Create Your Own Butterfly

I recently had the pleasure of spending a full week with a wonderful class of second graders. I was able to create my own lessons so, of course, there was an art project involved. The second graders had been studying butterflies and were even tracking their life cycle. When I arrived, the butterflies were hanging in chrysalises from the roof of a mesh tent. Over the course of the week, all of the butterflies emerged. It was very exciting. One even came out of its chrysalis into my hand! It was a magical experience.
The kids loved those butterflies and wanted to spend every minute looking at them or talking about them. On the last day of the week we learned about the parts of the butterfly's body. Rather than just labeling a blank image of a butterfly, the kids made their own butterflies, added the markings of the Painted Lady (the type of butterfly they were observing), and labeled the body parts. They did a great just.


The students had the option of showing the butterfly from the top with its wings spread out, or from the side. I created tracers for the wings and body and handed out black and orange construction paper. The kids traced and cut out the pieces and then glued them onto another sheet of construction paper. They colored the wings so the butterflies looked like Painted Ladies. Finally, the students labeled the parts of the body, being careful to spell everything correctly. Some of those words are tough to spell!

The kids cut around their butterflies so that all the artwork would fit on the bulletin board. The students were excited to share their butterflies with their teacher on Monday.

It was such a fantastic experience. I learned a lot of lessons I could never have learned in teacher classes and I discovered just how much work it is to prepare for each day. I am so inspired.

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Create Your Own Marbled Paper

Yesterday you learned that many paper marblers add size to water to make the water thicker. This allows the paint to float on the top. Rather than floating paint on water, today you’ll paint on shaving cream to make your own marbled paper.

Supplies Needed:

Foam Shaving Cream
Paint
Paintbrush
Cardboard
Paper
Paper plate
Cover your work space. Ask an adult to spray a layer of shaving cream onto the paper plate. You want about a half an inch thick layer of shaving cream. Use your cardboard to level the layer of shaving cream.
Choose which colors to use. I used Crayola Kids Paint. You can use any kind of paint you want, but I wouldn’t recommend watercolors.

Paint on top of the shaving cream. Try not to press your brush into the shaving cream. It’s not important that your painting look nice. Just make sure you’ve included all the colors you want on your marbled paper.
Use the handle of your paint brush to swirl the colors together. You’ll need to wipe off the brush handle a few times because the shaving cream clings to it. This will cause the colors to mix together and get muddy.
When you’re happy with your swirled colors, press a piece of paper onto the shaving cream. If you don’t press down hard enough, the paper won’t pick up the paint evenly. It will look like the paper at the top of this picture:
When you press your paper onto the shaving cream, shaving cream will stick to it (of course). Use the clean side of your cardboard to scrape the shaving cream off of the paper. The paint will remain.
You can make two good prints from the same painted shaving cream.

I made prints with copy paper, construction paper, and posterboard. The paint stuck well to all three types of paper.

If you want to make larger sheets of marbled paper, layer the shaving cream onto a cookie sheet instead of a paper plate.

Write a letter to a pen pal on your marbled paper, create your own journal using marbled paper, or hang your marbled paper on you wall.

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My Current NaNoWriMo Word Count:

10544 / 50000 words. 21% done!
I’m pretty pleased with this word count.
Last year it took me 7 days to reach
10,000 words.

Paper Marbling

Marbled paper is created by floating ink on water. The inks can be blown or combed into patterns. Then, a sheet of paper is laid on top of the water and the ink leaves patterns on the paper. Marbled paper is sometimes used in books and as stationery. Like fingerprints, each sheet of marbled paper is unique.

By the 1100s, the Japanese were creating marbled papers. They used black and blue ink to make patterns that looked like smoke. The Japanese were very careful when they dropped the ink onto the water. They didn’t use combs to move the ink around so they wanted to be sure to drop it where they wanted it. They then blew across the water to make the smoky patterns.

In the 1400s, people in Turkey and Persia began creating marbled papers of their own. Their style was a little different, though. Ink floated on top of water but the Turks and Persians wanted to use many colors in their marbled papers. They added something called size to the water to make it thicker. This meant that they could float paint on the water. They then used combs to create patterns in the paint.
The art of marbling spread through Europe. By the 1600s, artists were marbling paper in England, Holland, Italy, France, and Germany. Most books included marbled paper but the bookbinders didn’t know how to make it. The artists who created the paper wanted to keep their techniques secret so they could keep selling their papers.
Bookbinders in England needed a lot of the marbled paper and it was the least expensive to buy it from Holland. They didn’t want to pay taxes on the paper though, so the Dutch used the marbled paper to wrap toys before shipping them to England. The bookbinders then flattened out the creased wrapping paper to use in their books.

In 1856 a paper marbler named Charles Woolnough wrote a book about paper marbling. It told all the secrets that paper marblers had kept to themselves for hundreds of years. They were very angry with Woolnough, but there was nothing they could do. Their secret was out.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you how to make your own marbled paper.

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My Current NaNoWriMo Word Count:

8720 / 50000 words. 17% done!

Create Your Own Paper Ornament

This Christmas ornament is easy to make and can be slipped into a Christmas card as a nice pre-Christmas gift for your friends and family.

Supplies Needed:

Green construction paper
Patterned wrapping paper
Tape
Scissors
Ruler
Pencil
Glue stick
Ribbon

Use your ruler and pencil to mark strips of various widths on your wrapping paper. Cut them out. Thinner strips will look better. I cut mine too thin.

Line up the strips in an order different than the sheet of wrapping paper. Try to alternate the colors. Attach the strips to a piece of tape.

Draw a circle on your sheet of green construction paper. Draw a smaller circle inside. Add a rectangle and a loop at the top to make it look like an ornament. Cut out the ornament and remove the inner circle. I cut out the inside of the loop with scissors but a hole punch would be easier.

Trace your ornament onto more green construction paper and cut out a second. Do not remove the inner circle.

Tape the strips of wrapping paper to the construction paper with the hole in it. The strips should show through the hole.

Use your glue stick to attach the back to the ornament.

Tie a piece of ribbon to the loop so the ornament can be hung. Place it on your tree or slide it into a Christmas card and send it to a loved one.

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Jen Stark's Paper Sculpture

Happy Thanksgiving! And since today, I’m assuming, won’t be a big crafting day (at least here in the U.S.), I thought I’d post a link to a really cool website I found recently. The artist is Jen Stark and I love her paper sculpture. Click here to flip through her gallery. What I find so stunning about this art is that it is quite simple but looks extremely complex.

Also, you could create your own colorful, 3D paper art (like this piece) with just a pair of scissors, some glue, and craft paper. Cut your top sheet of paper into a strange shape. Cut the next sheet into a similar shape that is slightly larger. Continue with as many sheets as you’d like to use—five, ten, twenty-five.

If you want a shape to stick out of the center, you’ll have to do some measuring, but the basic idea is that the shape you cut in the top sheet should be the largest and each shape below should get progressively smaller. Make sure to leave one side of the shape attached or you won’t be able to fold it up. A craft knife would make this step easier but you’ll need an adult to help you.

When you’ve finished all the cutting, line up the papers so they look the way you want, then use a glue stick to attach the sheets to each other.

Voila!

If you try this project, leave me a comment about your experience or send me an email with a photo of your creation and I’ll post it here.

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NaNoWriMo Word Count:
Check yesterday’s meter; I didn’t write a single word today. I have extremely high hopes for the long weekend, though.

Tune in tomorrow for an excerpt!