MONDAY: We started off by water-coloring a small piece of watercolor paper to use for our Art Camp banner. I used rubber cement to attach the 'Art Camp' letters to their paintings, which made it easy to take off at the end of the week. I just used Washi tape and baker's twine to attach the paintings to make a simple, but cute banner to hang for the week.
Then, we had them watercolor 4 pieces of the Crayola watercolor/marker paper because it was thin and easy to fold. While those were drying, they painted 3 wooden beads with acrylic paint for their pinwheels. Later, we folded the four pieces of paper and glued then all together with rubber cement. We added the beads and baker's twine to add some color to this adorable pinwheel. Loved the way these turned out!
Find the original post from the Art Bar blog here.
Our last project of the day was my favorite: the tassel necklace. We let the kids choose a shape (or animal, object, etc.), and we cut it out for them using a thin piece of cardboard (we used a cereal box). Then, they got to paint their necklaces with acrylic paint. While those were drying, we learned how to make tassels. We used an exacto knife to cut a whole in the top and bottom of each shape to attach the tassels to the bottom of the necklaces and string at the top to fit around the neck. The also let them add their leftover bead from our pinwheel project. I thought they turned out super cute, and they were a hit with the kids!
You can find the original post from the Art Camp blog here.
TUESDAY: We began by painting more wooden beads for another project. While those were trying, we collected sticks from outside to paint. We let the kids choose 3 different colors to paint their stick and let them go to town. While those were drying, we water-colored a small piece of watercolor paper. This would be used for the birds that will sit on their sticks. After the water-coloring, we jumped back to the painted stick. We started by stringing our painted beads (about 6) onto some baker's twine and then wrapped the ends of the twine about each end of the stick. Then the students traced and cut out a bird from their painting to glue onto the stick. It turned out something like this:
We used this general idea and made it our own.
We only had a small amount of time left after the bird project, so we used Crayola Air-dry clay to make pinch pots. We gave each student a medium-szed ball of clay. We instructed them to use their elbow to make it more into a bowl-like shape. Then, we pinched around the edges to make it more like a bowl. The kids really worked hard on these and kept asking if it would be like a "real" bowl.
WEDNESDAY: We kicked off the morning with a "nature walk" collecting items to make nature paint brushes. We encouraged the kids to be looking for something they thought would make for a neat nature paint brush. They really got into this activity! We walked around and collected items as a group, which kept us from having a bunch of the same things. The kids put a lot of thought into this, and even though they only lasted one use, they were so worth it!
I forgot to snap a pic of the end result, but once they dried, we let them choose a little phrase to put on their card using stickers (most of them chose "what's up? -- not sure why?), but I was really pleased with the way they turned out. We had them write a little note on the inside to someone special. Originally, I had the idea of it being a thank-you card, but most of them just wrote a simple greeting card, and they were really sweet.
THURSDAY: On Thursday, we did a project I'd been dying to do. Two of the campers just happened to be my 4-year-old and 10-year-old sister-in-laws :), and when I saw this idea on Pinterest, I just knew they would eat it up! We pretty much dedicated the day to our Recycled Mermaids. (I had no idea how much time it would take to assemble them!!) We cut up recycled egg cartons to use as the mermaid's tail. We let the girls choose either blues or pinks for their mermaid's tail. As it turned out, all of our older girls wanted blues, and our little girls wanted pinks. (These required multiple coats to really cover up the egg carton.) Then, we had them do the opposite colors for the body of the mermaid. (I cut out the template from some recycled cardboard, and they just painted them.) We used some leftover watercolor paper to make her hair and her bikini top. We had to string baker's twine all the way through her tail to make her flexible. Then, I tied small bells to the ends to make her more whimsical. There were a lot of steps, but the girls just loved their mermaids and were so patient and involved with every step of the process.
FRIDAY: On our last day, we started our last project, which was crepe paper flowers. We went out and collected more sticks (they were professionals at this point) and painted the stick green. While that was drying, (the other) Lauren taught us how to make pom-pom balls from yarn to use as the center of our flowers. I was always so impressed how the big kids (my four 9- and 10-year-olds) would always step up to help the younger ones when we did things like this. They were so eager to help, which was so much help to us!
Once they finished, each camper got a different colored marker for their flower. They drew lines stemming from the bottom of the flower towards the top. While they were making pom-pom balls and making their flowers, I was assembling their flowers by hot gluing them to their painted stick. I would them slide the pom pom ball onto the stick, glue it, and them spray it with water to make the marker on the crepe paper bleed. I really wished we would have done this project earlier in the week so that I could have kept them on display in this little vase longer.
Find the original post from the Art Bar blog here.
Our last project of the day was my favorite: the tassel necklace. We let the kids choose a shape (or animal, object, etc.), and we cut it out for them using a thin piece of cardboard (we used a cereal box). Then, they got to paint their necklaces with acrylic paint. While those were drying, we learned how to make tassels. We used an exacto knife to cut a whole in the top and bottom of each shape to attach the tassels to the bottom of the necklaces and string at the top to fit around the neck. The also let them add their leftover bead from our pinwheel project. I thought they turned out super cute, and they were a hit with the kids!
You can find the original post from the Art Camp blog here.
TUESDAY: We began by painting more wooden beads for another project. While those were trying, we collected sticks from outside to paint. We let the kids choose 3 different colors to paint their stick and let them go to town. While those were drying, we water-colored a small piece of watercolor paper. This would be used for the birds that will sit on their sticks. After the water-coloring, we jumped back to the painted stick. We started by stringing our painted beads (about 6) onto some baker's twine and then wrapped the ends of the twine about each end of the stick. Then the students traced and cut out a bird from their painting to glue onto the stick. It turned out something like this:
We used this general idea and made it our own.
We only had a small amount of time left after the bird project, so we used Crayola Air-dry clay to make pinch pots. We gave each student a medium-szed ball of clay. We instructed them to use their elbow to make it more into a bowl-like shape. Then, we pinched around the edges to make it more like a bowl. The kids really worked hard on these and kept asking if it would be like a "real" bowl.
WEDNESDAY: We kicked off the morning with a "nature walk" collecting items to make nature paint brushes. We encouraged the kids to be looking for something they thought would make for a neat nature paint brush. They really got into this activity! We walked around and collected items as a group, which kept us from having a bunch of the same things. The kids put a lot of thought into this, and even though they only lasted one use, they were so worth it!
(We collected more sticks, but this time we encouraged them to find sticks the size of a pencil. Then, they collected their item, and we hot glued the object and wrapped it in twine to secure it.)
With the brushed, we made our own wrapping paper, which we used to wrap up our painted pinch pots at the end of the week. We let each student choose a color for their brush and we rotated the plates (using the same color) around the circle. The flowers were super delicate, so we used them as more of a stamp than a brush, but it was still very pretty.
This was one of my favorite wrapping papers:
Lauren and I came up with the idea of making cards at camp and sending them home sort of as a thank-you note to their parents. I, personally, love to send (and receive) cards, and I thought it would be exciting for the kids to get their own card in the mail. We used recycled old gift cards or key cards to use a scrape painting technique. We let the kids choose between a set of warm colors and a set of cool colors. Lauren put a couple of dots on each of their cards and showed them how to scrape it. They thought it was so much fun!
THURSDAY: On Thursday, we did a project I'd been dying to do. Two of the campers just happened to be my 4-year-old and 10-year-old sister-in-laws :), and when I saw this idea on Pinterest, I just knew they would eat it up! We pretty much dedicated the day to our Recycled Mermaids. (I had no idea how much time it would take to assemble them!!) We cut up recycled egg cartons to use as the mermaid's tail. We let the girls choose either blues or pinks for their mermaid's tail. As it turned out, all of our older girls wanted blues, and our little girls wanted pinks. (These required multiple coats to really cover up the egg carton.) Then, we had them do the opposite colors for the body of the mermaid. (I cut out the template from some recycled cardboard, and they just painted them.) We used some leftover watercolor paper to make her hair and her bikini top. We had to string baker's twine all the way through her tail to make her flexible. Then, I tied small bells to the ends to make her more whimsical. There were a lot of steps, but the girls just loved their mermaids and were so patient and involved with every step of the process.
You can find the original post I found on Pinterest here.
After spending the majority of the day working on the mermaids, we didn't have time for much, so they had just enough time to give their pinch pots two coats of paint now that they hardened. We just let them choose one color for their pot because we were so crunched for time.
FRIDAY: On our last day, we started our last project, which was crepe paper flowers. We went out and collected more sticks (they were professionals at this point) and painted the stick green. While that was drying, (the other) Lauren taught us how to make pom-pom balls from yarn to use as the center of our flowers. I was always so impressed how the big kids (my four 9- and 10-year-olds) would always step up to help the younger ones when we did things like this. They were so eager to help, which was so much help to us!
Once they finished, each camper got a different colored marker for their flower. They drew lines stemming from the bottom of the flower towards the top. While they were making pom-pom balls and making their flowers, I was assembling their flowers by hot gluing them to their painted stick. I would them slide the pom pom ball onto the stick, glue it, and them spray it with water to make the marker on the crepe paper bleed. I really wished we would have done this project earlier in the week so that I could have kept them on display in this little vase longer.
We sort of merged this project and this one together to come up with our own.
After our flowers were done, we wrapped up our pinch pots, that we trimmed in gold and sprayed with finish to give them a more finished look, in our homemade wrapping paper and tied them off with our gift tags we made at the very beginning of the week. I wrote their names on each of the cards. How fun are these?
After our flowers were done, we wrapped up our pinch pots, that we trimmed in gold and sprayed with finish to give them a more finished look, in our homemade wrapping paper and tied them off with our gift tags we made at the very beginning of the week. I wrote their names on each of the cards. How fun are these?
Then, we let them decorate the paper bags Lauren got from the local grocery store to take home all of their work for the week:
I loved that Sophie had everyone "autograph" her bag. The kids got along so well and were fast friends from the very start. It was such a sweet week! :)
Check out Sophie's loot:
I had such a blast and am already planning for the next camp!
--- Lauren
