Pepper Paints

Our Holton Rower Tall Paintings aka Pour Paintings

It’s been a long time since I last posted! To say I have been busy is an understatement! Less than two months ago, several members of our local unschooling group met at a local coffee shop to talk about starting an unschoolers co-op and today we held our first day of classes with about 25 families and 60 kids! We have 4 sessions in which we offer several different classes. Some classes are taught by outside teachers and many led by parents. Several of us have really worked hard to get this up and running so quickly…it is sort of  unbelievable that we made it happen…and happen so well I might add!

I am teaching 2 sessions of art. My head is so full of possible ideas it might just pop off and my kids are so glad I have a new audience to share all these ideas with! (Although both of them chose to take my class!)

Today we talked about artist, Holton Rower. You may have seen his YouTube video of his TALL PAINTINGS that has been all over the internet lately. I loved it so much and thought it was a perfect project for a first class discussion about process vs product. My husband I built a smaller version of Rower’s pedestals using a piece of 4 inch 2×2 on its end screwed on to a 4inch  2×4 on it’s side and finally screwing those to a 12 x 12 piece of plywood.

Rower uses acrylic paint and there was no way I could afford to buy that much acrylic paint. Then I realized that latex house paint is acrylic paint! Perfect!! We visited a few Habitat for Humanity re-stores and Home Depot’s for some cheap paint before remembering we have a friend with a painting business and TONS of extra paint. Perfect again!!

We looked at a few prints of Rower’s Pour Paintings and I let the kids try to guess how he put the paint down.

Then we watched the video and talked about product vs process.

Luckily I had tons of helpers today! This project was A LOT of set up! First I covered everything with tarps and cardboard. We poured small amounts of paint into dixie cups and let the kids pick their colors.

And the pouring began!

Each of my students made 2 pour paintings and luckily we were able to leave them undisturbed until next week. Hopefully they will dry by then!

I am so happy with the way this project turned out! The kids loved making them too! I would love to try this on a larger scale someday. I certainly have enough left over paint!!

Poinsettia Sponge Prints

First I set out a little inspiration!

I cut up some sponges into long petal shapes and shorter ones into leaf shapes. Squirted a little tempra paint onto a tray. Squirted a little more tempra onto a dish with some q-tips  and voila…..

The kids got down to business!

And made many , many beautiful poinsettia sponge prints!

Thanks to Deep Space Sparkle for the idea! I especially love her blue ones!

Salt And Watercolors

I first saw this idea at Irresistible Ideas For Play Based Learning.  I LOVE this blog and get so many great ideas from them!!

First we drew a picture or design with a glue stick on some paper. Then we covered it with salt and shook off any excess.

Next we used eye droppers or pipettes to drip some color over the salt. We used liquid watercolors but I am sure food coloring would work too.

It was so exciting to see the salt absorb the colors.

We loved making these. A project I am sure we will be doing again really soon.

Modge Podge Leaf Candle Holders With Melt and Pour Candles

Let me start by saying, I LOVE Modge Podge!  I can totally see this in my future!!!

And….. that we  should have done this project a few weeks ago when the leaves were less crispy around here. They would have laid a bit flatter on the glasses.

I ordered some wax from Swan Creek Candles. These are lead free and really easy–melt and pour wax refill kits.

We went to the thrift store and bought several glass jars and containers suitable for holding candle wax. Collected some leaves and got out the modge podge and some brushes.

We “painted” the glasses with modge podge and laid our leaves down and then painted over the tops of the leaves also.

You can see how our dry leaves didn’t exactly cooperate and lay flat. But they still look great after they dry.

Next we glued our wicks into the bottoms of the jars with a hot glue gun.

We melted the wax in the microwave

We poured the hot wax into our prepared jars. Let the wax harden a bit and pull wicks to the center. When dry trim wicks down.

Then light them and ooh and ahh at the pretty candles and leaf candle holders you made!

Masking with Rubber Cement and Watercolors

We are trying to squeeze in the “better for outside” sorts of projects before it gets too chilly around here.

And the smell of rubber cement is a great reason to take this one outside!

Draw or dribble rubber cement on paper

Let it dry for about 30 to 45 minutes

Paint over the top with watercolors

Rub and peel off the rubber cement!

Magical Bottles

These magical bottles are filled with different oils and/or corn syrup and/or water. Back in my school teaching days we called these waves in a bottle or ocean in a bottle— Oil and water and corn starch and water don’t mix but they sure do make pretty “waves”.

3 warnings before you go any further! 1. This is a messy project perfect for outside.  2. Make sure you have enough bottles and oils to make several of these. It becomes addicting-trying different mixtures together! 3. BE SURE LIDS ARE SCREWED ON TIGHT–you can even glue them closed-because if they open, believe me-it is a HUGE mess!

What you need:

several empty bottles with tight fitting lids, food coloring, water, funnels, mineral oil (I like to use mineral oil because it is clear), veg oil, corn syrup, treasures and glitter to put in your bottles.

Here is a closer look at our treasures–marbles, sequins, dice, little plastic animals or people, beads and buttons—anything non absorbent that will fit in the bottle.

I know there are actual directions for these but I just let my kids figure it out on their own–like what happens if you add water first vs. oil first what happens if you color the water or just the oil etc… Have fun there is no right or wrong way. Any way you do it your discovering something! That’s why it’s great to have several bottles and lots of supplies on hand.

You can do just corn syrup and because it is so heavy when you turn it upside down the treasures slowly float back to the top.

You can mix oil and water food coloring and treasures-shake it up and watch it separate

Or move the bottle slowly and watch the wave move around in the bottle.

We discovered if you add too much food coloring it gets too dark to see what’s going on inside the bottle.

We have made these several times and now have a collection of about 15 or so magic bottles. I often pull these out and put them in a sunny window. They are so pretty!!

Aren’t they?!

Reusable Grocery Bags Made From Pillow Cases

A few weeks ago we stocked up on pretty pillow cases at our thrift store on 50% off everything day. Today we finally got around to re -purposing them into grocery bags.

We used 2 pillow cases per grocery bag.

First off use a seam ripper and take top of pillow case off or just cut it off.

Take this top piece you cut off and cut it in half. These will be your straps.

Pick out some pretty colored thread for your project!!

Fold strap pieces in half (with pattern on the in inside) and sew the ends together.

Now take the two pillow cases and turn the one you will be using for the lining inside out. Stuff that one inside the outer one.

Now either sew the two pillow cases together at the top or just fold it down as far as you like to show the liner on the outside of the bag and sew. Don’t forget to sew on your straps!

Presto–really big  and sturdy grocery bags!!

So easy-I even managed to make the blue one all by myself!!