Valentine Lovebirds

I have been meaning to do this project for a long time......it doesn't have to be Valentine themed but with the heart at the bottom I couldn't resist.

I also did a Hen and chick one.  You could do several, a long line of birds.





























MATERIALS NEEDED:

- corrugated cardboard
- paper towels strips
- book page strips, ( just check your library for discarded books)
- white glue and water
-acrylic or liquid tempera paint
- air dry clay
- heart cookie cutter
- coloured sharpies
- string
- felt hearts

PROCEDURE:

Draw some basic bird shapes on cardboard and cut them out.

Mix your glue and water in about a 1 to 1 ratio.

I used the book page strips to cover the cardboard shape on both sides.  I used some of the paper towel strips to build up the wing area. I covered this with more book page strips.



I like to work on wax paper.

When finished leave them to dry.  You may have to turn them over to help dry the back or prop them up.

Out of air dry clay I cut some heart shapes.  Use a skewer to poke a hole at the top for hanging.




Leave to dry turning occasionally.

When dry paint red.

When the birds are dry you can cut off any excess strips that are hanging off the side. You can also use sand paper to sand off those little bits.

Before painting I punched a hole at the top and bottom of the bird.  I used a ruler to make sure I had them in line.

I primed my birds with gesso.

I then painted and decorated them.

You also can use coloured sharpies to decorate.

I had these felt and sequin hearts from the dollar store so I glued them on the heads of the birds.

Finally tie on your strings.

That's it.


Gail

Valentine Snowman

This is a cute Valentine project for your bulletin board, art journal or to go home for Mom and Dad.

You can also add text if you want.



















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- wc paper or heavy painting paper for background
- blue disk tempera
- rubbing alcohol spray or piece of household sponge
- white liquid tempera or acrylic
- white cardstock or poster board
- black, red and orange paper scraps
- glue
- oil pastels
- glitter glue and text, optional

PROCEDURE:

First off I'm having camera issues so bear with the inconsistent photos.

Tape off your background paper.  Using blue disk tempera paint your background.

To give your background texture and make it look like it's snowing try one of these techniques:

- spray on some rubbing alcohol, I just buy it from the dollar store (supervise the kiddos for this one)
- spray some plain water (not quite as effective as alcohol but works)
- sponge on a little white tempera

When background has dried paint some snow on bottom of page.

Out of some white cardstock or poster board cut 3 circles.  I traced around 3 different tapes I had lying around.

Cut out circles.

I want to define my circles a bit so I took a white oil pastel and outlined the circles.  I have kids place it on a scrap piece of paper and colour on the outline so that it is half on the circle and half on the paper.

Repeat with a touch of black.  Just a touch we don't want a muddy snowman.

With your finger smudge that pastel around the outline, you should get a grey smudge.

Glue on your circles, overlapping them.

Now add your details.  Cut out a hat from the black paper scraps and glue it on. Use oil pastel to add eyes, mouth and arms.
Add a red paper heart and an orange paper carrot nose.

Finally you can add some glitter glue to the snow and snowman for that extra sparkle.

You can also add some text if you want and that's it.





I think they are adorable!

Gail

Valentine Printmaking Project

Valentine #1

This is a Valentine printmaking project I have planned with grade 5.

The main focus is teaching them how to create their own stamps with craft foam.

Valentine #2

Here is a second version.














MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- watercolour or disk tempera paint
- heavy paper or wc paper
- sticky backed craft foam
- scraps of corrugated cardboard
- black acrylic or tempera paint
- coloured pencils, china markers, sharpies
- alphabet stamps, glitter gems, optional

PROCEDURE:

Using watercolour or disk tempera paint your background.

Here I'm using disk tempera and this resulted in Valentine #2.

I used watercolour paint and a little kosher salt to create the background for Valentine#1.

Set aside to dry.

Now we can work on our stamps.

Gather your materials, we need some scraps of cardboard for the base of the stamp and some craft foam.  I like the sticky back.

There are 2 ways to make a stamp with craft foam:

1st Way:
Cut the cardboard into the shape of the stamp. I then cut strips of craft foam and apply to cardboard to outline the shape. You can also cut shapes to be added like the inner heart for this stamp.

2nd Way:
Cut your cardboard shape, then trace around it on the craft foam.  Cut the shape out of craft foam.

You then use a blunt pencil and draw designs into the craft foam shape.  Push hard enough that you can feel the design marks with your fingertip when you touch the foam.

Here is a good tip I got from Traci Bautista.  Use small pieces of craft foam on the back of the cardboard to make a handle.  I use the parts where the product sticker is, I normally just throw those ones away.  You can also use the leftover little pieces from cutting out a stamp.
Use 2 layers and you'll have a good handle.

Using a paintbrush brush some acrylic or tempera paint onto the stamp.  This gives you more control than stamping into a plate of paint to load.


I always have practice paper nearby when doing a printmaking or stamping project.

Here you can see then difference between the 2 types of stamps. 


Have the kids practice working with the stamps.  Sometimes the ghost print or the 2nd ghost print turns out to be the best.

Ghost Print = the second print from a stamp without applying more paint.

When they are confident apply the stamp to your dry background.

Now you might want to just stop there but I like to take it further.

Ensure your print/stamp is dry.  I use a hair dryer to speed things up a bit.

I added some coloured pencil, some china markers, and some sharpie.

I also used a little white and silver paint that I dipped the end of a pencil into and stamped on some accents. (see finished photo)

I painted some scrap paper.

I then stamped on some letters and added these to the Valentine.


You can also add a few sticky gems.

You could also print off some text from the computer to add.

Pair it with a Valentine poem and you have a great Valentine the kids can make for Mom and Dad.


Gail

Warm and Cool Hearts

This is a project I'm currently working on with Grade 2. Valentine's Day is always a challenge for me in terms of art projects. I think it's because I feel locked into a heart theme as well as the traditional colour scheme.

I have been doing Valentine inchies , (post 2) with Grade 2 for a few years now but this year I paired it with a lesson on warm/cool colours. I love teaching inchies as I can show kids lots of techniques in one project.

These inchie hearts are also a great addition to the art journal.






I'm using a lot of my painted paper scraps here.

This background is a glue resist. You draw squiggles with white glue on the inchie background, let it dry and then paint over it with disk tempera or watercolour.

Another interesting background is to dab on some waterproof ink, I used my PITT pen and then go over with disk tempera or watercolour.






Now this is the materials list I used but inchies are meant to be done with what you have on hand.  I sure you can make amazing "little works of art" with what you have in your stash.







MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- 6 inchies, I'm using 3"x3" watercolour paper for Grade 2.  You can make them 2x2 or even 1x1
- disk tempera paint or watercolours
- thin cardboard, like from a cereal or cracker box
- drywall filler
- pencil crayons
- plastic wrap
- textured wall paper or sandpaper, you could even use paper run thru a crimper or texture plate(cuttlebug)
- coloured cardstock
- small embellishments, I'm using stick on gems from the Dollar store
- oil pastels
- contact paper
- some sort of stencil, I'm using sequin waste
- scraps of felt or fabric
- bubble wrap
- silver paper (leftover Christmas wrapping paper)
- glue
- black paper for mounting

PROCEDURE:
This is a 2 session project.

When I do inchies with a class we work on several at once. I'll give you the order of the steps I use at the end.

But when I'm posting the directions it's easier for me to show you each inchie from start to finish.

Inchie #1

Out of a thin piece of cardboard draw a heart in pencil and then cut it out.


My cardboard is roughly the same size as an inchie. My biggest challenge with my students on this step is to get them to cut out a good sized heart and not a tiny one.

Coat with a layer of drywall filler.

Set aside to dry until the second session.

Have the students paint the inchie background. They choose a warm or cool colour.


For our purpose our warm colours are RED, ORANGE and YELLOW.  Our cool colours are BLUE, GREEN, and PURPLE.  Now purple can go either way depending on it's hue. Our purple at school leans  towards the warm so a touch of blue helps.  My square here is looking pretty warm.

When the drywall has dried, (second session) paint the heart with acrylic or liquid tempera.

Add some sticky gems.

and a little card stock heart.

Inchie #2

Paint inchie background either warm or cool.  While paint is still wet lay on a piece of bubble wrap and press down.  Leave in place until paint dries.

On a scrap of white paper have students make a pattern using pencil crayons.

Cut a heart out of that patterned paper.  Add a small card stock heart.

Inchie #3

Paint your inchie with 2 or 3 warm or cool colours.  While paint is still wet lay on a piece of plastic wrap and scrunch it a bit to make wrinkles.
Leave on until paint dries.

Take a piece of textured paper, (I'm using textured wall paper) and paint.

You could also use sand paperer paper you run thru a crimper or cuttlebug with an embossing folder.

I'm using acrylic because tempera won't stick to the wallpaper.

To show off the texture I dry brush on a little metallic paint.

Cut a heart out of the textured paper and then a smaller one out of card stock.

Inchie #4

With oil pastels draw a design on the next inchie background.



I ask students to ensure that some white is still showing.

Paint on top of the oil pastel with watery disk tempera.

Out of black card stock we cut a heart frame. (cut a large heart and then a smaller one out of that one)


Glue onto inchie and then add small card stock heart.

Inchie #5

Paint inchie background either a warm or cool colour.

Stencil on some paint to black card stock.

Cut out heart shape from black card stock and then add small heart from felt or fabric.

Inchie #6

Out of a piece of contact paper cut a heart and stick to inchie.

Paint with stripes right over top of contact paper.

Let dry.

When paint dries peel off contact paper to reveal heart shape.  I added a heart cut from silver wrapping paper and a small card stock one.

Finally mount on black card stock.

That's it….whew!



So here my steps:

Session 1
- cut out cardboard heart and drywall
- paint one inchie warm colour
- paint one inchie cool colour
- paint one inchie 2 or 3 colours and add plastic wrap
- paint one inchie warm or cool and add bubble wrap
- use oil pastels on inchie and then paint
- if time do contact paper  on inchie but I usually don't have time

Session 2
- do contact paper inchie, set aside to dry
- paint drywall heart, set aside to dry
- paint textured paper
- do stencil
- complete inchie #2
- complete inchie #4
- peel contact paper off, complete inchie #6
- complete inchie #5
- complete inchie # 3
- complete inchie #1

Here are some of the Kindergarten snowmen from the last post.

See you next time.

Gail