Category Archives: all ages

Building a Writing Center

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Towards the end of the summer, I ordered Playful Learning. While I’ve gone through and marked numerous pages with sticky notes, this was my first goal: to set up a little writing center. We have loads of materials in our art area, and the kids can get to lots of them on their own, but I wanted one place that held a variety of paper all in one spot. I loved the hanging thing that’s pictured for the writing center at the beginning of the book, but the book didn’t seem to say where it came from. I Googled for a while and eventually found it–The Container Store! We don’t have one near to us, so I had to order that too. But look!

It’s a canvas magazine holder, and a perfect solution for storing paper vertically, something I’d been trying to figure out since we put together our art/craft area. The table takes up most of the space, so anything that allows me to use the walls is great. From top to bottom, I have card stock of various colors, plain copy paper, lined writing paper (it’s that thin brownish stuff, so I put a piece of card stock in front to help prevent flopping), some letter paper printed out from the Playful Learning website, some alphabet stickers, envelopes and index cards, and a bunch of blank books, waiting to be filled with stories. Most of these I made using plain paper, but some I alternated sheets of lined paper with the plain*. I added some pencils (nobody can seem to find one when they need one) and some colored pens. The kids can reach other supplies–colored pencils, crayons, scissors, hole punches, paint–on their own, and they’re stored in other areas.

The sheet on the right is this one, found via Pinterest. I plan to add and/or rotate what hangs there. At the same time I ordered Playful Learning, Rip The Page! fell into my cart, and I’m thinking the best way to use it may be to simply leave provocations up near the writing center. I’m going to have to wait and see if writing is something the kids want to do all together, like we often do with art experiences, or if it’s a more solitary activity. (Can you tell, for me it feels better to write on the sly and then, maybe, let it see some light?)

I’m not quite done here–I’d like some better alphabet stickers, for instance, and some shape stickers for my youngest. (Any source suggestions? I’m not finding any locally.) I also want some lined paper more suitable for my nine-year-old. I hope it evolves through use, that it shapes itself according to what the kids need. My oldest, especially, seems excited about it.

I’ll keep you posted!

*To make simple blank books: Fold copy paper in half for the inside and card stock in half for the outside. Staple close to the edge (middle, top, and bottom). Cover the staples with duct tape. I had some sheets of it, so I just cut off strips that were four squares wide (there’s a grid on the back) and used that.

Scented Play Dough

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The idea of adding scent to play dough isn’t new; I’ve seen it scented with peppermint more than once. N’s teacher let me know on Sunday that he’d need some play dough for a class activity on Wednesday–we keep him on a gluten-free diet, and even though he’s not eating the play dough, there’s something about having him play with a ball of wheat that seems not-so-smart. He only needed a small amount each of three colors, but of course it’s made in batches (I used this recipe). I also wanted to double the recipe so G could play with some at home and there was extra to keep on hand in school for next time.

I placed all the ingredients for a double recipe in one pan. When it had warmed and mixed to reach the consistency of pancake batter, I added a couple drops of lavender oil–such a calming, soothing scent. Then I ladled some of the batter into two more pans, and then I added the food coloring, one color per pan. The beautiful (and beautifully scented!) result is in the picture above.

Field Trip: Explore This Museum!

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Yesterday we all visited the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum of Art for a family open house. Various activities were going on throughout the afternoon. When we arrived, a Tours for Tots group was just gathering. G noticed the assemblage of people her size and went to join them, so her dad went on the half-hour tour with her, and the boys and I headed to the classroom (which is right off a gallery, not isolated from the exhibits) to see what the day’s activity was all about.

Immediately upon seeing those books, I thought of How To Be An Explorer of The World by Keri Smith. (My husband did, too; we own a copy.) But this booklet was written specifically with the Museum’s current exhibit, Made in the UK, in mind. So the various explorations are keyed into specific works of art, asking us (of course I took one too!) to look closely at, for example, the Roger Hiorns sculpture (number 6 on this PDF image sheet). “What do you notice about the piece?”

Says N, age 7: It has pompoms. It is made up of sticks.

Says V, age 9: It is three metal poles. The blue is pom-poms, but far away it looks like flowers or torn-apart balls. The pom-poms look like they are hanging off strings. Crystals on pom-poms.

Says me: Looks like rock candy. Crystals. Rusty in spots. Coral. Organic. Upside down. Blue, green. Grown on wood? Looks grown, not made.

Turns out the artist dipped dried thistles in a solution that grows crystals, then attached the thistles onto the poles. (I found this page that explains more. It’s similar to what we read at RISD, but I wasn’t taking notes then!) I would say we were pretty observant in our investigation!

The green postcard in the photo above has tips for closer looking on the back.

It starts with “Look: What do you notice? Draw: Find a line within the artwork, trace it in the air with your finger. Draw: Draw that same line on your paper.” And it goes on from there. We didn’t have time to use the postcard today, but I think it’s fabulous.

I also think the construction of this book is fabulous. The cover is cardstock, a piece a bit longer than the page pieces, so that the back cover can be folded over a bit and stapled, forming a flap to tuck the front cover into. The pages are held in with a rubber band, and when we were finished exploring the exhibit, we went back to the classroom, where tables were set up with pieces of paper and tape so that kids could add more pages to their booklets. V added pages, plus a pocket.

(We love pockets in our notebooks.) The simple construction means this would be easy to do at home–in fact, think of the possibilities of creating one of these yourself, catered to your own surroundings. It doesn’t have to be for works of art in a museum. You could make an Exploration Book for a walk in the park or your neighborhood, with activities to help you and your children stop and observe (I definitely recommend the Keri Smith book for inspiration). Making some of these is now on my (long) list of Ideas to Try.

N was happy to find a selection of colored pencils back in the classroom, because he’d been a little frustrated about drawing what he saw in the gallery, using only a regular pencil. He was anxious to add some color.

He then went on to make a tape sculpture and several 2-dimensional tape drawings and then a drawing on vellum with pastels, because vellum is so cool (I think so too).

G, of course, knew exactly what to do with all that colored tape.

The colored tape we have is all the same width, and how exciting to have a variety of lines to work with! We might need to expand our supplies.

RISD is making a great effort to make families feel welcome and engaged in the museum. It can be a bit of a challenge for us to get there–it’s about 45 minutes each way, and parking is always tough in the city–but it’s well worth the effort. I’m still trying to figure out a way to get G to more Tours for Tots, because they end at about the same time I need to be picking up my big kids from school, but N and I are planning on taking a class together, which I think will be fun for both of us.

What sort of Explorer book might you create? Does your local art museum support families? If so, how? (And if not, could you suggest some ideas?!)

Summer Field Trips

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It wasn’t my plan to let three weeks go by without posting; my kids and I have been enjoying the last month of summer, spending lots of time outdoors, often at the beach. Today is the last day of summer vacation (a bonus day, thanks to Hurricane Irene), so I thought I’d post a few pictures from arts-related excursions over the summer that I didn’t post about.

Above and below are photos taken at the Firefly Projects exhibit by China Blue at the Newport Art Museum.

My two younger children and I visited in July. We all liked this exhibit quite a bit; you can read more about it in the Museum’s summer newsletter (scroll down a bit here).

That’s a photo of a tattoo flash book on display at Mystic Seaport in their exhibit (which closes soon) Skin and Bones: Tattoos in the Life of the American Sailor. All three kids and I spent a great day at the Seaport (we’re members, and I highly recommend the place), and we agreed that tattoo artists deserve the title “artist.” N especially loves dragons and asked that I photograph the above.

We also visited the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art over the summer. The studio project at the time was painting portraits. Look closely; you can see the other side of G’s face in the mirror she is peering into.

I’m not sure how often I’ll be posting as we (reluctantly) transition back into the school routine. I have some decisions to make about all sorts of things.

Rainy Day Open Studio

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We’ve had very few rainy days this summer. We’ve spent our time at the beach and exploring tidepools; riding bikes and scooters; finding critters in the yard and digging holes. We’ve been picnicking at the playground and visiting local museums. In other words, we are enjoying the outside while we can. Sunday, though, it poured. It was so unfamiliar and even welcome, and I pulled some rainy-day ideas out of my virtual hat. I gave the kids some choices, and as per usual, they all chose different things, so I’ll actually be splitting this into two posts.

V decided to start with artist trading cards, and that’s where he ended–he never moved on. ATCs can be intricate and involved, but I decided not to show V examples. I told him they were the same size as baseball cards and he could draw whatever he wanted on them. (He was using the Bristol board, so dry media only.) He chose to make a collection of super-hero symbols. He’s not done yet.

Here’s a close-up of a few of them.

He started with the ones he knows best, but eventually books, posters, and even the Internet were consulted.

N decided to start with the sheet I offered on how to draw a pirate ship, from Zenobia Southcombe‘s site. Here is his drawing, complete with “Blow the man down!”

When G finished her first project (the subject of the next post), she wanted to draw a pirate ship too. So I handed her the instruction sheet and some drawing paper, and she got to work.

Do you see that yellow circle in the top left-hand corner? She carefully drew a circle and colored it yellow, to be the moon. (Her brother’s drawing has a moon, too.) I didn’t even know she could draw a circle that well. She’s not even three. I can’t help it; I’m impressed.

When N finished his drawing, he asked to do the third item I’d mentioned, creating a color wheel using these instructions at That Artist Woman. I thought this would make a good tool to have around the studio, and in the future I think we’ll each make analogous and complementary paintings. Our color wheel–we did it together–is not as neat and tidy as Gail’s, and it’s also not in a sketchbook but just floating loose.

Still, it will come in handy, and we enjoyed mixing the colors. (We always enjoy mixing colors around here!)

The rain stopped in time for the kids to have a damp water fight in the yard with their dad. I have more rainy-day ideas, should we need them, but we’re happy to be outside as much as we can.

**

How has your weather been? (If you’re in the northern hemisphere) are you making the most of the outdoors while you can?

Scratch Foam-Printed T-Shirt

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Materials: T-shirt, scratch foam, textile paint (or liquid acrylics); brayer or foam paint brush

After we made prints with scratch foam, I had the idea in the back of my head that it would be cool to make t-shirts with that method. When the boys began talking about their ideas for shirts, though, it became clear that their ideas were better suited to a different technique–so I’ll talk about their shirts in the next post. Meanwhile, G wanted an orange butterfly on a yellow shirt. On the one hand, I always, always want my kids to reach for their vision themselves–if they’re making the t-shirt, then they should make the t-shirt. On the other hand, I didn’t want G to be disappointed if she didn’t end up with a butterfly.

After thinking it over, I asked her what she thought about this: I could cut a butterfly shape out of scratch foam, and she could draw on the inside to add the decorations. She agreed to that, so after consulting her on how big the butterfly should be, we got to work.

My camera had a hard time figuring out what to focus on, with that white butterfly against the white table! But here, G is scratching into the cut-out foam butterfly. She started with a bone folder and a wooden tool for sculpting clay. Then we went hunting around the house and came back with a comb and a boomerang. She also tried a toothpick. She worked on the foam for quite a while–close to a half hour, maybe?–making her marks.

Then we set the butterfly aside and mixed the paint. We used Speedball textile paint, but liquid acrylics would work as well (and don’t require heat setting with the iron). Our set has red, yellow, blue, green, black, and white–but no orange. So we mixed some.

Mixing paint colors is just a delight, isn’t it? “Orange!” exclaimed G. We adjusted until she was happy with the color.

I protected the inside of the shirt with some freezer paper–I just placed it inside, no need to iron it on–so that the paint didn’t bleed to the back of the shirt. Then we rolled the brayer and inked the plate. Except I’ve been having trouble with both my brayers this week–they roll just fine on some surfaces but not others, and the combination of the textile ink and the foam wasn’t working too well. (Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be?) So the paint more smeared than anything, and G used a foam paintbrush to even it out–so you can see some brush marks in the finished print (as always, you can click to embiggen the photos a bit).

I don’t have pictures of the actual printing, because I was helping. You don’t want the paint to be too thick, because then it will smoosh. Pick up the plate, place it paint-side down on the shirt, and gently but firmly smooth down the back. I placed the plate, but G helped with the pressing. “I want to see what happened,” she said. When it comes to printmaking, the reveal is always so much fun.

An orange butterfly on a yellow shirt–a collaboration that quite pleased the not-quite-three-year-old.

This project is easy–just remember that anytime you’re painting or printing on textiles, the paint won’t wash out of the clothes you’re wearing, either. I keep wet wipes handy, too, since any paint on fingers will transfer to the shirt you’re making. I haven’t quite made up my mind, but I think plain old liquid acrylics might be even better for this kind of printing on shirts (that’s what we’ve used in the past for making fish prints on shirts–with fish replicas). So don’t feel like you need special supplies–a plain t-shirt, some scratch foam (or a new Styrofoam meat or vegetable tray), a 59-cent bottle of paint and a foam paintbrush, and you’re ready to create some wearable art!

Making Prints While The Sun Shines: T-Shirts

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As always, click to embiggen all photos!

Materials: White t-shirts (the kids’ shirts are white undershirts–they’re great for dyeing); liquid acrylics; sponge brushes; leaves or other objects of your choice; sunny (but not windy) day; optional but helpful: a piece of Plexiglas to place inside the shirt, unless you don’t mind the paint seeping through to the back

I read lots of art/craft blogs, because the Internet is filled with great ideas, and often I find ideas on non-kid blogs that I can use with my children. One such ideas is sun-printing on fabric, which I first saw on Mary and Patch. I was surprised to see that it didn’t require any special sun-reactive paint, so I decided we’d give it a try. We actually gave it two tries, and as I go I’ll share what we learned during our first, semi-successful attempt.

First, I wanted something firm under the shirts, so I slipped some Plexiglas into mine and my oldest son’s shirt, a piece of glass into my younger son’s, and the box part of a box frame into my toddler’s. We learned the first time that using cardboard will leave the texture of the cardboard on the shirt, so either put something smooth in there (like a file folder, if you don’t have Plexiglas) or accept that the paint will soak through–which isn’t a bad look either.

Next, spray the shirt with water to dampen it. This photo is from our first try; the second go-round we just moved the entire operation to the deck. I have one of our watercolor painting boards inside the shirt, which is another option.

I watered down our liquid acrylics, but I wasn’t exact about it. Liquid acrylics are the paints that you can find in craft stores in the little bottles, about $1 per bottle (for the big size!). They come in all sorts of colors, they don’t wash out, and we’ve used them successfully for printing and painting on shirts for years. So, squirt some paint into a jar, add some water, mix it up, and cover your shirt. We learned that if you want to mix colors, do it around the edges–if you overlap colors where you try to make the print, the print sort of gets lost.

Paint quickly! Spray some more if you have to, because you don’t want the paint to dry yet. Place your leaves and put the whole thing in the sun.

I sprayed our leaves with a bit more water to hold them in place, and then I thought later that we could have weighted them with small rocks. We learned it’s best to use full leaves. Ferns make really pretty sun paper prints, but they didn’t work so well on the shirts. Our shirts dried in an hour or less.

V’s shirt, which was mostly blue, didn’t show the prints much, so we decided to try overprinting. We could see some prints in the center, so he left those alone and added green around the edges. He followed the same procedure: he sprayed with water, painted, and then lay down the leaves.

It worked! Overprinting was successful:

Once the shirts were dry, I rinsed them out and washed and dried them like I would any laundry, in cold water. I’d do this first wash with something you don’t care about too much (like towels), but when I rinsed, the paint stayed put. From this point on I’ll wash them with the regular laundry with no worries.

N’s shirt came out really well. His was the only shirt from our first try that came out really well, too. His is on the left, and G’s is on the right. You can see her prints in person, but faintly. For some reason, blue paint didn’t make the best prints.

Although mine was blue, and it worked okay. One leaf blew over halfway through, so I’ve got a mutant leaf print on the lower left there!

For our first attempt, we used textile ink–specifically, Speedball screen printing inks, because we plan to print on t-shirts at some point too, so I bought some. It really didn’t work for this project. I’m not sure why I was seduced by the special textile paint when we’ve been using liquid acrylics for painting shirts for years and liquid acrylics don’t require me to heat set the shirt by ironing 3-5 minutes per side times four shirts–that’s a lot of ironing on a hot day!

Luckily, applying the paint with a brush created a sort of tie-dye effect, so even though the sun-printing didn’t work the first time, as V said, “It’s a nice red and blue shirt, anyway.” And N, especially, was interested in what we were figuring out as we went through the process–what colors worked best, what sort of leaves, what to try next. Because we generally approach art in a spirit of discovery, the kids weren’t terribly disappointed that it didn’t work the first time. We simply tried again, refining our process a bit until we got it right!

Making Prints While The Sun Shines: Paper

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Materials: Sun print paper, various items, Plexiglas (optional)

The other day, G and I experimented with the sun print paper that recently arrived. (I couldn’t find it locally, so I ended up ordering some.)

Buttons, maple leaves, fern

It’s really simple to use, and reminds me of my first darkroom assignment, aimed at getting us used to using the enlarger: we scattered various items across some photographic paper, exposed it in the darkroom, and then developed it. This works the same way. Inside, we arranged some items on the paper, blue side up. Because our items were flat, I sandwiched the paper between two pieces of Plexiglas before bringing it all outside. The sun was so strong that the paper paled within a minute or so, and then we dunked it in water to stop the reaction and “develop” it.

(I found the Plexiglas in a box of old darkroom supplies when I went looking for the piece of glass I used to use for contact sheets. I thought the glass would be handy for this, and ended up finding the four sheets of Plexiglas I used to use to cover the trays of chemicals. I cleaned them all off and have been finding uses for them ever since!)

Today, we got the boys involved. These are N’s papers:

Pattern blocks, Lego pieces, Hero Factory pieces

These are mine (the skate egg cases) and G’s:

Play pasta, pattern blocks, mermaid's purses (skate egg cases)

These are V’s and more of G’s:

Look closely--Lego figures!

The Plexiglas came in really handy–we arranged our items on the paper, which was on the Plexiglas, in the hallway inside, which, if all the doors are closed, doesn’t get much natural light. Then I was able to carry the Plexiglas outside without disturbing anything. We did this in the morning, and you might be able to see that shadows were cast. That made for some interesting prints, because the shadows also show up, but lighter. (Click to embiggen the photos a bit.)

V's prints on left; N's on right

N really liked how the sun shone through his Hero Factory pieces a bit, so those images weren’t as sharp. I love the Lego figure print on the bottom left.

G's (mostly) & mine

G was so deliberate in placing the pieces. The boys were, too, but G really took quite a while in arranging her blocks, pasta, and buttons. We like how she put one of N’s Hero Factory pieces half off the paper in the top left print up above there.

Remember my mermaid’s purse print? I didn’t realize I had two pieces of paper stuck together. (Note: Make sure your hands are completely dry from rinsing the last batch before you grab more paper!) We ended up with a ghost print, as N identified it–and although the term “ghost print” comes from monotype printing I’d say he used it correctly here:

Pretty cool and completely unexpected result! And also–phew, the sun beats on our deck pretty strongly in July!

As you might be able to tell by the title, we experimented with other forms of sun printing as well…more to come, as long as the sun keeps shining!

Hot Rocks

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Our tray of cooling hot rocks

(I’ve seen this on the web here and there, but I first saw it in the fabulous book Summer Crafts by Marjorie Galen, which I bought in a used bookstore two years ago. The book was published in 2005, and Galen says as far as she knows, her friend Elizabeth’s family invented hot rocks.)

Materials: Rocks–larger and flatter are easier; peeled crayons; oven; nearby bucket of cold water (my plan-ahead self decided this was necessary, in case anyone accidentally touched the rocks)

Following the directions in the book, I preheated the oven to 350, lined a cookie sheet with tin foil, and set up my rocks (I did 8 this first time, two for each of us). Meanwhile, the kids began to peel some of our older crayons–I gather this is so as they melt against the rock, you’re not running up against the paper. Once the oven was hot, I baked the rocks for 15 minutes while we continued to peel crayons. When the rocks were almost done, I sent the kids outside with the crayons–I’d already brought a bucket of water to the patch of shaded driveway–and I met them with the tray of hot rocks. (Obviously, you want to place the rocks on a surface that won’t get burned.)

The rocks are hot. I made sure all my kids understood that they’d get burned if they touched them. G is two, and she did fine, but really, use your judgment with your own children.

I had the kids sit down, with the crayons in the middle, and using my oven mitt, I placed a rock in front of each of them. Then the magic begins.

“It’s melting!”

“This is so cool!”

“This is so cool!!!”

I agree. I colored two rocks too, and it is so cool. And you can just keep adding wax and layering. Our rocks didn’t lose their heat before the kids were done experimenting.

The bucket of water did get a few uses, when fingers accidentally (or not so accidentally) bumped (do you see that inquisitive finger in the photo above?), but nobody got seriously hurt. It was definitely handy having the water there, though.

Look at those gorgeous rocks!

Peek-a-boo Paintings

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Materials: Drawing and/or painting materials of your choice; drawing or watercolor paper, depending; acetate the same size as your paper (we used this); tape; paint for the acetate–this can’t be too watery–we found liquid acrylic and gouache worked well, tempera not so much

The first day of summer vacation dawned grey and misty, giving us the perfect opportunity to get into the studio after breakfast and add one more activity to the Eric Carle birthday celebration. Several folks have created beautiful painted tissue paper collages. We painted tissue paper many months ago, but my boys really didn’t want to cut their creations. We are acquiring a nice pile of textured, painted, and printed papers for collaging with some day, but meanwhile, I knew our Eric Carle-inspired activities would go in another direction. Earlier this week we were inspired by Dragons, Dragons, and today we looked to Mr. Seahorse.

Mr. Seahorse is another of our favorites. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it follows a seahorse as he interacts with other underwater species in which the males help care for the offspring. But what we really like about it is that some of the pages are transparent, so you’ll have a fish that’s hiding, and then you turn the clear page and see him in full.

From Eric Carle's Mr. Seahorse

I was reading it to N earlier this week and I thought, Hey, we could do that! As I explained the idea to the boys, though, I realized it’s a rather complex idea. You need to think about your artwork in layers–what will be underneath? what will be on top? It’s a different way of looking at it, to separate the full idea into parts. But the boys were ready to try.

We knew the top picture, on the acetate, would be painted, but we had to think about how to do the underneath. V wanted to do watercolor resist, but I thought oil pastels would smear against the acetate, so we used good old-fashioned crayons.

V decided to draw fish, and N wanted to draw a monkey–he used some of our story books as a reference.

After we worked with crayons, it was time to add liquid watercolors.

Then we let the bottom layer dry. Next, I placed a sheet of acetate on top of the first picture and used a couple pieces of clear tape to hinge it on whatever side the kids chose. This way, we could paint our covering picture while it was lined up with the bottom image–much easier that way.

Here, V is checking on his work in progress. He chose to use gouache paints on the acetate.

G joined us too, of course. She loves to paint. N, G, and I used liquid acrylic.

So as not to completely overload the post with photos, I put all our finished-piece photos together–click to embiggen. (And even though I didn’t use flash, the ceiling lights are bouncing off the acetate–so sorry, but it was wet outside!) From left to right, we have V’s ocean scene (seaweed for the top layer), N’s forest scene (that’s a big leaf), G’s, um, lots-of-paint, and my big flower.

And now the peek-a-boo: V’s fish, N’s monkey, my bumblebee, and G’s fish.

I completely loved this project, and I’m not sure why we didn’t think of it sooner, except maybe because we haven’t had the acetate in the house all that long. It was so much fun to do, and the results are pretty fun, too.

Check out more Eric Carle-inspired activities at the link below!

(Also included in the Read, Explore, Learn link up.)