Collage a Magical Hat

It is not possible to go out to the store and purchase supplies while we are all sheltering in place to stay well and avoid spreading the Covid-!9 virus. This little project helps you stretch your creativity to use what you can find in your cupboards and drawers. No two hats will look the same. I made this video for the children where I teach part-time, but feel free to participate here. If you would like to share your work, I will happily post it on thie site. Just email a jpeg, and your name if you would like to receive credit.

Faces with Upcycled Materials

Children love picking and choosing materials from odds and ends left over from other art projects or ordinary items that you have around the house. When we did this project I set out containers of buttons, beads, scraps of craft foam, wire, tiles..... We used a very heavy cardboard that my husband had cut out for me, and painted then with tempera. The children in the class were between three and five years old. The nose on the pictured face is a knob from a cupboard that I had saved when we remodeled our kitchen. This child came up with the idea of forming the wire into glasses. I really love this project and seeing the creativity that the children bring to it. I wound up gluing blocks of wood to the back, along the edge, so that the pieces could be upright on a table.

Make your own Votive Candle Holders

I made these little candle holders for a party that we were having in our back yard. They have the look of summer and the beach. I also made about 70 of them, in the spring, for children to paint at the Montessori school where I teach. Initially I made them with Plaster of Paris, but I quickly ran out and discovered that a leftover bag of grey grout that I had in the garage worked equally well.

I picked up the candles at a craft store and used the paper cups as molds. The cups had a wax lining and were constructed with folds, giving the candle holders an extra special look. Initially I thought that I would have to remove the candle from its metal holder and use a weight (washers and blue glass pictured) to sink the candle holder into the wet plaster (grout), but discovered that that was not necessary.

I simply mixed the plaster to a consistency that was easy to pour and then immediately sunk the votive candle, along with the liner, into the soupy plaster. I think they took about 24 hours to dry, maybe less. The grout takes longer. I painted them with acrylic.

Printing with Styrofoam Peanuts

I had to ship a package the other day and went up to the attic to poke around for a box. I hate to pay for shipping boxes. When I found one and opened it I was dismayed to discover that it was full of those pesky packing peanuts. As I was determining what to do with them I realized that they would make nifty little printing stamps, and I had just the perfect colors of ink on hand to give it a try. I printed them in orderly rows on a sheet of drawing paper. I think it would make a pretty fabric design as well!