Salt Dough Leaf Prints

I was working with salt dough this weekend and decided to try and make some leaf prints.






Materials Required:

salt dough, recipe to follow
artificial silk leaves
round container to use as cutter
oven
acrylic paint
mod podge for sealer



Salt Dough Recipe

4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 - 2 cups water
extra flour for kneading

Mix first 3 ingredients together to form a nice soft dough. Knead smooth with extra flour. The more you knead this dough the easier it is to work with.

Keep leftover dough in the fridge.







Make up your salt dough. This recipe will make enough for 8 rounds.







Roll out dough and the using circular container or bowl, (coffee can) cut your rounds.






Pick a leaf for your design. I initially tried this with fresh leaves but they did not leave a good imprint. I think it would have worked with clay.

The silk leaves leave a better impression in the salt dough.








Place where you want it and press the leaf into the dough.














When you lift it off you should have a nice impression.











Place on a parchment or foil covered cookie sheet and bake at 250 degrees for about 2 - 3 hours or until hard.


Let cool.








Take some acrylic paint in Autumn colors.








After trial and error I found the best way to paint these is to paint the leaves in different colors first. Let dry.








Then using dark brown paint that you have watered down apply a wash, like an antiquing glaze to the entire surface. The dark color picks up the veining in the leaf and still lets the Autumn color show thru.


Let dry and then apply a coat of glossy Mod Podge as a sealer.

That's it. A good project for all ages.

See you next time,

Iris Folding Art Projects

So here is a project I will be doing with Grade 5.

Iris folding originated in the Netherlands.
The spiral resembles the iris of a camera. It is used in card making and there are a gazillion patterns on the web but they are all based on a few simple templates.

I find the template patterns to be works of art in their own right and with a black background and bright colors they are stunning.

Both my daughter and I are very taken with this technique and it is a lot easier than it looks.




Materials Required:

template patterns
black cardstock
colored paper
pencil
scissors or paper cutter
ruler
tracing paper (optional)
tape and/or glue stick



















Print off the template you like. Circle of Crafters has a lot of patterns.


If you have tracing paper trace around the outer edge of pattern and cut out. If you don't have tracing paper just print out a second copy of the pattern and cut out.









Put a little tape on the back of the cut out.













Then place on your black cardstock.


Trace around it with a pencil or white pencil crayon.











Cut it out using scissors or a craft knife....the grade 5's will be using scissors.









Place the cut out black paper over top the template pattern and tape temporarily into place.






Choose the papers you want to use. It depends on what template you choose how many different colors you will need. The square one takes 4 the triangle takes 3. There are other templates that take 5.


Using a ruler mark off strips about 1 and 1/2 inch wide.








Cut the strips using scissors or a paper cutter. At school I can use the big cutter.










Fold your strips in half. The easiest way to do this is to start in the center and then smooth the fold line out the sides.














The first time I tried this I used construction paper but found it tears very easily...a bit frustrating for the kids.

Colored cartridge paper works well as well as scrapbooking paper....if you can try to pick paper that is colored on both sides.

A lot of the scrapbooking paper is white on the inside and sometimes if your fold is off it may show thru in the final design.



Starting at #1 on your template place your first color down...you want the folded edge of your colored paper on that line facing towards the center.

You can either use a glue stick or tape to secure the paper.... tape is easiest.

Trim the paper as you go just make sure you leave enough of a overhang for taping.






Following your numbers keep taping down your strips.


You'll see the pattern taking shape and your strips will get shorter. As you get to the center watch your numbers as the pattern will really start to turn.









When finished remove the template you temporarily taped to your black paper.

Put some glue along the edges of your paper.











Place another black piece of paper on top sealing away all those ugly taped ends.

Turn over and Ta Da!! An amazing piece of art.



Give it a try.

Mixed Media Fall

Well I've been trying to conceptualize some new projects for Fall. I was stuck on creating something with eggshell mosaic. I tried cutting out large leaf shapes but somehow the leaf shape got lost in the craziness of the mosaic. I tried something smaller and this is the result.












You need some rinsed and dried eggshell which you then paint with some acrylic paint in Fall colors.

Let dry.











I decided to use black cardstock which is slightly thinner than posterboard...you can use posterboard if you wish.

You need some mod podge...I'm using glossy because I like that shiny finish...you could also use acrylic medium or plain white glue.







Brush some on and take a piece of shell about the size of a quarter.








Place on top of the mod podge and then using you finger smoosh down.







Keep going with different colors...add a top coat as you go working in small sections at a time as the mod podge will begin to dry on you.








I did a full sheet of black cardstock going right over the edges...my cardstock is on top of wax paper.








This is how it looks when dry...now you could cheat and just print this image off and use it.





Click on picture for larger image.








Here I was trying to figure out a better looking design.







I painted some branches onto some wc paper.









I then decided I wanted a series of 3...I wish I had thought of this sooner as I could of painted it first and then made my cuts....oh well








Here I decided to make a tall narrow tree.....I'm painting in a stormy grey background.





I then placed a piece of plastic wrap on top and made some wrinkles with my fingers.





I then left it to dry with the plastic in place.









Paint in your branches.






I cut out a variety of leaves leaving them quite circular like a popular leaf.





Before gluing play around with them a bit until you like the arrangement.

Glue on with some tacky glue.

see you later