Painted Autumn Leaves

Here is a painted leaf project that is very easy to do. Sometimes when I try a new technique I try it over and over again finding lots of applications.

This is based on the tissue paper texture technique I described in this post.

This can easily be done with younger kids with only some assistance with the textured paper prep.

Please feel free to click on the picture to see the detail in these leaves.




Materials Required:

white tissue paper
watercolor paper or posterboard
gesso
leaf templates
scissors
tempera paint in Fall colors
glue
paper for mounting




You first need to prep the paper you will be using. Take some torn pieces of tissue, some gesso and either a paintbrush or a spreading tool like an old gift card.










Spread some gesso on the paper...lay down some tissue using your fingers to create some wrinkles in it. Cover this with another coat of gesso to keep the paper down.

For more detailed instructions check out my post here.


Let dry fully.






Print off some leaf templates or you can freehand these. Trace the leaf shapes onto the back of the paper.












Cut out. Try to use an odd number of leaves it will make for a better composition.











Paint with tempera or watercolor paint. Leaves tend to turn color from the edges first. You will often find leaves that are still green in the center....discuss this with the kids before painting...you want a variety of colors on each leaf.


You can also use some brown on the edges.






The colors run together a bit and pick up the texture from the tissue paper.

Let dry.











If you wish you can add some veining using some dark brown and white paint as well as a fine paint brush.

With younger kids you could use pencil crayons or fine markers to make it easier.










Glue down on some nice contrasting posterboard as a mount.

You can now put a sheet of wax paper over your work and lay a heavy book on top to help your piece dry flat.













Here is one with an oak leaf shape.

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

Paper Squirrel

Here is a great little paper squirrel that stands up on its own...it can also be a card if you want as it will fold up. We made their tails with lots of Fall colors to tie that theme in as well.

Materials Required:

cardstock paper or manila tag

scissors

Squirrel templates 1 and 2

pencil

white glue

coffee filters

washable markers (Mr. Sketch, Crayola, etc.)

tempera paint

scrap paper

Let's prepare our materials first.....take some coffee filters (you need 1 for each squirrel) and your washable markers.

Don't use permanent markers like Sharpies.

Color on the filters in fall colors....don't use black as it overpowers the effect. Some brown is OK.

Place your filters on wax paper....take some glue thinned with about an equal amount of water and paint it all over the filter.

You want it fully saturated and then leave it to dry.

The colors start to ooze into one another making a really cool effect.

Take a sheet of 8.5x11 cardstock...now you can just use brown and opt not to paint it but I think it looks better if you do.

Use an old paint brush (scruffy) and mark it up like fur...you can add some light splatter of white, black, and dark brown...experiment a bit.

Let dry.

Turn it over and paint with a light white or tan...a Squirrel's belly is quite light.

Let dry.

Print off Squirrel template 1 and Squirrel template 2.

Cut out.

If you are using this with a class you may want to make thin cardboard template for easy tracing.

Take your painted cardstock....I am using a yellow piece to make it easier for you to see what I am doing. Fold in half.

Take your template and fit it right along the fold line....square it into the corner. Trace around with a pencil.

Take your scissors and cut out keeping your fold line intact.

Now do the same with the head......we'll do the tail later.

Following where the lines are on the template fold in the secondary fold lines.

Your squirrel should be able to stand up now.

When you have added some detail to your face you can glue it into place.

Turn it over and add some glue below the ears and down the sides a bit.

Place on the head part of the body taking care to let the face fold outwards a bit...you can use clothespins to hold it in place while the glue sets up.

From the top it should look like this...the back fold goes out one way and the face fold goes out the other...like a diamond.

If you are using this as a card you'll fold the face the opposite way when its folded flat and then pop it out when you open the card.

Now let's work on the tail......take your coffee filters....peel carefully from the wax paper.

Fold in half and lay the Squirrel Tail template on the filter with the straight edge on the fold.

Open it up and cut along the fold line giving you two tail sections.

Run a bead of glue along the outer edge but not on the straight edge. Place second half on top lining up the edges.

Let dry.

To add some extra volume to our tail stuff it with some scrap paper...I'm using wax paper from the painting step but you could also use kleenex or shredded paper.

Run some glue along the edges of the opening.

Now put into place along either side of the back fold on the body....the filter glues into place very easily.

If you want a really simple squirrel you could make just one tail traced from some colored cardstock and stick it onto one side of the fold.

Here I started painting the faces.....this is what happens when you haven't done your daily practice for a while and you're itching to paint.....all of a sudden this squirrel became more complicated.

Chances are you will paint a much simpler version or use markers or pencil crayons.

Here's how they look from the back.

Give it a go and we'll see you next time...get to use my fancy signature again....Thanks Lanie for showing me how!

Back to School Project

I was fiddling around with the first project for Grade One today. The theme for the year at school is "You are the Light of the World...Shine"



So this is the concept I'm working on.

My plan is to take photos of each of the kids striking some sort of pose... these are some of my kids from this summer.

I cropped them and then converted them to black and white with high contrast. I then printed them off....for school I think I'll use 8x10 for a larger poster.

If it is hard to see your outline you can trace over it with a black marker to define your cutting line.





Cut out...for Grade One I'll cut them out ahead of time.







If you turn them over you can get a good idea what they are going to look like.






Now you need some contact paper...you can pick this up at Wal mart or Home Depot. You want the repositionable one so you can remove it easily.




It cost me $4.99 for a 9 ft. roll.




Take a bit off the roll and lay down on a flat surface. I taped it down to stop it from rolling back up.






Now you can put a little bit of tape on your cutout....place onto the back of the contact paper and trace out.




Cut out.

Remove backing and place into position on paper...because its repositionable you can move it around if you need to.

Rub with your finger to make sure all the edges are firmly secured.

Start painting.....I started with yellow

continue painting radiating outward.

Let dry.

Remove contact paper...you can keep this cutout to use over again if you wish. Store them on a piece of wax paper.

Here I was trying out different ideas...

I decided labelling them with each child's name which they could fill in with black sharpie.

I added the original cut out and the words "you shine"....I also added the year by my son's raised fist but I did this after I took the pictures



I still fiddling a bit with it...hope to post the bulletion board display when completed.

see you later