Easy Father's Day Project

I'm in the midst of the Father's Day rush......fingers crossed that I make it!



This is a quick project I'm doing with a few schools and works for any grade.  I have seen this idea a few times and this is my take.








MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- camera and access to a printer
- corrugated cardboard
- plaster strips or white paint
- backdrop, you can just hang fabric or even tape a large piece of paper on the wall
- piece of wood, I used 1" x 6" spruce fence boards cut into 1' lengths
- black acrylic paint
- glue
- scissors
- Mod Podge
- picture hanger

PROCEDURE:

Make some large letters.  I cut mine out of cardboard squares.  I then used plaster strips to coat one side.

You can also paint them white.  You want a matte finish as it photographs the best.

Take photos.  I used a backdrop (tri- fold) with some grey fabric taped to it.



Print off photos in black and white on regular paper.  The size I used was 3"x 5".
Trim.

Sand all rough edges of your board.

Paint board with black acrylic paint.






(That was an adventure with 100 or so kids!)

Glue into position.

Give the board a nice coat of Mod Podge.  This seals the photos in place as well as giving it a nice shiny finish.

Add a picture hanger to the back if wanted and that's it.

Good luck with your own Father's Day rush.

'Very Hungry' Grade 1 Caterpillars

We had some 'very hungry caterpillars' in Grade 1 the last few days.

This is our new bulletin board display.














MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- photos
- paper for painting, sketch or wc, you need a long rectangle about 8"X 16" and a square 5"x5"
- black and red tempera disk paint
- plastic wrap, bubble wrap
- plastic lid to use for tracing
- coloured tissue paper cut in squares
- glue
- pipe cleaners
- 2 pony beads

PROCEDURE:

Take photos first.  I had the kids do 2 poses.  The first is the 'hungry caterpillar' one for this project ("open your mouth wide like biting a big piece of watermelon"), the second just a nice smiling face for our happy butterflies that we will be doing next week.  Print off on regular paper.

On our art boards we taped the 2 pieces of painting paper with a little masking tape to hold in place while painting.

We then painted our rectangles black.

While paint is still wet lay a piece of plastic wrap on top and squish in some wrinkles.  Leave in place until paint dries.

We then painted our squares red.

Lay a piece of bubble wrap on top. push down on it a bit and then leave on top while drying.

I made some cardboard templates by tracing around a plastic lid.  I kept moving it and tracing until I had a nice caterpillar shape.

The kids turned their black painted paper over (now dry) and traced around the template.


They then cut the caterpillar shape out.

With that same lid I used to make the template I had them trace around it on the red painted paper. Cut out.

Glue the red circle onto one of the ends of the caterpillar.

Starting near the head we made a line with the glue.  I had the kids choose either warm colours or cool colours of the tissue squares.  They then scrunched them up and added it to the glue.  This makes our caterpillars fuzzy.

Continue down the length of the caterpillar.

We then added 2 antennae with pipe cleaners and beads.  Fold the pipe cleaner down on the bead to hold in place.

You can also just use a longer pipe cleaner and fold in half.

We just taped ours to the back but you could use white glue or a glue gun.


That's one of the teachers joining in.

Glue photo on the red circle.

For the display we also painted some large leaves for our hungry caterpillars.

That's it.

Father's Day Clay

This is a work in progress.  Kindergarten did clay today and although I don't have one all glazed and fired to show you I thought I'd give you a peek.

When done it will be a change/key/cell phone dish for Dad.
















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- clay
- fabric placemat
- a penny nail
- wooden skewer
- little cup of water
- rolling pin
- 'D' and 'A' rubber stamps
- small chinet plate
- kiln

PROCEDURE:

Cut a slab off your clay block.  Using a rolling pin roll a slab about 1/2 inch thick.

Take your chinet plate and turn it upside down onto the clay slab.  Cut around it with the nail.

You want to use a heavy paper plate not foam as we will be putting the clay back into the plate to help hold the shape while the plate is drying out.

Remove the excess clay from around the circle you cut.  Use some of it to cut a circle for the head.  With Kindergarten we used round cookie cutters that I had.

Attach to your dish by "scratch, scratch, water, water".  Little surface scratches on the surfaces to be stuck together, rub some water with your finger over the scratches.  The scratches then have to 'kiss'.  (that always makes it easy for the kids to remember how it works)

Start adding the features.  Eyes, nose, mouth, ears, etc.

Add DAD with the rubber stamps.

With the extra clay roll a long snake and attach around the rim of the plate.

Place back in the paper plate to dry.

Drape for at least 24 hrs under plastic and then let dry out fully for 1-2 weeks. (depends a lot on the humidity in your area)

Remove paper plate and then bisque fire in the kiln.  Glaze or paint as you wish.

It was great to see all the Dads.

There is still time to do this project.  I will update you on the finished plates.




See you soon.

Mixed Media Turtle

I have been spending some time painting turtles this long weekend.

As I tried to capture that texture it wasn't long before I was making a textured canvas.

It's like a mosaic as you design each section.






















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- cereal or cracker box cardboard, corrugated cardboard
- primed canvas or you can use a nice rectangle of cardboard as a substrate (base)
- acrylic paint, blue, brown, tan or linen, green, yellow, black
- gesso
- drywall compound
- found items or tools to add texture, (bubble wrap, foam, lego)
- wax paper
- tacky glue
- metal washers
- cheesecloth, crackle medium, optional
- wc or heavy paper (poster board, manila tag), white tissue paper
- mod podge, optional


PROCEDURE:

Take a piece of corrugated cardboard and cut out a turtle shell shape.

Gather some tools to texture the drywall compound.

I use bubble wrap, lego pieces work well, combs, I also recently found this textured craft foam.




Take some drywall compound and place on a recycled plate.

Spread on the shell.  You can use a plastic spatula (hardware store) or just your finger.

Because I will be adding individual pieces to the shell I don't texture it.

On some thin cardboard (cereal or cracker box) spread on some drywall compound and then use tools to apply texture.

You can do a big piece that you will later cut into smaller pieces.

or cut out the small pieces

and texture each one separately.  Here I am using plastic wrap to add wrinkles and a wooden skewer to add lines.




Set aside to dry.  It takes about 6 hrs.

While you drywall compound is drying paint your canvas or cardboard substrate (base).  If you are using cardboard prime with a coat of gesso.

I wanted some different textures for the flippers and feet.

On some light cardboard I did 2 different techniques.
On the first I painted it a light linen colour and then added crackle medium.  Set aside to dry.

On the other piece I painted it the same light linen colour and then laid a piece of cheesecloth on top.  I added more paint on top to 'stick' it in place.

Let dry.

I also wanted some textured paper for the kelp.

Using gesso I 'glued' tissue, streamer and old book pages to a piece of heavy paper.

You could also use white glue to do this.




Set aside to dry.

While my gesso was out I added some to my metal washers.  This will allow me to paint them with acrylic later on.

When my drywall compound dried I added colour to my shell pieces.

If you did one large piece cut out the individual shell pieces before you paint.  If you wait you'll find your paint gets scratched off as you cut.


Paint the large shell shape as well.  Make it a contrasting colour to your shell pieces, like grout on a tile floor.

I also painted my cheesecloth piece with watery brown paint.

I did the same with my crackle medium piece.  Be sure to follow the directions on the bottle regarding the timing for this.

I painted my metal washers black.

Paint the heavy paper as well.  I used green, blue and a touch of yellow.

I've been playing around with spray inks so I added a little as well.

From the heavy paper cut some kelp and glue onto the background with tacky glue.

From the cheesecloth and crackle cardboard I cut the flippers, feet and head.  I used the large shell as a guide to glue them in place.  I then glued the large shell piece on top.

Start to glue on your small shell pieces.  If you lay it all out first it is easier.  Start with your largest piece in the centre and then work around it.

With my sharpie pen I added some details to the face.

The background needed a touch of something so using a straw, end of a skewer and a cap I added bubbles in different sizes with white and silver paint.


Add a coat of Mod podge to seal and give you that nice shiny look.

That's it.  You could always add a poem or text to take it further.




See you next time.