Holiday Art - Never Too Late Or Too Early To Create These Projects!

While the holiday season has just ended, I thought it would be nice to showcase the fall and winter projects that my clever art students created. Not only are they the wonderful results of artistic minds but serve as inspiration for projects you might like to try. 

The fall projects included wreath making using the rich, warm colors of seasonal leaves, acorns, gourds, and found objects. A pretty welcome to guests coming to the front door or when used as a tabletop centerpiece.

Lin's wreath in-progress

 We had big fun making Halloween dioramas out of hollow foam pumpkins!

Alicia and Nicole's fright-tastic pumpkins

Carol's witchy creation

Sandy's pretty pumpkin

Kim's sugar skull diorama and kitty card

We painted wood slices for home decor or table top display.

Gold lettered quote

Stenciled molding paste design

Nicole's handpainted fantasy

Stacked trays made from stovetop burner covers and wine glasses or candlesticks make lovely towers for serving holiday sweets and treats.

Rosa's intricate trays

9-year-old Sophia's showstopper

Nicole's handpainted designwork 

The Christmas season gave us lots of opportunities to make ornaments, wreaths, and gift items.

Mini winter hat ornaments made from yarn knotted over toilet paper rolls

Who knew empty wine bottles could look so good! We used ropes of glittery pipe cleaners and hot glued them around the bottles for a festive design.

Nicole, Sophia, and Rosa show their talents

A quick and easy ornament idea is to fill clear acrylic bulbs with anything!

Bulbs filled with snowflakes and greenery

Red Dollar Store bulbs on a wire wreath

Silver and gold bulbs and garland from the Dollar Store 

We made reversible garlands to hang during the fall and winter holidays.

Burlap leaves and tiny bags decorated with glitter paint and felt leaves and acorns

Turn the fall garland over to show the Christmas decor - the tiny bags perfect for hiding small treats in

A clear plastic bulb filled with foam dots and and a child's sock fashioned as a hat

Oh what fun we had! It's never too early to begin a winter project and present someone special with a handmade gift. Christmas is only 49 weeks away!

Fooling Around With Foam

My art journaling class keeps me on my toes! The students are super talented and inspirational so I try to find projects that will be fun to make and add value to their books. Not an easy feat as they are truly creative folks and I must think outside my comfort zone to challenge them. But, they keep showing up each week, smiling and eager to see what's "on the menu" for that night! 

Foam sheets can be found at dollar stores and craft shops. Typically you'll find kids using them to make picture frame art, masks, pencil toppers, magnetic letters, and the like. 

I had my students create foam stamps to embellish their journals. With just a few supplies, they went crazy making awesome designs.

Here's how we did it:

Supplies 

• Foam sheets
• Scissors
• Stamp pads and/or acrylic paint
• Pencil, small paint brush, or chopstick
• Wine corks and glue (optional)
• Hole punch (optional)
• Cookie cutters (optional)

How to make this

• Using the pencil, paint brush handle, chopstick or other dull edged tool, draw a design in the foam sheet. 
• Press the design into the foam so that it leaves a deep impression without going all the way through the foam. These indentations will not print when ink or paint is applied to the stamps.
• TIP: use cookie cutters to press a design into the foam.
• Cut along the outside of the foam designs so they are a more manageable size to print with.
• Use a hole punch to create a cool pattern in the foam, if desired.

• Add color to your new designs using a stamp pad or lightly brush paint on to the surface.
• Stamp the design on to your journal pages!
• TIP: glue a wine cork or a bit of thick cardboard to the back of your foam stamp to keep your fingers from getting ink or paint all over them, although painted fingers are a sign of a serious artist!
• The foam can be rinsed easily, ready for a new color.

 

TIP: carve letters backwards in the foam...oops!

The possibilities are endless. Grab some foam sheets, a few supplies, and let your imagination go wild!

Let's Make Spray Paint!

                       

With just a few inexpensive products, you can make your own mini spray paints to enhance note cards, journals, and more! Just how do you do that? Read on...

Supplies Needed:

• Several travel-sized spray bottles (3-4 ounce size)
• Several acrylic paints in your favorite colors
• Rubbing alcohol (optional)
• Small funnel (optional)

How to Make This:

• Carefully fill the spray bottles 3/4 full with the rubbing alcohol. This is where the funnel comes in handy, if you have one.

• I found that using rubbing alcohol helps to dry the paint more quickly on paper. Tap water works just fine in place of the alcohol but takes a bit longer to dry. The paint quality and color appears to be the same no matter what method you choose.

• Add paint so that the bottom of the bottle is covered.
• Once you test your spray, you can decide whether you would like to add more paint for greater color intensity. 
• Put the spray nozzle back into the bottle and shake her up!

I know you're anxious at this point to start spraying your masterpiece but test your spray on a separate sheet of paper first to make sure you like the color intensity and that the sprayer itself isn't faulty. Strangely, some bottles operated better than others - some sprayed a nice mist of color and others made splotches and drops. I found bottles that work well bought from local drug stores and I've found some good ones just by using my old perfume bottles.

Hold your hand upright several inches up from the test paper and start spraying away. It's magical! Once the first spray has begun to dry, you can spray the area again for a deeper color result. 

Other tips:

• Use metallic paint for a shiny look.
• Lay a stencil on your paper, spray it, and remove the stencil to reveal your creation.
• Spray one color on the page, lay down a stencil, spray a second or third color. ohhhh!
• Wipe the nozzle after use so that the bottle doesn't get messy or clogged.
• Other than acrylic paints, I've read that Rit dye and old eye shadows can be used for color. I haven't tried this yet but let me know if you have - I would love to know your results!

Glue Gun Stencils

If you don't already have a glue gun, you're going to want to run out and get one after you read this! Not only are glue guns handy for tons of projects but making re-usable stencils may be your next favorite craft to try. These stencils are great for use in your journal, making greeting cards, bookmarks, and more. Warm up your glue gun and let's get going!

Here's a list of supplies that I used:

• Glue gun - either low heat or high heat type
• Glue gun sticks - lots of them because you're going to want to get crazy making more of these things
• Non-stick craft mat - a heat resistant teflon sheet (found at craft stores and online - excellent for all craft projects to keep your workspace protected and just wipes clean)
• OR a non-stick baking sheet or teflon pan would work fine (a piece of glass from a picture frame would work but you need to cover it with a light coat of vegetable spray first so that the glue doesn't stick to the glass and, of course, be careful of the frame's sharp edges)
• Picture or image outline to use as inspiration - optional

How to make the project:

• Cover your work surface with the non-stick sheet 
• Plug in the glue gun and let it warm up for a few minutes
• If you choose to use an image as a guide, slip it under the sheet so that you can see the outline clearly (The image should be a black or dark image because it can be tough to see through the sheet otherwise. You might try outlining the image with a black marker first to make it easier to see throught the sheet)

• Once the glue gun is heated, slowly pull the trigger laying the glue down following the outline or try free-handing a design. I found that the heavier the line of glue that I layed down, the more sturdy the stencil became. If the stencil is made too thin, it may break and won't hold up to repeated use.
• Once you are happy with your design, let the glue cool and harden - it takes just a couple of minutes.
• Remove it from the teflon sheet and get busy making another design! 

I made clouds, trees, and birds for starters. I liked repeating patterns like bubbles, hearts, squiggly lines, etc. Make sure that the shapes touch each other which keeps the design sturdy.

Try making large and small sized pieces. Large ones are great to fill a journal page or cover a greeting card and small ones work well for a "hint" of a pattern on your designs.

Once you've got some completed stencils, use them as you would any other stencil. I brushed acrylic paints over them and spray misted paint colors over the designs. 

Bubbles and Hearts laid over each other and sprayed with paint

To clean the stencils, carefully rinse them in the sink and let dry. I found that sometimes certain paint colors would stain the stencils. That's ok and won't harm the stencil when you're ready to use it again.

Happy stenciling!