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.