This Year's Nativity Projects

Well I'm neck deep in preparations for Christmas Craft Day but I had to show you the photos of this year's Nativity Projects.

Here are Grade 2's Silhouettes.

You can find full directions from my post HERE.

Stunning work Grade 2!!

And here is the Nativity plates that Kindergarten did this year.  I changed the color concept a bit using a blue wash, yellow metallic for the star, and sparkle varnish on the Nativity scene.

The full directions for this project are in my post located here.  Too late for this year but this would be a great project to plan ahead for next year!

 Awesome work Kinders!

The Snowman Portraits that Grade 2 are finishing are fabulous but for privacy reasons I can't show you them (all those last names!) but anyone walking down the hall gets stopped in their tracks by them.


Hopefully I'll have time after the big day Friday to post some last minute crafts from Christmas Craft Day....
hope everyone is holding up under the holiday rush!
Take care.

Snowy Owl Ornaments

This little Snowy Owl is one of the crafts for Christmas Craft Day 2010 which is taking place on Friday Dec 17th.


I couldn't resist making an Owl themed ornament so here is the How To:




MATERIALS REQUIRED:
- white felt
- yogurt container for tracing
- tacky glue
- old book pages
- gold colored felt
- tan colored felt
- large googly eyes
- gold and silver sequins and gems
- feathers
- gold thread for hanging

Using the yogurt container or some other round object trace out a circle on your white felt and cut out.

Find some old book pages.  I usually pick up some old books for crafting at garage sales or the library discard sale.

I especially like old kid's books like this Bobbsey Twins.

You need to cut a small triangle for the Owl's forehead and flower pot shape for the belly.  For Christmas Craft Day I will have templates.

Glue your flower pot shape onto the white felt slightly down from the middle.

Put some glue on the felt on either side of the shape.

Fold the felt over and hold for a few seconds while the glue sets up.  You can use some clothespins to help you out.

Put a dab of glue at the top of your flower pot shape and fold the felt down.  You want to keep the ends open.

Place a little bit of glue into the open corner and add a feather.

Repeat on other side.

Glue the little triangle onto the forehead.

Cut 2 circles from the tan felt that are larger than your googly eyes.

Glue into place on the owl.

Cut a little beak triangle from the gold felt and glue into place.

Add some bling!

Using a needle thread some gold thread thru the top of your Owl and make a loop for hanging.

If you want you can gently fold it in a bit to add a little shape so it isn't so flat.

That's it!

Why not make a pair of Snowy Owls for your Christmas tree.

I'll see you soon with more Christmas Crafts for Craft Day we just got a bit sidetracked this week by the stomach flu(the kids).

Family Snowman Portraits

These Family Snowman Portraits are the Christmas project currently being done by Grade 2.

I found a great deal on these primed canvases at Michaels last week, 10 for $14.99.  I think they are on sale this week for $19.99 which is still only $2.00 per child.  You can also find them at the dollar store.

You could also just do them on paper suitable for framing by the parents.

Draw in a horizon line in pencil.  After experimenting with the sample pieces I would make my horizon a little lower than the one in this picture.

Paint with acrylic in a nice sky blue.  Make sure to paint the edges as well.


Let dry.

While your canvas is drying cut out some circles from foam or sponge.

You need at least 3 circles, small, medium, and large.  I have some kids with large families so I will be cutting some long oval shaped ones so we can fit more snowmen on our pictures.

Taking gesso or thick acrylic paint (from the tub, tube, or a Folk Art Artist's Pigment brand) pounce in some snow on your bottom section.  You want to have some texture here.

Mix in a little bit of the blue and add a few touches...this helps distinguish the ground from the snowmen a bit.

You can also add some snow glitter if you want.  I added mine before my Mod podge coat and it was still shiny after.  You could also wait and add it into the Mod podge if you prefer.

Now using your sponges put in your snowman family...1 for each member.

Now you can line these up in any order....you can also put the Mom on one end and the Dad on the other with the kids in the middle.

Using colored paper add hats, mitts, ear muffs, scarves, buttons, eyes and noses.  A hole punch works well for the eyes and buttons.

Using sharpies you can add arms and smiles.  Make sure to add your smile first and then glue your carrot noses in place. (works better this way).

Glue into place with tacky glue.

I used my cricut for the letters.  My original plan was to stamp them in with paint but this was too tricky.  You could print some off the computer and cut into equal squares like tiles..that would also look nice. You could also add "the" if you wanted  (The Bartels)...we won't have the room on our canvases.
after thinking about it I've reconsidered and we will add a small "The" and a little "s".
I glued them into place and then covered it with a coat of mod podge...this secures all the paper bits and gives it a really nice shine.

This is my second sample.  Here I placed the snowmen higher up on the snow so you can see the full circle of the body...I like this better.

Another finishing detail we are going to do is add some little pompoms and make some of the hats or mitts in felt.  They will be attached after the Mod podge coat has dried.  This will add a little 3D touch.

See you next time.

SNOW Banner

Here is one of the crafts the kids will be doing for our 2010 Christmas Craft Day.  It is a repeat of one we did 4 years ago. (I have to wait 4 years before I can repeat crafts so the kids do not get any doubles).

It is based on a project by Leslie Johnston that was in "Pack o Fun" in 2004.

I made some changes and it is now a quick craft that we can easily cycle 150 kids thru lickety split.

I cut out pieces of posterboard that are approximately 6 inches square.

I like using blue.  I then trace out the letters SNW for the kids to cut out.  If you have more time you can get them to trace it out or have them design their own letters.

Using a circle template we then trace and cut out the snowman head.

The original design had scarves for the snowman but I found them hard for the kids to manipulate so we use hats.  I take some fleece fabric and sew it into a long tube on the machine.  I then cut it into sections.

The kids take a piece of yarn and tie off the top of the hat, roll up a brim, and slip onto the head on an angle. Using tacky glue secure into place.

We then cut out 2 eyes out of black paper.  Using a white crayon make a little highlight line in each eye.

Glue into place ensuring the highlight is in the same position for each eye.

Using disk tempera, paint on some rosy cheeks.

When the cheeks have dried use a sharpie to draw in a crooked smile.

Cut a carrot nose from orange paper, craft foam or painted paper.  Using a sharpie draw a few lines on your carrot.

Glue into place.

Make a hanger with a loop of ribbon and tape into place at the top of the S.  Then tape a longer piece of ribbon at the bottom of the S for hanging the rest of the letters on.  You may wonder why I didn't just use one long piece for the whole thing but I find the ribbon distracts from the S letter so I like it better this way.

We staple the top of the snowman hat to the bottom of the N to keep it balanced otherwise the snowman flops over and the banner doesn't hang right.


We also tie on a Christmas bell at the end.  I find these at Wal-mart, 21 bells for $6.00, in the Holiday section.

That's it, a great little door banner that is easy to make, perfect for our Craft Day.

Give it a try.

How to do Batik with Kids

During the school year I needed to find a kid friendly batik idea. I had done wax batik with kids before but it can be a bit difficult using hot wax. It also is not much fun having to iron away the wax with lots of newspaper. I had heard about glue batik with white glue but the results were disappointing. I stumbled on this blue glue idea and I LOVE IT!!!


It is now the talk of the school because it is so user friendly. So lets get started:


You need this type of glue..Elmer's Galactic Glue. They also sell a non glitter version which I think will work as well just make sure it is the washable blue gel. I got mine at Micheals but I know they also carry it at Wal mart. Right now is a good time to stock up with the school supply sales on. UPDATE Sept 09/08 I tried the Elmer's Washable School Gel Glue (it's still blue) and it works even better, finer nozzle, easier to squeeze, washes out faster.

I used 5 bottles for 24 kids and we were able to do 3 projects with it.





I cut my fabric to size and I have a layer of wax paper underneath.

Draw your image straight on to your fabric with your glue bottle. For the butterfly I lightly pencilled in my design first. The pencil marks come off in the wash stage.







When finished let dry completely about 12 hours.










Now you get to add color. Instead of using fabric dye which could wash out the glue prematurely I use watered down acrylic craft paint. You can almost achieve a watercolor like effect with it. I don't use fabric paint because it costs more and it only has a bit of softener in it. This works better.
















Having fun painting (Jeff age 5).

Make sure you use an art shirt to protect your clothes.






When finished painting let dry completely. Depending on the weight of your fabric this might take a few hours.










When dry you need to soak your fabric in a warm (almost hot) water bath. Depending on the fabric's weight this soak can be anywhere from 10 minutes to 1/2 an hour, (heavier fabrics take longer). I use the bathtub because it works best for a large number of pieces. Don't worry about the paint coming off you will only get a few flakes of dried color in the water.
To help it along you can also scrub it a bit with a nailbrush.

When the glue is all off the fabric wring out your piece and dry. I use the dryer because I'm impatient and with 24 pieces I wanted it done.



Sew up into your finished project. In this case Jeff wanted a pillow for his room.








This is one of the projects I did with the school for Father's Day, homemade windsocks. I used very light fabric (polyester lining material) for this one.

We also did a name sign out of heavy canvas for all the kids.

In both cases the blue glue batik worked terrific!!

Give it a try the possibilities are endless. You could make flags, banners,tote bags,custom shirts or just a nice wall hanging.

see ya later
gail