colours.

Paint the substrate.




That's the end of session 1.  Allow for some overnight drying time.
Session 2:

I stocked up on snow fabric on clearance after Christmas as January is full of snow projects!

Cut a length of snow fabric to fit at bottom of substrate.  With kinders I pre cut.

Easiest way to glue this on is to add glue to the bottom of your background and then place the snow fabric on top.

Now we glue on the 2 circles. If they have warped a bit you will need to use the glue gun. Adult use only.

Glue the model magic head on.

I ran some brown card stock thru the paper shredder. We used these strips to make the arms.

Time for the hat.  For my sample I did a top hat.  Cut a rectangle out of card stock.  My card stock is crimped with my paper crimper (what a great tool!)

Glue into place.

Add a strip of black felt for the brim of the hat.

Alternate hat:  I also offered scrapbook paper for the kids to make a toque and a white pompom.

Add some buttons.

Add some googly eyes, you could also make these out of paper. Cut a mouth out of red paper and a orange nose.

Add a moon for our 'Snowmen at Night' and a few snowflakes.

If you want to seal this project you can use Mod Podge, Duraclear, or your favourite shellac. Just avoid the snow fabric and felt brim.

That's it. I hope to have some pictures of the kinder work shortly.

Gail

Clay Snowman

Here is a new project I just finished with Kindergarten.

Here are some of the results.












MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- clay, we fired ours in the kiln but you can also use air dry
- small cup of water
- rolling pin
- nail and wooden skewer
- piece of fabric or canvas to work on
- glaze, if using air dry use acrylic paint
- brown pipe cleaners
- glue

PROCEDURE:

Lay down your piece of fabric., it stops the clay from sticking to your work surface.

Pull off a piece of clay about the size of an orange.

Roll your clay out, about 1/2 inch thick.

Cut a small oval base with your nail.

Dip your finger in the water and smooth the edge.

Roll the first snowball for the large snowman.

Scratch the base where you want the snowball to go and the bottom of the snowball.  You can flatten it first by gently tapping it on the table.

Dip your finger in water and apply to the scratches.

Make a little indentation with your thumb in the first snowball.  This will give a place for the next snowball to sit.

Complete the first snowman.

Add a second smaller one.

Make some carrot noses.  You can add these with "scratch, scratch, water, water".  (my clay chant I teach the kids) Or you can pinch one out of the clay in the top ball.

Use the skewer to poke in the eyes.

Add some buttons and a smile.

Poke in holes for the arms.

Add some snowballs.  I had some snowflake and star cutters so we made a few imprints in the base.  Just push lightly as you don't want to go all the way thru the base.

Let the clay dry out.  For kiln firing about 2 weeks.

When dry glaze and fire again.

With air dry let the clay dry out at least a week.  Paint with acrylic paints.  Add a sealing coat of Duraclear.  Leave bottom of base (underneath) free of paint and sealer so it can continue to dry out if needed.

Finally glue in some brown pipe cleaners for the stick arms.  Fold the ends over so they don't poke anyone.


That's it.



See you next time.

Gail

How to make a Snowman Banner

This is a cute project I'm doing with Kindergarten right now.

Snowman Banners.

Here in Calgary we just received a good dump of snow and now it's warming up (above 0 degrees celsius).....perfect snowman weather!

We wanted a cute and easy project that incorporated textiles.





















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- fabric or burlap 
- sewing machine or glue gun (adult use only)
- white felt/material
- masking tape
- sponges or foam
- white acrylic paint
- wax paper
- tacky glue
- black felt
- red felt or fleece
- 2 black buttons
- 3 assorted buttons
- small scrap of orange material
- black dimensional fabric paint
- brown yarn
- fabric snowflakes
- dowel, stick, bamboo garden stake
- yarn


PROCEDURE:

Take an art board or piece of cardboard and tape on some wax paper.

The paint will seep thru the fabric.

Take the fabric or burlap and cut a rectangle.  Sew a channel at the top.  If you don't sew you can use a glue gun.


Tape the banner to the wax paper.  This will stop it from moving around.

Take the white fabric or felt and cut some snow for the bottom.

With Kindergarten I had this pre-cut for them.

Glue on to the bottom of the banner with the tacky glue.

Take your sponges or foam and cut a large circle, a medium circle, and a small circle.

Put some white acrylic paint on a plate.  Place the large sponge into the paint, swirl it a bit getting it loaded with enough paint.

Place in the centre of the banner touching the white fabric at the bottom.  Press down.  Continue with the medium sponge and the finish with the small one.

Cut a hat out of the black felt.  You could also make a toque with some brightly coloured felt or fleece and add a pom pom.

Glue into place.

Add a scarf out of felt or fabric.  2 black button eyes and 3 assorted buttons.

With some dimensional fabric paint add a smile.

Cut a little triangle out of orange fabric or felt and glue into place.

Cut some lengths of brown yarn and glue on for arms.

I found some nice fabric snowflakes at the dollar store so we added them to our background.

Add a dowel, I use natural bamboo stakes from the garden centre, trimmed down to size.

Add some yarn and your banner is ready to hang.

The grade 1 just finished this paper snowman so I thought I would show you.


Very easy to do if you are looking for a quick snowman project.

So if you are knee deep in snow like we are why not give these projects a try.


See you soon.