A great way to achieve texture on paint is by using the technique of ‘frottage’. This is basically the term given to pressing a textured material onto wet paint, and removing it to leave its texture behind. In many ways it is the opposite of printing, because instead of using something to apply the paint, you are applying something to selectively remove it. Items such as bubble wrap, lace and hessian, all work well for this, but my absolute all time favourite material to use with frottage is cling film. To achieve the effect below, I painted some paper with yellow acrylic and allowed it to dry. I then painted over it with a more diluted pink, and immediately laid cling film over the surface. Allow the film to wrinkle and crease however you like, as it is this that creates the texture. Allow to dry, then remove the cling film. The overall effect is I think rather like marbling.

You can also try frottage with natural materials. We’ve tried it with different leaves and flowers, again, painting a sheet of paper with a single colour, allowing it to dry, and then painting over with a second, more diluted darker colour. As before, while the paint is still wet, we applied textured leaves, grasses, flowers etc. We found daisies and dandelions (of which we have rather a lot at present on our lawn) worked quite well.

Of course this is an activity which can double up with printing. Having used an object for Frottage, it will be covered with paint, so you can then use the same item to print with! Two activities for the price of one!

For the cardboard covers, I re-used the backs from a couple of old sketch books, while for the decorative paper, you may recognise some of the Graffiti Giftwrap we made at Christmas. The full list of materials needed is given below:

• 2 sheets of thick card for the portfolio covers
• Decorative paper for the outside of the portfolio
• Plain or decorative paper for the inside of the portfolio
• Wide heavy duty adhesive tape for the binding and corners.
• Strip of thin card
• Glue (I used permanent spray glue and PVA medium)
• Knife/scissors
• Ruler
• Approx 2m of ribbon or tape for the ties

1.  Cut all paper to size. The paper for the outside of the portfolio should be larger on the 2 sides and the top by about 1cm. The paper for the inside should be about 0.5cms smaller than the card on those same 3 sides. Cut the ribbon into 6 even lengths.

2.  Cut a strip of thin card the length of the spine of the portfolio, and approx 2cms wide, which will act as a stiffening for the spine.

3.  Glue the decorative paper to one side of the thick card, allowing an overlap of about 1cm on 3 sides, and trying to avoid trapping air bubbles by smoothing them out as you lay the paper down. Snip the corners of the  overlap off, apply further glue if necessary and fold the edges over onto the inside. Make sure you smooth them down firmly.

4.  Cut a strip of the binding tape about 2cms longer than the length of the spine and place the strip of thin card in the centre. Attach the covers to the spine by placing each unfinished edge of the cover, outside face down, onto each edge of the tape so that they butt up against the edges of the card.

5.  Fold over the overlapping top and bottom of the tape to the inside of the portfolio.

6.  Cut 3 slots on each board of the portfolio at the centre of the top and the 2 side edges.Thread a piece of the tape or ribbon through each of the slots, and glue one end to the inside of the cover to secure (I actually did this in the wrong order after I had put the lining paper in place, which didn’t work as well!)

7.  Cut another length of the binding tape the actual length of the spine, and stick in place on the inside to cover and protect the inside binding, and cover all raw edges.

8.  Glue your prepared paper for the inside, to the inner covers of the portfolio, making sure that you cover the glued ends  of the ribbon ties, the edges of the cover paper and the edges of the binding tape.

9.  If you want to reinforce the top corners for extra durability, cut a square of the binding tape, and cut in half diagonally. Place one triangle over an outside corner, allowing a small overlap. Snip the corner, and fold over the edges to the inside, pinching the corner to create a neat finish as you do so. Place the other triangle on the inside of the cover at the same corner to cover the overlapping edges (you may find it necessary to trim the depth slightly so that the inside and outside corners match up).

Your portfolio is now finished.

You can of course use any decorative paper you like for your portfolio – even wrapping paper if you prefer. Alternatively you could use a plain paper, and then allow children to decorate the exterior themselves, using collage, stickers, printing etc. At least that way no-one else will have a portfolio quite like it!

I’ve read a number of posts from people saying that Pinterest can however sometimes have something of an overwhelming, not to say depressing effect – especially when you realise that the brilliant project you’ve had an idea for has been done really well, or better, numerous times before. But then I’m a great believer in the idea that there is nothing new under the sun, and that everyone contributes their own slant to a project, making it fresh and new.

Also it’s not always easy to guess what will be popular on Pinterest.  Some images or projects just seem to resonate at that moment, and get pinned and re-pinned thousands of times. Others languish, waiting to be discovered, and then suddenly become popular months later. Personally I love to seek out those ‘hidden gem’ boards which don’t have zillions of followers, but have some fantastic pins on there that have been ‘missed’ by the masses.

Of course Pinterest has meant that the list of creative projects I want to have a go at has just got longer and longer in recent months, which in itself is quite frustrating. But on the plus side I have managed to tackle quite a few projects, some of which have been more successful than others. So, amongst the more successful Pinterest inspired activities I have:

• Made some laminated photo bookmarks of my boys as small gifts.
• Knitted a gorgeous cardigan (took me ages, but worth it)
• Created some stylish kids hats from old jumpers.

I have also tried several recipes which have become firm favourites, including:

• Indian Spiced Fries
• Crispy Sweet Potato Fries
• Sausage Spaghetti which the kids love.
• Baked Oatmeal Muffins – a really healthy breakfast treat.

And there are lots more still to try!

Some of the least successful projects have also been the recipes – this is often nothing to do with the quality of the recipe itself, but more my skills (or lack of them) as a cook. Possibly the most disastrous of all were the Oreo pops I attempted to make with the kids, which looked so gorgeous in the photo, but kept on melting and dropping off the stick – a complete and very sticky disaster.

When it comes to what people pin from Artful Adventures, so far, my all time most pinned post has been my tutorial about 3 Ways to Paint with Bubbles.  I don’t know why because I didn’t expect it to do particularly well and there was nothing startlingly original about it. Also popular have been the Watercolour Spray Inks, and my Chalkboard Gallery.

In terms of my own Pinterest boards, as you might expect I have of course got lots of boards containing inspirational pins relating to children’s artwork and to children’s art and crafts in general. There are so many brilliant ideas out there. Unfortunately I’m not always  too good at pinning things to the right category, as I sometimes forget what boards I have! I’ve got 44 of them so far, so my filing (as at home) can sometimes be a bit idiosyncratic, and I really should find time to go and sort it all out.  But the same could be said about my computer, and my home filing, and I always seem to find more fun things to do instead. I have other more personal boards for grown-up art, design and craft too.

So if you want to check out some inspirational material relating to children’s arts and crafts which I’ve pinned, you might like to check out some of the following:

• Children’s Art Activities
• Displaying Children’s Artwork at Home
• Home-made Children’s Art Materials & Tools
• Using Children’s Artwork
• Cool for Kids

There’s lots more, but some of them don’t have too many pins yet!

And if you have a more general interest in art, design and crafts, you might like some of these:

• Crafts
• Art
• Paper
• Colour
• For the Studio
• Jewellery
• Christmas
• Typography & Lettering
• Knitting

Happy pinning!

(with apologies to anyone not on Pinterest)

That was the case with this drawing of a robot done by my 7 year old. Lots of his drawings relate to action and adventure, with Star Wars being a particularly popular theme at the moment. I love the way he’s annotated the drawing (complete with wonky spelling) with things such as ‘lazer eyes’ and ‘sharp crushing teeth’. It’s all a far cry from the kind of things I used to draw at that age from what I can remember. I’ve noticed he often seems to draw as a form of storytelling or narrative, and while if he’s asked to sit down and write a story for school he sits there ‘stuck’ not knowing what to write, he has no trouble at all when it comes to drawing it.

I tend to scan the better pieces of artwork into the computer to keep (if you are under the impression that this then allows me to throw away the original, then you’d be entirely wrong, I can never bear to actually throw them away, though I am getting more discriminating these days!) On this occasion, I wasn’t planning to do any more than that, but seeing it on the computer screen inspired me to take it a little further – I thought it was just begging to be presented as a working drawing or blueprint for an ‘Attack Robot’.

I’m considering adding this kind of transformation to the range of services I offer for children’s artwork at Artful Kids, because I think a blueprint of this kind would look really good as a canvas or framed print in a child’s room. But then it would only work with this particular kind of annotated drawing, and I’m not sure how common this is as a type of children’s art. What do you think? Do your children produce annotated drawings like this?

These lavender sachets  are a simple idea for creating a small gift with your children. I think they would look especially good presented as a set of 3 or 4 in a box, and they are another gift which is both unashamedly sentimental yet also useful – my favourite kind.

All you need is the following:

• Plain white cotton – I recycled an old cotton kitbag we weren’t using, but you could equally use an old white pillowcase or sheet.

• Fabric crayons or markers.  I used the wax style fabric crayons, because I like the texture and slightly naive feel that they give, but you could use markers if you prefer. In fact, given the fact that the lavender bags will not  be washed, you might get away with using ordinary felt-tip pens or crayons, but I haven’t tried that!

• Cotton thread

• Dried Lavender

• Thin ribbon (optional)

Ask the kids to draw a character, design or picture upon a square of cotton.  Sometimes it is easier for them if you pin the cotton down onto a sheet of corrugated cardboard first so that the fabric doesn’t move about.

Following the instructions for the kind of crayons or markers you are using, fix the image using an iron.

Pin the image to another plain sheet of calico, and cut the 2 out together, leaving enough of a border around it for stitching (approx 0.75 cms).  Separate the 2 pieces and place right sides together. If using a ribbon, cut a length (approx 20cms, but the length is entirely up to you) and pin or tack the ends between the 2 pieces with the loop inside.

Stitch around the image, catching in the ends of the ribbon and leaving a gap at the bottom for stuffing.  Trim seam, clipping the curves or corners if necessary, and turn the right side out.

Stuff with lavender so that it is firm but not hard.

Stitch up the gap to secure the lavender in  place and finish the raw edges.

This is the basic technique, but there are lots of variations you can introduce here.  My 2 boys decided to draw Ben10 characters but I also did a couple of more ‘girly’ shapes with hearts and flowers. For these I used pinking shears so that the seam would be left visible and create a decorative border around the shape. If you want to do this, of course you would stitch the shape with the wrong sides together, catching the ends of any hanging ribbon in at the top as you go.

I also saved a few of the Ben10 characters the boys had drawn to create finger puppets for them – the size and shape lent themselves to the purpose, so after cutting and stitching, instead of stuffing with lavender, I hemmed the bottom to finish the raw edges.

Graffiti Art and ancient castles don’t usually go hand in hand, but at Kelburn they do! We are more used to seeing this kind of artwork in an urban environment, but Kelburn brought together four of the world’s leading graffiti artists from Brazil to work alongside Scottish talent and create a unique burst of colour, embracing the walls and turrets of the south side of Kelburn Castle. As an important historic building, this sort of thing is not normally allowed, there are strict restrictions on what alterations can be made to a historic building of this kind in order to preserve it for posterity, and this extends to the colour you are allowed to paint it. Begun in 2007, permission for the mural was originally granted on the basis that it would be temporary, and removed after just 3 years. The decision was understandably controversial. However the artwork has proved to be popular with visitors, and has helped to put this part of Scotland on the map, with lots of visitors arriving especially to see it. So now the owners of the Castle are attempting to get permission to make the mural a more permanent feature.

I have to say from my own point of view, as someone with the dual (and some might think conflicting in this case) professional enthusiasms of historic buildings and art, I can understand and appreciate the arguments from both those in favour and those against. However it is an entirely temporary piece of artwork which causes no lasting damage to the building, and my feeling is that it should be allowed to remain until the artwork begins to deteriorate. It still appears to be pristine, and so it would seem a shame to remove it so soon.

The initial impression, seeing this kind of graffiti art out of it’s normal context, is quite shocking. But it’s so light-hearted and fun, that it’s difficult not to smile when you see it.  Love it or hate it, you can’t help but notice it. My boys, perhaps unsurprisingly, loved it. I liked the way that the artists used the shape and form of the building to influence the composition of their work, rather than simply painting a completely unrelated series of images onto it. The contrast of old and new is arresting too, as are the bright colours in the context of the surrounding landscape.

So what do you think? Inspired artwork or cultural vandalism?

You can see a time-lapse video of the mural’s creation here.

My soft spot for fairies developed further when I discovered the gorgeous fairytale illustrations of Arthur Rackham, and then as a teenager, when I first heard the story of the Cottingley Fairies. For those of you who don’t know it, Cottingley is a village in Yorkshire, and one day in 1917, 2 children (10 year old  Frances and her 16 year old cousin Elsie) claimed to have taken photos of fairies at the bottom of the garden, while they were out playing. It caused a sensation. Lots of people, including the author of Sherlock Holmes,  Arthur Conan Doyle, believed them, especially when the photos did not appear to have been tampered with in any way. Others were more sceptical, and interestingly, Elsie’s father, a keen amateur photographer himself, wasn’t taken in – he knew his daughter’s artistic ability, and suspected the truth, though wasn’t able to prove it. The photographs taken are now famous images, and the cameras used to take them are on display at the National Media Museum in Bradford, as I was fascinated to see while on a family visit there recently.

It wasn’t until the 1980′s that Frances and Elsie finally confessed that the fairies were cut-out images that they had copied from a children’s book, and arranged as a tableau for the photographs. I think by this time, most people had guessed that, because the fairies were astonishingly fashionable, dressed in the clothes and hairstyles of the Edwardian era, but the children were just too embarrassed to admit it at the time, as so many people had been taken in by their work.

Anyway, when I found a box of pressed flowers and petals that I had collected last year, and wondered what I should do with them, flower fairies sprang to my mind. I drew a simple fairy figure, and then used the petals to create some interchangeable ‘ready to wear’ outfits for her on clear acetate. You could probably use clear contact film instead, sealed in place with a second layer if you preferred.

I used eggwhite with a soft fine brush to ‘glue’ the petals in place on the acetate. Pressed flower petals are of course extremely delicate and fragile, so as an activity this would be more suitable for older girls.  With younger children you can just use fresh flower petals and leaves and use stronger glue to attach them straight onto the figure. These will not last like the pressed flower versions will, but are still lots of fun to create.

Outfit created using Fresh Flowers

You can find a free template for a fairy dress-up doll to download here. Print off as many as you need, colour them in if you like, use some sparkly glitter paint for their wings, and dress them however you wish. The fairy fashions will change throughout the season as different flowers bloom. You could even stick the figures onto card and cut them out to create your own fairy tableau and take a photograph just like the Cottingley girls did. Or attach them to lolly sticks and turn them into puppets.

Oh, and if you like flower fairies, you might like my hand-finished Framed Flower Fairy Print at Artful Kids!

As many people know, young babies instinctively prefer to look at high-contrast edges and patterns. Large black and white patterns present the highest possible contrast (100%) to the eye and thus are the most visible and attractive to young babies.  However, this does not mean that babies cannot see colour, for although at birth babies are only able to see in black and white and shades of gray, this soon changes.  At just one week after birth, they can see red, orange, yellow and green. It takes a little longer for them to be able to see blue and violet because blue light has shorter wavelengths, and fewer color receptors exist in the human retina for blue light. But by the time they are 6 months old, a baby’s colour vision should be similar to that of an adult’s.

Wee Gallery Art Cards for Baby have been developed to cater to the visual preferences of young babies aged between 0-12 months. Created from bold, whimsical, hand-painted originals, the high contrast black and white images and their repeating patterns captivate and entertain. Each boxed set contains six cards printed on 5×7″ sturdy board with rounded corners and a matte-laminated finish, making them baby-friendly and beautiful. They are printed on recycled card stock using non-toxic soy inks making them Eco-friendly too.

 Available from Artful Kids in 5 different themes: Farm, Garden, Woodland, Jungle and Pets, they can be displayed in a baby’s cot or crib, hung from a purpose designed postcard mobile, or used as a flash card with older babies.

While black and white imagery is not thought to be essential to encourage a child’s visual development, and it is important to give babies a rich environment to look at and explore, the high contrast found in these cards will be particularly attractive to young babies especially, making them a lovely artistic gift for a newborn.

Meanwhile, if you want to find out more detailed information about visual development in babies, you may find the following links interesting:

What Can my Baby See?

Your Infant’s Vision Development

Learning to See – How Vision Develops

Developmental Milestones: Sight

Infant Vision – Birth to 24 Months of Age

The first step was to cut out triangles for the bunting from the artwork I’d selected. I mainly used artwork that was rich in colour, with not too much white background showing, and on paper which was thin enough to stick easily to the wall.

My original intention was to make this a ‘temporary’ project which could be easily removed if we were ever lucky enough to be able to sell the house. I abandoned that idea when I discovered that the repositionable spray glue I had first chosen wasn’t strong enough to keep the paper attached firmly to the wall, so I resorted to using permanent spray glue instead.

To establish where to attach each piece of paper, I pinned one end of a piece of string to the wall and then pinned up loops around the walls, just as if I were hanging real bunting. This made it easy to position each ‘flag’ in relation to the string, spacing them out along the line as I went. I then used a piece of chalk to draw a temporary guide line where the string ran.

Once this was done, the string was removed and I painted over the chalk line and the top of each flag with some acrylic paint, using a fine brush. You could probably use a medium or broad marker pen instead to do this if you preferred.

Of course you don’t have to use children’s artwork for this project, you could use wrapping paper, or any colourful or decorative paper you can find. And while bunting is a particularly simple and effective motif to use, you could instead cut out simple petal or leaf shapes to create a tree, branch or flower garland for your wall instead.

Photographing this project was astonishingly hard work, given that it’s a fairly small room and I don’t have a very wide angle lens. Hopefully the images I managed to get give some impression of what was overall, a wonderfully fun and colourful project, even if the intended recipient wasn’t particularly impressed : /

Pin It]]> http://www.artful-adventures.co.uk/2012/03/14/childrens-artwork-bunting/feed/ 7 http://www.artful-adventures.co.uk/2012/03/07/four-more-ways-to-display-childrens-artwork/ http://www.artful-adventures.co.uk/2012/03/07/four-more-ways-to-display-childrens-artwork/#comments Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:33:24 +0000 jude http://www.artful-adventures.co.uk/?p=3165 I’m always on the look out for new ideas for displaying and making the most of children’s artwork, and I’ve been hard at work since Christmas sourcing some new products for the Artful Kids store. I’ve added some of these to the store recently, with more to come, but my favourite is this colourful portable Children’s Art Gallery. Designed to hang on the door with the suction cups provided (or you could hang it on a wall instead) it is made from wipe-clean PVC with 6 clear plastic pockets for displaying A4 sized artwork. The display can easily be changed and I think would look wonderful in a child’s room.

Other new products include:

Glass Children’s Art Placemats  – available with either a black or silver frame. A full set of these, using different artwork looks great on the table.

Children’s  Art Acrylic Blocks, which I think are a  particularly stylish way to display artwork, especially when placed in a group.

Large jute tote bags which can be used to display children’s artwork – a low-cost Mother’s Day gift which is both simple to create and useful.

Look out for more ideas coming soon!