Tag Archives: art

Art Projects for Clarendon School

04 Mar 2012


(click to see larger)
First grade art project: Geometric color decoupage (Mod Podge), with botanical themed stencil overlay.
Framed, with plastic surface (not glass) -Ikea.
Materials used: Color-Aid papers, Mod podge, heavy weight art paper. Roughly 11″ x 15″

I volunteered for the art project, which will be for sale to the parents at this year’s auction fundraiser. Every year they have one big group project, and then one project for 22 individual items. Last year I helped with a quilt. This year I thought I would keep it manageable and do framed works of paper art. For the record, 22 of anything is a lot. :)

My inspiration hit when I saw this art project on Pinterest. I liked the multi-layered effect:

Here are photos from throughout the art project.

I brought the materials to art class, and the kids went to work. To save money, I bought the cheapest frames I could find, and we used the backing cardboard from the frame as the “canvas”.


I pre-cut some colorful scraps of Color-aid paper that I had left over from a college design class. I’d kept them all this time because whey were so nice and vibrant. They were just waiting for the right project.


It’s okay if the Mod Podge gets all over – that’s the way decoupage works. You want the paper wet with it. It dries clear and hard.


The kids could absolutely have cut up their own paper, but I wanted to control the look of things: I wanted the geometric shapes to be uniform. Also, I had limited paper – barely enough as it turns out.
For the multi-color look, I made sure each kid had at least one scrap of each color. I picked out the brightest, saturated colors – nothing too dark, too light, brown, etc. At the last minute I threw in some polka dot origami paper for fun.


Here you can see the texture of the dried collage. I went over them again with another coat, to seal it all up. Two or three coats looks better that one.


I filled in the last empty spaces for the kids. I suppose it might have been cheating a little, but for the 1st grade age level, I think they did great and got to have fun.


So this is completion of part one (only half are shown here!). These are pretty cool “as-is”..


Next, (on a different day), I had the kids draw pictures on some nice quality paper.
Originally, I was going to use paint, the way they did in my inspiration project, but paper turned out to have the same stencil effect, without the mess.


We talked about drawing things from Nature, and focusing on skinny, curvaceous shapes (because it would look best in our stencil concept).


I cut out the plants/”botanicals” with an x-acto knife.


Some of the shapes I cut out were so cute.


When I layered the paper over the collage, the desired effect was achieved.


After a last layer of Mod Podge over the collage boards, I gently set the papers on top, and they stuck well enough.


Framed. (click to see larger)


Ready for Sale!

Kitchen Sink

13 Mar 2011

Photos from here and there… (click to enlarge)


We need to refinish the floors. Soon!


Stripes.


Still lovin’ the bathtime.


Happy to play with Chief


Returning to the scene of the crime. And not even acting guilty about it!


Oscar with his art teacher Ellen Weinstein. (love her!)


This hummingbird was so bent out of shape about the hawk!
The hawk refused to get his feathers ruffled.


Babylove.

Van Gogh’s Bedroom

23 Feb 2011

Oscar’s kindergarten class studied Vincent Van Gogh last fall.
This little work of art came home at least two months ago, in the backpack, but I am just posting it now. I don’t know how Ellen (the art teacher) had the students go about painting the rooms. I can make an educated guess that they weren’t supposed to copy the room outright. I’ll try and ask her about the process tomorrow.

And, just in case you want to reference the real thing:

The Bedroom (French: La Chambre à coucher)

Art Class – Thursday Afternoons

01 Oct 2010

Even though I promised myself I would not enroll Oscar in any extra classes this fall, I had to sign up for this. The art class is directly after school, in the art bungalow, with his regular school art teacher. Ms. Ruth drops him off on her way to ‘Pick Up’ in the courtyard. I come at 4:30 to get him. Easy! So many kids were signed up for Tues. and Wed. class that the art teacher, Ms. Ellen Weinstein, offered a Thursday class. We, obviously, had no problem switching. So Oscar is one of only 12 kids in the class. It was total harmony when Lucy and I showed up today. Here’s what he made: