Showing posts with label printing for kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label printing for kids. Show all posts

14.10.19

Simple shape potato printing for Halloween!

potato printing


I'm LOVING potato printing! And there's so much you can do with simple shapes. Perfect for pictures, decorations and cards, and fun for all ages. The theme here is Halloween, but I'll definitely be trying out some other ideas in the run up to Christmas.

Triangles pop up a fair bit! For the witch, cut a potato in half.  Slice a sliver off the bottom of your potato half, so it sits flat and is easier to work with.



Either use a ruler and pen and draw on a triangle, and then score using the ruler and a sharp pencil, or score straightaway. 




Start with the base line of the triangle and take it right to the edges. Roughly mark the midpoint of the base line at the top of the potato, and score lines up to this mark. 



Use a piece of kitchen roll to wipe away potato bits and moisture. 

For the witch's face, score a line across the triangle, a few cms from the tip and another just below it.



We found the easiest thing to do next was to cut the triangle out on the score lines. 



TIP: (To be done by an adult) Cut two wedges away, either side, at back, leaving a ridge of potato to hold onto. A sort of potato handle! Easier for little hands.



For this print we brushed on the paint so we could make her face green. Don't use too much paint or it will squidge around the edges.







When the paint is dry use a black pen to add a wicked witchy face, hair and a brim for her hat.

We used the side of a piece of coffee stirrer and a mix of yellow and orange paint to print on a broomstick.

The ghost also starts off as a triangle too. Draw and score as before. This time I used a sharp knife to cut away slivers up to the score line, to define the triangle (to be done by an adult) - though you could completely cut away the sides again, like we did with the witch.

Once the triangle is defined, draw and score a line to round off the top of the triangle, then slice up to the score line. Draw and score a zigzag along the bottom and slice across the potato, up to the score line again.




As it's one colour printing, you could make your own stamp pad. 

Soak a piece of thin, damp kitchen sponge in some white paint. We put ours in a small recycled clear plastic pot, (think it had been a humous pot!) then you can pop the lid back on to stop the paint drying out too fast. But when you've finished printing, let the sponge air dry (it could eventually get mouldy if it stays wet) and just wet with water and add more paint when you want to use again.

Or you could brush on a layer of paint.

Print on coloured paper or paint a black background first, and let it dry.



When your ghosts are dry, use a black pen to draw on a hauntingly spooky face.


For the pumpkin, the shape is there already! You can either carve a face or simply print the round shape and add a face when the paint is dry.

We cut out small triangles for eyes and a nose, and a semi circle for the mouth.





The bat is made from two small triangle shapes. First, draw and score a thin triangle, curve the base inwards to define the bat's ears, and slice slivers away around the sides, or cut out completely, like the witch.




The second triangle should be a similar size, but wider - use the curved edge of your potato for one of the sides.



Print the narrow triangle first, tip pointing down, this is your bat's body.

Use the other triangle for the wings - print two either side, overlapping them and make sure the curved edge is at the top.





Dot on some yellow paint for eyes and when dry, add a black centre with the pen.



Happy Halloween!







25.5.17

Bubble wrap flower printing - Art for kids

cow parsley - bubblewrap printing

So many possibilities with bubble wrap printing! Last time we used triangles of bubble wrap to print wisteria (perfect for lilac or delphiniums too), and that got us thinking about other flowers shapes we could try. At the moment the hedgerows here are awash with billowy cow parsley. Look closely, and the little, lacy white flowers are clustered together at the end of spoke-like stalks.



So first, we painted our background a mix of greens.

From early on I've encouraged the kids to use different shades of the same colour when they're painting or drawing - various greens for the grass and for trees, blues for the sky or sea and browns for wood. It's simple to do, looks really effective and helps them understand about colour mixing and light and shade.

Put your similar colours on the same plate or palette. We used green, blue and yellow poster paint, and mixed the yellow and blue together to make a different shade of green, leaving just a little of the blue and yellow unmixed.



Then dip an ordinary decorating paintbrush into some water (a big brush makes it easier to paint a large area quickly). Make sure it's not dripping wet, just keep it damp, and then have fun painting the different greens onto the paper, mixing them into each other, with the occasional streak of blue or yellow too. The key is to do it quickly and then leave it. Try not to over-work the background.



While that's drying, cut out a circle of bubble wrap dots like this ( 7 dots in total) - but make sure not to cut too close to the bubbles, so you don't deflate any of them! We then glued the unbubbly side to the bottom of a cork, to help with the printing.



While the glue's drying, squirt some more green paint onto your plate and mix in some blue on one side to make darker green. On the other side of the plate, mix in some white paint for a very pale green.



For the stems we used those thin wooden coffee stirrer sticks, but you could use lollypop or popsicle sticks or anything like that to print a thin, straight line. If you've a few spare sticks break one up, so you can print different length lines.

Press the stick into the dark green paint - make sure there's paint all along it, and print a stem onto the green background. If your stick is much wider than ours (and too wide for a stem), use the thin edge to print two or three lines next to each other. This should make the stem look the right thickness.

Press a clean stick edge into the pale green paint and print this thin line down one side of your stem, as if the light's catching it. This gives a more 3D effect, and helps lift the cow parsley out from the background.





It can get pretty messy, but sure that's half the fun!



It's worth having some freshly picked cow parsley to look at, so you can see the shapes of the stems and flowers (though be careful when you pick it as the sap can sometimes irritate your skin). Add more stems to your painting. At the top of each one, use the thin edge of a stick and the dark green paint to make spoke-like stalks, crossing the printed lines in the middle, like stars.



Get the flower stamp ready and either paint the bubble wrap with a good layer of white paint, or press into some white paint (make sure the paint isn't too thick though, or you'll end up with a big white splodge).

*You could cover a piece of thin kitchen sponge in white paint to make your own DIY stamp pad*



Carefully print your white flowers at the end of all the spoke-like stalks.