Aluminum Embossed Christmas Ornaments

Back in the fall, I posted a project on my other blog, www.callingallsleepyhead.blogspot.com , called fall leaves using the Art Emboss Aluminum sheets for the first time. I tried using these again with my kiddos at home today to make some fun ornaments. They were really easy and turned out great. Click HERE to see the post on how I did them and how they turned out. These could be used to do a lesson on shapes, texture or color theory. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!! I'm going to take a break from posting for the holidays so I can enjoy some time with my family-I hope you get time to enjoy yours. I'll see you in January with a bunch of fun, new projects!

Mommy & Me Christmas Tree

Sorry I'm behind on posting, but I've been busy wrapping up my year in art class, plus trying to decorate for Christmas and shop for presents. We did these great Christmas trees in all my classes and even tried them in my Mommy and Me class with 4 year olds last week. The results are beautiful! They are super easy--you've got to try this at home. My four year old made one on paper (above) so now I've got to get busy having my older kids each make one on canvas. We used a 10 x 20 canvas panel and acrylics for my older classes, and large water color paper and tempera for the mommy and me class.

First I cut a large stencil from poster board.

I had the students paint the background with gold metallic paint and accent the edges with a copper metallic. The older class used a large paint brush, the M& M students used a foam brush.

After they painted the background, I had them paint the floor in brown.

I taped the stencil down on the table on top of their background. Using a very soft natural sea sponge they sponged on a layer of light green first and then a darker green.




Remove the stencil. You will have very crisp edges for the tree. I then instructed the students on how to soften the edges with the sponge to give the tree a more realistic look.

Then I instructed them on how to paint the tree skirt and tree trunk. In the m&m class we used a rectangle shaped sponge to stamp the trunk.

We stuck with white for the lights and red for the ornaments, but I let them choose their brush size on how big they wanted the decorations on their tree, and also if they wanted a pattern or just random decorations.

Then if they wanted, they could paint a star on top. For the m&m class we used a star shaped stamp. Lastly, we touched up the background (the stencil may remove some of the background paint if it's not all the way dry).

I wish the pictures were better so you could get the full effect of how beautiful the gold and copper paint looks in the background! They were stunning! I also talked about Impressionism with this lesson and introduced Claude Monet.