Winter Blues

Don't be blue! I think this is the perfect time to post this project I did with toddlers ages 15-36 months last week at the OKCMOA. I don't know about you my friends but we are snowed in! I am determined not to let cabin fever bring us down and hopefully this little project will chase the blues away for you and your toddler.

We discovered the color blue in the galleries, taking a closer look at painterly abstraction pieces as well as minimalist works by Anne Truitt.

In the classroom we got busy with blue!





We began by rolling dark blue on our papers with brayers. You can buy inexpensive foam rollers at your local craft store. I recommend having some on hand!

Then we used a big feather to add light metallic blue.



We finished with white. I put snowflake foam stickers on floral blocks to create our own stamps.







They turned out quite nice and would look great under a nice white mat and framed to hang in your home all winter long.

You will need:
-Student grade watercolor paper
-Brayers
-Tempera paints: Dark blue, light blue (metallic if you can find it) and white
-Feathers
-Foam stickers for stamping

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

Town of van Snow

This is a project I did with 5th graders as part of an outreach program. Our inspiration was van Gogh. The art kits we handed out included oil pastels and that is what we used to create these post-impressionist renderings.

To get the kids started we talked a bit about van Gogh and his style. We looked at Starry Night and the movement created in the sky. I had each child sketch a horizon line, tree, and path leading to a vanishing point. We sketched movement in the sky and included the crescent moon. From here I encouraged the kids to add whatever winter items they wanted. Some added igloos, snowmen, gingerbread houses and more. I tried to get the kids to use short dashes to fill their pages and to use the white of their paper for snow. They turned out fantastic! I loved the imagination of these incredible kids!







You will need:
-Drawing paper
-Pencil
-Oil Pastels
-van Gogh reference material: Starry Night

Here are some of the great works made!

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