Snowman Collage

Today I got to share this fun project with children at The Oklahoma City Museum of Art. It is part of the Tiny Tuesdays program that I am so happy to be a part of. We had a great time today creating these personalized silly snowmen. Snowman collage is not a new idea but adding a little tempera paint and a bright color of paper to mat the picture might make this old project new to you.

I did not give any templates or specific instructions on how to decorate the snowmen. We discussed how to make the snowmen unique through things a silly snowman might wear or use. We discussed things to find on a face and items to wear on the body. The children had fun!



First we glued our blue paper on our larger piece of red paper. Then we cut white scrap paper and glued it at the bottom of our blue paper. This grounded our snowmen. After that we cut our snowman shapes and used more scrap paper to decorate our snowmen.


See the top of this snowman? It's a heart and that I love this wonderful personal touch! That is part of the fun not using pre-cut forms.



When the collage was finished we used white tempera paint and q-tips to add snow!





You will need:
-9x12 blue construction paper
-12x15 red construction paper
-scrap papers
-scissors
-glue stick
-q-tips
-white tempera paint

Blue Prints

I had a wonderful day of making art with children of all ages at the OKCMOA's Drop-in Art Program this past weekend. I am honored to be on board for another season of teaching art to children. This is a great little project to learn about collage, printmaking and texture. This technique is actually called collagraph, or printmaking from collage.

We used a piece of black poster board as our printing plate. The kids went through to pick and choose from a variety of different items: yarn, corrugated cardboard, foam stickers, fabric, craft sticks, etc.

Using a glue stick, glue your collage items down. We used glue sticks because they dry fast and we were going right into printing. If you use Elmer's or similar glue, the items will likely slide out of place before having a few hours to dry.







When the collage is finished I had the kids move to a printing area. I had plexi, paint and brayers set up on newspaper to help keep the mess under control.



We just used washable Crayola tempera paint. Blue is the color we used, but you could use whatever! Cover your entire collage with a nice even layer of paint. It might take a few times.





We printed on white paper that is a little larger than the printing plate. (The size I prepared was: 9x6 cut white paper to print on and 8x5 black posterboard for printing plate.) Holding plate upside down, center over paper and press down. Press firmly all over and gently peel apart. This is the first print. You can re-paint and make as many editions of this print as you like! We had so much fun, it really kept the kids busy.

You will need:
-Poster board
-white paper
-tempera paint
-foam roller
-collage items
-glue sticks
-scissors
-plexi or something to roll paint out on

Winter Villages

I can't believe I have not posted since Thanksgiving. I have been so busy and have quite a few projects to share with you this week.

This little collage project is a lot of fun and I know you will enjoy making it. I had a wonderful opportunity this past week that I really enjoyed. Allied Arts brought me on board for a really fun pay it forward type of project. I got to go into a few OKC schools and hand out art sets, talk about being an artist and teach art projects to 1st, 3rd and 5th graders at a few different schools.

They were so excited to have their very own art set to take home and experiment with. These kids made a big impact on me. I saw so much creativity and talent. It was a lot of fun!

So, back to this little winter scene...

This project was done by 1st graders. Each child was given a 12x12 black piece of cardstock and a 12x9 piece of white cardstock. (The white piece has to be a bit smaller so after the pieces are cut, a gap will be left to make the street.) A pile of scrap paper in different colors was set in the middle of the tables. To start I asked the children to hold up their white paper "the long way." This is important because the wavy line that makes the road needed to be cut "the long way." I told the children to make one long cut across their paper. This cut could be wavy or whatever!

After the road was created by cutting and gluing the white paper, the real magic happened. I gave little instruction. I told them to cut shapes to create a winter village. Houses could be squares, rectangles...roofs could be triangles etc. We discussed the elements on a house; doors, windows, chimneys etc.

At this point I set them free and wow. They created some really amazing things!

You will need:

-Black cardstock
-White cardstock
-Colored cardstock
-Glue sticks
-Scissors
-Foam snowflake stickers optional

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving! I had a wonderful time at the OKCMOA's Tiny Tuesday program this month sharing my fun turkey project with children ages 2-5.

Each child began with a piece of orange tag board. Then they went through the assembly line to get all the pieces.







I pre-cut the turkey body, heads and feathers. The idea with the turkey was to match the color of our turkey paper with the color of our embellishments. For example, kids glued yellow pom poms, real feathers, buttons and jewels on the yellow paper feather.

First we glued our turkey bodies on our paper.



Then we glued our feather and legs and began to add our embellishments. Then they could add crayon to really customize their turkeys.

Even my boys got to come with me since they were out of school. They were great helpers!



Everyone had a lot of fun with this color matching turkey adventure! Here are some of our finished pieces. Happy Thanksgiving!

You will need:
-card stock in variety of colors
-scissors
-glue
-feathers, beans, beads, pom poms, jewels, sequins, buttons and more.
-glue stick
-elmer's glue
-crayons