nature weaving

 

stormy collage art

 

This is what happens when I set out paper plates, cotton balls, glue, liquid watercolor, and eye-droppers. I also added a shake or two of glitter to the paint. The kiddos loved this process. The green tongs up there were actually a part of our pom-pom sorting activity but one of the kiddos decided to use them on the cotton balls and then their glue bottle which prompted the other children to clamor for their own tongs of course. It was fun all around and the art looks fantastic up on our wall! 

Make Paper Plate Calaveras Masks!

Like many of my friends and fellow crafty folk, I absolutely adore Halloween but I think I lurve Dia de los Muertos even more! This is the first year in a great many that I was unable to visit Olvera Street in Los Angeles for their Day of the Dead festivities. Since all my stuff is tucked away in a zillion and half boxes I won't be able to make an altar this year but luckily for you, I have whipped up a nifty mask making project using a handful of items you may already have on hand.

Materials:
*paper plates or large round sheets of paper
*popsicle sticks, sticks or pencils
*markers
*black construction paper
*scissors
*tape
*glitter and other shiny bits (optional)

scrumdilly-do it!
Grab a plate and a pencil. Estimate the center of the plate and mark it with your pencil. Your children can do this part, it doesn't have to be EXACTLY center. Using the center dot as your guide, draw two lines intersecting at the center. One line should be vertical, while the other is horizontal, like a cross.
Next, draw two more line using all previous drawn lines as your guide. These two lines will mark an X on your plate and divide up the spaces between the first two lines.
This part sounds trickier than it is so stick with me. You are going to make your skellie cheeks. The first thing you will need to do is position the plate in front of you with the X lines looking like an X. Find the center points on other side of each diagonal line on the bottom half of the plate. Mark with your pencil and then draw an arc from point to point, these are your skellie cheeks!From the top point of each skellie cheek, follow the curve of the paper plate to draw the rest of your skull and cut out.Next up are the eyes and nose of your calavera. You can use a black marker or paint or you can have your wee ones cut shapes from black paper. The nose of your mask should be an upside down heart and the eyes should be large orbs. Use the paint or marker to mark the mouth of your calavera along the vertical ridges of the paper plate. Now it is time to decorate. You can have your kiddos decorate as they will but if you want to make your skull more of a calavera (as traditional as turning a paper plate into a calavera can be) and follow traditional ideas of decorating, chat up your kidlet about symmetry. If you follow any of the links up above you will find a couple of pictures of calaveras and calacas. If you look closely you will notice that most are evenly decorated aka symmetrical. Have your wee one do one side of their skull then have them repeat what they did to the other. Talk it out. See if they find it easy or hard to repeat the patterns. Which hand do they draw with? Have them switch hands for fun. The more color the better. Whatever you choose to do, have fun!Once your calavera is all decked out, you can add finishing touches with glitter and/or sequins. Set aside to dry and tape a popsicle stick or two to the back and you have a happy mask! I did not cut eyes in my mask as they are more decorative than useful but that doesn't mean you can't carefully punch out some eye holes for your kidlet.
Check out these nifty masks made by some scrumdilly-do readers. Thank you for playing along!

These are from Luzia Pimpinella and her kiddos, check out her blog post...And these are from Amber and her kiddos...Aren't they all absolutely fantastic?

halloween fun: tissue ghosts

a halloween classic: tissue paper ghosts

i can remember making armies of these ghosts (much to my mother's chagrin). i would often end up using an entire box of tissue and boy, did i get in trouble for that. you can make these with the traditional tissue, paper towels, tissue paper, fabric, cheesecloth or white plastic grocery sacks. whatever you choose, your kidlets will cotton to this like candy corn! this weekend, i whipped one up for the nephew (who is seven) and he made his own not ten minutes later and his had angry eyes!

what you need:
*tissue, tissue paper, fabric, cheesecloth or white grocery sacks
*scrap paper, newspaper, phone book pages, etc.
*string or yarn, twist ties or thin masking tape
*markers, permanent markers if using plastic

scrumdilly-do it!

Gather your supplies and get comfy. You can grab a box of tissue from the dollar store for cheap (i found cheesecloth there as well) but if using new supplies doesn't sit well with ya, see if you have any old white t-shirts or sheets you can cut up. Plastic grocery sacks can be cut up as well.. You will want your pieces to be about the size of a kleenex type tissue.

For each ghost, you will need two squares of tissue, etc. Pick up one piece of tissue and wad it up into a ball. You can have your kidlets race to see who wads theirs first or you can have them make monster-hulk faces as they wad/squeeze.Next, hold the balled up piece of tissue in one hand and plop a nice flat sheet over the ball with the other hand and twist to create a neck.Tie a piece of string or yarn to secure the neck. If you stick with white, it will blend into the ghost, you don't have to just check with your kidlet. Twist-ties would be awesome with this, you could also use cut pipe-cleaners.
Using your markers, add your face. Warn your kidlets that due to the tissue's texture, if the pens are held to the surface for too long they will weep into the paper and make big splotches of color. Some kidlets may begin experimenting with this while others may have a mini freak out. I remember discovering this on my own and being frustrated at first but then figuring out how to make the face quickly and being quite proud of myself!

Ta-da! You're kidlets have made their first ghost. Now it is time for an army of them!

You can hang these up in your doorway or home. I would not recommend hanging them outside unless you used plastic bags. They can be tied to a long sting for a banner or they can be "stitched" together with a needle and thread. Your kidlets can also glue them to a foam wreath or make your own wreath from a spare piece of cardboard. There are all sorts of boo-tee-ful things you can do with these ghosts! Have fun and don't forget to add your pics to the flickr group!

A heartfelt memory game for you to make

Make a lovely memory game!You will need:
*cardboard (a cereal box would work just dandy)
*a heart shaped template (you can draw this yourself)
*large sheet of gift wrap or fabric or construction paper for the backs
*spray adhesive, heat n bond, mod podge, etc.
*variety of printed papers or fabric such as origami for your pairs
*scissors and/or blade
*pen
This is a project for you to make for your kidlets. An older child may be willing to help or create it as well. But it takes a little time to finish. There is a lot of cutting involved, unless you own a Cricut, which I don't but wish I did.

Create your heart template by either tracing a large heart shaped cookie cutter or drawing one free style. You can also cut one from paper like I did. It doesn’t matter how heart shaped or wonky it may be, this will be your template for the entire game. Make it large enough for your wee ones to easily see it but not so large that you have exhausted your supply of cereal boxes. About three inches across at its widest point is good.Using your template, trace a minimum of twelve hearts onto your cardboard. Make as many as you have a variety of papers for the backs. Always make an even number so that you have two of each print/paper backs. Make an odd number of pairs if you want your game to have a "winner".Flip your cardboard over so that the hearts are facing down. Adhere your large sheet of gift wrap or fabric to the “blank” side using your choice of adhesive. A spray adhesive is the fastest. My paper is a little see-thru but as long as your kidlets aren't savvy enough to spot the differences, it's good to go. if you like, you can add two layers of paper. That spray adhesive really comes in handy!Once dry, cut out your hearts. Don't they look happy?Now it is time to gather your materials for your pairs. You will need two hearts per pattern. You can use solid colors, prints, words, or fabric. It is up to you. Adhere each print to two hearts making sure not to cover the backing pattern. I used mod podge for this and it went pretty quick. Don’t try to match up heart shapes to heart shapes. Simply adhere a swatch to each heart. To dry, layer your cards-to-be on wax paper and pop a heavy box or cutting board on top to keep your hearts from curling. If any glue leaks out the sides, it won't stick to the wax paper. Once dry, trim off the excess. You now have a nifty hearth shaped memory game!

doodle monsters to the rescue!

Doodle Monsters are nothing more than amorphous shapes drawn by yourself or your wee ones. To have a successful fleet of them however one needs to have the patience to doodle them out. And, as with any true scrundilly-do project there are two levels, TWO, just for you to take these monstery-bits with you. Let's start with the easiest bit first, Doodle Monsters!

Any L.A. local folks out there? Did you ever watch Popeye Cartoons early on Sunday Morning. Do you remember Tom Hatten, the host? He would do this thing where he would open up your mail in which you mailed him a blob or doodle of some sort and he would then turn it into something artful! Doodle Monsters are a little bit of the same idea only instead of artful we're going for MONSTERS!

what you need:
*paper, paper, paper. drawing paper, newspaper, origami paper you name it.
*pencils, pens, crayons, markers. It all up to you and may depend on your paper choices.
*scissors
*hole punches, glue stick, glue. paint. all optional.scrumdillydo it!

Set your paper out and doodle yourself up a shape. You can warm up with lumpy circles or ovals but get a little wacky and create some dazzling doodle shape. Add loops, swirls and long jagged tunnels. Simply doodle.Once done, cut it out and add glue to another piece of paper and then cut that out. You can do it one more time if ya like or not, it's all up to you. I glued my doodle monster to a page from the phonebook and then some black paper. Now, if you are doing this with a friend or family member, trade doodles. Use whatever you pulled on hand to turn that doodle into a monster of sorts! Marker will work just as well as any collage cits. Add an eye or a zillion eyes. Give it a mouth or two or three. Add arms and legs. Add spots, dots, zigs or zags. It is all up to you as to how that doodle becomes a monster! Back your monsters with a stick of some sort and have a duel between the doodle monsters and the cauliflower monsters. Alls fair in puppet play and monsters! OT, you can punch a hole at the top and loop some invisible fishing line through it and you have a monster dangler to protect you and your Halloween loot from your greedy older sibling. Make a whole fleet to hang and you are good until next October.

Once you feel like a professional doodle monster maker, we can move on to turning your doodle monsters into bean bag monsters! Coming soon!