Cute Houses Mixed Media Project - Kid's Art Class

We made some adorable mixed media houses on canvas this week.

I often get asked what "mixed media" means.  All it means is that we are using a mix of different media (acrylics, oil paint, pastels, paper, ink, pencil, crayon, charcoal, objects, fixatives, etc.) to create the artwork.  In this project, we used acrylic paint to cover the canvas panels, scrapbook papers outlined with charcoal and adhered with mod podge, and buttons, markers and ribbon to embellish.

I would caution that the charcoal needs to be put on very lightly and smudged well before using mod podge.  In some cases, we had bleeding happening.  I like the blurred look of the charcoal but may try to find a different, more controlled, way to achieve the same look in future classes. 

Dandelion Watercolor - Kid's Art Class

We did a really fun watercolor project this week.  I got the idea from (where else?) Pinterest. 
The kids applied liquid masking fluid with toothpicks to protect the dandelion seed areas. Then they did a loose wash on wet paper with several colors and let the colors bleed into one another.  We also sprinkled salt to create interesting patterns.  Once the paint started to dry we added water to the center of the flowers and dropped in a little color then splattered the color over the rest of the painting.  When the paint dried fully we dusted off the salt and used white erasers to remove the masking.  The kids really enjoyed this part!  Lastly we added stems to our dandelions. Here are the results...