What is hiding in our Starry Night? Take a closer look...

Take a closer look! Inspired from The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. Definitely not what you think... 

What do you see in the painting? How many are there? Do you feel like we're playing "I SPY?" Yeah, I totally set you up! 

I wanted to create a collaborative, but individual, art project for the 4th-graders to incorporate their own hands- designing them with various lines and shapes, just using black and white permanent markers on cards stock. Excellent art exercise for shape, line design, and hand tracing for any age. 

I've always liked The Starry Night painting since I was a youngling, so I thought this would be a good introduction for other kids to become familiar with famous artwork. 

• The kids used 3 different tip sizes of permanent markers...  

• I painted a simple version of Starry Night and then adhered each hand with Mod Podge (using plastic wrap and a book on top to help dry flat).

• I painted a light wash (water added) of acrylic paint of a similar color on top of the hands so each blended into the painting. You can see below there are some hands painted and some not yet. (Yep, the bold black hand really doesn't blend in because the wash of paint mostly shows up on white paper)...

This is one of our favorites "hands" down! 

As you can see this hand project could be made into any painting you like. 

Be creative. Paint. No boundaries. Have fun.

Felt "I Love You" Hand Sign Valentines

Obviously this is super easy, and very kid-friendly. I let the kids do this almost entirely by themselves, except cutting with my sharp material scissors. 

Last year, for our Valentine's breakfast, the night before, my husband and I made these "I LOVE YOU" felt hands and put them on their plates. They loved them! This year the kids wanted to make their own and decorate the table. They are great for coasters too :) We are using them for our table runner at the moment, which gets rearranged every 5 minutes by our 2 1/2 year-old.  Right after I took these photos, the table of hands turned into piles of floppy blobs.

I  L O V E  Y O U !

So Ridiculously Easy You Don't Need a {TUTORIAL}:

• felt material
• permanent marker or something to write on material
• scissors
• hands!
• thread and needle (if you want to sew the fingers down- our 2 1/2 year-old just pulls them apart anyway)

My kids traced each others' hands... cute little chubby hands...

They might look kind of sloppy... 

Hey, these are not my hands...

Press fingers down to make the hand sign "I Love You" with thread or the material sticks together...

They can add their names and date on the back or front...

Each year we will make more until it takes over our table... 

Didn't I tell you super easy? You probably already made these years ago...

SHOW YOUR LOVE ... ALWAYS.

the HAND TREE -Hand Art- 4rth grade

So... I am excited to catch up and post all of the last 4 months of art projects. I was so tired by the end of the school year trying to finish up so many projects that I didn't even have the spec of desire to post them- probably due to the fact that I pay for high-speed, but don't actually have it... So posting them takes longer than it should. Blah.

Yay! Here is another wonderful collaborative HAND ART project that I made up for the 4rth-graders. They get to "leave their mark" before they head over to middle school next year as 5th-graders.

Materials Needed:

• hands to trace!
• thick card stock
• acrylic paint
• brushes
• Mod Podge
• pre-painted (acrylic) background of a tree on a pre-stretched canvas or a wood board (similar to the ones I make for all of my school projects- go here to see "How to make your own WOOD CANVAS").

Here's how we did it:

• Each of the kids traced and cut out their hands on card stock.

• Then they drew with pencil their design and then painted their hand with acrylic. (Help: I find if they don't draw it first with pencil and go straight to painting it turns into a paint mess) 

They look so bright and a blast of colors! Each hand is soooo unique!

• We let them dry overnight and then flattened hands in books for 24 hours.

• I started to adhere one group by group of hands with Mod Podge (apply Mod Podge to the canvas not the hands), then laid plastic wrap on top of hands, and then books on top to keep them flattened. It takes about 20+ minutes to safely dry and go on to the next group of hands. 

• The finish will be shinny and a little bumpy from the plastic wrap. Try to flatten out before placing books on top and drying. 

• Add an overall coat of Mod Podge to seal and protect the artwork.

Seeing the kids examine and find their own hand and screaming like crazies, makes it all worth my time...

 oh hands...

The best concept about my elementary school projects is that you can make smaller versions of them at home with your kids or adapt them to any group of persons!

Have fun and try it!

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A Field of Tulips - Hand Art - kindergarten style...

I can't say that it bothers me to get paint on my hands! I love it, and I think the kindergarten kids had a blast too. I am so lucky to be able to come up with art projects for each grade, this one happens to be my son's kindergarten class (80+kids= 80+handprint tulips!).My son's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. S. came up with painting their hands to represent tulips. I think it was a great idea and looks even better in person. 

Starting with the green field field and sky... just wait for the color...

We had a nice assembly line:  Mrs. S. (barefoot) painted the palms of their cute little hands, I held and pressed them on the canvas, the kids painted their own tulip stems and fingerprinted the tulip leaves, then they had help washing their hands...

One class down, 3 more to go! Make a silly face... 

Our tulip field is complete!

Of course... Funny Faces for our tulips... 

(missing 40 + kids-I have yet to post the other 40 of the 80+ kindergarten kids)

Their painting is already hanging in the hall and they will be able to see it next year as they walk to lunch!

Birds... Hand Print Art

You know, it's funny, I was talking to someone the other day (could've been myself, I don't remember), and I don't know when I started doing all of this kid art that's coming out. I guess, I just decided there will be a time when I can do my own "adult" art- but now, I'm plunging in, the time is right for my kids' involvement (I would be concentrating on my own projects and wouldn't pay attention to "anything" in the room) ... and with a few other kids added to the equation...

BIRDIES FOR MOM'S DAY!

Here is another beautiful handprint project(spotted over at the Craft Nest) for Mother's Day that my kids gave to their grandmas!

I'm loving the birds outside chirping this time of year... even my little noisy birdies in my house... that's all year!

Poppy Flowers - Hand Print Art

Mom and Grandma's Day art projects was such a busy paint day for my kid art class! 

Here are the bright and colorful poppies that the kids painted by using their handprints, fingerprints, and a paint brush. 

Doesn't get any easier!

 Beautiful Poppies (6 - 9 years old)

 Pretty Purple Flower (3 years old)

Flowers without the dirty mess, watering, upkeep and dying... 

Hope you all celebrated a wonderful MOTHER'S DAY!

... more hand art to come this week!

The "other" Illusional/Delusional Hand Art Project- 3rd grade

My daughter's 3rd grade class had the option between the previous post, illusional hand & line art project or this one shown below (one of my favorites, Art Project for Kids.) 

So here's my optical illusion hand art model... and you should see what they came up with! I love how they are all so remarkably different, even if they tried to copy each other.

The instructions are simple:

• trace your hand or hands with pencil however you like on paper
• draw a bull's eye that covers the entire page
• color each "ring"/circle with only 2 "contrasting" colors (using a color for the hand and the other color for outside of the hand) 

(8 -9 years old)

I absolutely loved how some of the kids got a little distracted and morphed their hands into some of the circles...

Not one is the same, they all came up with a different style and perspective on the hand project... Love it.

One last item: with this hand project, you can document their hand size and age and throw it in your memory book!

Illusional-Delusional Hand Art - 3rd Grade

I found this easy little hand art project on theforestroom last week and thought it would be a clean and a simple project to do in my daughter's 3rd grade class... Well, it's not as easy as it looks- they had to really concentrate to complete. 

This is a really clever way to also document your child's hand size/age.

My lines were not the straightest!

Simple Instructions:

• With a pencil, trace your hand & fingers perpendicular (or exactly vertical) to the paper.
• Start at the top of the paper drawing straight lines horizontally, and repeat (any colors or all one color).
• When your lines touch your fingers or hand, make an arch and come down at the other side of finger or hand (refer to below).

(8 -9 years old)

 

     

The results were so varied from kid to kid, it's amazing! I think all of them did awesome! I wasn't able to post all of their hand projects.

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Thank you for stopping by