Posts Tagged ‘art’

Silly Gold Crowns

Sunday, January 1st, 2012

silly-gold-crowns

Gold crowns are super easy to make. Get yourself some gold paper, and cut it into a strip the thickness of a crown. Cut it along the top in a zig-zag. Then staple it together. You’re done. It took you less than 5 minutes.

If you want to print out your crown on card stock paper, you can download your crown here. Go ahead and print two of them, and staple the four pieces together, the size of your child’s head.

If you want to decorate it more, use whatever you have in your art supplies. One of my sons used fancy toothpicks that look like fireworks all around his crown. (They were left over from the Fourth of July.) You can staple or tape it on. I fished some red Christmas tinsel out of the trash, and we hot glued that on. He glued some buttons on, too, and some gold rope along the bottom.

how-to-make-a-paper-crown

My daughter glued fake jewels onto her crown with white school glue. She wanted to put pom-poms at the top of each peak of her crown, so I put hot glue on it, and she stuck the ball at the top of each one. We put some gold trim on the bottom, and we found some bees. (I think my mother gave me some fake bees one day, and I threw them into the art supplies.)

paper-crown-craft

My goofy son put large google eyes on his crown, and a moustache. An orange feather was hot glued to the front, along with small jingle bells in a random pattern. (He wanted his crown to make noise when he moved.) Fake jewels, more feathers, and fancy Fourth of July toothpicks rounded out his goofy crown.

silly-crowns

My oldest son always complicates things. He made an orange umbrella completely out of paper. He folded a boingy orange thing off the side and re-enforced it with a popsicle stick. He hot glued jewels to it, and a plastic spring from a broken toy. (Yes, I salvage cool stuff off broken toys before tossing them in the trash.)

Behold, our fabulous crowns. Easy, fun, and goofy.

happy-new-year-14

Make Your Own Twig Frame

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

twig-art

Last summer I came across a book entitled Nature’s Art Box. While at a park one day, my kids and I picked up a large number of twigs of all sizes. When we got home, I asked my children to look through the book to see what art projects we could do with twigs. We found two simple twig art projects that looked really fun and relatively easy.

The first one was a twig frame. All we had to do was get a frame, plug in the hot glue gun, and glue the twigs onto the frame. My 6-year-old daughter enjoyed doing this activity, and the frame came out looking rustic and beautiful enough for a gift. (Click on the picture of the twig frame to look at it close-up.)

twig-basket

The second art activity we chose was a twig basket. We made a square of twigs and glued it together with hot glue. Then we continued putting twig squares until the basket was as high as we wanted it (or until we almost ran out of twigs; save enough twigs for the bottom of the basket). Then we hot glued twigs along the bottom of the basket. The twig basket was cute.

Roman Sculpture

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

My 10-year-old son made a Roman sculpture with white self-hardening clay. I took pictures of each stage of his work:
Roman-sculptureRoman-sculpture-2Roman-sculpture-3Roman-sculpture-4Roman-sculpture-5Roman-sculpture-6

Colosseum Bricks: A Disaster

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

colosseum-bricksDon’t buy the Colosseum bricks that I showed you on my Ancient Rome Unit Study YouTube video. They’re totally stupid. I don’t know how the manufacturer expects children to use them. They are lightweight like styrofoam, and they are supposed to be attached by hot glue. But hot glue melts the bricks slightly, and it’s too thick to look good. It is severely frustrating, because the bricks don’t stick together properly. You have to cut them into triangles with a sharp knife to make wedges. Really? Children are supposed to wield a sharp knife to make wedges out of styrofoam?! And then they’re supposed to not burn themselves with the hot glue gun that’s a bazzillion degrees? Okay…

Since my 10-year-old son screamed, “Mom! It’s impossible to make a Colosseum with these bricks! Can I make a castle instead?”

I said, “Sure.”colosseum-bricks-2

My children made castles and other structures (without sharp knives and burning equipment) and later knocked them down with only a slight gust of wind.

I just wanted everyone to know that I give this product a thumbs down. Really down. Like, my thumb is almost touching the floor; it’s that low…

Instead, maybe people can use wooden blocks, but you need a lot. This is what I recommend. Grab the phone and call a homeschool family. Ask them, “Do you own a set of wooden blocks?”

If the person says, “No,” then you say, “Never mind. Have a good day.” Hang up. (When I’ve done this to people, they call me back, laughing, asking for an explanation…)

colosseum-bricks-3On the other hand, if the person says, “Why, yes. We DO own a set of wooden blocks.” Then you say, “Come on over with your blocks, and we can build the Colosseum of Rome. Wouldn’t that be grand?”

In which case they will answer, “What a fabulous idea. I’ll be right over…”

You must call several homeschool families, depending on how large you want your Colosseum to be. Watch out, since blocks are hard, and the Colosseum is tall. Anyone who doesn’t want a bloody foot should exit the room. Yes, maybe we should let teenagers do this…