Posted in Art and Craft
Do you even need to ask what my boys have been making recently?
Why, shoes of course.
I did warn the boys that once these beauties hit the internet they could have a rush on orders.
But they were too busy working on improving their creation. Version 2.0 was made from brightly coloured foam and was much softer on the foot.
What talent! I can see shoe design and production in their future. Can't you?
I'll let you know when these beauties hit the market and where you order them from.
Posted in Art and Craft
This week we decided to once again try our hand at melted crayon art. We...okay I...have already done this activity several times with the boys. It is considered a "preschool" craft by many books but to be honest it's much better suited to slightly older children. Preschoolers can really only watch someone else do the craft for them and what fun or learning is in that!
First of all the children have to "shave" their crayons to make their coloured shavings. We found some old multicoloured crayons that hadn't been used in years and peeled off their papers. We then used a pencil sharper and sharpened them into a dish to catch the coloured shavings.
This takes a little while so it's a good time to pop on an audio book, continue a read aloud (if you are merely watching) or just sit and chat. It's nice and relaxing. We were sharpening multicoloured pencils and were marveling at the beautiful shavings our crayons were producing. One boy would discover a gorgeous colour combination and would then offer to share his crayon with us so we could have the same gorgeous shaving. Oh course, if you are doing this with younger children and have to do all the shaving yourself...well your fingers are going to feel like they will drop off any second and the activity is not going to have the same warm and fuzzy feelings...if you know what I mean
.
I got the boys to cut a piece of greaseproof paper each. We used our wooden placemats as our measure (each boy was instructed to cut their piece of paper so that it would be twice the width of their placemat...a quick little Math task for them). I did this as our placemats would be our work surface and they would also make it easier to carry our completed work to the ironing board without shifting many of our shavings.
We made it twice as wide as the placemat so we could fold our paper in half and use the top half later as a cover for our work.
To give the melted crayon craft a focus we added the boys' names as the central feature. I just typed them up on the computer in a bold style, printed and cut them out. Super simple.
The boys used a glue stick to attach their names to the centre of the bottom half of their greaseproof paper.
Once we had enough coloured shavings we began scattering them in our desired patterns and arrangements around our name. Make sure you only place the shavings on one half of the folded paper (leaving the top half to flap down and cover your work at the end).
Be sure to leave a little blank space between the shavings and the edge of the paper. And don't put the shavings too close to your name either. When you melt the shavings the colours spread out and might ooze off the page or all over your name. For this reason also it's not necessary to pile too many shavings onto your page. You'll just end up with a brown blobby mess if you're overly generous with your shavings.
Once your page is prepared you'll need to prepare your ironing board....a better word would be "protect" your ironing board. I put an old rag towel onto my ironing board first (actually an old nappy...I LOVE those things) and then placed several sheets of newspaper on top. I placed the newspaper so I could open up the pages and put our work in between.
The boys closed the top half of their greaseproof paper over their crayon shaving arrangements and carefully and slowly picked up their wooden placemats and carried them to the ironing board. If possible it would be wise to set your board up close to your workspace. I would also explain to the children that the greaseproof paper is very light and could easily flutter off their work surface if they don't hold it firmly on the edges as they walk. They won't think of simple but logical things like this. All they'll be thinking is "Cool let's get this to mum quickly so I can see what it turns out like." So avoid the tears and crayony mess by thinking ahead about possible disasters.
Place your work board on the newspaper and then carefully slide it out from under the greaseproof paper. (Our board was a lacquered placemat so we couldn't iron on it but if you are using a suitable surface you could probably leave the board under your work provided it's big enough.)
Now close the newspaper over the top of your work to protect your iron.
Set your iron to a medium temperature and turn off the steam. My boys haven't used the iron before so I decided that this was not the time to give them their first experience but it will depend on your child and your own judgement. With close supervision, a sensible and responsible child could melt their own crayon shavings.
After a few passovers with the iron, stop and check to see if your crayon shavings are melted enough. Carefully peel the folded greaseproof paper open. If you find that you have a big blank area you can carefully add a few more shavings and repeat the melting process.
If the pattern is to your liking, leave the paper open to dry and then cut off the top half of the sheet. You can discard or use this piece. We just kept the half that had our names on it.
While the melted crayon art cooled and dried we used sheets of black cardboard to make a border for our artwork. We draw a frame on our cardboard (I made a template and had the boys use it as a stencil) and cut out the centre of the frame. (The frames add a really nice touch...it does this for most children's artwork actually.)
Finally we glued the frame onto our melted crayon artwork and hung our completed piece on a window.
So there you have it. A simple but effective looking piece of art.
Your budding artists will love it.
Melted Crayon Artwork would also make lovely gifts. We made one for a gift but we're not telling who's getting it. That's a surprise!
Posted in Art and Craft
Okay let me premise this post by telling you all that my artistic abilities can fit neatly on the top of a pin head. Despite this we do seem to do our fair share of art projects. Brayden really enjoys art and needs time being creative like he needs air. His brother Ethan could happily go months without a creative moment. He's our tekkie boy, always pondering how something works, usually on the computer.
In the mail today we received three new artist books.
We had read the Vincent one from this series last week when we spent over an hour reading all we could about him. We enjoyed the Vincent book from this series so much that I purchased several more big name artist titles from the same series. You never know when we'll be feeling arty again so I figured it'd be best to keep a nice selection handy on the shelves.
For a non-artistic person I actually have quite a few good art books on the shelves. Since art is not my area of talent (what an understatement!) I've tried to make sure there are at least some good books in the house that the boys can learn from should they wish to. Hey, I might even learn something too, if it's possible to teach an old dog new tricks.
We have several of Mike Venezia's well-known series "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists". These are great books and short enough to read the whole book aloud.
We have Laurence Anholt's books. These are fictionised stories about the artist, mixing in some elements of truth. I find these great for stirring an initial interst in an artist.
We have James Mayhew's Katie books. These books encourage the children to look at the subjects within the art. When Katie visits the art gallery her imagination takes her on fabulous adventures in and out of famous paintings. These are delightful books and great to read any time.
We also have the Roy and Matilda books by Susan Venn. They are in a similar vein to the Katie books. Possibly not quite as well done as they are a little more preachy in that they try to squeeze in the artist names and painting names wherever possible. However they have earned a place on my shelves as they contain Australian artwork that can be seen in our galleries. That fact alone earns them a place on my shelves but they are sweet books too.
These are just a hodge podge of other art appreciation type titles that I pulled out of our shelves to share. Many of them were books I found on clearance tables or second hand book sales (I'm not into paying $30 or $40 for a book if I can avoid it). You just have to keep an eye out all the time for these sorts of treasures. If I ever went specifically looking for these titles I'm bound to find nothing on my list. But if you wait patiently and never pass by a book clearance table without stopping to browse, you'll be surprised at the titles that land in your lap.
Guess what looking at all these arty titles inspired us to do?...especially after I found this book stashed on my shelves. I didn't even know I had it. I love moments like that. (Did I just hear someone say "It's because she's got too many books!"?
Tut, tut!!
)
So I raided the art cupboard and pulled out some watercolour paints and watercolour crayons for our afternoon art session. The boys started with watercolour paints on their Starry Night picture but discovered that they had more control with the watercolour crayons. They tossed their Starry Night pictures aside and started fresh with Vincent's bedroom picture.
He even gave his painting a title, "Vincent van Rainbow". I like it.
And so ends our artistic spree this afternoon.
I've just been invited to the boys' puppet show so I better hustle along and not be late to the premier showing.
Posted in Art and Craft
We've tried all different types of fingerpaint but this is our absolute favourite, mostly because it's so easy to prepare - take a can of shaving cream foam, shake and spray. Voila! Fingerpaint on a cookie tray.
A painting smock or old shirt is also advisable as the kids seem to get the cream all the way up their arms. They love the smooth texture. You can add food colouring if you choose.
You may have to experiment with brands of shaving cream. Some are heavily perfumed and take your breath away. How can men stand it?! Once you've found a brand that you like, keep your can of shaving cream in the art cupboard ready for the day when the kids decide they'd like to fingerpaint.
This isn't just art either. It can be a language activity. You could quiz the children on their sounds.
You could win teaching mum of the year by doing all your spelling quizzes in shaving cream.
It could be a Math activity too, as the children practise their number facts in it. The possiblities are endless.
If your child doesn't like to get their hands messy you could easily add a paddlepop stick to use as a writing implement.
Shaving cream fingerpaint is just as easy to clean up. The tray confines most of the mess and only needs a quick rinse under the tap. The smocks go into the laundry and can wait for another time to wash. Then you only need to supervise the hand washing (water and unsupervised children don't mix well or mess free) and you'll end up with soapy fresh smelling children.
Shaving cream fingerpainting is stress-free for mum and fun, soothing AND educational for the kids.
