Tie Dye Snowflakes

This is a fun and simple winter project- there are a few versions of this floating around on the internet. It seems to be geared towards younger students, but I loved making them and knew

my middle school kids would as well! I like projects that use everyday objects

that kids can try at home as well.

You just need some coffee filters (basket style) and watercolours and water. 

You could also try using waterbased markers for this as well.

Liquid inks or liquid watercolours would come out much more vibrant, so use those if you have them.

Fold your filter in half 4-5 times. Cut lots of shapes and notches out from all sides.

I encourage kids to cut away lots of the filter- that way you can get a more frilly,

complex snowflake.

We used tempera discs for the painting step. Wet the entire folded snowflake first (using a wet paintbrush), then paint on colours on both sides, making sure the color is pretty intense and it passes through all the layers.

Paint, paint, paint... then flip it over and paint the other side...

We used clothespins to write our names on the snowflakes....

Then left them on a shelf to dry overnight.

The next class, carefully (they are very fragile) unfold them and carefully

glue stick them to a square piece of paper. 

These were made by Grade 7 students.

Ta da!

Three snowflakes layered together!

this student layered together two snowflakes.


These were made by Grade 6 students:

Puffy 3D Heart using Papier Mache

This is a fun and relatively simple papier mache 'shortcut' project involving a heart. 

A great artist to look at beforehand with the students would be

American Pop artist Jim Dine and his heart series.

Here's how we made these:

Cut two matching hearts from 2 sheets of cardstock. (our were simply 81/2 x 11")

Open up a paperclip and tape it securely to the top of one of the hearts. 

This will be the hanger.

Close the heart and tape all the edges together with masking tape, 

leaving one section open for 'stuffing' purposes....

tape, tape, tape...

Now stuff it with bunched up paper towel or tissue. Something soft-ish.

Tape it shut.

Now rip up a sheet or two of newspaper- these are about 4" strips.

Using wallpaper paste (or watered down white glue- I prefer wallpaper paste as it's not sticky and easy to wipe off the tables), apply the strips, making sure to slightly overlap them. 

You only need one layer.

This is what you'll get.

Now do the same thing with the paste but use paper towel and create lots of wrinkles.

This creates both interesting texture and blocks out the newspaper patterns 

so you don't need to prime them with gesso/white paint.

Let the hearts dry overnight.

Students then painted them with acrylics. 

I demonstrated how to achieve a silver and gold faux finish. 

First a dark colour, then lightly dry brush a lighter colour overtop. 

For old silver or pewter, for example, paint the heart black first. Let dry, then dry brush on silver paint and rub off excess with a paper towel. Fiddle around with this technique until you get the look you want.

So here the student is beginning the base coat of black- make sure to get into all the crevices

and not leave any white showing.

Let dry 10 minutes or so....

Dry brush on a metallic paint such as silver.

The silver will highlight all the ridges and emphasize the texture.

Add a ribbon/yarn/string for hanging and you're all finished.

Some students also chose to collage on words cut from magazines. 

These were made by Grade 7 students:

Ta da!

Baa Baa Black Sheep Collage Craft

Here is another project utilizing bubble printing. 

See my original post here

I was inspired by the children's nursery rhyme "Baa Baa Black Sheep". It is an English nursery rhyme from the 18th century. I start off by reading this rhyme to my class.

For the art project, start off by adding a squirt black tempera paint to watery dish soap for the black sheep's 'wool'. I mix up a big batch and then distribute it out to individual small cups- one per student.  This is a very messy project- make sure the kids (and yourself) are wearing paint shirts!! 

Using a straw (I cut them in half to be economical), students blow until the bubbles rise above the cup. Then immediately place your sheet of paper on top and lightly press it down.

Here's the first print.  Continue doing this until most of the paper is covered.

It looks really cool and textural. Let dry (it doesn't take long).

Once dry, demonstrate to the class how to draw a fluffy cloud-like shape on the back of the bubble paper.

Cut out. This is the sheep's wool.

On any scrap black paper, students draw a simple round head with ears and two rectangles for legs. Cut out.

For the background, you could use blue paper and have the kids draw and colour on a green hill. Or, let them loose with the watercolours or tempera paint, and paint a simple hill and blue sky as seen below.

Glue on the body, then the legs, then the head. 

Make sure to glue them high enough to leave room for the poem at the bottom of the hill.  

Now you can use googly eyes if you have them, or have the kids cut out their own circles for eyes.  I always demonstrate how to fold a small scrap piece of paper in half, draw a circle, cut out and then you have two of the same.  Easy!  Hand cut eyes look way more cute and wonky compared to googly eyes, though I do love googly eyes as well.  It can be a pain, though, having to help 25 kids peel off the stickers on the backs of  googly eyes. Kids can also decorate their sheep faces however they want.

I typed and copied the nursery rhyme and then this is cut out

with decorative scissors. Students then glued it to the bottom of the page.