Mother's Day Portraits

So I'm stuck at home with a sick kid today but that has given me time to prep for tomorrow's lesson with Grade 4.





As a Mom I love handmade Mother's Day gifts.  This year Grade 4 will do portraits.

Last year Kindergarten did one for Father's day.















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- canvas board, you can get this at the Dollar store, 2 for a $1.00, we are using 6x8
- acrylic paint
- decorative tape
- plain paper
- coloured pencils, crayons (twistables)
- fine sharpie
- scissors
- bright buttons
- coloured paper, scrapbooking paper
- bright buttons
- 'M' letters, I used the Cricut 
- Mod podge
- ribbon and glue gun for hanger

PROCEDURE:

Paint canvas board with acrylic paint.  Set aside to dry.

Using  a piece of paper cut slightly smaller than the canvas board sketch out Mom's portrait.

Add some colour using coloured pencils and crayon.  Because we are going to podge this portrait we do not want to use anything water soluble or it will just smear.

Using a fine sharpie do some outlining.  With Grade 4 we will do the sketch technique.  We don't want to do every line and we want some gaps in our outlines so it looks more like a sketch.

Cut out.  You can get tight to the portrait like with the Dad portrait or leave some background.

Set portrait aside.  Wrap the edges of the canvas with decorative tape which I also found at the Dollar store.

Now we add the word MOM.  I cut out a bunch of M's with the Cricut but you could also hand letter or print letters out from the computer and trim.

For the O we are making a little flower.  Mine is quite circular but you could also cut in petal shapes.  Out of scrapbooking paper or coloured paper cut 2 circle shapes. Glue into place and add button.

Give your portrait a nice coat of podge to secure everything and to add a nice gloss.

Add a ribbon loop to the back for hanging.




That's it.

Pastel Resist Bugs

Bugs are a popular curriculum topic right now.

This is a project I did a couple of weeks ago with Grade 2.
We went big, colourful and shiny!









MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- brown kraft paper, or paper bags
- pencil and eraser
- bug reference books/pictures if needed
- black sharpie
- oil pastels
- tempera disk paint
- metallic acrylic paints
- shimmer mist, optional
- scissors

PROCEDURE:

On a large piece of kraft paper draw a big bug.

Use as much of the paper as you can and when drawing legs and antennae don't just draw a single line use shapes, (squares, rectangles, triangles, circles) to form them.

On this bug you can see triangles used for the legs.

Outline everything with black sharpie but no colouring in with the sharpie.

Using oil pastels colour in your bug.  Use bright colours and allow some of the paper to show thru the pastel.

After you have coloured it all in choose 1 colour of tempera disk paint.  We used red and blue.  Apply a wash over the entire bug.  For the kids I put the disk into a separate container and add some water.

We use big brushes and I ask them to dip into the water and then go in on the disk to get nice bright colour.

Using metallic acrylic paints and the ends of paintbrushes add dots of metallic paint to your bug.

You can add some shimmer mist if you want to get that iridescent look.    The ones I used were inks which can be expensive to buy but you can also make your own.  Buy a travel mist bottle (dollar store) add a marble, pour in some metallic ink (look where the calligraphy supplies are in the art store) and you are good to go. Because this is ink it was applied by an adult.

Shake bottle well and then spray mist on.  Click on the next 2 photos for a closer look.

We used gold and pearl.

When the paper is dry cut out with scissors.

Mount on paper or just display as is.

That's it.

We also have been making lots of Mother's Day pieces.  I have made hundreds of these stepping stones in the last few days, buying concrete like crazy at the hardware store!

See you soon.

Rainy Day Watercolour

This is for those April showers we are supposed to be having.....yesterday in Calgary we got snow!
I always love how a pop of colour on those grey days can cheer you up.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- watercolour paper, at school I use a nice 130lb Fabranio we get in bulk
- green painter's masking tape
- disk tempera paint or watercolour paint
- water spray bottle 
- foam plate for palette
- sand from the playground or garden centre, optional
- kleenex
- my template, optional
- glue
- coloured paper
- craft foam or vinyl, optional
- small button

PROCEDURE:

Place your paper on your art board.  Tape off edges with Painter's masking tape.

Gather your painting supplies.

Brush some water over your entire paper.

While the paper is still wet start adding colour.  The colours you need for stormy skies are black, blue, and purple.

You want very diluted colour so this is where the foam plate comes in.  Add paint and then extra water to get a nice wash.


Paint over entire paper.  You want variation in your colour so some areas have more grey (diluted black) or blue than others.

You can even splatter on some diluted paint.  You want the paper to stay moist so use your water sprayer if it is getting dry.

Not finished yet.......

Crumple up a kleenex and begin lifting off some of the paint to create clouds.

Storm clouds are dark on the bottom and lighter on top so you can add a touch more grey if needed.  Use your spray bottle to keep the paint moving if needed.

A further effect you can add is using sand.  Unlike salt it will not bloom but the paint will collect around the particles leaving a nice texture, like raindrops.

Sprinkle a little on the painting and leave until fully dry.

While the painting is drying you can work on the umbrella and person.



You can use my template or sketch out the pieces freehand.

The umbrella was traced on watercolour paper and then painted.  You can see the pencil lines try the paint.

Cut out when dry.

Glue a button on the top of the umbrella.
You can also add a few lines.

Cut a handle out of black paper.

Use a bright colour for the slicker, a neutral for the head and hand.

I have some nice yellow vinyl for the boots, you could also use craft foam or just paper.

Glue all the pieces into place.

Paint a little puddle for your person to stand in.  I used the tape again to maintain that white border.  At school I will just make sure not to remove the bottom tape till it is completely finished.

That's it.