Gelli Prints

I recently purchased a Gelli Art Printing Plate and have become obsessed with all the colorful, beautiful layers that you can create with it. It's been a super easy way to get some beautiful backgrounds for fun art projects for the kids, and for my art journal pages.

My kids love using the Gelli plate also. It's so fun experimenting with different textures to see how the print turns out.

We made some Valentine cards by printing onto paper grocery bags…

Some cute toppers for our Pintrest inspired Valentine treats...

And some gift tag/book marks.

I'll be showing some of my journal pages soon.

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Potato Stamping

This is one of my favorite projects that I do with my younger students to introduce stamping and texture techniques. I always do it in the spring around mother's day and the students' can't wait to surprise their mom's with a family portrait.

You will need a canvas hard board. Acrylic paints. Potatoes. Oil Pastels. Sea Sponges.

First we use sea sponges to make a neutral but textured background. I used a sky blue, and darker blue and white and had them dab on in layers with the sea sponges. Let this dry. Usually I will do this step at the end of our previous class so they will be dry and ready to stamp next class session.

Pre mix skin toned acrylic paint and put on paper plates for stamping. Cut your potatoes in different sizes depending on your age ranges for the students siblings.

Tip: Remind students to leave room for part of their bodies and also enough room

up top for their hair. Stamp your heads on with the potatoes, using smaller ones

for the younger children in the family.

When the skin paint dries, have students use oil pastels to draw arms, clothes, hair and facial features. Also, student may want to draw a frame around the outside edge, or sometimes I will have the students stamp a frame. When finished, these are always favorites of both the parents and students!

Mommy & Me

Can I say I'm an expert in "pre-school" art since I have a four-year old?? Fortunately, she LOVES art and is always willing to be my guinea pig for any new project. I started doing "Mommy & Me" classes once a month this fall so we could have some fun together with our friends. We had a blast in our first session painting landscapes without traditional brushes. Here's what we did, and below I've also listed some things that I've discovered work well with younger children.

Supplies: I used the back of paper grocery bags for our paper-they are free, a great size and durable. Just cut out the side that isn't printed, or you can use the back of the printed side if you like. Tempera paint in various colors. Cut sponges, sponge rollers, sea sponges, foam brushes.

Have fun with it, but be specific (I was working with 3 & 4 year olds)-For example, I started off by asking what they see when they go outside and look up? They answered "the sky". What color is the sky? "blue" Let's find the blue on your paint plate and paint the sky on your paper. Point to where the sky will be--will it be at the top or the bottom of your paper? "the top". Then I instructed the moms to show their child where to draw a blue line (for the horizon line) with the foam brush. Next they need to have the child paint everything above it blue. I continued this questioning process with the clouds, the sun, the grass, trees, flowers and the house. Ask questions about colors, shapes, lines and directions. The painting above was done by my 4-year old daughter during class. She did it all by herself-love the pink roof! They all turned out really cute, and I was impressed how well they all followed instructions and stayed engaged in the project.

My tips for painting with young kids (ages 3-6):

1.Focus on shapes and color, not on skills or outcome (it's about the process)
2. Don't present a sample before hand-it can discourage or want to make it "just like that one"- demos as you are explaining work well-I have my little one demo for me.
3. Go with the flow-if they really want to paint a cow and you're painting cats, let them.
4. Use big brushes, crayons, pencils, etc., so they won't get bogged down in the details.
5. Let them mix colors on the paper
6. Have everything prepared and ready to go for project-no waiting for next steps
7. Use smocks or aprons and have lots of baby wipes for messy hands
8. Don't paint or draw things for them, just specific give instructions (draw a circle, now, where do the ears go? Draw triangles where you just pointed.....etc.)
9. Limit session to around 30 minutes.
10. Lots of praise on the process-"You've done great covering your paper with this pretty blue", "What nice, big brush strokes".
11. Don't ever try to "guess" what something is. For example, "I love how you used the pink here", (Hopefully they will tell you it's a pig).
12.Keep your groups small (I did 4 kid/mom pairs)