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...

Lace Tree Painting - Kid's Art Class

 My art class is taking a break for the holidays.  We will be starting up again in February, but in the mean time I wanted to share this project we did a few weeks ago.  I had several students out sick that day and then forgot to take photos of one of the classes, so there are only a few photos to show.

We used 9"x12" canvas panels and I had the students tape off the bottom section in a wavy line.  Then we painted the top part with watery acrylic paint and spread plastic wrap over it while wet.  After a minute or two the students lifted off the plastic and tape to reveal the cool stripey effect.  While the canvases dried they sketched out simple tree branches and cut out lace circles.  Once the background was dry they used sharpie markers to draw the tree trunks, then mod podge to adhere the lace to the trees and seal the canvas.  The mod podge dries pretty fast so we were able to add small red birds to the paintings using toothpicks and the back end of a brush (two dots for the head and body and the toothpick to draw the tail and beak).  Simple but fun.