Puppet Mini-camp - Day 3

The creativity just never stopped. we even gave an encore performance for a mom who was late after we finished the first show. We completed the paper bag puppets and created a few more to fill the gaps in our show scheduled for the end of the day, then we added an extra show to our slate created by a group of the campers and led by Kate Lee. We managed enough puppets to do 4 "shows" 2 longer ones by XX, the original rainforest bird one, and the old favorite 3 little pigs.


Our second set of puppets today were sock puppets. I was able to get cast off socks from friends and my husband to give a good selection of colors to choose from. Cats and unicorns, dragons and horses, lambs and some unnamed creations appeared. The detail the kids put into the puppets was amazing from forked tongues on the dragons or snakes to fangs to pink inner ears, to feathered birds to the wings on the dragon. It was really hard to get them to quit adding so we could do the show!


The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

Making glizy bags @ WBCL's Arts & Crafts

What a crowd!! I hear the tickets ran out by 5:30--sorry about that. This was a more popular project than even I anticipated.


With glittery sequins, little jewels, strands of beads and just plain imagination over 30 kids and their families decorated woven bags to carry their things.


We tried out a new glue that I found specifically for jewels and glitter with hopes that it will really hold. A couple of the boys found buttons they likes and got out the needles and thread and sewed them down.


I think the pictures really say it all.


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donations and imagination into great projects.

you may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the website for details.

Puppet mini-camp day 2

It was another busy day for the campers making new puppets and learning about shadow puppets and puppet shows from Bill Woodburn from Random Acts Puppets. Bill actually performed 2 stories and gave us some information about puppet boxes in history and the kinds of shows he does. The campers got to handle some of his puppets and ask lots of questions. As he began Rapunzel, campers slipped to their boxes and got out their Rapunzel's to act along with the story. Every where I looked puppets were creeping out into the audience!


We tried a new finger puppet using a rubber dish glove to make rain forest birds. A bit of fun foam for beaks, a handful of feathers, googly eyes and fun foam hearts for faces and we had an instant puppet.


Our last project of the day was making puppets from paper bags using one of the books from the library "Look What you can make with paper bags" as our guide. We'll finish them the last day and use some of them in our puppet show as the finale. One of the students has created the entire 3 pigs story to perform complete with props. Others are chatting up their mermaids and other people all the time. It is really hard to leave any of the puppets in the boxes for long. I heard plans of "play dates with my friends to use my puppets." How is that for art that shares?


The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

Puppet Mini-camp Day 1

Goodness this was fun! The mess got a bit out of hand at times but the originality and creativity it engenerded was well worth it. I thought I'd have to encourage interactive play when the kids got some of the puppets done but immediately the puppets started talking to each other and interacting. I made a demonstration small theater over the weekend which some of the kids used before they created their own personal stages out of shoe boxes complete with scenery and a few props. The kids had me cutting slits in the tops and bottoms so the puppets could be inserted to perform.


We used plastic spoons, mini records and wooden disks as the basis of the stick puppets. The campers were then able to add hair, pompoms, google eyes, and different fabrics, ribbons and foams to customize the puppets. Some of the donated yarn was gold and glitzy and became manes. Several Rapunzels appeared as very long braided yarn was located in the bags. I saw a snake and a tiger as well as a wolf at one of the tables. A mom who showed up a bit early was mobbed by all the kids showing off their puppets and what they could do with them.


Our last puppet activity was making finger puppets out of stretchy gloves and other donated gloves. Some of the kids wanted to use the whole glove and make a grouping of the puppets, most went with single fingers but used all the fingers on the glove. We'll finish this up Wednesday and add rubber gloves and test tubes as bases to use.


The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

What we made with shells@the Wells Branch Library

We used one of my favorite crafts books last night Look what I did with a shell. The room was full, we ran out of tickets but those who got in really got into it. We had a large box of shells from the discount stores and donations to pick from and create butterflies, unicorns, and lots of other critters that I am not sure exist. A few of the kids branched out creating necklaces, bracelets, and what looked to me like an entire undersea village. I had a supply of short wood straws that we put to use as legs and stabilizers of one type or another. We incorporated bottle caps as bases so the shells that open up don't fall over.



The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donations and imagination into great projects.

you may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the website for details.

Mosaics mini-art camp day 3 @ WBCL

What a busy and fun day! The campers really got into the art discussion today as we looked at Talavera tiles and tile murals. Lots of opinions on design and color use. 


They completed their flag/banners with a lot of extra design elements (if only I had time to take a few more photos!) We added sequins and other glitzy stuff to embellish the designs. 


The kids drew their own designs on the 2"x2"tiles then painted them with Glossies paints in the traditional bright colors. Some went back to the books on Mexico and Mosaics that I checked out for ideas, others used the ideas from the video tour and their imagination. We finished the tiles by attaching them to felt backing or magnets.  


Our last project was a bit of a stretch for the younger kids but they all got the frames for the stained glass done and some of the colored tissue attached. The "Oh WOW" moment was as each was completed, we held them in the sunny window to watch the light stream through. Thanks to my rrfreecycle friends for supplying the iridescent tissue to make the clear panes.


The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

Making mosaic tiles and T's @ art camp

The kids have been really working hard to master the art of mosaics. The did not have to break their own tiles but they drew their own designs then chose the tile pieces to complete them. We looked at a lot of different types of mosaics and designs including those in quite a number of books from the library to get our ideas. Some just came from imagination as I never saw a 2 headed dragon anywhere. Spreading the tile glue was a bit of a challenge--the kids did not like using the plastic gloves and soon had their fingers into the stuff with better results. We used small ceramics, broken pottery, broken mirrors, beads and colored river gravel to get just the right look. 


The T-shirts turned out great and are a bit different that the usual "paint a t-shirt" type of project. It was hard to get some of the kids to stamp the design on but once they got into it the results were great!


We are finishing up a banner/flag with thoughts of medieval tapestries that should be great to hang out, going back to Mexican art for a Talavera tile and creating a "stained glass" window from tissue paper to finish camp. 


The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

Making creations from egg cartons @ WBCL

What a fun project this turned out to be! The library gets so many egg cartons donated that we are always looking for more things to do with them than use them for paint pots. We got a great book to use as the basis for this project: Look what you can make with egg cartons, edited by Betsy Ochester. 


Creativity and imagination combined with the wealth of supplies on hand really produced results and such a variety. Very popular was the helicopter with a moving propeller. We have my volunteer to thank for helping the kids make it work and spin. Quite a number of creature treasure boxes, as did chicks in baskets, all kinds of critters and an alligator on the beach complete with palm tree. One lucky grandma is getting a bouquet of flowers in a custom vase.


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler. The program lets us turn donations and imagination into great projects. We are pleased to have our new orange aprons from our local Home Depot to wear.


you may also want to take a look at the new Art & crafts database the library recently subscribed to for the patrons. check  the website for details.

Mosaics @ Mini-art camp feature Aztecs, T-shirts

Mosaic camp got off with a bang! We spent the lunch period looking at the history of mosaics including ones and the ones from La Maison Picassiette where he covered his entire house and garden in mosaics. We also looked at Aztec masks of a variety of materials and talked about thier use. The library has a large selection of books on mosaics that are available to the campers to view this week too.


Each group made a t-shirt (pictures coming) of an animal stamped using tiles cut from foam meat trays. We used regular acrylic paints for this project with good results. The turtle group even got to embelish theirs with metallics.


The groups then created Aztec masks using plastic masks I sprayed with flat black paint and fun foam squares to create the designs. Lastly we added a couple of feathers to the top of some of the masks. They were so popular that most of the campers wore them home!


Our last project was creating a bead mosaic on a small flowerpot or crystal light container. This was a bit chalenging as the round surface does not hold heavy beads well but hot glue (cool melt) to the rescue and the designs were coming out very well.


You will see us in the bright orange aprons donated by our local Home Depot for the art camps. 

The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

Rocket or Space ships @ WBCL

"Space the final frontier" Say this to a group of kids and they still know what it means. We talked a little about Star Trek and space ships then dove into the recycling box for the materials to make a rocket or other space ship. Imaginations ran rampant as they added to their paper towel tube. All kinds of paper egg cups, straws, tp tubes, and tissue paper were vital to their projects. Some used metalic shred for the exhaust, others tissue paper. We assemble everything with a combination of Aleene's tacky glue and low temp hot glue.


Windows were created with the insets on the top of the egg cartons and irridescent tissue. Many covered the rocket in metalic tissue or the irridescent tissue. A few created intricate wing configurations or docking stations. One even added a few craft sticks to make a space station. We have been trying to find more exotic uses for items that get donated or could be recycled/repurposed. This one is really a winner in the imagination category. 


The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler.

Art campers make paper, books and more @ WBCL

This week the art campers learned to make paper then constructed a book from cardboard cereal boxes and a variety of paper. We used the blender method of making paper and dipped our picture frame deckles into the pulp. We colored our paper using bright colored tissue paper with great success. The campers were able to add a variety of decorative items to the pulp before pressing all the water out and placing the page on a drying tray. Popular additives were shredded construction paper, more tissue paper, glitter, potpouri, and metalic shred. The campers figured out the best was to squeeze out the water was to stand on the newspaper we used as sponges. 
 I found great instructions and videos on this in addition to books. http://www.tutorials.com/06/0697/06971.asp video: http://video.about.com/familycrafts/How-to-Make-Paper-With-Kids.htm
Recipe: 3/4 cup torn paper--use old copier paper, construction paper, lined school paper
3 cups water--pulse in blender until well mixed
1/4 page of colored tissue paper -- add and pulse


On Wednesday we made books from cereal boxes, a project I found on the Knackids site: http://www.theknackids.com/ProjectView/Code/kn0822.aspx The campers learned about all kinds of different papers, including watermarks, and were able to put samples of 5-6 into their books. We added lined paper so they could make notes as journal. As you can see above the cover even got artwork.

The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

Garden gnomes accomplished @ art camp WBCL

We never counted on the super hot dry weather stopping and rain coming in volumes this week just in time to create havoc with the drying of our garden gnomes. Thanks to a little help from the library director, sites were found around the building to get the creations dry enough to paint on Thursday.


"Do I have to paint it just like yours?" was asked by many who wanted to customize their gnome. And customize they did! One had wings, a couple donned sunglasses, several shed their beards, all colors of clothes and hats appeared. A couple of quick repairs were made with glue as ears or arms losened and were reattached. Lots of smiles showed up too. Lastly we were able to pack them into empty strawberry boxes to take them home. 

The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

Origami success at art camp @ WBCL

We then tried a dog face with ears. Lastly we let them chose 2-3 sheets of the pre-marked paper to take home and do more folding. I had several books from the library available for check-out and they all went home with the aspiring artists. 


The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

When I was given a pack of origami paper last winter, I knew we had to try this at camp. About half of the kids said they'd done origami at some point but no one could do it without directions or a book. We decided to make simple items so everyone would be able to be successful. 


Keighla led them through information about Origami and the kinds of papers we had the began the folds to make a cup and a hat.

Making colorful pinwheels @ WBCL for July 4th

It was simple and fun and might even require a degree in engineering to make it work but the group managed to create pinwheels from donated scrapbook paper and drinking straws.

 The process is simple but very exacting: mark the square exactly from corner to corner, make a circle in the center or mark about an inch from the center to prevent cutting the pinwheel too close. We used a thumbtack to start the hole in the straw and stretched it using a sharp pencil. Assembly included threading all the corners to the center on a brad, adding a pony bead as a spacer and bending the points flat to let it spin. 

As you can see many of our pinwheels are in motion.

The Family Arts & Crafts group meets at the Wells Branch Community Library every Wednesday night at 6 pm taught by Dianne Koehler.