Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Craft Lab: Classroom Art Project








As the crafty mom, I was given the assignment to create an art project for both of my kids classes for an art auction coming up for Grandparents Day. The Preppy K class was done a few weeks back, and I've been anxiously awaiting wrapping up the first graders project. I picked up a large canvas from Michael's, and created a grid pattern with some 3/4" painters tape I purchased at Home Depot. I needed 24 squares, so this was easy to tape off. I choose 6 colors of arcylic paint so the piece would look more cohesive. I worked in groups of 4-6 kids at a time. Because of bad planning on my part, some of them had to paint upside down so we did not get paint everywhere. I showed them which was was the top and the bottom of the piece, however, some couldn't grasp this concept. I gave them instructions to paint the background first, then paint anything they wanted. We ended up with a great piece and they all did a fab job. The paint went under the tape a bit ( I should of read this before, which says "I also used a credit card to smooth down all the lines and make sure there wouldn’t be any paint leaking into the stripe pattern.") So, now I'm going to go back and paint the white lines white, and then write the names of each child under each picture. To finish it off, I'll add a nice coat of matte Mod Podge to the whole thing.

2 comments:

Tricia said...

I love this idea, not just for kids, but even for adults! How much fun would it be to have guests do this at a party!?

jodij said...

thanks for this great group project! HERE'S A TIP: After you've put down the tape, and pressed it down with a plastic card, THEN use faux finishing glaze (it's water based and matte finished), and coverthat tape with a light coat of that stuff with an old chip brush (throw away brush). After all has been painted, and tape lifted you'll NEVER SEE PAINT UNDERNEATH!!! It's a great clean way to make lines.