Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Spoil Them Rotten!

For fun or for no reason at all! I did this with the traditional sugar overload of ice-cream and candy, but you can do this with yogurt, graham crackers & cool whip, bread & butter, cupcakes or giant cookies.
 
 You do not by any means have to use all the sugar I did, use happy cereal, nuts, dried fruit and fresh fruit instead. Always, always, always remember the age of your kidlets and what they can and can not eat. I know YOU know this but just in case your wee ones have a friend who is younger make sure to think age appropriate sweets. it's a no brainer I know but we all forget sometimes.
 I had wanted to do this in pretty, happy bowls or cups but forgot to bring my own and was at the work house so I decided to use a happy fun plastic tray and cupcake liners. Oh how I love me a cupcake liner! So have fun, get creative and as always, take pictures!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Paint with dots! Lotsa lotsa dots!

Here are some pics from a recent class I taught. We did all of our "painting" and printmaking using items that would produce a dot. We first talked about Pissaro and Seraut and pointillism and then started with index cards and toothpicks.We worked our way up to larger cards and q-tips, paintbrush tips and crayon tips.
Then we got bigger and used the rims of cups and glasses and I passed out the parts of a chopped up swim noodle.

Things got a little wacky when we tried dotting our papers with marbles. The marbles took on a life of their own and produced some nifty experimentation! Have fun and don't limit yourself. Have your wee ones go on a circle hunt in the house to look for household items that would produce a circle. Start with a reading of the dot and have fun!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

(corn) Pop Art!

Last week I taught an art class for kidlets that focused on Andy Warhol. We looked at a book of his art work and talked about the art behind everyday packaging. I explained that everything we purchase that comes in a package, comes in a package that was designed by an artist. We talked about the soup can and how Warhol took something simple and mundane and turned it into something extraordinary. I wanted to put it into their heads that art is all around us and sometimes all it takes is another person's vision to show us.

After we talked and looked and talked some more, I set out some large sheets of paper. I intended to use large sheets of canvas paper but that got left at the casa so we had to use what we had on hand. Next up, each kidlet picked out an empty wee cereal carton. You can do this project with any type of packaging you like. I adore the small cereal boxes!
We sat for a few moments and discussed our boxes. We talked about the colors used, the words and the design. I gave each kidlet a piece of matte board to use as a palette and asked them what color they wanted to use as their background. I also gave them some white and some black and we talked about mixing different shades of the same color. Most couldn't wrap their heads around the idea of mixing black with another color. I did my best to encourage them but didn't push.
 
 Rollers were past out along with paint brushes and the background work began.
Next up, we coated the back of the cereal box with tacky glue and the kidlets placed them on their papers. Then we headed out to play for awhile to let the paint dry.

Once the paint was dry, another color was chosen and a word was picked out from the cereal box. Each kidlet painted their word wherever they chose onto their paper and we ended up with a nifty assortment of cereal pop, Pop Art!


I can't wait to see what you and yours come up with!