Posts Tagged ‘art’

Cross Mosaic

Friday, March 22nd, 2013

cross-mosaic

This beautiful cross mosaic is easy and fun to make. You will need the following supplies:

  • wooden cross (buy at craft supply store)
  • mosaic tiles
  • black paint
  • school glue
  • paintbrush
  • newspaper

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First you will want to paint the cross black. Place newspaper under your cross to avoid getting paint on your table. Let the paint dry.

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Next you will spill out your tiles. You might want to sort them by color. Get your school glue and make a line with the glue around the edge of the cross. Choose one color to outline the entire edge of the cross. Set the tile into the glue.

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Without waiting for it to dry, make a second row of tiles inside the first row. Decide how you want to arrange your tiles based on how big your cross is. At this point I started gluing down the black cross in the center, since I realized that there was not enough space to put the green tiles all the way around the two arms of the cross. The black line of tiles was more important to me, so I glued that down at the same time I was gluing down the green tiles.

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It took me less than half an hour to glue all the tiles, so the glue was wet enough to push the red tiles over slightly to fit in the green and black tiles. After a few hours, the glue dries clear. The cross mosaic is now finished and ready to hang on the wall.

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Paper Dress

Thursday, March 14th, 2013

paper-dressWhen I was little, my best friend made a paper dress for one of my plays. Of course, it tore when I sat down. But for some reason I have fond memories of making paper clothing. It’s almost like we were large dolls, and we were dressing ourselves with paper outfits that you cut out, bending the tabs back.

My daughter made a beautiful paper dress the other day. I used the same pattern I made for the Bible Costume in Five Minutes, which was made from a bed sheet. This time we used a roll of brown paper, folding it at the top where the shoulders would be. We cut the sleeves into a T-shape.

The kids started drawing and coloring designs on the paper dress, filling it in with colorful markers. They had a great time. When it was finished, we taped the sides and the bottom of the sleeves with clear packing tape. You could use staples instead if you want.

Your daughter will need to put her hands up as you lower the paper dress over her head. Then her arms will stick straight out like a paper doll. But won’t she look cute! You can add embellishments, like fake jewels or other textured art materials. You could even hot glue some large buttons onto the dress.

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Clover Pillow (St Patricks Day Crafts)

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

st-patricks-day-crafts-5st-patricks-day-crafts-6I’ve been writing a series of St Patricks Day crafts to go with a one-day unit study on Saint Patrick. Today’s craft is a simple sewing project that kids of all ages can enjoy. You will need the following supplies:

  • two dark green pieces of felt
  • one light green piece of felt
  • black permanent marker
  • needle
  • green thread
  • fabric scissors
  • pins
  • sheet of white card stock paper

st-patricks-day-crafts-7On the sheet of white card stock paper, draw a clover. Fold the paper in half, and cut the clover out so that both sides are identical. Open the clover leaf. Set down a dark green piece of felt. With a permanent marker, trace the shape onto the felt. Do this with all three pieces of green felt. With the light green felt, draw a line about one centimeter in from the outer clover leaf shape. Now cut the light green felt to the smaller size. Cut the darker felt along the outside lines you drew.

Now you are ready to sew. Pin the light clover leaf to one dark clover leaf. You only need three pins, one for each leaf of the clover. Sew a straight stitch with green thread. Remove the pins as you sew.

st-patricks-day-craft-9Pin the two dark green pieces of felt together. Use a straight stitch to sew around the clover. Leave one part of a clover leaf open to put the stuffing into the pillow. Shred up all the leftover felt by cutting it into small pieces. You will use this to stuff your clover pillow. Gently place the stuffing into the almost-finished pillow. Now sew up the remainder of the pillow. Enjoy your finished clover pillow!

 

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Decorate a Clover Leaf (St Patricks Day Crafts)

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

st-patricks-day-crafts-11 st-patricks-day-crafts-12St Patricks Day crafts are fun for young children. One craft that even toddlers can enjoy is decorating a clover leaf. Dump green craft supplies on top of your table and have your kids design their own green St Patricks Day clovers!

This is how we decorated our spectacular green clover leaf: Grab some green card stock paper and draw a large clover leaf. Cut out the leaf. Get some sparkly green paper (found at craft supply stores), and glue the card stock paper to the glitter paper. Now cut around the clover leaf, leaving about a centimeter of glitter paper showing.

st-patricks-day-crafts-13Have your child glue fake green jewels all around the outer edge of the clover. We just used regular white school glue, which dries clear. Now glue any design you want on the rest of the clover, using green art supplies.

We drew large tear drop shapes with glue, and then my daughter shook green glitter on top of the wet glue. (The green glitter looks like pixie dust.) Just pick up the paper, and all the loose glitter falls off, revealing a beautifully decorated clover leaf!

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Leprechaun Town (St Patricks Day Crafts)

Monday, March 4th, 2013

st-patricks-day-craftsAre you looking for St Patricks Day crafts? You’ve come to the right place! This super cute Leprechaun Town was built by my 9-year-old son in about an hour.

The supplies you will need include green card stock paper in many shades of green, stiff cardboard for the bottom base of the town, tape, glue, scissors, green markers, green pipe cleaners, green fake jewels, and green plastic vines. Or just use whatever green craft supplies you already have in your home. You might also want a hot glue gun if you want green plastic vines to grow all over your town.

Start with the base. We glued grass paper to the cardboard. You can buy scrapbooking paper that looks like grass at any craft store. Or you can grow some real grass in a tray, and then build your town a week later on top of the fresh new grass.

Make your buildings out of green card stock paper. Draw windows and doors on them before you tape them together, since it will be harder to mark on the buildings later. Tape roofs to the buildings. You can tape the roofs on from the inside so that the tape doesn’t show. We used glitter paper for a couple of the roofs.

We made a crazy miniature swing set for the leprechauns to swing on. Cut out two letter A’s out of card stock paper. Make a swing from pipe cleaner, winding it around the top bar. Add a seat to the swing with a small rectangle of card stock paper. No glue was necessary for the swing set. We just stabbed the pipe cleaner through the A’s.

Decorate with fake jewels, and hot glue some plastic vines to the houses. Now your Leprechaun Town is complete.

 

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Snowflake Card

Tuesday, December 18th, 2012

snowflake-cardMy daughter and I made an easy snowflake card. You will need the following materials:

  • black card stock paper
  • white string
  • scissors
  • blunt needle
  • pencil
  • ruler
  • thumb tack

Cut the black card stock paper in half and fold it. Now open up the card, and on the left side, draw a snowflake in pencil with a ruler. Grab the thumb tack and poke a hole at the beginning and end of each line.

pine-tree-cardThread the needle with white string. Tie a knot in the end and begin sewing the card, making sure that the front of the card is producing the design you want. When you are finished, you can use a silver pen to write a message to someone before putting the snowflake card in an envelope.

You can make any design on a card, as long as the lines are straight. You could draw a cool gnarly tree with bare branches in the dark moonlight. My 7-year-old daughter designed a simple pine tree. It only took her about 5 minutes to sew and was quite easy!

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Thankful Cards

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

thankful-cards-1Why not write thankful cards to each member of your family this year, and hand them out at the Thanksgiving table? You can tell each person what you enjoy about them and why you are thankful for having them in your life.

My kids created some thankful cards by gluing pieces of textured paper, scrapbook paper or cloth onto a folded piece of card stock paper. Make sure you have envelopes that fit the card size. For me, it was easy to cut a card stock paper in half, creating two cards with each piece of paper. This fits the bulk envelopes I bought years ago for regular-sized cards. Then we arranged different shapes on the card. Make sure the colors go together—I used autumn-colored paper and cloth samples. We glued them to the card with white school glue.

For family members not coming for Thanksgiving, you can put the cards in the mailbox. Imagine the surprise people will get when they open the card to find how precious they are to you, and why they are important in your life. It reminds me of those old Hallmark greeting card ads on television, you know, the tear-jerker ones that made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Yes, those…

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Autumn Stained Glass Leaves

Friday, November 9th, 2012

 

 

 

Materials:

  • black card stock paper
  • colorful tissue paper
  • scissors
  • tape
  • white school glue
  • gold glitter

To make these autumn stained glass leaves, start with black card stock paper. Draw a maple leaf in pencil. (It is easier if you fold the paper in half so that the sides are symmetrical.) Poke your scissors through the center of the leaf, cutting out the inside.

On the back of the black card stock paper, tape a piece of tissue paper on all four sides. You can choose orange, red, yellow, brown, or green.

Turn the paper right-side up. With white school glue, draw the veins of the leaf. Then outline the leaf on the black edge of the card stock paper.

Shake gold glitter all over the leaf. it should completely cover the glue.

Pick up the paper and allow all the excess glitter to fall off. Your autumn stained glass leaves are finished. Allow them to dry before taping them to a window.

 

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