Pop up boxes

Most of the kids in Wednesday arts & crafts class at the Wells Branch Community Library were not sure if they had ever seen a Jack-in-the-box but they sure got the idea. They cut and folded their own boxes ( with just a bit of help from moms), then drew animals and other things to pop out of their boxes. They learned paper folding for the spring and many of them just had to decorate the outside of the box too. Maybe sometime we'll have to make gift boxes out of pretty paper!

Art camp 3 Gourds & Pottery

As you can see it was a busy creative day for the kids. First we took an computer tour of a variety of Native American designs on pots and baskets identifying the elements of the designs--was it a person, an animal, or something else? We talked a bit about how using differing shapes of gourds and decorating them would have happened. The kids drew the designs on small gourds, scribed and stained them and accented them with markers. My teen assistant used the wood buring tool to put a small leafy vine on the side of most of the gourds for the kids. We had lots of eagles, geckos, snakes, suns and arrows.
Next we got into the clay to create pots with shell and bead decorations. The one table made cups with handles and even a double spouted "loving cup" like we saw in the slides. The older kids created bowls and baskets with lots of shell accents, while the youngest campers all started with coil pots and completed them with shells, beads, fun foam and wire accents. They really worked hard to make these their own.

The kids learn about lighthouses

Thanks to a wonderful couple, Diana & Don Carter, we were able to see examples of lighthouses around the world then create one that actually lit up from paper towel tubes, babyfood jars, and strips of paper. Some of the group got adventurous and made a cone-shapped roof on the lighthouse. Upon re-examining the pictures, doors and windows were added to nearly all the projects. We did not put on the walks around the light but most of the kids did learn how a real light house operated and many asked about the attached houses and the lighthouse keepers. I am including the link to the Carter's adventures in lighthouses: website "Lighthouses: A Photographic Journey". http://light.pkinst.org/

Turning shells into critters

We had a fine time last night turning some inexpensive shells into the most interesting critters--cute little mice, scarry aliens, crabs and many that had no names. Sorry no pictures this week but one of the mom's took some and may share. I used 2 books--Look what I did with a shell and Exciting things to do with nature materials. They are both out of print but readily available. We have finally limited the group to 25 kids with parents and used tickets for admission. It seemed to work a lot better and everyone still had fun. (of course as families left we allowed others in but we were below the room capacity of 50)

Modern Art camp final day making mosaics

For our grand finalle we looked at pictures from professional mosaic artists, discussed materials to use, dia de los muertos art and fractals. Each child selected his own materials--glass florist beads, broken dishes, and tile pieces and made an arrangement on a 6"x 6" surface. Our grout/adhesive was a plasticy mess so we used crafts glue with great results. Seems like everyone is still having fun!

Art camp day 2 does recyled sculptures in a big way!

First we looked at examples of sculptures from recyclables and other types then attacked the tables of supplies. The students saw possibilities in the slabs of styrofoam, cardboard tubes that held wrapping paper, bottle tops, packing corners and the ever popular metalic shred. Drink bottle were stuffed with shred, attached to plates and became hats. Foam packing from the library's computers became robots and one group created a work bench complete with tools. The most functional sculpture is a snow cannon that sprays styrofoam bits powered by the two guys who created it. Not to be overshadowed by styrofoam, the paper tubes became rafts, part of a volcano landscape and a head that had a beard then lost it.

Recycled art is giant hit!

Again the room was packed with excited kids and their parents to turn all kinds of recyclables and not so recyclables into fabulous creations. Styrofoam packing and meat trays were the backbone of the day with drink bottle lids, spoon, and other assorted plastics as the main ingredient. We were even able to salvage some soaker hoses to add to our ingredients! Many robots were generated in addition to futuristic designs featuring tubes of sparkle shread. One family created a village, I think. When the glue guns ran out we broke out the duct tape and kept on until all were done.

Collage frames for stamped pictures

What an easy and fun project for a hot day. We took extra book jackets from kids books and cut them up into 1/2" pieces. The kids glued these pieces onto mats for picture frames then picked out a stamp and made a couple of inserts for their frame. A couple of the boys got adventerous and stenciled ants for their insert.

Animal banks from recycled juice bottles HUGE success!

Well here is my piggy bank that used to be a juice bottle but it certainly was not the cutest one at the class last night! With almost 50 people in the room, we turned juice bottles, folgers coffee containers, creamer bottles and 1 liter water bottles into a great array of dogs (with and without leashes), cats, bunnies, pigs, space creatures and others. We used the masive amounts of fabric that has been donated to us and lots of glue, but that just doesn't say it at all. Many of the animals had great floppy ears, some sported belts or scarves. I didn't see any jewelry but I suspect that a few even had that. What a great creative outlet this was for all the families that attended. I only wish I had picture of all of the great bottles. Makes you think twice about throwing anything out but my husband would like to see some of it go! I put a call out for more bottles so we can do something like this again.