Shadow Puppets: Great for a rainy weekend

This weekend is looking like it may be a rainy day weekend. So Virginia and I are finding ourselves stuck inside. I have been testing a few different projects for my art class. Also trying to come up with fun crafts to do at the Macaroni Kid festival coming up that Sign and Doodle will have a table at. So today I decided to finally try out shadow puppets. I have seen them on blogs and on pinterest and just love them.

Virginia picked out the mermaid. So I googled an image of a mermaid and traced it onto a piece of paper. Then cut it out and taped the paper to a drinking straw. It was that simple. Virginia had a blast playing with it on the wall. I found a card board box and put a white sheet of paper in it for her to use as a theater. She drew waves on the paper to use as a background. Now searching for a princess image as our next puppet.

Silly Monsters

I have been testing art projects with Virginia lately. Planning to use some of the art projects in my art classes at Sign and Doodle this summer. Today we tested the Silly Monster face. This was super easy and alot of fun to see the results.

All it involves is a piece of white paper and paint. I laid the paper horizontal and let Virginia put dots of paint down the middle. It is best to place the dots of paint close to each other.

Next I folded the paper in half and let Virginia smooth the paper out and at the same time moving the paint around. Once she was done I opened the paper and revealed the beginning of our monster face.

We left the paper out in the sun to dry but be sure to place some weight on it in case that day is windy. Once dry I let Virginia decide how many eyes. I cut out white circles and let her glue them to the face. Then I cut out horns and she glued them down. Last we cut out a mouth and teeth and glued those to the face. After that we were done and giggled at our silly Monster face.

Vincent van Gogh…First Self-Portrait

Since I have been hired to teach art classes at Sign and Doodle this summer I have been doing research and trying to come up with lesson plans. One of the classes I will be teaching is Intro to Art for 6 to 8 year olds. I will be introducing them to famous artists. I knew one artist was going to be Vincent van Gogh.

I just happened to stumble upon Small Potatoes blog post on Vincent Van Gogh tonight as I was browsing Pinterest. I loved the idea of doing a self portrait in a mirror. Virginia is starting to branch out with her art and enjoys painting rainbows. But she hadn't tried self portrait. So I didn't know how this was going to go.

You should have seen her face when I told her she could paint on the bathroom mirror and sit on the sink. I think I won mother of the year award right then and there in her eyes. I laid out some washable paint and brushes and a cup of water. I told her she was going to paint a self portrait. This scared her at first but then I broke it down for her and told her to start with her hair and then do a circle for her face. Once she got started she was fine and did the rest with not to much worries. My daughter is a perfectionist and sometimes when things are not perfect she flips out. 

Once she was done painting I pressed a piece of paper onto the mirror and rubbed. She didn't like the way it turned out but there was enough of an outline where we took the paper to the living room and she was able to paint over the outline and make it the way she wanted. Maybe next time I won't rub so much.  And the best part is it cleans right off the mirror with a little window cleaner. 

Overall it was a success and I think I may put it down as a project for my Intro to Art class.