Cat on a Mat, An Artsy Corgi Art Activity

Let’s have fun making a cat on a mat. We’ll paint wet-in-wet with the light-filled colors loved by the Impressionists and weave the painting into a mat for a happy cat! You’ll discover how to draw a cat and learn a basic tabby weave.

In this post you’ll find:

• Supply list
• Step-by-step directions
• Helpful hints
• Creative variations and adaptations for different ages
• 4 Vocabulary and art and design principles children will learn
• 4 ways this activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development
• Clean-up tips
• Cute Molly Photo

Let’s have Fun Making Art!

Supplies:

The Mat

• 9X12 “ Watercolor paper (smooth or rough is fine). You can find inexpensive pads or packs at craft stores and in the craft section of places like Walmart.
• Choose your favorite color of construction paper for the loom.
• A larger white piece of paper as a background for the mat
• Crayons or oil pastels
• Watercolor paint set and brush

The Cat

• Pictures of cats
• Drawing paper
• Pencils, erasers, scissors
• Crayons to color the cat
• White glue

Directions:

The Mat

1. With crayons draw curvy and straight lines, dots, spirals, etc. in different colors all over the watercolor paper. Leave lots of white space for the paint. These marks have to be crayon or oil pastels.
2. Mix several puddles of watercolor paint. Your puddle should flow, but have lots of pigment.
3. Use a large wet but not dripping brush or rag to wet paper with clear water. The paper should be a more than just damp, but no standing water.
4. Start adding watercolors, allowing them to flow and mix . Paint right over the crayon or oil pastel. The wax resists the paint and stays bright.
5. Allow to dry.

The Cat  (do this while your painting dries)

• Really study pictures of cats. Notice these details:
• the roundish shape of heads
•  the oval shape of bodies
•  the rounded triangular-shaped ears that are more on top of their heads
•  the shape are eyes and pupils
• the thickness of tails
• cats often wrap their tails around themselves so you can’t see their paws

1. Before drawing, picture in your mind where the cat’s head and body will be. Use your fist to help you imagine where to put the head that will leave room for both the ears and the body.
2. Draw lightly, sketching, so you can erase a line you don’t want.
3. Color your cat. You may want to color it in a Tabby pattern, which is stripes in any color.
4. Cut out your cat

The Loom and Weaving

1. Cut the painting into 1 inch strips the long way.
2. Make a paper loom  (See pictures)
3. Use masking tape to temporarily hold the loom on the white paper
4. Weave the 1^st watercolor strip through the loom—under, over, under, over
5. Start the 2^nd strip the opposite–over, under, over, under
6. In tabby weave each strip should be opposite to the previous strip
7. Keep gently pushing the strips together and up toward the top of your loom, until you run out of room for more strips

Putting It All Together

1. Glue your mat to the white paper
2. Glue your cat on top of the mat
3. Draw and color cat-related designs around the border of the mat

Now display your happy cat on its colorful mat for everyone to see! Enjoy how the crayon glows through the watercolor!

More Ideas and Tips to Make Your Cat on a Mat

Helpful Hints:

• As you paint, pick up your paper and move it around to help colors mix
• Don’t mix too long, or colors become muddy
• If your painted paper curls, flatten it with a book after it’s dry
• When drawing lines for the loom and watercolor strips, do these on the back so they don’t show later
• Masking tape holds the loom in place but can be removed without as much damage as cellophane tape

Variations and adaptations for different ages:

• Cut wavy lines for the loom
• If you don’t have watercolor paper, sponge paint some sturdy paper with tempera paints
• Add ribbon or yarn bows to your cat
• I do this project with 1^st graders, and I cut the watercolor strips and make the looms, but they love doing everything else!
• If children aren’t sure whether they want their painting to be cut, number the strips so they can weave them in order.
• Color your cat in wild colors

4 Vocabulary and art and design principles children will learn

1. Crayon resist—crayon’s wax content resists water-based paints and remains bright. Oil pastels work the same way.
2. Sketch—to draw an object with short, light strokes, sometimes lightly redrawing a line before erasing the unwanted line.
3. Pattern—the repetition of a design. Tabby cats have a striped pattern.
4. Tabby weave—the over and under pattern that is opposite in each row.

4 Ways this activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development

1. Weaving helps children develop fine motor skills.
2. Drawing helps children take time to look carefully, seeing details as well as the overall picture. Important in every subject, but especially in learning to recognize individual letters and word patterns for beginning reading.
3. Making choices with colors, patterns, etc. enhances problem-solving skills.
4. Making art enhances creativity and refreshes minds and eyes tired from screens.

Clean up Hints:

• Plastic table cloth or large paper under your work
• Paper towels
• A plastic dish tub holds things to be washed
• A wastebasket for paper scraps
• After washing and rinsing brushes, reshape bristles and lay them flat to dry. Store with bristles up in a container.

Check out these Great Freebies Before You Go

Watch for a special thank you gift for our newsletter subscribers coming in early December. Molly the Artsy Corgi has some Christmas art ideas you and your children will love. These fun and easy projects will provide shared moments of calm and invite Jesus into your busy holidays. Don’t miss out. Sign up for our newsletter today!

If you sign up, you’ll right away receive a free guide to 5 Ways Art Benefits Children’s Cognitive, Physical, Spiritual, and Social Development, with a Few Fun and Easy Activities for each Benefit. And once a month more activity ideas for art, history, and nature, curriculum connections, and links to more resources will come to your inbox.

Visit our website to get free downloadable puzzles, how-to-draw pages and coloring pages for kids and an updated list of my hands-on workshops, chapels, and presentations for all ages.

Molly the Artsy Corgi hopes you enjoy making a happy cat on a mat! You can read our first post about Renoir here, and Molly and I hope you’ll come back next time for a devotion based on our cats on a mat art activity.

And finally a cute Molly Photo

She thinks she’s helping me get ready for our walk!

 

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An Artsy Corgi Art Activity Based on Lighthouse Paintings

Ahoy, Matey, let’s make a seascape with a lighthouse and lots of fun details! In this Artsy Corgi art activity, you’ll discover an easy way to draw a lighthouse, learn several fun painting techniques, and finish up with some 3-D effects. We call this type of project a mixed-media activity, because we use several different art mediums.

In this post you’ll find:

• Supply list It looks a little long, but most of it is stuff you may already have
• Step-by-step directions
• Helpful hints
• Variations and/or adaptations for different ages
• Vocabulary and art and design elements and principles children will learn
• 4 ways this activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development
• Clean-up tips
• Cute Molly Photo

Let’s Make a Seascape!

Supplies:

• Sturdy light blue paper for a background (with light blue paper, you can paint clouds and water on an already sky and water colored background)
• White foam plates make great paint palettes and can rinse off easily for reuse or be thrown away
• Tempera paint in white, black, blue, green, and purple
• Clean damp rags to paint with
• White drawing paper for the lighthouse
• Pencils, erasers, scissors
• Colored pencils, crayons, or markers to color the lighthouse
• Tan or white paper to spatter for sand
• Watercolor set and 2 brushes for spattering
• A fork or old plastic card to make sea grass
• Small sea shells (gathered yourself, or available in craft stores)
• White glue

Directions: (I’ve split these into sections for easier use)

Sea and Sky

1. Lightly draw a horizon line to divide the sky and water
2. On the palette, pour a small puddle of white and a very small puddle of black, leaving space between each puddle
3. Scrunch up your rag or hold it over your index finger to paint
4. After looking at clouds outside or in photos, use the rag to paint clouds. They can be fluffy or straight. You may swirl the paint to suggest movement. See the picture at #7.
5. If you wish to add gray to clouds, put a little white in another spot on your palette and mix in a tiny bit of black to make different grays. Always mix just a little of the darker color into the lighter color. The opposite way takes way more of the lighter color to change the darker color.
6. Add blue, green, and purple to your palette.
7. Use these colors or mix together to make the ocean. You may make a calm sea or big swirling waves. Add white to the top of waves for foam.

Sand

1. Sand comes in all colors, so use a sheet of white or tan paper.
2. Swirl a wet brush into the brown pan of a watercolor set.
3. While holding it over the paper, tap the brush against the handle of another brush to spatter paint. Use other colors if you wish—maybe some yellows and even a little green and blue for beach glass.

Lighthouse (The camera has distorted some of the lines)

1. Look at a glass or towel tube and help children draw a cylinder’
2. Look at a picture of a lighthouse and see that it’s a tower, which is a cylinder.
3. Some lighthouses taper towards a narrower top, but they are still cylinders.
4. Encourage children to look at other details, such as the rounded top or roof and the balconies with railings that often go around the outside. Keepers needed to get outside to keep the glass clean. These railings should curve.
5. If children wish they can add some out buildings around the lighthouse tower. Don’t worry about 1-point perspective, unless they’re older and want to learn. There are lots of online tutorials for it if they do.
6. Color the lighthouse and cut out.

Putting it all together

1. Cut out stretches of sand and glue in place over the water.
2. Glue the lighthouse somewhere on top of the sand.
3. Use a fork or old plastic card to make sea grass.
4. Glue on seashells.

And there you have it–a beautiful seascape with a lighthouse.

More Helpful Ideas and Tips for this Activity

Helpful Hints:

• Painting with rags and spattering paint is fun and easy for all ages, but it is messy, so if the weather cooperates, you might want to do these parts outside in one session.
• You may spatter paint with an old tooth brush and a popsicle stick, but remember to scrape towards yourself. It’s a little counterintuitive, but the other way just spatters you!
• Paint shirts are a good idea !
• To help prevent globs of glue, pour a small glue puddle on a plate and have children use their finger to spread the glue.
• Place waxed paper under things as you spread glue. It keeps things from sticking in the wrong places.

Variations and/or adaptations for different ages:

• Paint a sun setting over the horizon
  

  sunset over Higgins Beach, photo by author

• Use gray paper and paint lots of black clouds over a stormy sea
• Use black paper and use thick yellow tempera paint to show the lighthouse’s beam of light
• Draw and cut out small ships to sail out in the ocean
• older children may want to get more detailed with their lighthouse drawings.
• Sometimes children get discouraged if their drawing efforts don’t look just as they’d like. Remind them that drawing is a skill just like playing soccer or making a cake. It takes practice and time. Encourage them to try and praise their efforts!
• Younger children may need help cutting and gluing all the parts together.
• You may need a glue gun to make the shells stick.

4 Vocabulary and art and design principles children will learn

1. Seascape—a painting that has views of the ocean
2. Color: tint=a color plus white, shade=a color plus black—in this activity children learn how to mix tints and shades for the clouds and water. They also learn how to mix just a little darker color at a time into lighter colors.
3. Texture: how something feels to the touch, rough, soft, etc. In painting we often simulate texture by spattering, etc.—as children use this different painting technique and spatter paint, they learn about putting texture into paintings.
4. Perspective: the ways artists create the illusion of depth in a painting, creating a foreground, middle ground, and background—without getting technical, children can discover 2 ways (differences in size and overlapping objects) to create the 3 distances in paintings.

4 Ways this activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development

1. Using pencils, brushes, scissors, etc. helps children develop fine motor skills.
2. This activity helps develop visual/spatial skills as children create a picture with 3 distances.
3. Making choices in creating art enhances problem-solving skills.
4. Making art enhances creativity and refreshes minds and eyes tired from screens.

Clean up Hints:

• Be sure to put a plastic table cloth or large paper under your work
• Have paper towels handy
• A plastic dish tup is great to hold tools you will keep and wash
• Keep a wastebasket handy for trash
• After washing and rinsing brushes, reshape bristles if needed, and lay them flat on paper towels to dry. Store with bristles up in a jar.

Before You Go, See Molly’s Photos and More about Lighthouses

If you’d like more activity ideas for art, history, and nature, curriculum connections, and links to more resources, be sure to sign up for my newsletter and receive a free guide to 5 Ways Art Benefits Children’s Cognitive, Physical, Spiritual, and Social Development, with a Few Fun and Easy Activities for each Benefit. You can also learn more about us and see more fun activities on our website

Photos of Molly the Artsy Corgi with a few ocean things

Molly was a little worried at first

then she decided a shell might be good to eat.

Finally she settled down for a good photo. She knows it means a treat!

Visit my website where you’ll find free downloadable puzzles, how-to-draw pages and coloring pages for kids and an updated list of my hands-on workshops, chapels, and presentations for all ages.  

Molly the Artsy Corgi hopes you enjoy making a mixed media art project of the sea and a lighthouse! If you missed them, be sure and go to earlier posts about lighthouses this month—Shipwrecks and Lighthouses and Lighthouses Tall and Small, A Kid-friendly Devotion about Lighthouses.

Next week in our newsletter you’ll discover connections to other subjects, a museum gem with activities for kids online, freebees, book reviews, and links to continue learning about lighthouses!

Molly and I hope to see you back here soon for a new Kathy the Picture Lady art series.

 

 

 

Scroll in a Box Art Activity Based on Christ and His Mother Reading the Scriptures by Henry O. Tanner

Let’s make a scroll in a box. This project has endless possibilities to use for school projects and special days and holidays. It will also remind us of our painting, Christ and His Mother Reading the Scriptures, by Henry O. Tanner, because of course, at that time they would be reading from a scroll.

Christ and His Mother Reading the Scriptures by Henry O. Tanner, 1909, Dallas Museum of Art, public domain

In this post you’ll find:

• Supply list
• Step-by-step directions  AND Variations, which are limited only imaginations!
• Helpful hints
• 4 Ways this activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development
• Clean-up tips
• Molly Photo with a special announcement

Let’s get started!

Supplies:

• A box with a lid
• Paper of all kinds
• Glue, scissors, pencils, rulers, crayons, markers, etc
• Craft supplies, such as ribbon, yarn, stickers, shells, etc

Directions AND Variations:

The Scroll

1. Cut a long piece of paper to make a scroll that will fold into the size of your box (if you need to tape or glue several pieces of paper together)
2. Fold this as you would a fan to make sections that fit the box’s length and width (make the paper a little smaller than the box so it folds in smoothly)
3. Do not glue the scroll into the box until you have done any writing or other decoration on the scroll

Here are a few suggestions for ways to use your scroll in a box. I bet you can think of lots more:

• Book reports
• Favorite verses you’ve decorated
• Stories you’ve written
• Facts about an animal you’re studying
• Mother’s Day “card”
• Christmas “card”

The Box Cover

1. Choose how you want to decorate the cover of your box
2. I cut and glued colored paper to cover the original design first

Here are a few suggestions for cover designs:

• Your design may be a pretty paper you once marbled or blew colored bubbles onto
• If this is for a book report, you may draw and color a picture from the book and include its title and your name somewhere on the cover
• If it’s a history project, you might glue on a map showing the area you studied
• For an animal report you could glue or draw a picture of the animal for the cover
• If it’s a story you’ve written about the beach you might glue on some shells and color waves or lighthouses
• Try printing a leaf and then gluing on some more leaves, pinecones, etc.
• If the box is for a special day such as Mother’s day decorate with artificial flowers, etc

When the scroll and the box cover are done, it’s time to glue the scroll into the box and hand in for a terrific grade or give as a special gift to someone in your family or a friend!

Helpful Hints

• If you use thin paper for the scroll, liquid glue will pucker it. Try glue sticks instead
• Some of the 3-D elements may need to be attached with a glue gun (parent oversight of this is recommended)
• Parents or caregivers will need to make the scroll for younger children and glue it into the box. But children will enjoy decorating or writing on the scroll.

4 Ways this activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development

1. Using pencils, brushes, scissors, etc. helps children develop fine motor skills.
2. This project is a wonderful way to encourage children to use their imaginations and creativity
3. Making art refreshes minds and eyes tired from screens.
4. This project gives children new ways to do school projects or to explore their interests and talents as they decide what to put on the scroll.

Clean up Hints:

• Be sure to put a plastic table cloth or large paper under your work
• Have paper towels handy
• Wax paper under things you glue keeps them from sticking in the wrong places
• Keep a wastebasket handy for trash

Special Announcement:

Starting next week and for the whole month of September Molly and I will be interviewing 6 great children’s author’s and the new books they have coming out, including nonfiction, picture books, and board books.

Here’s a picture of Molly with 2 earlier books by Annette Whipple, which I use in my art room all the time.Those eyes have her mesmerized!

Next week Molly and I will tell you all about Annette’s newest book and give you a sneak preview of some of its amazing illustrations!

Before You Go

Molly hopes you enjoy making a scroll in a box! On August 31^st our newsletter will come with curriculum connections, a museum gem, suggestions for related research, children’s books to read, and a freebie or 2! Don’t miss it. Sign up with the button above. And also receive a free guide to 5 Ways Art Benefits Children’s Cognitive, Physical, Spiritual, and Social Development, with a Few Fun and Easy Activities for each Benefit

Visit my website where you’ll find free downloadable puzzles, how-to-draw pages and coloring pages for kids and an updated list of my hands-on workshops, chapels, and presentations for all ages. Add link

 

 

 

 

Just Have Fun, An Artsy Corgi Fun and Easy Art Activity

Summer is winding down in some areas, and before long we’ll see school supplies in the stores. So try this last messy Artsy Corgi Fun and Easy Art Activity and just have fun! Molly gives it high paw rating!

In this post you’ll find:

• Supply list
• Step-by-step directions
• Helpful hints
• Clean-up tips
• Variations and adaptations
• 6 Ways the activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development
• And as always, a cute photo of Molly the Artsy Corgi

Let’s get started!

Supplies:

• Sturdy paper in various colors
• Tempera paint
• water
• Recycled squeeze and spray bottles

Directions:

1. Thoroughly wash the recycled bottles
2. Add different colors of paint to the squeeze bottles
3. Add different colors of paint to the spray bottles. You will probably need to add some water too. Experiment with how much is needed to get them to spray.
4. Squeeze and spray different colors to create abstract designs on the different papers

Helpful Hints:

Experiment and have fun!

Clean up Hints:

• Cover your work surface with a plastic table cloth
• Wear old clothes or paint shirts

Variations and adaptations:

• This activity is fun for all ages
• Try adding water to the paint in the squeeze bottle for a different effect
• Try different color choices, such as using only warm or cool colors
• Try different types and colors of papers

6 Ways the activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development

1. This activity encourages experimentation with colors and designs
2. Using these spray and squeeze bottles encourages large muscle development.
3. Making art enhances creativity and refreshes minds and eyes tired from screens.
4. Making choices in creating art, enhances problem-solving skills.
5. Discussing their art and the choices they made builds vocabulary and social skills.
6. When children make choices in creating art, it enhances problem-solving skills.

Cute Molly Photo

Summer is often thunderstorm weather, and here Molly sports her thunder shirt, which helps a little to calm her fears.

Before You Go

If you’d like more activity ideas for art, history, and nature, curriculum connections, and links to more resources, be sure to sign up for my newsletter and receive a free guide to 5 Ways Art Benefits Children’s Cognitive, Physical, Spiritual, and Social Development, with a Few Fun and Easy Activities for each Benefit

Visit my website where you’ll find free downloadable puzzles, how-to-draw pages and coloring pages for kids and a list of my hands-on workshops, chapels, and presentations for all ages.

Molly hopes you just had fun with this Artsy Corgi Art Activity. In August we go back to our school year schedule and hope you’ll join us for our monthly series about art. Each series includes:

1. Fun ways to learn about artists and their artworks.
2. Kid-friendly devotion based on the artwork
3. Art activity based on the artwork
4. Newsletter with curriculum connections to the artwork and reviews of related children’s fiction and nonfiction books. And freebies!
5. We also frequently do interviews with children’s authors.

To receive these blog posts by email, click on the subscribe button above. To also receive the newsletter, click on the newsletter button, too.

We will never share your email with anyone else.

 

 

Blowing Colored Bubbles, an Artsy Corgi Fun and Easy Art Activity

Everyone likes blowing bubbles! In this Artsy Corgi Fun and Easy Art Activity you’ll add food coloring and catch those colored bubbles on paper to make pretty designs for bookmarks or cards.

In this post you’ll find:

• Supply list
• Step-by-step directions
• Helpful hints
• Clean-up tips
• Variations and adaptations
• 6 Ways the activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development
• And as always, a cute photo of Molly the Artsy Corgi

Let’s get started!

Supplies:

• Paper
• Food coloring
• Bubble blowing mixture and wands
• Plastic containers for bubble and food coloring mixture

Directions:

1. Pour some bubble mixture into as many containers as you have colors
2. Add a food color to each container and stir gently
3. Lean over paper as you blow different colored bubbles. Watch them burst and make designs.

Helpful Hints:

• Start with small amounts of bubble mixture, and experiment with how much food color to add

Clean up Hints:

• This is best done outside as bubbles can sometimes float off and burst in unexpected places, leaving color behind!
• Wear old clothes or paint shirts, because as you blow, some liquid spatters back on your face and clothes.

Variations and adaptations:

• This activity is fun for all ages
• Try different color choices on different papers
• Try different types and colors of papers
• Make it a game: lots of people like to run to catch bubbles. Instead while someone else blows colored bubbles into the air over a lawn, the other person tries to catch the bubbles on a paper.
• Chose favorite parts of the designs to make bookmarks and cards to give as gifts.

6 Ways this activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development

1. This activity encourages experimentation with colors.
2. Making art enhances creativity and refreshes minds and eyes tired from screens.
3. Making choices in creating art, enhances problem-solving skills.
4. Running to catch bubbles is a fun activity to enjoy together.
5. Comparing the colored spatters on everyone’s faces provides lots of good laughter!
6. Making something for others encourages compassion and care for others.

Cute Molly Photo

Molly got into the 4^th of July spirit this past week!

Before You Go

If you’d like more activity ideas for art, history, and nature, curriculum connections, and links to more resources, be sure to sign up for my newsletter and receive a free guide to 5 Ways Art Benefits Children’s Cognitive, Physical, Spiritual, and Social Development, with a Few Fun and Easy Activities for each Benefit

Visit my website where you’ll find free downloadable puzzles, how-to-draw pages and coloring pages for kids and a list of my hands-on workshops, chapels, and presentations for all ages.

Molly hopes you enjoy blowing colored bubbles, and will come back soon for our next Artsy Corgi fun and easy art activity!

 

 

 

Artsy Corgi Fun and Easy Paper Marbling

You and your children will enjoy this fun and easy technique for marbling paper. Instead of expensive materials that could be bad for you, this method uses shaving cream and food coloring. Not only is it inexpensive and nontoxic, it smells great and makes terrific designs! Molly the Artsy Corgi has put her paw of approval on it!

In this post you’ll find:

• Supply list
• Step-by-step directions
• Helpful hints
• Clean-up tips
• Variations and adaptations
• Ways the activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development
• Don’t miss a link at the end to my post on Sally Matheny’s blog, Tell the Next Generation. It’s called Children’s Activities: Using Picture Book Layers
• And as always, a cute photo of Molly the Artsy Corgi

Let’s get started!

Supplies:

• Old baking sheet
• Computer paper, cardstock, construction paper, etc.
• Foam shaving cream, gel doesn’t work
• Food coloring
• Knife or spatula
• Stiff cardboard or plastic square
• A thin stick, such as the end of a paintbrush handle
• Paper towels

Directions:

1. Spread a thick layer of shaving cream over the baking sheet, kind of like frosting a cake!
2. Drop food colors in drops all over top of shaving cream
3. Use stick or end of paintbrush handle to swirl colors on top of shaving cream
4. Lay paper on top of design and gently pat all around it so the paper touches the shaving cream. Do not push it into the shaving cream.
5. Peel paper off and lay flat on paper towels
6. Use the cardboard or plastic square to scrape off and discard the shaving cream
7. Sometimes the food color smears a little, but it just adds to the design!
8. Repeat with other paper until the shaving cream design gets too dry
9. To make a new design, scrape up the used shaving cream from the baking sheet and discard
10.  Then spread a new layer of shaving cream and repeat the previous steps for new designs

Helpful Hints:

• After patting the paper, leave for a few seconds more to absorb the colors
• Also wait for a few seconds after removing the paper before scraping off the shaving cream

Clean up Hints:

• Cover your work surface with a plastic table cloth
• Have lots of paper towels for the scraped-off shaving cream. This shaving cream will have food coloring in it.
• Have a lined wastepaper basket very close for all the paper towels filled with globs of shaving cream and food coloring

Variations and adaptations:

• This activity is fun for all ages, and even the discarded shaving cream is pretty, with swirled-in food colors
• Try different color choices.
• Try different types and colors of papers
• Try using a fork or comb to swirl the colors
• Use the designed papers for cards or covers for reports, etc!
• If you have larger baking sheets, make larger papers to use for book covers or wrapping paper

4 Ways this activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development

1. This activity encourages experimentation with colors, designs, and tools.
2. Making art enhances creativity and refreshes minds and eyes tired from screens.
3. Making choices in creating art, enhances problem-solving skills.
4. Discussing the process of making art and their choices builds vocabulary and social skills.

I hope you’ll check out my article “Children’s Activities: Picture Book Layers,” on Sally Matheny’s fantastic blog, Tell the Next Generation to find lots of ways to enjoy picture books with your children! :

Molly hopes you enjoy marbling paper with this fun and easy technique, and will come back for our next Artsy Corgi fun and easy art activity.

Molly posed for me on some rocks near our house , and we enjoyed these warm-colored wildflowers nearby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Before You Go

If you’d like more activity ideas for art, history, and nature, curriculum connections, and links to more resources, be sure to sign up for my newsletter and receive a free guide to 5 Ways Art Benefits Children’s Cognitive, Physical, Spiritual, and Social Development, with a Few Fun and Easy Activities for each Benefit

Visit my website where you’ll find free downloadable puzzles, how-to-draw pages and coloring pages for kids and a list of my hands-on workshops, chapels, and presentations for all ages.

Splat Goes the Paint in this Fun and Easy Art Activity

Grab a wooden spoon and splat some paint! It’s messy, but so much fun, and summer’s perfect to put on some old clothes and head outside to make a colorful art masterpiece . . .  or 2 . . . or 3!

In this post you’ll find:

• Supply list
• Step-by-step directions
• Helpful hints
• Clean-up tips
• Variations and adaptations to extend the activity, make it more challenging, or simplify it for younger children.
• Ways the activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development

Let’s get started.

Supplies:

• Large paper, any color
• Tempera paints in various colors
• Wooden spoon

Directions:

1. Lay large paper on a firm, flat surface
2. Squeeze puddles of various colors of paint around the paper
3. Splat down on the puddles with the flat side of the wooden spoon
4. No need to clean the spoon between colors, just keep splatting the puddles, allowing colors to mix. I did wipe the spoon off between different sheets of paper.
5. Repeat the process with other sheets of paper and colors if you wish

Helpful Hints:

• If it’s at all breezy, you’ll want to weigh the table cloth and papers down. This is what happened before I did that.
• The best splash effects happen if you splat up and down and don’t mush the spoon around

Clean up Hints:

• Tempera paint is washable, but if it’s your patio or deck, you may want to put a large plastic table cloth under the splatting area. Paint does fly around and may not completely rinse off wood or concrete
• Keep paper towels handy for cleanup as you paint
• A wastebasket or plastic dish tub is great for keeping trash picked up and ready to throw away
• The paint is thick and dries slowly, so find a safe place for your creations to dry

Variations and Adaptations:

• If you put a sheet of paper over the paper with the puddles before splatting, It’s less messy, but doesn’t make the splash design as well. I kept splatting and the design improved.
• If you put two or three different colors close together, you’ll get colorful mixtures.
• Do papers with just cool or warm colors plus white
• Do papers with just the primary colors—red, yellow, and blue
• Wear your bathing suit for this activity, then run through the sprinkler to cool and wash off
• Cut papers into smaller pieces for cards, posters, or keep large pieces to use to cover your books in the fall.

4 Ways the activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development

1. When children make choices in creating art, it enhances problem-solving skills.
2. Art gives children opportunities to explore their interests and talents.
3. Making art enhances creativity and refreshes minds and eyes.
4. Creating colorful art reminds us of the beauty God has given us in the world

Before You Go

If you’d like more activity ideas for art, history, and nature, curriculum connections, and links to more resources, be sure to sign up for my newsletter and receive a free guide to 5 Ways Art Benefits Children’s Cognitive, Physical, Spiritual, and Social Development, with a Few Fun and Easy Activities for each Benefit

Visit my website where you’ll find free downloadable puzzles, how-to-draw pages and coloring pages for kids and a list of my hands-on workshops, chapels, and presentations for all ages.

Molly hopes you enjoy splatting paint. She had to stay in during the splatting, but here she is inspecting my painting.

Molly and I hope to see you right back here soon for another Fun and Easy Art Activity. Sign up for our blog, and never miss our art activities!

 

 

Children’s Art Activity for Mother’s Day

This month Molly and I are changing things up a bit, so you can make a cute card for Mother’s Day. In the next posts we’ll look at some beautiful paintings about mothers by Mary Cassatt, and next a devotion based on those paintings.

In this post you’ll find:

• Supply list
• Vocabulary
• Step-by-step directions
• 2 Helpful hints
• Variations and/or adaptations for different ages
• An art element and design principle to learn about
• 3 ways this activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development
• Clean-up tips
• Cute Molly Photo

Let’s get started!

Supplies:

• card stock or construction paper
• paint and brushes, markers, crayons, or colored pencils
• scissors, pencils, yarn or string, and glue
• teabags

Vocabulary:

stencil: a paper or other material with shapes or designs cut out so paint, etc. may be applied through the cutout shape onto an underlying surface

 

 

 

 

Directions:

1. Fold paper in half and draw a cup-shape, making sure one side is against the fold
2. While still folded, cut cup out
3. Cut oval shape out of white or contrasting color and glue in place for cup opening
4. Draw and color designs on front of cup. I made stencils for the tulips
5. Have an adult use an X-Acto knife to make a small cut on the inner rim of the cup
6. Thread yarn or string through the cut and attach a heart or other shape (like a teabag string and tag hanging out of a cup)
7. On the inside left of the card glue a piece of paper over the end of the yarn. Decorate and write your Mother’s Day message on this paper
8. On the other side of the opened card, use a glue gun, tape, or staples to attach a teabag

2 Helpful Hints:

• When you’re making stencils, it’s helpful to fold the paper so the design is the same on both sides
• When using the X-Acto knife, open up the card and work on a cutting board

Variations and/or adaptations for different ages:

• Use a real teabag string and tag instead of yarn
• Make a pocket for the teabag
• This card can be used for many occasions, such as birthdays. Just change designs and inner message.

Children may need help drawing and cutting out the cup and finishing it with a teabag and teabag tag, but there’s much they can do:

•    Choose the color of the card, decorate it, and choose the flavor of tea to include
•    Write the message
•    Pray for the person
•    Stick stamp and return address on envelope and put in letter box

An art element and design principle to learn about

• Color—children will choose colors to make a pleasing design
• Shape—learning to notice and work with shapes is an important skill that helps children in many ways, such as letter recognition and math skills.

3 Ways this activity aids children’s mental, physical, and social development

1. Using crayons and scissors, and other art tools helps children develop fine motor skills.
2. When children make choices in creating art, it enhances problem-solving skills.
3. Making art for someone else encourages children to think of and care for others

Clean up Hints:

• Put a plastic table cloth or large paper under your work
• Wax paper under paper as you spread glue, keeps things from sticking in the wrong places
• Have paper towels handy
• Keep a wastebasket handy
• After washing and rinsing brushes, reshape bristles if needed, and lay them flat on paper towels to dry. Store with bristles up in a jar.

Cute Molly Photo

Molly loves when daffodils and tulips begin to pop up in the spring!

Molly hopes you enjoy making this Mother’s Day card! In our next post we’ll show you two of Mary Cassatt’s beautiful paintings of mothers and children and give you ways to enjoy these with your children.

 

Before You Go

If you’d like more activity ideas for art, history, and nature, curriculum connections, and links to more resources, be sure to sign up for my newsletter and receive a free guide to 5 Ways Art Benefits Children’s Cognitive, Physical, Spiritual, and Social Development, with a Few Fun and Easy Activities for each Benefit

Sign up now and don’t miss May’s newsletter, which will have lots of books and activities to help you and your kiddos enjoy God’s wonderful creation!

You may also visit my website where you’ll find free downloadable puzzles, how-to-draw pages, coloring pages for kids, and an updated list of my hands-on workshops, chapels, and presentations for all ages.

 

 

 

Easter Painting Activity for Children

Here’s an Easter art project for children that uses fun and easy water color techniques to make a colorful cross picture for cards or framing.

The cross design reminds us that on Good Friday, Christ died for us so our sins can be forgiven, and we can become part of God’s family.

So let’s get started!

Supplies:

• Watercolor paints, brushes, and small containers to hold mixed paint
• Watercolor paper is best for the special effects
• Heavy white paper still allows a nice design (I’ll show you how)
• Coarse salt
• Wax paper torn into small shapes
• Plastic wrap
• Other techniques to try: paint spattering, drops of lemon juice or rubbing alcohol, grains of rice, leaves

Directions if using watercolor paper

Note: once your paper is wet,  you have to have everything ready and work pretty quickly

1. Work in a place where you can leave your painting to dry before moving it. Put a plastic table cloth under your work.
2. Before wetting the paper, use masking tape to form a cross on your paper (keep it a little rough looking). The masking tape allows you to paint right over it. When the paint dries, and you remove the tape, you’ll have a white cross, with beautiful paint patterns all around it.
3. Choose and mix 3 or 4 colors for the background in the small containers  (I thought mine were dark enough, but would probably make them darker next time. Watercolors dry lighter than you expect)
4. With a large brush wet your watercolor paper all over with clean water  (don’t make it sopping wet, just a light layer or sheen)
5. Brush the colors around your paper; drop some in with a brush or right from a container
6. Let the colors move around and swirl together for a couple moments  (too long makes colors muddy and you need wet paint for the next steps)
7. Sprinkle salt or rice around your paper
8. Place a few pieces of wax paper or leaves around, overlapping them
9. Scrunch up pieces of plastic wrap and place on areas of paint

Leave everything to dry (it may take several hours if you had lots of paint puddles). Once dry you can try spattering paint.

   Directions if using heavy white paper

1. Form a cross on your paper with masking tape as before
2. Decide what design you want for a background
3. Choose and mix 3 or 4 colors as before
4. Do Not wet your paper, but you’ll still need to work pretty quickly
5. With your brush paint your design., allowing colors to mix and blend
6. The salt, wax paper, etc don’t work well or even much at all on this paper, but spattering works just fine. 

Leave everything to dry an hour or more depending on how wet your paint was. Once dry you can try spattering paint. Old toothbrushes work well for spattering.

Once either project is dry remove the tape, and any papers, leaves, etc,. Brush off the rice and/or salt and enjoy your creation!!

Now mount your creation on colored paper for all to admire or on cardstock to send Easter blessings to family and friends,

AND remember, Jesus didn’t remain on the cross or in the grave, but rose from the dead on Easter morning!

Hallelujah!!

Before You Go

Molly the Artsy Corgi and I hope you enjoyed this project. We’ll be back soon with more great art, devotions, and art activities! Sign up so you don’t miss any of the fun. And you can have even more art fun if you sign up to receive our monthly newsletter.

Interview with Laura Sassi about Her New Children’s Book Bunny Finds Easter

Molly the Artsy Corgi and I would like to welcome back children’s author, Laura Sassi. Bunny, the main character in Laura’s new board book, Bunny Finds Easter, has also come along to help answer some questions and show you a cute craft.

Laura, let’s let Molly and Bunny talk a little and show the craft, and then you and I can finish up the interview.

Molly:  I love your Easter hat, Bunny. Did you pick out the ribbon and flowers?

Bunny: Yes, and I wanted the ribbon to go under my chin so it would stay on. My favorite part, though, is that there are two holes for my ears.

Molly:  Oh, wow, my ears aren’t as long as yours, but I need a hat like that, too! Tell me, Bunny, do bunnies really like carrots?

Bunny: Of course! They are crunchy and colorful and full of vitamins!

Molly:  I like the crunchy part best! I’ve never been on an Easter egg hunt, Bunny, but I think I’d be really good because of my super powerful nose. Would you please tell our readers what you do on an egg hunt.

Bunny: It’s just like it sounds. An Easter egg hunt is when you go on a hunt and look for eggs! Sometimes the eggs are real eggs- but colored. Other times the eggs have surprises inside them like chocolate and jelly beans!

Molly: That sounds fun and yummy. I want to have an egg hunt this Easter! What other things do you do on Easter?

Bunny: At our house, we bake Easter treats like hot cross buns and we decorate Easter eggs. We also get dressed up and hop to church!  Can you spot the church?  (HINT: It’s on the cover of the book.)

Molly:  I did see the church. It’s very pretty. I really like Ella’s illustrations. They make me want to jump into your story and go to church with you! Everything sounds like so much fun, but when did you find out that Easter is really all about Jesus and His resurrection?

Bunny: I learned about Jesus and His resurrection at church.  And do you know when I first heard the good news of Easter? It was when we were singing! Singing hymns is a great way to learn about Jesus and His gift of forgiveness and new life.

Molly:  Singing is a wonderful way to learn about Jesus. Let’s show children another super cute way to learn about Jesus and His resurrection!

Bunny: That’s sound like a hopping fun idea!

Supplies and Directions for Bunny Craft

Supplies:

• small flower pot
• pink acrylic paint
• cardstock or art foam in pinks and flowery colors
• Wiggly eyes
• Pink pompom
• Glue gun, markers

Here are the directions:

1. Paint the flower pot pink
2. Draw and cut out ears, flowers, and a bow
3. Tuck ears into flower pot , add flowers to the rim, and glue in place
4. Draw mouth with marker
5. Glue eyes and pompom nose in place (get help from parents or grandparents to use a glue gun)
6. Fill with plastic Easter eggs. Some of these could contain jelly beans but others may contain paper slips with written items to teach about Jesus and Easter or the items from Resurrection eggs.

Molly: Do you think it looks a little like you, Bunny?

Bunny: Yes, in PINK!

Kathy: while Molly and Bunny munch on a few jelly beans, can you tell us where you got the idea for Bunny Finds Easter, Laura?

Laura: As a young child I was confused about what we were celebrating at Easter. I loved coloring Easter eggs and hunting for jelly beans, but it wasn’t until I was a tween that I made the connection that Easter is when we celebrate Jesus’s resurrection. Inspired by that memory, I decided to write a board book for preschoolers and toddlers that would celebrate those fun Easter traditions and, at the same time, serve as an introduction to the real gift of Easter – Jesus! I decided that an engaging way to do this was through the eyes of a sweet bouncy protagonist named Bunny who wakes up Easter morning determined find out what Easter is all about.

Kathy:  What a wonderful way to help little ones learn about Easter! Molly and I love to snuggle to read cute board books and look at the pictures together. Do you have some suggestions for how parents and grandparents can use Bunny Finds Easter to tell children about Jesus and His resurrection?

Laura:  Yes. First of all just enjoy the story with your little ones. Sniff along with Bunny as she sniffs those hot cross buns and hunt for the fun things she encounters along the way – like Easter lilies and baby animals and colorful eggs and Easter candies.

• As you are reading, after thoroughly investigating each spread, ask your child, “Are these (insert items) what Easter is all about?  The answer is no, but maybe they are a clue as to what Easter is all about.
• When you reach that final spread, celebrate together that JESUS is what Easter is all about.  Maybe even say his name together and rejoice that He is Risen!
• Afterwards, you can review the message of the story by re-examining the items found in the story to see how each reminds us of Easter and God’s love.  Examples: Chocolate bunnies and jelly beans are sweet – like God.  The cross on the hot-cross bun is like the Cross at Easter.  The Easter bonnet – is joyful – just the way we feel on Easter as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection…and so forth.

Kathy:  Molly and I love those ideas! Where can our readers find Bunny Finds Easter?

Laura: The book is available at bookstores everywhere. If your local indie doesn’t yet have it, you can request it. I would also LOVE it if you recommended it for purchase at your church or preschool library, as well as your town library.  That way it can serve as an engaging introduction to Easter to even more children.

Thank you, Laura and Bunny for visiting our blog today to tell us all about your newest book, Bunny Finds Easter!

Have a joyful Easter Everyone!