Not just a bunch of hot air...

Balloon Stamping

This is an idea from a video on using BioColor ® Paint (which I highly recommend–video and paint, both). Balloon Stamping is one project that toddlers can accomplish quite as well as their older siblings. My kids have really enjoyed this for a couple years. Balloons and paint...what’s not to love?
Of course, balloons are a choking hazard, please supervise your kids. The Biocolor ® video suggests that if you have a very young child whom you don’t trust with a balloon for safety reasons, you can tie the balloon in the toe of an old nylon stocking.

Materials:
Balloons
Paint (Biocolor ®, Tempera, acrylic)
Paper–smooth surfaced
Paper plate, saucer, or container to use for a paint pallete
Masking tape
Stencils (optional)

Procedure:
Inflate balloons to about 3 inches in diameter–about the size of an orange.
Tape paper to the table so that it doesn’t move around.
Choose 3 colors of paint. Squirt dime or quarter sized dots onto the plate/palette. The dots should be touching, pyramid fashion–two touching on bottom, one resting on top of those.
Dip the balloon into the tri-colored paint puddle and pounce it onto the paper. Pounce all over the paper, dipping to the paint as necessary. Encourage the pouncing motion as opposed to a swirling or sweeping motion. A little experimentation is to be expected, though.
Pounce the same spot again to let the paint colors swirl and vein into one another. The more you go over the same spot, the more the colors will mix. The patterns go from harlequin splotches to interesting marbled texture to...mud! There is sort of a fine line between interesting color mixing and glop, and that line approaches and passes quickly. Practice will tell you when to stop. Don’t be afraid to let the kids go too far on a few pages by themselves–this will teach them more than any lecture from mom. If they just can’t seem to find that line by themselves, you might try stopping them two or three times and asking them to rate what they see at that moment–sort of a ‘cool’, ‘cooler’, or ‘ewww’ rating. Hopefully they will begin to see when is ‘enough’ for themselves. Of course, you may just have a student that really likes glop!
This project goes pretty fast. Have enough materials for each student to try 3 or more sheets. I can almost guarantee that they will want to. (Just rinse the balloons in between sheets.)
When you are finished with one sheet lay it on the counter or hang it on a line to dry. At my house, I’ve discovered that an easy way to dry painted items is taped to the window behind our art table...Sometimes, I am hard pressed to see out that window!

Extensions
Use your Papers to cover little paper mache boxes. Or, balloon stamp right on the boxes.
Stamp onto frames.
Use your papers for collages–flowers, fairy dresses, etc.
Balloon stamp over a large stencil without too much detail.
Print a shirt. Using fabric paint, Balloon stamp a stencil onto a smooth flat surface like a cookie sheet. Remove the stencil and then stamp the image onto the shirt. Stamping directly onto the shirt doesn’t work as well because the paint just soaks into the fabric instead of mixing together.

*Use copy paper, tagboard weight, or the paper which comes on a roll. They all work better for this project than construction paper which has a "tooth".

Layered Look Pastels

Chalk with Monoprint
This allows some experimentation time with chalks, but keeps the project small and manageable. Most children love fingerpaint, so incorporating it is a nice addition.

Materials:
1/4 sheets of construction paper (white or colored)
Chalk Pastel Colors
Dark Paint (finger paint or acrylic)
optional: combs to texture the paint
Tray or cookie sheet

Procedure:
Using Quarter sheets of paper, color with chalk colors over the entire surface. Blocks of color/swirls/squiggles, ordered geometric shapes or random scribble, separate colors or overwriting with different colors...What ever they do is fine, but this isn’t the time for a detailed drawing since we are going to cover part of it with paint.
Set your chalk drawing aside and squirt a small amount of paint (about the size of a quarter) onto a tray.
Smear paint onto an area of the tray roughly the size and shape of your chalked paper.
Design with fingers, scrapers, etc. leaving a lot of open (paint-free) space.
Place paper, chalked side down, on the paint design pressing lightly to print. Lift and see the great design!

Tips/Suggestions
Using colored paper eliminates white space, even for children who can’t or don’t want to color the whole paper.
Try different color combinations. I liked the brown paper and brown paint. Try other dark papers with the same dark paint. Bright colors, like yellow paper with black paint look nice too.
Don’t feel that you have to completely cover the construction paper in chalk. A little of the paper color coming through just creates a more complex-looking design with little work.



Expanding this Lesson
*I've had a number of people say that these look like animal fur prints. I imagine if they were done soley in animal colors the effect would be even better. I'm thinking jungle scene collage...

*On subsequent sessions as your students are interested, introduce blending colors, shading, cross-hatching and stippling.

Finishing:
Since the chalks will be subject to smearing, you can laminate/cover with contact paper for protection. A light spritzing of hairspray also helps keep the chalks from dusting off the paper, though of course, it’s not as much protection as the contact paper.

Collaborative Quilt--the paper variety

This example was done by my family when the children were 3 and 5. I liked my five year old's circle piece so much that I insisted we use it as the middle block.

Each artist will create 1 or more "quilt blocks" to be mounted together as a family project. Nice for those times we need to reemphasize our cohesiveness as a family!

I found this to be a nice activity for penmanship practice (without the letters). Lol. Learning to control one's writing doesn't have to be boring.

MATERIALS

**Simple blackline designs, 2" square each, at least 1 per artist, extras encouraged(Look in the Photos section for some printable ones, draw your own and copy them, or Use one of those graphic design type coloring books.) You can use all the same design or an assortment

**Black construction paper, cut into 3" squares

**Construction paper for mounting

**Markers--as many colors as you have

**Glue or tape

PREPARATION:*Mount 2" blackline designs on black paper.These will look awfully small, but the size of the paper will encourage pecision work. The Black mat will give a finger hold and disguise mistakes.

PROCEDURE:*Spread designs on the table*Each artist chooses one square (Don't forget yours, Mom!)*Require each child to do his very best coloring.*Allow full freedom of color choice and design. I ended up liking some of my kids' unorthodox combinations better than my own!Each little masterpiece will take between 10-15 minutes.
*Complete as many as they would like in one sitting. Or, have them complete extras throughout the week...Just be careful not to lose any!
*When all the pieces are complete, lay them on different colors of construction paper to dertermine the most pleasing background--do this as a group. Let each child choose his masterpiece to glue on and its placement on the background. Glue designs onto the background, quilt-block fashion.

EXTENSIONS:*Limit the palette of markers to 2-4 colors to encourage design planning and patterning. Show that one color shouldn't be adjacent to itself. Offer pattern examples such as checkerboards or repeating colors (for example...red-white-blue)*Use facsimiles of real quilt block patterns. Each person can color either entirely according to his tastes or with a limited color palette.This would tie in nicely with a culture or history unit such as Colonial America...*Have students design their own blocks on squares using black felt-tip pens. Start with a 4x4 square to allow plenty of room to "design". Shrink the design on a copier or scanner to 2x2 size for this project... this would be a good extension of the Line and Design Lesson*This project makes a nice gift for "Grandma" or other family members...They get a little piece of everyone's work in a nice little package. My mom loved hers for Mother's Day.*This project also makes really beautiful note cards!*Another Idea...Unit Review and Wrap-upHave each student design a quilt block that represents something about any unit you are studying (science, history or geography, Literature...etc.) using a black pen, line art or clip art. Reduce to 2x2, color, and mount.

How do I do art with my children???

This is a record of the projects that I have done with my own children, so you will want to fine tune the projects to your family's interests. I started recording these at the urging of a few of the moms in my local homeschool group who felt like they wanted to do art with their young children, but didn't know where to start. These ideas are sometimes more experiential than "high art" but most people just enjoy the time to get their creative juices flowing, even it the product isn't bound for a museum. I hope you enjoy using some of these ideas in your home.

Art experiences do not have to be expensive or elaborate for young children. Offering one new technique per week and time to explore it is often all a child needs to spark their creativity. This blog offers simple art lessons to use with your students. Most of the lessons will be suitable or adaptable to all age groups. Some such suggestions are often offered. Most of the lessons use materials you already have in your home or can cheaply aquire. A few use "real" art supplies from an art store, but I try to offer suggestions for a substitute of more common materials. (If you are looking for a lesson using a particular material, a listing is on the sidebar of this site.)

MATERIALS:
pencils (graphite/colored),
crayons (64),
markers,
scissors,
construction paper (colored and white),
tape, glue,
tempera or acrylic paint
oil pastels & chalk pastels (optional)

**Please consider the following suggestions in your home art program**

1) JOIN IN with your students. This accomplishes three things...1) that this is something enjoyable/worthwhile, and 2) it shows process better to actually see someone doing it, and 3) This project should take X minutes (Students sometimes rush too much (or conversly, overwork a picture) if I just throw him off on his own the first time).

2) ALLOW YOUNGER STUDENTS TO WORK TOO. Spend time talking about how each did an good job for his or her age--even Mom! This can be really positive, building self esteem and appreciation for others' work.**DON'T EXCPECT A PERFECT PICTURE. Some techniques will work out better for one student than another. Make "process" the goal, not the resulting product. Students will likely find a handful of techniques they will use time and again, developing them as they go.

3)Once the Initial presentation is through, place the activity on a tray for a week to ALLOW MORE PRACTICE.

4)ESTABLISH A MUSEUM. At the end of the week or session, critique your pieces and choose the best to be mounted on contruction paper and hung in your "museum". Students will be really proud of this!

Above All, have fun with your students!

It's all in the Wrist...

Crayon Flicking

Note: This comes out much better than the scanned images show. I had trouble getting the scanner to pick up all the subtle tones created...just trust me and try it!

MATERIALS:

Crayons

Paper--1/4 sheets (small canvas is less daunting)

Tag board 1/2 sheetsv(like file folders--construction paper can be used in a pinch, but is less satisfactory)

Scissors

Stencils, homemade or bought (optional)

INTRODUCE TECHNIQUE

*Place Tag board across paper at any angle.

*Using a flicking motion of the wrist, draw quick lines, perpendicularly off the tag board, onto the paper.The lines should be close together, and should be made with a quick repetition flick of the wrist, not a deliberate line.
*Vary color if desired

*Remove stencil to see a sort of halo-effect lineThis may be the only step young children are ready for.

PROGRESSIVE TECHNIQUE

*Cut a wavy or angled line through the center of the tagboard.

*Proceed with flicking the crayons off the cut edge, being careful to keep the stroke perpendicular to the cut.

*Use both sides of the tagboard stencil (the positve and the negative) and compare the halo-lines created.

ADVANCED TECHNIQUE

*Make (or use store-bought) stencils.

*Use the stencil-flick technique to create a picture.I made a couple stencils to make a sailboat scene. My son really liked it and decided to copy it. This was not an "assignment", just something he wanted to do. I think it came out very well.The heart is a Valentine he made--his own idea. It was made with marker.