Love Learning

Spring Flower Bouquet

Ages 7 and up

Celebrate spring by making a pretty tissue paper bouquet for your table!

Supplies:

• Pastel colored tissue paper

• Pastel colored pipe cleaners

• Scissors

1.    To make the carnation: take one sheet of tissue paper, fold in half hot dog style, then cut in half to make a square. Poke your finger down on the center point and pull the paper up around it. Keeping it pulled up into a cone shape, cut the top off in a circular shape. Wrap a pipe cleaner around the bottom for the stem and to keep the flower together. Loosely separate the layers of tissue to make the flower fuller. 

2.    To make the lily: take one sheet of tissue paper, fold in half hot dog style, then cut in half to make a square. Keep the paper folded and cut strips about 2” wide. Pinch and twist the strips (keeping the two strips together) in the middle, then twist the ends down. This makes two opposing petals. Make two more of these. Put the three double petals together, fanning them out into a star shape. Wrap the pipe cleaner around the middle, and separate the petals, pushing the middles up to give the petals shape. 

3.    To make the leaves: take rectangles of green tissue paper, pinch the bottom together, and cut into a pointed shape on the other end. Wrap a green pipe cleaner around the twisted end.

--Check back each Monday for more art project ideas from Hannah.

Patchwork Shamrocks

Ages 6 and up

Celebrate St Patrick’s Day with your kids by making this cute decorative shamrock!   

Supplies

• Sheet of white paper

• Sheet of light green paper

• Scraps of green paper, patterned and plain

• Pencil

• Black marker

• Scissors

• Glue stick

• Optional: green glitter glue

Method:

1.    Draw an outline of a large shamrock in the middle of your paper with the pencil, and then go over it with the black marker.

2.    Cut the paper into squares, roughly the same size as each other. (It is easiest if you cut the paper into strips first, stack them together, and then cut them into squares all at once.)

3.    Glue the green squares onto the shamrock, starting in the middle and working your way out to the sides. Cover all the white spaces, overlapping the paper.

4.    Go back over the outline with the black marker, and then cut out the patched shamrock.

5.    Outline with green glitter glue, if desired. Mount on the light green paper, and frame, if desired. 

--Check back each Monday for more art project ideas from Hannah.

Artist: Mondrian

Ages 6 and up

It’s a good idea to introduce kids to famous, and perhaps even not-so-famous, artists at an early age so they can begin to lay a foundation for future learning. A great artist to start with is Mondrian because of his use of simple lines and primary colors. Today we’ll create a simplified version of a Mondrian painting, if the style can be more simplified!

Background

Piet Mondrian was a Dutch painter born in 1872. He was part of a group of artists in his country who valued harmony and order. They wanted to reduce visual compositions down to their bare forms and colors. In the 1920's, Mondrian began using a lot of primary colors and simple horizontal and vertical lines. Although Mondrian excelled at painting many subjects and people (see example), he is best known today for his reduction paintings.

One of Mondrian’s most famous paintings:

Supplies:

• Red, yellow, blue, and black paint

• Paintbrushes

• Square of thick, white paper

• String

• Scissors

1.    Cut the string a few inches longer than the paper.

2.    Paint the string black. Be sure to completely cover it in the middle, leaving an inch or so unpainted on each end.

3.    Lay the painted string across the paper, horizontally then vertically several times, pressing down slightly to create distinct black lines.

4.    Once the black paint is dry, choose a few squares or rectangles to paint. Look at Mondrian’s painting as an example. Make sure to leave a lot of white.

Variation: You could also make a paper version of a Mondrian using white, red, yellow, and blue paper squares and rectangles, with black paper strips.

Check out these links to see images of what some Mondrian enthusiasts have created!

A house painted in Mondrian’s reduction style

A lady and her car, both in Mondrian style

--Check back each Monday for more art project ideas from Hannah.

Recycled 3-D Paper Decorations

Ages 6 and up

Another craft made from recycled materials! This project takes ordinary unwanted magazines and transforms them into one-of-a-kind hangings.

Supplies:

• 2 magazines, the same size

• String or wire

• Tape

• Small ceiling hook

• Optional, spray paint

1.    Take a magazine and fold one corner of the cover page over to the middle.

2.    Next, fold the opposite side from outside corner over to the middle. It will overlap the first fold and create a point in the middle.

3.    Continue folding until all the pages are folded.

4.    Fold the second magazine the same way.

5.    Put the two magazines together, taping the two front covers to each other.

6.    You may wire the magazines together more tightly by placing the spines back-to-back and then wrapping the wire vertically through the middle pages of the magazines in a circular motion until tightly bound spine to spine.

7.    Tape the two back covers together.

8.    Attach more wire or string to the top and hang from the ceiling hook.

Optional: spray paint your new decoration before hanging.

 

Variations:

Experiment with different patterns of folding. For example, only fold one corner of each page, folding the first page up, the second page down, etc.

Experiment by pairing different sized magazines—combining two little ones with a big ones, etc.

--Check back each Monday for more art project ideas from Hannah.

Pine Cone Bird Feeder

Ages 4 and up (with adult help)

This natural-looking bird feeder uses found objects and looks pretty hanging outside a window or in a tree.

Supplies:

• Pine  cones
  

• Vegetable shortening
  

• Birdseed
  

• Wire
  

• Wire cutters
  

Optional:

• Table knife or spatula
  

• Ribbon
  

• Sticks or other objects found in the yard

1.    Start by wiring the pine cones together.

2.    Using the table knife, spread the vegetable shortening over the pine cones. Or, you can roll the pine cones in the shortening.

3.    Sprinkle birdseed over the pine cones and press into the shortening.

4.    Attach any other found objects with wire.

5.    Hang with wire and attach a ribbon if desired.

--Check back each Monday for more art project ideas from Hannah.

Recycled Crayons

Ages 4 and up (with adult help)

Don’t you hate it when your crayons break until all you have left are stubs that lie around and aren’t
fun to use anymore? This project will take you back to your childhood days as you work with your kids to turn those crayon bits into exciting and useful tiny sculptures!

Supplies:

Broken, old, and boring crayons

Molds (I used silicone ones)

Oven

Optional: vegetable peeler, hammer

Optional: stickers

1.    Turn the oven to 250 degrees.

2.    Peel the paper from the crayons.

3.    Decide which colors you want to combine or if you will have solid colored crayons.

4.     Hammer crayons into small pieces, or use the vegetable peeler to shave the crayons. (Optional)

5.    Fill the molds with the crayon pieces and melt in the oven. (About 5-10 minutes, in my oven.)

6.    When the pieces are melted, let them sit out for a few minutes, carefully press the stickers on, then put them in the freezer to completely harden.

7.    Pop the new crayons out of the molds and enjoy!

Optional: save the crayon wrappings to use in making paper.

--Check back each Monday for more art project ideas from Hannah

Valentine Mini Scrapbook

Ages 7 and up

This little book would make a wonderful Valentine’s Day gift, either as a blank scrapbook, or as a book you’ve filled with special memories!

Supplies:

• Chipboard or cardboard

• Scraps of paper: white, pink, red, purple, patterned, etc

• Sketch, handmade, or other thickish paper (for the pages)

• Hole punch

• Ribbon

• Scissors

• Glue

• Clear lacquer spray (optional)

1.    Cut two pieces of chipboard or cardboard the same size. I’ve cut mine 4.25” x 5.5”. These will become the covers. If the board is too thin, you can cut four pieces and glue two together to make the covers thicker and stronger.

2.    Grab the scraps of paper you want to use and decide on a pattern. Glue them to both sides of the board. Optional: spray the covers with one or two light coats of the lacquer and allow to dry. This will seal and protect the covers.

3.    Take the thick paper and cut several sheets the same size, slightly smaller than the covers. You may also rip the paper instead of cutting it for a more handmade look.

4.    Punch two holes in each paper and the covers, making sure that the holes line up!

5.    Thread the ribbon through the holes and tie a pretty bow in the front.

6.    Leave plain, or paste pictures and keepsakes inside!

Variations: Use the book for other purposes such as a journal, idea book, notebook…

--Check back each Monday for more art project ideas from Hannah

Valentine’s Day Memory Cards

Ages 4 and up

Let your kids have fun making their own memory game by creating these fun and simple cards!

Supplies:

• Red construction paper

• White and pink copy or construction paper

• Crayons or colored pencils

• Scissors

• Glue

How-to:

1.  Fold and then cut the red, white and pink paper into eighths (approx. 4.25”x 2.75”).

2.  Take a piece each of the cut white and pink paper, put them together, and fold in half, short side to short side (hamburger style).

3.  Cut into a half-heart. Be sure to begin cutting away from the folded edge. (For younger children, you might want to draw the outline of a half heart for them to follow as they cut.) 

4.  Glue the matching hearts onto the red construction paper rectangles.

5.  Repeat process until you have at least 8 cards, making the hearts different each time as you cut.

6.  Shuffle the cards and lay out face down. Turn over two at a time and try to make a match!

Variations:  

1. Cut heart shapes out of pretty leftover wrapping paper and glue onto the construction paper.

2. Create raised texture memory cards by placing a textured object under thin white paper and, using the side of a pencil or a crayon, rub over the paper pressing firmly until the texture appears. Mount on construction paper.

3. Duplicate photos of family, pets, or friends and mount on construction paper.

--Check back each Monday for more art project ideas from Hannah Gray