Craft with Old Dvds

Old CDs or DVDs are the perfect size and material to turn into a plate for monoprints with little kids. I added a bit of acrylic paint to tempera so that the consistency was a bit thicker. Using a sponge brush, I coated the CD and made lines in the paint with a Q-Tip. I turned the CD over onto the white paper and made the print. If one print was too faint or I didn't like it, I simply printed on top of it.

Crayon Monoprints using a Warming Tray

I was poking around a thrift store in my town when I came across a warming tray. They were used back in the 60s to keep casseroles warm. I was pretty excited because I knew exactly what I was going to use it for.

Once the tray is warm I drew on it with crayons. Nice fat ones would work well, but I only had standard Crayolas. The crayons literally melt onto the surface of the tray. The ugly floral pattern on the tray is a little disconcerting. I lay a sheet of white paper on top of the tray and rubbed the back with a rag. You do have to watch out that you don't burn yourself, so do be careful. I would recommend this activity for children six and up who will pay attention to a warning about the heat. The tray wipes off easily with a rag. I printed multiple times on the same sheet of paper.

An added bonus to my thrift store visit was a box of 200 mats for two dollars! I almost passed them up since there are some weird colors, but they will be perfect for sending work home with the children this school year.

Monoprints on Plexiglass

Monoprints are fun to make since they always yield some unexpected results. I used plexiglass for my printing plate, but a sheet of acetate or a piece of glass from a picture frame work just as well. Simply roll water-based printing ink onto the plexi with a brayer. I used the eraser end of a pencil to draw the marks directly into the ink. Then I pressed a sheet of paper on top of the drawing to make my print. With the remaining ink on the plate I made a fainter print. You can also layer prints on top of each other.

make your own notebooks

Last week I made a bunch of gelatin prints without any definite plans for using them. I've always liked the idea of stitching sheets of paper together with my sewing machine, so I decided to make little notebooks using the prints for the covers. I stitched sheets of computer paper to the print with my machine and then attached a piece of white chip board to the last page using glue stick. This would be an easy project to do with children. You don't need to limit yourself to using gelatin prints for the cover, but it is a fun process and I have instructions here and illustrations of the process here.

Monoprint Greeting Cards

After making a stack of monoprints (previous post) I decided that there were many that had not turned out exactly as planned, but they had some nice elements that might be recycled. I cut the prints into squares and the squares into triangles, mixed and matched different color schemes and mounted them with glue stick on blank greeting cards. I'm glad I did not just toss them out.

Monoprints

For this monoprint I rolled printing ink onto a small sheet of plexiglass with a brayer. I drew the outline of the bird with a pencil directly into the ink. I lay a sheet of paper on top of the plexiglass and applied some pressure with my hand to transfer the image. After it was dry I added some color to the bird and leaves with a pastel chalk and added some definition to the bird with a black colored pencil.