special papers

Once again, I find myself teaching art to kids. I have found a surprise in my life and that is I love to teach other people's kids. I did it last year too. Art and reading are the two homeschool subjects that I've taught. However, I've also been teaching photography seminars during the summer for five years and I love it.

For our first project, we made shaving cream marbleized papers. Next time we meet we will be putting together some silhouettes (yes, this is a copy of a project that I did last year).

My Mom had done this project with my nieces last summer and she had used some of McCormick's neon food coloring as well as the standard colors so I thought that I would try them. They were fun and added a whole new level to our project.

I do not know what is more fun, making the papers or photographing the papers.

Last year when we made these, I held onto the paper throughout the year and we used it for various projects. This time, however, we will do the silhouette project and then I will let the kids bring their other sheets home with them. One of them is already planning on making a book cover with her paper.

The girls and I recently tried this bubble printing technique from Pinterest. It was really fun and I think it would be a great craft to do in the summer at something like VBS where you could do it outside.

I would suggest however, to be careful about how much water you put in your bowls - I put too much in so we had use more paint than I had anticipated.

Since I do not have the huge school-sized bottles of tempera paint, this was discouraging.

K especially liked this project and I think she could have sat and done it all day.

I also liked it because I didn't have to all the between page cleaning I have to do with some of the other techniques that we have used.

This new technique of oil and food coloring is a new favorite. It is messy but the results are out of this world.

This was another Pinterest find. I find that unlike what people claim, I not only find ideas on Pinterest, I create using those ideas. :)

The nice thing about these two new ideas is I had all the stuff I needed to make them on hand.

My only concern with this project is whether or not the oil will make the things we stick to the papers come loose.

In following the instructions for the latest marbling technique, I found a link to a new site that has a myriad of other ideas.

I suppose that it would be a good idea to use some of these papers first, before we make more!!

From my spot on the kitchen floor (we do this stuff on an oil clothe tablecloth on the kitchen floor). Good-bye for now!