Face Vase Collage

Nothing quite like the sticky, gooey goodness of mod podge! Ah! The feel of creativity!! Oh sorry..... collaging is my drug of choice! 

For my last day of my last class of the summer we made still life collages. I took silhouettes of the kids during the previous class (or had their parents text me one since I have seem to have forgetful tendencies...) 

As the kiddos came in, they painted a checkerboard tablecloth design on dictionary pages (that were previously glued on by yours truly to save time) 

We used blue card stock to make vases with their silhouette on each side. This was done by folding a paper in half, tracing the silhouette on the paper then cutting and voila! Mirror image silhouette! 

I let the kids decide which way to glue it, face right side up or upside down, depending on which they though looked more like a vase.

Next, they started adding stems & flowers made from painted paper or scrapbook paper. I had been using up left over paints from each project this summer so they had a wide variety of colors to choose from.

The neon pink was so bright we needed shades :p

I didn't give specifics on flowers just that they had to have at least seven. I wanted their flowers to be as unique as they are!

Here is how they turned out! Eric Carle would be proud! 

This one cracks me up! Kids don't see much Made in the USA these days!

Crazy Picasso Chickens!!!

Brace yourself... Things got really crazy when we studied Picasso!

Too many laughs today while making them :) 

Here was our inspiration: 

Picasso's Le Coq 

After finger painting our background in shades of brown to break up the whiteness, the feathers started flying!! We laid the canvases outside to dry, which didn't take long in the Oklahoma summer sun!

The kids had drawn up a couple initial crazy chicken sketches and chose their favorite to paint. Using a fine tip brush and watered down black paint they set to work once their canvas was dry.

Some found it easier to work from the bottom up, others worked from the top down. 

As they worked on them, some of the feathered friends even got nicknames! 

Meet Jungle Ninja Chicken!

Rainbow Rooster from Outer Space!

Happy Feet

Impressionistic Rooster

Eagle Hen laid eggs!

The kids loved seeing each others roosters get crazier and crazier looking with each brush stroke! Fun, fun day!! 

Aboriginal Designs

We went as Down Under as an Okie can get for this lesson! My mom (funny enough her name is Sheila)had traveled to Australia when I was in high school and as always brought back treasures from afar.

We played around with a rainstick that has amazing artwork on it, looked at (but didn't test out much to the boys dismay) a boomerang and tried out a huge didgeridoo! We also listened to a YouTube recording of a native playing it but alas, we could not mimick the deep, rhythmical sound... 

After sketching out initial designs we put our Q-tips to work on our canvases.

Here is what they came up with :)

 

Now to end the day with a bloomin' onion from Outback Steakhouse!

Folk Art Scenes

New month, new group :) I had only planned on doing two groups this summer but I had several inquiries about openings that I decided to do just one more the week before school starts :)

I first came across this idea on Stacy Spangler's blog Sleepyhead Designs Studio. She had done this lesson with her daughters and the results were adorable! 

I hunted down the artist that inspired her and found Kasaaa Gerard. Her whimsy towns, trees and flowers just make me smile :) 

We began our lesson with patterns and more patterns and more patterns. I had the kids pass their art journals to their neighbor after they filled in a square so by the time it made it back to them they not only had lots of ideas to see, they had inspiration from seeing 6 other books.

After sketching out a design we set to work. We used a watered down light blue to get our basic shapes. This is easy to wipe off in case they want to make something larger or move it. 

Then filled in with color...

After adding patterns & outlining in black, they were finished! Word to the wise though, this lesson took a lot longer than any previous ones. If I ever do it again I'll schedule it for a minimum of three hours instead of two! 

Here are the final products!