Dream Catchers

For Good Dreams

"The night air is filled with dreams. Good dreams are clear and know the way to the dreamer, descending through the feathers. The slightest movement of the feathers indicated the passage of yet another beautiful dream. Bad dreams, however, are confused and confusing. They cannot find their way through the web and are trapped there until the sun rises and evaporates them like the morning dew". - http://www.dream-catchers.org/what-is-a-dream-catcher/

Start off with plastic lids - cut out the centre with an exacto knife and use the remaining rim

Gather up some string/yarn, beads, feathers and other trinkets

Wrap the lid ring with yarn/string - the variations are endless! 

We doubled the yarn to make this process a little quicker.  

Simply tie off and tuck the ends in under the wrapped yarn. 

Next, wrap another colour yarn/string around the outer edges of the ring to create a web in the middle of it.  Be careful not to pull this too taunt or the ring will warp.

Tie on yarn/string of different lengths to hang from the bottom of the circle and add beads and feather to them.  Tie on some charms or keys or bells or twigs - whatever you can find. 

Busy hands and busy minds, this group was utterly focused!

Hang above your bed and enjoy good dreams!

Birds and Nests Collage with Grade 1

A Fun Afternoon with Mrs. Clayton's Grade 1 Class

Visiting a Grade 1 class is always a delight!  Busy hands and busy minds going in all directions.  Mrs. Clayton's Grade 1 students at Royston Elementary were enthusiastic to say the least.  

We began by painting a blue sky background on heavy paper and while that was drying we cut out some of our collage materials.  Birds were from bright coloured paper.  For wings and tail feathers we used patterned papers and other miscellaneous material (fabric will work too). The branches and nests were cut from paper bags.  Newspaper was cut up to use for nest material along with straw and grass pieces and wool bits.  I even had some old sheet music we used to add a song to the composition.  And we used buttons for the eyes.  

Once the paint was dry the glue sticks sprung into action.

This was a super fun project!  I knew it would be when I saw how fascinated these students were with all the different materials. The process was much like building and they took to it quite naturally.

These works are fantastic in my books.  Seeing them just makes me feel joyful.  In fact as I'm writing this I can hear the morning birds outside chirping and it made me realize how  well these young artists captured their winsome spirit but also gave these birds some personality. 

Original idea and credits to:

http://www.artwithmre.com/2013/02/mixed-media-bird-nests-1st-grade.html

Scratch Paintings (Sgraffito)

Here's a fun project for a rainy day.  It's raining today in fact!  

It's all about scratching and kids love to scratch off paint.  All you need is paper, crayons, paint and a tool for scratching - we used the pointy end of a bamboo skewer and also the blunt flat end in some areas.  Try out different things, a fork, the end of a spoon, toothpicks, sticks.  You don't want to use something so sharp that it tears through the paper.  I find watercolour paper works well for this project. 

Colour the page entirely with crayon.  You can decide on a colour scheme or just use one colour or even random colours, that's up to you. Next paint over the entire page with black tempera paint, it scratches off the best.  Once it is dry you can start your sgraffito. 

1. "Sgraffito - a form of decoration made by scratching through a surface to reveal a lower layer of a contrasting colour." - google

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

Tissue Paper Flowers

Springtime/Summertime Flower making

This is a great activity for large groups and all ages.  

I remember making these flowers out of kleenex tissue for weddings back in the day.  Friends would get together and have flower making sessions and then decorate the bride and grooms car and other cars in the wedding party.  Tissue paper (from the dollar store) is stronger, will last longer and comes in so many gorgeous colours. 

Start with 8-10 squares of tissue paper stacked on top of each other.  The size of the squares depends on the size of flower you want.  For larger flowers use more tissue layers.  These squares are about 6 inches. 

Next, fold back and forth into an accordion 

  

Tie in the centre with a pipe cleaner (or string)

You can cut the ends on an angle if you want a more ruffled flower with fancy edges

Now the fun part

Separate the layers by pulling them towards the centre, one by one, until they are all pulled inward

And there you have it! Fast and fun!

Repeat

Equally lovely with a single colour or multiple colours