Spring reveals all sorts of treasures, hidden under leaves and raccoon droppings. The plaster cast above is one of the treasures we found in our garden, and has managed to remain intact for close to ten years. So now that lovely weather is finally upon us, it won’t take much encouraging to get kids outside exploring and collecting items to make their own impressions of nature. Isn’t that what all those cargo pant pockets are for?
Filed under Art and Nature, plaster
The human body is an amazing canvas, which we adorn daily with both temporary and permanent expressions of who we are. Think makeup, hair dye, tattoos and piercings. Hands make a particularly cool canvas for kids, allowing them to easily paint their designs and bring them to life with motion.
Filed under hand painting
The end of another school year is just around the corner, and parties are a great way to celebrate two months of homework-free bliss. All you need is a nice sunny day, some water balloons and sidewalk chalk, great food, good friends, and of course a piñata. They’re fun to make, to fill and destroy!
Filed under paper mâché, piñata
I recently attended OCAD University’s annual Grad Show, which is always brimming with interesting ideas. This time, I came away intrigued by Iris Fong’s look at perspective, and thought it would be an excellent way for children to see how perspective changes, based on your relative distance or position.
Filed under paper crafts, perspective
More puppets, but this time we’re celebrating spring. It’s a great way for children to talk about the changes they’re seeing in nature; how plants are awakening, flowers are blooming, and little creatures are suddenly everywhere. They can use these observations to help them develop ideas for puppets.
Their mates abandoned them, and left them to languish in the corners of drawers. They are known as the lonely socks, unpaired outcasts deserving of a second chance at life…as puppets. In the mood for some sock history? Check out lonelysock.com where you can learn, among other things, about the Bureau of Missing Socks…uh huh.
Filed under puppets
The wonderful work of artist Tyree Guyton had to inspire a project. If you didn’t get a chance to see my last post about The Heidelberg Project, do have a look at what this artist did for his hometown in Detroit. It involved using art to reclaim the deteriorating neighbourhood he grew up in, and began with painting houses in bright colours and beautiful polka dots, and embellishing them with recycled items and found objects. They all look a bit crazy, but they all have a story to tell.
Making a crazy toy house is a great way to tell a story, and provide a space for favourite toys and characters. It’s also a fun opportunity to display older craft creations, and use up a ton of recycled bits you may have lying around.
Filed under mixed media, recycling
Have you ever wondered who first thought of skewering small bits of beautifully decorated cake? Turns out the cake pop queen is Bakerella, and the idea first came to her back in 2008. It’s been a few years since I’ve been admiring (and eating) them, and finally got around to making an arts and crafts project inspired by them. Fake pops are easy to make, and adapt well to any theme. The only down side is that they’re not edible.
Filed under Pablo Picasso, styrofoam crafts
Back in 1957, the BBC broadcast a brilliant April Fool’s Day hoax about spaghetti growing on trees, and showed footage of the harvest taking place in a small town in Switzerland. It was so well made that my daughter, who was quite young when she watched it, totally fell for it. We played along because, well, it was hilarious. She’s since found it in her heart to forgive us. If you’re curious about the story, you can view the video on YouTube, then grab some wagon wheels and sea shells, and prepare to make some fabulous pasta patterns.
Filed under pasta crafts
Years ago, we had a visitor from Japan who gave us a kusudama flower she had been discreetly making during her stay here. It was simply beautiful. Over a period of several months, she had been quietly cutting, folding and assembling pieces of newspaper in her room whenever she had some spare time. That meant folding 60 petals, assembled into twelve flowers, to create a ball-like shape referred to as kusudama. She also added a touch of watercolour paint to the edges, using one of those cool Japanese water brushes. You can see a photo of the flower at the end of this post.
This project involves making just one component with 5 petals, as pictured above. However, if you’re feeling inspired…
Filed under flowers, origami, paper crafts
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