Leap Into Art

I can’t tell you how many recipes I’ve tried for play dough; but I think I’ve finally settled on a favorite. This one is quick and cheap, with common pantry ingredients. It also has a fantastic texture–just like “Playdoh”.

materials

• 3 1/2-4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tarter (found with the spices on the baking isle)
• 2 1/2 tablespoons oil
• 2 cups of water
• food coloring (optional)
• cherry, strawberry, vanilla, or lemon extract (optional)

directions

1. Heat water to boiling in a medium saucepan. If you want one color of dough, add the food coloring now. This makes it very easy to color. If you want multiple colors, you can work the food coloring into the finished dough.

2. Measure a generous 3 1/2 cups flour into a medium-large mixing bowl (one that holds at least 8 cups.) Reserve extra to add if the dough is too sticky. Mix in the salt and cream of tartar. I have to admit that I love the way this feels, so I always use my hands. Salt and flour just have an interesting texture together. Is that weird?

3. Once the water is boiling, whisk in the oil. Remove from heat and add extract. I like this because it makes the playdough-and your hands-smell good. It can smell too good and be tempting for your child to eat, but this dough is fully edible–just not tasty. I prefer lemon because it smells clean. My girls haven’t ever been interested in eating it, but leave it out if you are concerned at all.

4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the water mixture in. Stir with a spoon until flour is incorporated, then turn it onto the counter or a cutting board and knead until smooth.

5. Now play!

So, I noticed that I haven’t posted a project since-well-Easter. Hmmm, what can I throw out there that would be helpful during these long hot summer afternoons. (Since swimming isn’t an art project.) These little dolls are a project from my book that are great for filling an afternoon with industrious fun. It kept my little “test group” busy for almost 4 hours.

Materials:

Popsicle sticks

Yarn (for hair and clothes)

Beads (for eyes)

Small pompoms

Small flowers

(Basically anything in your art box you want to throw out there.)

Scissors

Glue (We used Aleene’s, but Elmer’s would work, it’s just very slow drying. Hot glue is the best option, it just presents other safety issues.)

Directions:

1. Cut about half way up the center of a popsicle stick. (This is a little tricky; it was fine for my 7 year old nieces, but younger kids would need help.) Gently pull the two halves apart a little.

2. Cut an 8 inch piece of skin colored yarn for the head. Glue one end of the yarn to the stick and wrap it several times around the stick so that it makes a head shape. Tuck the end in or glue.

3. Glue on beads for eyes (you could also cut little bits of yarn and glue them on.)

4. To make the hair, wrap yarn several times around your hand (or something else that is about 2xs as long as you want the hair to be.)

5. Slip off and loosely tie a piece of yarn around the middle of the coiled yarn (hair) and glue to the head. (You may need to hold it down for a bit while it dries.) Cut through the loops at the bottom and trim up as desired.

6. Wrap the body in the color you want for the shirt. (Do this the same as the head, only wrap around once or twice.) When you get to the legs, go completely down one, tie off or glue then start at the top of the other. (You will want to secure the beginning with a bead of glue like you did for the head.)

7. Now embellish: I cut the edge of a sequin to make the mouth, you could also use yarn. We used pompoms for feet and for the body of one dress (the rest of which is a pink feather) and the small flowers were also very popular.

You can make them life-like or, like Weston, you can get a little crazy with it! The kids liked this so much that they quickly progressed to making beds for the dolls, then cell phones, the a couple of just funny designs. They loved this and it can easily fill up an afternoon or more.

We all know that the fun of dying in eggs is often over too quickly (unless you boil more eggs than a small army can eat.)  If you add painting to the tradition, the fun can last longer and you get a variety of artistic results.

materials:

hard boiled eggs

egg dye (whatever method you traditionally use)

watercolor or acrylic paints

small paintbrushes

directions:

1.  Dye eggs as you normally would and set out to dry. I like the look of mixing colors, dipping ends in to create stripes.

2. Paint designs onto the eggs. The girls loved using some glittery acrylic to absolutely coat  their eggs. If you have older artists, they can do something a little more representative.

3. Have fun, in art there are no rules!

Yesterday, our wonderful neighbors had a gold hunt in their yard. It is a neighborhood tradition and the girls had a ball! It was so well set up that I couldn’t help but think it would be fun to share in case you would like to do it in your own neighborhood on Tuesday.

getting ready for the hunt

materials:

several rocks, around 3 per hunter (more is certainly good)

gold spray paint

invitations (or phone calls)

bags to place candy in (party favor bags)

*optional prize for the winner of the hunt

*1 bag of candy from each child

directions:

1. Invite friends. Our hunters were asked to be between the ages of 3 and 11 and to bring a bag of candy per child to share.

2. Spray paint rocks to create the “gold”

3. Hide rocks around your yard. Our hosts had the little kids in the front yard (8 and under); while the older kids searched the back yard.

4. Have the hunt: This takes about 20 minutes start to finish. (Well, excluding the playing while parents chatted.) Collect the candy as kids arrive and then divide it into bags for the children to take home.

5. After it seems all of the gold has been found, ask the children to count their rocks; then bring them to a “collector” to trade for candy.

6. If desired, award a prize to the person who collects the most “gold”. Save the rocks to pass to next year’s host.

Pretty simple, but a ton of fun! I thought this was such a great way to celebrate a holiday that usually doesn’t mean too much to little ones. Either way, have a Happy St. Patress Day (Which is what Megan calls it. =D)

Boy have I been procrastinating with what to do for Megan’s preschool Valentines. Luckily, I finally found some inspiration. If you are a procrastinator too, feel free to use these. They were super easy to put together and reasonably priced. Plus, Megan is stoked about them. We have played a few good games already.

materials:

fun foam or cardstock hearts (I found a pack of 30 ready to go, yay!)

tube of puffy paint

2 colors, polymer clay (such as fimo)

cookie cutter (optional)

directions:

1. Use the puffy paint to put a grid (of 9) on the fun foam heart; set aside to dry.

2. Knead a chunk of the clay to soften. If you are using a cookie cutter (which I recommend for speed’s sake) Lay down a piece of plastic wrap then press clay out onto it. Roll with a rolling pin to even out. You will want to keep it fairly think, at least 1/2″.

3. Bake clay as directed.

4. Wrap it all up and add a cheesy note like, “Valentine, You are a Winner!”

hehehe. Happy Valentine’s Day!

If you want to really go nuts with this, you could use different grains or rice (vermicelli, couscous, really anything!) If you were doing different grains, it would look great to just leave them naturally colored. You could also paint over the top to give it a different look.

Materials:

Bag of white rice

Ziplock bags

Food coloring

Construction paper or tag board

White glue

Pencil

Directions:

1. Pour the rice into plastic bags and drip several drops of food coloring onto the rice. Close the bag and shake (Be a little careful or you’ll be sweeping up pounds of blue rice–like me.) If you didn’t use a ton coloring, you can just leave the bag out and open for a while. If your rice is really wet, you’ll want to pour it onto paper towels to dry out.

2. Sketch out your design onto the cardboard. Keep it fairly simple with larger spaces for best results.

3. Spread glue over a section and cover with rice. It is easiest if you start with the smaller design sections, then fill in the background color. (Actually, it looks great without a background too. The design stands out really well this way.) You can pour the rice onto the glue, then dump the excess rice off onto a sheet of construction and then bend the paper into a funnel and pour it back into the bag. You can also apply smaller amounts then press the rice into the picture. (This is the method I liked best.)

4. Repeat until all of your picture is filled in with colored rice.

5. You may want to dot a little extra glue over the top of any areas that don’t look well glued. It will seep into the rice and dry clear.

6. If you used tag board, cardstock, or cardboard, you can keep it from curling by laying a book (preferably with a laminated or glossy cover.) Then top with something heavy (such as more books stacked on top). Let it dry like this overnight.

Sidewalk is a definite staple of summer. The ideal medium for creating roads in your driveway is also used for fine art. Let your artist try fleshing out this fun activity a little. while you’re at it, why don’t you try it too? ;-D Here are some tips for doing sidewalk art:

~Experiment with different pressures to create shading. This can be accomplished by going over the area several times to make it darker. Then use your fingers to blend the chalk powder in. This will give you a more solid covering.

~Try using brushes to spread the chalk dust and create blending and shading.

~Dip your chalk in water before drawing, the application is more paste like and very dramatic.

~You can also try wetting the cement and then drawing on it for a different look.

~Now try coloring (with dry chalk) and then dipping your brush in water and highlighting areas with it.

~If you child loves this, you may want to supplement the usual chunky chalk with colored chalk (for chalkboards) or even pastels to give them a broader range of colors and texture.

~Like other types of art; you just need to play around for a while and pretty soon you will have some great new techniques!

Megan wanted to draw one of her favorite subjects: her beloved cousin Abby and her playing. Here they are surfing, woa daddy!

This project is as fun as it is tasty. It really doesn’t have an age limit as older kids will love creating puffy paintings using paintbrushes and the tinies will go nuts over finger-painting with it. Extremely versatile and super easy–what more can you ask for?

Materials:

1 large tub of Cool Whip

Several small packages of Jello (however many colors you want)

Black or other dark colored paper

Brushes

Directions:

1. Scoop the Cool Whip into as many bowls as you want different colors and stir a tablespoon or so of the Jello mix into each. I used Raspberry for red, Lemon for yellow, Lime for green, and Orange for orange. (I later wished that I had grabbed a Berry Blue for some blue.) Add more powder if needed, the more you use, the brigher your colors will be.

2. Now use your fingers or a brush to scoop and shape your paint into the desired picture. Keep in mind that you want to apply it thickly for good color. Make sure to do a little tasting.

3. Set aside finished pictures to dry. They will stay puffy and smell great!

Michael and I went for post-dinner walk last night and bumped into a few friends who have school aged kids. They were talking about how long the first day of summer (as in “school’s out” summer) was. I thought this would be a perfect time for a project that is bound to take up a few days for the kids… puppets. They are fun to make and fun to play with. And one of the best parts about puppet-making is that there are so many ways to do it! Most people are already familiar with the sock and paper bag methods, which are classics for a reason, but there is no need for me to cover them again. Last summer my art classes made their puppets out of something a little more creative. I guess we could call them found art puppets. Take a look though your kitchen drawers and start collecting paper towel rolls for these theatrical cuties.

Materials:

Toilet paper and paper towel rolls

Items from your art box:

Felt

Cotton balls

Yarn

Beads

Craft sticks, bamboo skewers, or other sticks

Flowers

There are lots of other possibilities-Use your imagination!

Craft glue (I like Aleene’s tacky glue)

Directions:

1. Really, this is a project that you can just go crazy with. But here are the steps for the ones shown:

Opera Singer

1. Place a toilet paper tube inside a paper towel tube and sketch where you want the mouth, then cut the lips.

2. Cut the paper towel tube to the desired legnth.

3. Paint the skin color and the base color for the clothes.

4. Once the paint is dry (about 15 min.) sketch out details and paint (Make sure to pull the toilet paper roll so that the mouth is all the way open and paint all of that as well as making sure the lips line up when they are closed.)

5. Make eyes by gluing a bead onto a cotton ball. Then cut an eyelid shape from felt (and lashes if desired, which are glued just under the edge of the eyelid) and glue over the cotton ball.

6. Make hair by wrapping yarn around your hand several times. Tie another piece of yarn around the wound yarn in one place (Which will hold the threads together.)

7. Trim the hair as desired and glue to the top of the paper towel roll.

8. Tape a stick to the bottom inside of the toilet paper roll. (This is what you will pull to make the puppet talk.)

9. Tape another stick to the inside back to the paper towel roll. (This is what you will hold to hold the puppet up.)

Kitchen Utensil Puppets

Here are a few tips:

Wrap with felt for clothes.

Silk flowers make great skirts.

Salad forks make great royalty. Paint the tongs with gold or silver paint and then embellish.

Whisks make great crazy creatures or aliens. You can tie or wrap fabric or pipe cleaners through the spokes to make hair.

Have fun!

The 4th of July is one of my family’s favorite holidays. We have a great little parade that comes down our street the morning of the 4th. (Complete with homemade floats and dozens of kids on their bikes) On the night of the 3rd, we have our nieces and nephews sleep over in tents on the lawn with their Dads. We project a movie onto a sheet in the backyard and stay up too late having fun. Then all of the moms come over in the morning (hopefully a little rested from their night off) and we eat a giant breakfast before watching the parade. To the point: my cute Mother-in-law always does a fun activity for the nieces and nephews before the 4th, usually we decorate tee shirts. Tonight we did this by spraying bleach onto stencils on the shirts. IT looks great and is fairly easy and quick to do. Here are a few tips to try it out with your little patriots

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Materials:

Tee shirt (A darker color works best. We used mostly red, but navy looked great too. As you can see, the bleached area ended up red.)

Spray bottle with bleach (We started with a 50/50 mix but ended up using a higher concentration.)

Newspaper to put in the shirts so the bleach doesn’t seep through to the back.

Stencils (see Direction #1. below)

Paper towels

A bucket of water to rinse the shirt in was helpful

Glad Press and Seal wrap was also very useful!

Directions:

*Wear old clothes for this activity!

1. Design your stencils. Here are a few methods that we liked: The first was to use store-bought stencils. Layer Glad Press and Seal wrap around the edges of the stencil and press lightly into the shirt to prevent overspray.

Cut shapes out Press and Seal wrap and press onto the shirt, then spray around to create a relief.

Draw a pattern onto a file folder or a clear sheet protector then cut out and use as a stencil.

2. Lay the stencil onto the shirt and hold it down if necessary, while you spray bleach liberally onto the shirt. Lay a paper towel over the top of everything before you pull the stencil off to absorb the excess bleach.

3. Once you have the design you want, let it sit a few minutes until it is as light as you like, then rinse thoroughly. Wash and wear!

*If you have overspray or just want a speckled look, spray the shirt directly with the spray bottle. Less is better here. You can get bigger drops by spraying slowly and a finer mist by spraying firmly and quickly.

*You could use a bleach pen to write, outline, or draw onto the design.

*Embellishing with puffy paint would also work well, perhaps the giltter paints.