Paper Tube Animals

Here are some of the amazing paper tube creatures made recently by children ages 6 - 12 at Springwood Hub. How great are they?! I love them all. 

The tubes came white, so I pre-painted some of them, ready to decorate with coloured cardstock, paper, Sharpies and Posca pens. Folding the top sides of the tubes down is an easy way to create ears, for creatures such as foxes. 

Look carefully - can you spot an echidna with spikes, rainbow unicorn and little frog?

Printmaking with Foam

Using soft foam sheets (you can also recycle styrofoam packaging, such as the type used for meat and some vegetables), and etching into them with moderately sharp lead pencils, you can create cool monoprints. If you use a super-sharp pencil or other sharp implement (such as a skewer) you are likely to get tearing of the foam. Don't press too hard into the foam either, to avoid going right through it. I like to use acrylic paint for printing with the foam, but you could experiment with other inks.

Below are some examples from a Katoomba class these April School hols:

Autumn Art Wreaths

These beautiful decorations were made by children at my Autumn Art Wreaths class at Katoomba Library. Using a mixture of textured painted paper and construction paper in Autumnal colours, students created the perfect ornamental artwork for this time of the year. We used some different Autumn leaf templates I premade, to trace and cut out (however I encouraged students to make their own leaf shapes too). The white decorative markings were achieved using one of my favourite materials - Posca pens!  

Mixed Media Mobiles

Because the age range for this class was 5 - 12 years old, I prepped the framework for the mobile before the class. I used two chopsticks for each, and wove a small God's Eye at the centre (instruction for God's Eye here). 

To make 'hooks' for the mobile to be hung from, I used some craft wire. Firstly I placed a chopstick (about 1 inch from the end) in the centre of a 10cm piece of wire, wound it tightly a couple of times in one direction. Then I wound it a couple of times in the other direction.

Next, I twisted the wires together as tightly as I could a few times.

I used the remaining wire to fashion into small circles, and repeated this on each chopstick end. To neaten the wire up and stop the loops from being sharp, I wrapped each in electrician's tape. This also made the loops more sturdy. 

 On each table, I put out a selection of wool/twines/leather, bells, feathers, wire, buttons and recycled bits and pieces.