How to Paint Spring Trees

This post comes from a request by a teacher to do a Spring Tree version of an earlier post: How to Paint Fall Trees.

Very much the same with color changes. Please check out the Fall Tree post for more pictures on this technique.










Materials Required:

paint...I used cake tempera
paper
paintbrush
drinking straw
q-tips
painter's tape





Tape your paper down to your art board. I always tape off any painting work as it provides a nice clean-edged mat for presentation.

It works especially well for this project.

Paint in your sky. We are using watercolor paper so we can use a wet on wet technique. We wet the paper with plain water to start and then add our blue sky color at the top. We slowly work our way down with color...the paper will also pull the paint down. This is also called a gradient wash.

For the clouds we pull some paint off the paper while it is still wet with a kleenex. Just blot it off in a circular motion to get your cloud shapes.



Add some green paint to the bottom as well as a little yellow...you can also add a bit of pink.

Let your painting dry completely.

Mix up some dark brown paint...you want it to be ink like in consistency.
Place some at the side and start blowing your tree using the straw. We used an eye dropper to place our paint where we wanted but you can just drop it with your paintbrush or even a spoon.






Continue to blow your tree. Add extra paint along the way.





Let your tree dry.


I found the trees positioned off to the side made for a better composition.




Using a q-tip take some pink and green to dot in your spring blossoms and new leaves.

You don't need to fully coat your tree with these....you want only a few here and there to resemble a tree just starting to bloom or leaf out.

Let dry and then remove your tape.

There you have it a great Spring painting project that is easy to do for all ages.

Give it a try....of course in Canada we are still under the snow and won't see trees like this until late April/early May....we can still dream of Spring though.

take care

gail

Painted Fish

We started an Under the Sea unit with Kindergarten. I wanted to brighten up the display wall so I had them paint tropical fish.






Here is our display wall and the ocean we set up.

Please feel free to click on any picture to see larger.

















Materials Required:

white poster board
bright colored paint....we used liquid tempera
fish templates made from cardboard
white paper
black paper
glue stick
scissors
paintbrushes


I first had the kids paint the main body color for their fish.

I had bought some neon colored paint but unfortunately it turned out to be more like fingerpaint "paint". I ended up mixing it with liquid tempera with the same base color....fingerpaint is not very opaque.

Let dry.






I took some light cardboard and made some fish templates. These are quite large so I can't post them on Google Docs for you.




The kids then chose a template and traced it onto the back of their painted paper.

The large size of the template made this a bit of the challenge for kindergartners...a good challenge for their fine motor skill development.




They then had to cut this fish shape out....another good exercise to develop scissor skills.






Using a smaller paintbrush the kids painted on the finer details of their fish...I had some reference photos but the kids pretty much had their own ideas. It was amazing to see these fish develop.


I then had the kids trace out a large circle from the white paper and a smaller circle out of the black paper. They cut these out to form the eye of the fish. We glued them on with a glue stick.

I can't tell you how many were perplexed that the fish would only have one eye!




That's it. I saved all the leftover painted paper scraps as we will be making a "Rainbow Fish" as part of the "Under the Sea "unit.

see you next time

gail

Tissue Paper Rainbows

I'm a bit behind in posting as my youngest was in for eye surgery on Friday...everything turned out terrific and he is back at it causing his siblings lots of grief.

Here is a project I did with Kindergarten today. Fairly straight forward....its bit of an old standby for most teachers so I tend not to use this technique too much. It was a big hit with kindergarten though.

Materials Required:

paper plates, cut in half with a semi circle cut out of the center

colored tissue paper cut into squares

glue

black paper

black pipe cleaner

gold paper

Take your paper plate and run a line of glue following the arc of the rainbow shape. I started the kids out from the inside edge....it tended to be easier to work thru than the other way.

Pick a color and smunch up the tissue paper....place into the glue and continue until the entire row is completed. We did not use the end of pencil as those little fingers work really well on their own.

Continue row by row selecting a different color each time.

This was easily mastered by all the kids.

Continue until the paper plate shape is covered.

I then gave the kids a template to trace around of a pot of gold. I just traced these out on some thin cardboard.

The then had to cut 3 coins out of gold paper and glue them with a glue stick to the top of their pot. We added a small piece of black pipe cleaner (about 3 inches) which we taped to the back of our pot and glued the handle to one end of our rainbow.

That's it. They turned out better than I expected and the kids had a great time. Sorry it's a bit late.

gail

Eggshell Mosaic Shamrock Pin

Eggshell mosaic is incredible to work with. A lot easier than you think and the results are spectacular.
In preparation of doing eggshell mosaic with the grade 3's, I thought I should get a few samples together. I made this 4 leaf clover pin for St. Patrick's Day.
Not that hard to do and the materials are lying around your house right now.

Materials Required:

eggshells, start collecting shells...make sure to rinse them out and if you can remove the inner layer, it usually has an air bubble in the top, just rub it off with your finger
acrylic or craft paint
modge podge, you can also use white glue
cardboard
pin back
small pair of scissors
emery board
pin back



You can use this technique to make any kind of pin or necklace pendant.

Find the shape you want and trace onto thin cardboard..like a cereal box.




Cut your shape out and paint it with acrylics the color you want the grout to be. I painted mine black.

If you are making a pendant for a necklace punch your hole at this time.




Take a few egg shells...they can be broken up a bit.




Using acrylic paint....paint your shells in the colors you want for your project. Here I wanted a few different greens. I also added some salt to my light green shell to add extra texture...just sprinkle regular table salt onto the paint before it dries..after the shell dries it will rub off and leave a granular texture.



Starting from an outside edge begin your mosaic....don't worry I'll walk you thru it in the next few photos.

Brush on some modge podge or white glue in the area you want to fill in. I'm doing a random pattern here but because I'm using different green shades I'm working on a small section at a time.



Break off a piece of shell that is approximately the same size that you want to fill.

Place over your glue...now it won't fit because the shell is curved and the form is flat but here comes the magic.



Taking your finger squish it flat. It will break up and form your mosaic.

The eggshell will only stick where there is glue. If some of it is on a dry section just brush some modge podge over it.

Use an awl or knitting needle to clear the hole if you are making a pendant.

Continue working until the entire form is covered. Don't worry about any overhanging bits we will take care of them after it dries.

There may be the odd piece here and there where you will have to try to fit a small filler piece in but over all the mosaic just comes together. Add a top coat of modge podge as well. If some pieces are overlapping each other a bit that is OK.
Let dry.




After it has dried you can turn it over and with some small scissors cut off the excess. Use little snips at a time. If you try to cut too big a piece it may pull the mosaic off the form.







You can use an emery board to sand any rough edges.






Make sure to modge podge the back of your piece as well.

Let dry.




Glue on a pin back if you are making a pin.

That's it a beautiful pin using the most basic of materials.

I'll be posting some more projects with eggshell mosaic because I love working with it. The kids also love it. Most people can't believe it's from an egg shell...they'll think you did some exhausting tile mosiac technique. Due to it's lightweight it is applicable to lots of different projects.

see you next time

gail

Cardboard Mosaics

I'm starting mosaics with Grade 3. This is our first project. Not really a true mosaic but a good starting point for them.

The idea for this came up while my daughter was doing a book report. She was reading "Chasing Vermeer" and for the project component she made a set of Pentominoes.
Afterwards we had a lot of 1"x1" cardboard pieces.........inspiration strikes.


Materials Required:

corrugated cardboard
cardboard for your base...I used the back from a notepad
acrylic paint
crackle medium (optional)






Cut your corrugated cardboard into 1"x1" squares. They don't have to be perfect.

In fact they look better a bit off...

My daughter had traced out a grid on a big piece first.






Take your base cardboard and paint it black or some other dark color. This will be your grout color.

Let dry.

Glue the squares onto your base cardboard leaving space in between.

Paint white. Draw on your picture. I outlined mine in black so you can see it here.

Paint in your design. Use bright colors as we will be putting on a dark wash to antique it later.

When you have painted it the way you want let dry.

I then painted the surface with crackle medium. This is optional. I wanted a crackle finish to the tiles and we have some of this medium at school but you can leave this out if you want.

Let dry.

Using some very watered down paint that matches your grout color, apply a light wash.

This ages your piece making it look like some ancient mosaic you found on your travels.

Let dry.

That's it. Pretty straight forward and it will get my Grade 3's thinking about tiles and mosaics. A good lead into our second project eggshell mosaics, but that will be next time.

Give it a try and I'll see you next time.

gail