Remembrance Day Mixed Media Project

Sorry I haven't been around much but I have been preparing for a conference..as well as planning for our annual Christmas Craft Day.

So enough excuses here is a second Remembrance Day project. A mixed media Peace painting.

This combines painting with some computer work and a little poetry so it's a great choice for Grades 3 - 6.

Materials Required:

dove template

watercolor paper

watercolor paint

plastic wrap

re positional contact paper

fine markers or black pens

glue

printed computer work

optional embellishments

Take your watercolor paper and tape off on your art board.

Using dove template trace on to the back of the re positional contact paper. I buy mine from Home Depot for about $4.00 a roll.

Peel off paper backing and stick to your watercolor paper where you want it to be. If you make a mistake no big deal it's re positional!

Add some watercolor paint to your paper. For the next step the paint has to be still wet...if yours has dried a bit you can spray some water on it.

Lay your plastic wrap on top and smoosh a bit with your fingers to get that nice texture. Leave it to dry with the plastic wrap still on.

When dry remove plastic wrap and the contact paper.

Have your students select a statement or a few words representing Remembrance Day. Using fine markers or pens write those words around the white dove shape curving as you go.

If you run out of room to repeat the words fully at the end just add a .... to connect to the beginning. Click on the picture to see larger.

At the computer print off those same words in 3 different fonts. You can vary size if you wish.

Using your watercolors lightly paint over these words. I printed these on regular printer paper. Let dry.

I decided to add a little shading to my dove while the paints were out.

Cut out the words..you can play a bit with the shape of your cutting...here I decided to follow the choppiness of my painting strokes.

Apply some glue to the back of your words. Glue sticks don't tend to stick to well to painted backgrounds but you can give it a try.

If using white or tacky glue use a piece of cardboard to remove the excess so you just have a thin coat of glue.

Put into place.

I decided to add a little pearlizing to mine. I usually don't use glitter with the kids as I find they tend to overdo it. This pearlizing medium just adds a little shine. You could also use metallic acrylic craft paint. They tend to be quite translucent.

I also decided to add some ripped pieces of wax paper. I'm gluing it in place with acrylic medium but you can use glue.

That's it. You can also use the dove template as a paper chain or just cut it on the fold for 2 doves and then add this to a painted paper background.

Give it a try. Remember to save those Halloween candy boxes for our next project!

see you soon

Remembrance Day Huichol Yarn Painting

Well I hope everyone had an awesome Halloween...we sure did!

Now for the next project...On November 11th we celebrate Remembrance Day in Canada and our art projects center on this theme. The poppy is a symbol of Remembrance Day in Canada and it is our focus for this project.

I initially did this project with Grade 2 several years back and it was a bit difficult for them so I recommend this project for Grade 4 and up.

This project is based on Huichol style yarn painting.

Materials Required:

cardboard

foil

tissue paper in white and black

newspaper

yarn in various shades of red and black

mod podge

tacky glue

black beads (optional)

Gather your materials.

You need 2 pieces of cardboard for this project. One for the background and one for the poppy.

Trace a poppy shape on the cardboard and cut out.

Starting on the outside of one of the petals spread some tacky glue and start laying down the yarn. For this project the tacky glue is the best, it holds down the yarn immediately where the school glue may not stick at first and gets soaked up in the yarn. You could also use mod podge for this.

Continue circling around the petal filling it in. It's best to glue as you go.

When filled in press down with your fingers to make sure it is tacked down well.

Now you can add different shades of yarn in the poppy to add depth.

Here I used some embroidery thread as i didn't have any other red yarn but it was fussy so i don't recommend it. You can also add some black yarn in bits and pieces as well.

I also cut some red felt into skinny strips and used it as well.

For the center I first painted it black and then added some beads but you can fill this is with black yarn, poppy seeds, or even crumpled black tissue.

Let dry.

Take your background piece of cardboard and cover with a piece of foil shiny side up. You can glue or tape it down.

Take some tissue paper in black and white and rip into some small shapes.

Take some newspaper and rip into small pieces as well.

Now I'm using mod podge but you can use acrylic medium or even white glue. Working from one corner add some ripped paper to your background.

If using white glue you only want to apply it where a piece of paper is going...don't coat the whole board or you 'll lose your shiny foil look.

Leave some foil exposed.

Let dry. After you can trim the excess on the sides.

When dry you can glue your poppy into place and that's it. Give it a try.

Now that you have all that Halloween candy save those little candy boxes. You can use them to make a Robot like the project I posted last year or hold on to them for a new project that's coming up....you need at least 24 of them.

We'll see you next time...take care.

Spooky Interactive Portraits

Here are some spooky interactive portraits I'm doing with Grade 6 this year.





Same picture just able to shift the eyes and mouth with pull tabs...similar to the mechanisms in pop-up books.



















They are quite easy to do once you get the hang of the mechanism....once you've done one all of a sudden you see the possibilities for more.

Materials Required:

a created portrait
cardstock or wc paper
thin cardboard
glue
scissors
paint or pencil crayons

Create a portrait...you don't have to concentrate too much on the eyes. When finished cut out the eyes with scissors.

Cut a strip of cardstock that is as long as your portrait is wide and make sure the strip itself is wide enough to cover where the eyes are.

Take some thin cardboard like from a cereal box. You want a piece that is as wide as the portrait and at least the height of three of the eye strips.



Place the eye strip on the cardboard. In this case the eyes will only move to one side so I have the strip over by about 2 inches on one side. Trace around the strip.













Cut the traced section out.






Using a glue stick apply glue on the underside of the cardboard.
















Stick on the back of your portrait.

Apply more glue to the back of the portrait everywhere but on the eye section (where the eye strip goes)














Apply a backing paper to seal in your cardboard to your portrait.













Insert eye strip in the non glued section.

It should look something like this from the front.












With a pencil draw in the iris.

Apply color to the iris...you can take the strip out to paint but make sure to put it back in from time to time to get an idea how it is looking.

That's it you now have a shifty eye portrait...this was the first one then my daughter said it would be better if the eyes moved to both sides....then my son wanted a moving mouth....so back to the drawing board.

This time I cut out a skull shape which I glued to black construction paper.

I added some shading with paint.

I then cut out the eyes and the bottom half of the mouth.

I cut a eye strip that was wide enough to go past the sides of the portrait by about 2 inches on each side.

I then cut a mouth tab that was wider than the mouth cut out and extended about 3-4 inches above the mouth and 2 inches below the bottom of the portrait.

Something like this.

I cut some thin cardboard to go above the eyestrip....I then cut some to go on either side of the mouth....originally I thought the eye strip would hold the mouth tab in place at the top of the mouth but at the last minute decided to add a little piece of cardboard just in case.


Glue cardboard pieces in place.

This time I used tacky glue to apply the backing as the glue stick was not proving strong enough.

Apply backing and press down firmly.

Insert strips/tabs into openings.

With the mouth you want to trace opening onto the strip.

With the eyes mark where you want the iris and pupil.

Take tabs out. With the mouth extend your lines all the way to the top of the tab.

Add color to your drawings. For the eyes you want to add color quite away around the eye as the will shift from side to side and you will see this area.


For the mouth you want to have a bit of chin at the bottom..the lip..then the teeth...the tongue and then the rest of the inside of the mouth all

the way to the top of the tab....you can also add

extra color on the sides of the mouth as well just to be sure.

At the bottom of the mouth tab you can add directions.


And directions on side of the eye tab.

When done it will look something like this.

The kids had a great time playing with the portraits and making up stories to go with the facial expressions...and of corse they could not wait to make one of their own!


Give it a try...

Here is a peek at the Halloween Batiks Grade 5 did this year...this is just a sampling as we ended up with 69 panels (23 kids doing a 3 panel banner each)

That's it..I'll see you next time.