Bubble Wrap Printing

What a fun group of little print makers we had today at the OKCMOA. The average age today was 2 years old. They were excellent little students. I had our workstations set up with bubble wrap taped on top of newspaper with brayers and plexi ready to go.



First we used a brayer to cover our bubble wrap with our first color, yellow. We rolled, rolled, rolled. Then we pressed, pressed, pressed our paper on top. We peeled it away to reveal our first layer of paint. We made 3 prints today so we would have artwork to share.



I gave each child a bubble wrap shape with a new color and they brushed that new color of paint on and used it as a stamp. We used circles, squares, rectangles and triangles...working on that shape recognition! For each shape I introduced a new paint color along with a clean brush. And talking about paint, I will tell you I like these paints. They are Color Splash!
I find the color to be more vibrant than other brands. I am sure most of you have a brand you prefer...tell me about it in the comment section! While our pieces dried we read a book...The House in the Night.I picked this book up at my sons Scholastic book fair last month. It's a beautiful book. I thought it would relate well with the Peters exhibit and discussing light. It's a big hit at our house and the children enjoyed it this morning. We visited the Peters exhibit and returned to the classroom to sign our pieces.

Here is what you need:
-bubble wrap
-paint
-brayer or just foam brushes
-drawing paper
-tape
-newspaper (makes cleanup much easier!)

Here are a few more!

Mask Making

Mardi Gras has come and gone but I have been so busy I didn't have time to share them earlier. We made masks at the Museum on Fat Tuesday. Sticking with Peters and using "found objects" we colored and covered our masks with all sorts of "found" embellishments. Everyone had this basic work station then used a bowl to gather items from the assembly line of cut foam, sequins, beads, pipe cleaners and feathers.



First we talked about Mardi Gras and read a fun book called The Jazzy Alphabet. I also had other books on hand for everyone to look at. We visited the Peters exhibit and returned to the classroom to make our masks.





I cut paper plates in half to begin. I had parents cut eyeholes and then the kids began to color their masks. After they finished coloring they used glue and embellishments to decorate their masks. We used a wooden craft stick to finish-I actually hot glued the stick when they were finished so they didn't have to wait for school glue to dry-it's also a strong hold and the masks were heavy. You could make these for any occasion. We sure had fun!

You will need:
-paper plate
-papers to cut and glue
-markers
-scissors
-glue
-embellishments (foam, sequins, feathers, beads...)
-craft stick
-hot glue for ADULT use only

Here are a few!

Printing Perfection

What a printing good time we had at the OKCMOA yesterday. I took several printmaking courses in college and although serigraphy was my favorite, this is much easier!

I washed the brayers from my earlier toddler class and had them ready for a fun printmaking afternoon at Drop in Art. It was a busy day with over 50 people coming through. At one point I was so busy I couldn't stop to make a tally! That is GOOD thing! As people came in the door I got them set up with foam and a pencil. I explained that we would draw our design on the foam pressing firmly with our pencil.

I wrote a few reminders on the board, the biggest one being being that you think in REVERSE! This is most important with any writing. They got busy right away- some making Valentines, others making whatever they wanted to draw.



I had printing stations set up with different colors of water soluable inks, plexi, and brayers. I put this all on a layer of newspaper for easy cleanup. For cost, I squeezed out the ink...I was afraid the little ones would use too much. This worked out fine. We talked about signing our print editions (ex: if we made 5 prints our first print would be 1/5-then 2/5 and so on) and where the title, signature and edition goes. This info goes in the white space below your print. Typically for printmaking, the edition on left, title in middle and signature on right.



Steps:
1. Draw on foam (remember design will print in reverse!)
2. Work ink with brayer on plexi to get a smooth inking surface. I apply a small amount of ink in a horizontal line a little wider than the brayer.
3. Roll ink on foam design
4. Lay paper on foam and PRESS PRESS PRESS! I showed the kids how to rub all over their designs to get full coverage.
5. Carefully peel and VOILA! This part is magical. They really were amazed!
6. Re-ink and go again!

Kids and adults had a blast!

You will need:
-foam
-brayer
-plexiglass-or other smooth surface you can roll ink on
-drawing paper
-ink (can use tempera paints, but I prefer the ink)
-imagination!

Look at some of the incredible prints!

Toddlers Paint Valentines

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope you all are enjoying this day as much as I am. Yesterday was a busy day at the OKCMOA. I started my morning with a great group of eager toddlers. We painted with "found objects."

When coming up with project ideas for my classes we are encouraged to focus on relating our project ideas to something from the permanent collection or our visiting exhibit. I have mentioned that Jason Peters is our awesome exhibit right now. I have had so much fun leading the kids through this and the parents love it too. It's fresh, exciting and I love to watch the faces of our visitors. They enter and mouths drop! Peters uses found objects for his sculptures. For this class we used found objects to paint with.

Sometimes we listen to music. I have a kid playlist that gets us moving, we start with The Imagination Movers, Paint the Day Away. I find all my music on iTunes. We also groove to The Laurie Berkner Band, The Wiggles, Raffi and more.



First my toddlers used a brayer to roll on pink paint. Most of the kids have never used a brayer. They loved to roll paint! We let this first step dry and visited the exhibit. When we returned to the classroom we used a heart sponge to stamp red hearts. (I cut heart shapes from kitchen sponges.) I have learned that sometimes it is easiest to give the kids one color at a time and with my small classes this works great.

Finally we used forks. I tell them this is to stamp, not to eat, and I go around to each child and dip the fork and show them we "stamp, stamp, stamp." They love repetition and making a word connection with motion. (like brush, brush, brush...dot, dot, dot, you get the idea) We used aqua paint for that and the fork creates neat little lines. We had so much fun!

You will need:
-drawing paper
-brayer
-3 paint colors
-sponge cut to shape
-fork

Here are some of our works!

Local

Just saw this in the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum E-News. All credits go to them! If you are local, I hope to see you at the opening Sat. night!

Oklahoma Artists Donate Guitars for Exhibition Giveaway In a fun twist related to its original exhibition, "The Guitar: Art, Artists and Artisans," the National Cowboy Museum has invited three Oklahoma artists to paint guitars that will be given away in a drawing at the end of the exhibition which runs from February 12 through May 9. Visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to enter the prize drawing. The decorated guitars were painted by Matt Goad, Erin L. Oldfield and Clint Stone. Museum visitors will be able to see and hold the guitars and take photos holding them in from of a specially design photo opp background that resembles Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium, home to some of music's most revered performances. Photo: Erin L. Oldfield with her donated and painted guitar.

Valentine Window Art

A beautiful fun project with toddlers this morning at the OKCMOA. First we gathered for circle time and read, What is Valentines Day? It is a short little lift the flap book that the children really enjoyed.
Then I spoke to the children about light. We visited the Jason Peters Exhibit and looked at how he uses light.





In the classroom I had contact paper taped to the table ready for the kids to apply cut tissue paper, printed cellophane and Valentine glitter. We finished by adding another piece of contact paper on top of that and glued a red construction paper frame to the top. To this we added peel and stick foam hearts. These will look beautiful in any window!

You will need
-contact paper
-construction paper for frame
-tape to keep contact paper flat
-scissors
-glue for frame
-cut tissue paper
-sequins and stickers

I found printed cellophane treat bags and cut those up too!

Stuck on You

It is one of my favorite times of the year. I love Valentines Day. I love all holidays really. It's especially fun with my boys. My Mom always made Holidays extra special and I try to do the same. Over the past few days we worked on making Valentines for the boys classes. I love working with felt-it's so easy not having to finish any raw edges. Although I'm not big on sewing, I guess it's in my blood. I know however that if my Mom made these she would blanket stitch around all the edges-which would beautiful if I didn't make 38 of them. :)



These are sweet and easy. We made little heart felt pins and that cards say, "stuck on you". For the girls pins we cut pink, red, purple and white felt. Then we added a two-tone leaf. For the boys we used Navy, light blue and red felt. We used a fabric glue to piece them together and hot glue to attach the 1.5 inch bar pin to the back. After they dried I pinned them to cardstock. They are ready to be handed out! Enjoy!

Clay Vessels

Super day for Drop-in-Art at the OKCMOA yesterday. I had about 60 people come through. That is a good number. I had just enough clay and will do a project like this again as the parents and children really enjoyed it. Drop in art is from 1-4pm at the Museum every Saturday. I see all age ranges so I try to do things that can be done by everyone. I also have to do something that can be completed quickly and ready to take home. We used Crayola Air Dry Clay to create a basic vessel using the pinch pot method.

I had portions under plastic ready for the kids as they came through the door. I had them each work their clay by squeezing it in their hands first. Then I had them make a "crab claw" with their hand. I told them to stick their thumbs in the middle and use their fingers to pinch around the clay ball, forming a bowl shape that could be further manipulated into whatever vessel shape they wanted. I saw a lot of hearts, so I think these will make a great Valentine Present!

The problem with this short time frame is decorating the clay. It can't be painted or anything yet, which I would do if it was a 2 part session. So, I thought it would be fun to use beads, buttons, and other things to decorate our bowls. The kids loved picking out their pieces from an assembly line of items I had out on a table. Little fingers picking up little objects is great for building hand strength and using fine motor. Enjoy!

You will need:
-Air Dry Clay
-Pony Beads, buttons, shape sequins...

Here are some of their creations!