How to make Paper Poppies

So here is a paper poppy based on an earlier project ..... Paper Sunflowers.


I think they make very nice Poppies for Remembrance Day and the centers are made from....you guessed it ...Poppy seeds.




















Materials Required:

newspaper
red/green paint
paintbrush
scissors
glue
thin cardboard
twigs
black felt
wax paper
poppy seeds




Paint your newspaper red. I prefer to use the classified section when I'm using newspaper as there are fewer pictures but use whatever you like. Let dry.


While you have your paints out you can paint a sheet or two green if you want to make a few poppy leaves.




For younger kids you can also try fingerpaint. I will be making poppies with kindergarten and we are going to fingerpaint our paper.

If using fingerpaint use fingerpaint paper and not newspaper as it will not hold up.





For added texture you can also comb your fingerpaint. Picks work best for combing as the have a good handle for kids to work with.


You need to cut 2 circles out of your thin cardboard for each flower. I used the bottom of my toothpick dispenser to trace around as the template.




Cut some poppy shaped petals out of your painted paper. They are a bit heart shaped. You need about 5 for each flower.

Place a bead of glue around the inner edge of one of your cardboard circles and put your petals into place. ( see sunflower tutorial for pictures on this step)

Take your second cardboard circle, cover with glue and sprinkle poppy seeds all over it, press down with your fingers to make sure those seeds are secure.




Put some glue in the center of your petals and glue your poppy seed circle into place.





Cut a circle out of the felt that is slightly larger than the 2 cardboard circles.




Put some glue on the back of your poppy, place twig in the center and cover with the black felt pressing it to surround the twig.


The felt holds the twig in place.



Let dry. You can cut out some poppy leaves from the green painted paper if you wish and glue them to the twig.

If your poppies will be seen from the back as well as the front you might want to paint both sides of the paper.





They make a very nice arrangement.


gail

How to make a Peace Dove

In keeping with the Remembrance Day theme here is a Peace Dove wall hanging that is very easy to do. I have had great success with this project at all grade levels. You can vary the poppy embellishments. You could also forgo the poppy and just add an olive branch made from paper placed in the mouth. Materials Required: heavy brown paper from a paper bag or packaging paper white paint paintbrush stuffing glue some clothespins wire some bits of red and black felt (could also use paper) hole punch sewing machine(optional) I am going out on a limb here and giving you the Dove Template. Fingers crossed I hope this works. ( I am not a big tech person, I'm still learning) I will be thrilled if it does as I will now be able to give you my own templates and patterns instead of trying to find one on the web that sort of fits. Print out the template. I tried to keep it original size but sometimes the print settings add on margins and that decreases the pattern by 20% or so. Please feel free to enlarge if you need to. Trace out 2 dove shapes on your paper. Cut out. Now you can either sew these together or you can glue them together leaving the opening as shown in the template for stuffing. If you are gluing run a bead of glue around the inner edge of one dove and then place second dove on top. Let dry completely before going on to the next step. I personally like the sewn one better. When I do this with a class I bring the doves cut and sewn already to the class. I'm a fast sewer and it doesn't take that long. Paint the dove white. If I'm pushed for time with a class we only paint the side you are going to see. Otherwise we do both sides. Let dry While the dove is drying you can cut out some poppy shapes from your red felt or paper. Glue on some black bits for the center. Cut out a little black circle for the eye. If you are doing the ring of poppies around the neck you need about 4 the size of a dime. The single poppy is about the same size as the one you wear for Remembrance day. You can also prepare your wire at this time. You need it to be about 14-16 inches long. Wrap around a pencil tightly to get your loops. Remove from pencil and pull it slightly to get a nice shape. When the dove is dry open it up and stuff lightly with stuffing. Use a pencil to push the stuffing into the wing, head, and tail BE GENTLE or you may poke a hole thru your dove. not great... Run a bead of glue on the inner edge of the opening on one side. Press two sides together. Use tacky glue for this...if you are in a hurry you can also use a glue gun. Use a few clothespins to hold it together while drying so you are free to do the laundry....clean out that craft room maybe... When opening is dry and sealed, glue on your poppy embellishments. Punch some holes in the head and wing for the hanger , use the template for placement. If sewn try not to punch out where the seam is. Attach wire by placing end thru hole and wrapping around. Manipulate wire until it hangs right and Ta Da......a Peace Dove wall hanging, door hanging or where ever you want to hang it. Give it a try, simple but effective. see you next time gail

Remembrance Day painting - Art Project

In Canada we honor Remembrance Day on Nov. 11th. The poppy is the national symbol we use in recognition of the poem "In Flander's Fields" written by John McCrae.

At school we incorporate the poppy into our Art projects. This is a Poppy watercolor painting project that I have done with Grades 1 and 2.

Materials Required:

watercolor paper or heavy sketch paper, tempera paint in green, blue and red, paintbrush, painter's masking tape, scissors,

glue stick, Black marker, red paper (optional)

Tape down your paper on an artboard or piece of cardboard. I always like to tape a painting project as it leaves a nice clean mat for presentation.

Using a pencil mark off horizon. In this project we used rolling hills.

Using the painter's masking tape (low tack masking tape) we cut pieces in half and create crosses. You can help cut the tape for the kids or let them give it a go. I find that some get quite frustrated cutting the tape while others enjoy doing it themselves. I asked the kids to mask off at least 3 crosses. They can do more as long as it was an odd number (3,5,7...). Odd numbers just look better visually.

Press down all the tape edges to make sure your tape will resist the paint.

Start painting. We started with the sky. We wet the paper with plain water to the horizon line and then added our paint starting at the top. This is called a graded wash and mimics the sky in real life. It will be darker at the top and will get lighter as it approaches the horizon.

Using the green paint paint in the rolling hills. paint right over the tape.

We mixed a little brown with our green to get a darker shade of green and to add some depth to our hills.

If you want some clouds in your sky you can lift off some color while it's still wet with a kleenex to form some realistic looking clouds.

To further add some texture to your painting you can sprinkle on some salt when the paint is just about dry, right before it loses its shine.

Let dry. Don't remove the salt until it is completely dry or it will smear.

While you are waiting for your painting to dry work on your poppies. You can paint some paper red while you have your paints out or you can use some red construction paper.

Cut out some poppy shapes and then using your black marker put in the centers. You need quite a few poppies if you want drifts of flowers.

When your painting has dried rub off the salt. I usually hold it over the sink to do this step. Now the magic....remove the tape to reveal the white crosses.

Using a glue stick, attach the poppies to your painting.

This is the painting my son completed last year. The kids were amazed when they took off the tape and the white crosses appeared.

I will be posting more Remembrance Day projects so check back.

see you next time

gail

Halloween Batiks

I couldn't let Halloween go by without trying a Batik now could I.

Here is the result of our Halloween glue batiks. For those of you not familiar with the glue technique you can check out my original tutorial here.

My daughter wanted to make a door hanging so after looking in some Halloween books for inspiration she started her design.

For this project we used white cotton.....these are actually some old sheets I had. We cut them into squares about 7x7, not too precise as I knew I would be sewing up the final product.

After washing I sewed each square onto a larger square of natural burlap or jute. I then connected them altogether with a black and white ribbon I had in my stash.

Sorry for the picture quality I was just starting to lose my light. I will be so glad when daylight savings time "falls back". Up here in Canada the sun is just rising when the kids and I go to school and is setting by 5:00pm. At least then I'll get my morning light back.

Some of the other squares I sewed into a table runner.

A tip when working with black paint...paint the other colors in first and let them dry a little bit (maybe 10 minutes) then paint in the black. This helps stop the black from overpowering your whole piece.

I hope this gives you an inkling to give glue batik a try. I could see this applied to Halloween pillow cases for 'trick or treating'. silhouette wall hangings, holiday flags or banners, and table linens.

see you next time

gail

How to Make a Robot from Halloween Candy Boxes

Are these cool or what? My kids flipped out over this one.....they really enjoyed this project. Halloween is the perfect time to make robots...why you ask.....

Because at Halloween your kids will get a lot of different candy in a lot of different packaging. Perfect material to be recycled into robots


Materials:

recycled candy boxes, glue, elastic bands, acrylic craft paint, paintbrush, pipe cleaners, colored bits of paper, foil, assorted hardware doodads, small mismatched toys, extra bits of cardboard

First you need to reseal all the boxes. Place some glue on the open end and then use an elastic band to hold it together while drying. UPDATE: Inna from Inna's Creations had a great idea, take the box apart and reverse it, then glue it back together. This way it will be white on the outside, saves you the priming step. Thanks Inna!

When the boxes are dry build the main body of the robot. You can play around with it a bit until you get it the way you want. We used extra cardboard pieces to help connect everything together.

Glue together and let dry.

Now the painting.... we gave our robots a primer coat of white acrylic or gesso first. This helps to cover all the writing on the boxes. This step is optional. If you skip it you will just have to add an extra coat of colored paint.

While that first paint coat is drying you can make some arms. We used 2 white pipe cleaners for each arm. We connected the pieces together by wrapping some of the ends around each other. Try to push down those wire ends as the can be quite pokey.

We then wrapped the pipe cleaner around the end of a paintbrush or large pencil.

Next we painted ours silver. Now you could just use silver pipe cleaners but I have this thing about trying to get the kids to create as much of the materials they are going to use as possible. I actually had silver pipe cleaners in my stash but decided against it.

When dry the painted pipe cleaners become really stiff and hold there shape quite well. I have used this technique when making dioramas to make very effective trees.

By now the first coat of paint is dry so you can add some color. Depending on your candy boxes you may need 2 coats.

Let dry.

To make really neat robot grip hands use the plastic insert for drywall nails. It is usually in any picture hanging kit you may have. Open the end up to make the gripper and glue into the pipe cleaner arm.

Now decorate your robot. I used a small piece of foil for a control panel and added bits from a cut up map. Attach small toys or little bits and bobs that we all seem to have lying around. The kids have fun searching for different materials and figuring out how to make the face of the robot. We used stray lego pieces, doll combs for the mouths, beads, whatever you have on hand. You may need to use a gluegun on the heavier pieces.

Click on photo for a closer view.

Have some robot fun and good luck creating.

see you soon

gail