THE NOSTALGIECAT SUMMER KIDS CLUB....

....Session 3: Arty nature

 

 Welcome to the 3rd session of the Nostalgiecat Summer Kids Club... todays session is inspired by nature, and I will show you what Me and Little Miss Moo's friends, Ellie, Scarlett and Caleb got up to on Monday: We made some "flower paper", marbled some plant pots we planted some seeds in, we made a beautiful "flower box" and flower-sun catchers for the window and we had fun making a large leaf-rubbing and watercolour banner...

All these activities work well for both indoors and outdoors...

Here's what we did, and how we did it:

FLOWER PAPER MAKING

 

We started off by making some "flower paper"....

YOU WILL NEED:

Paper/tissue (any non-glossy paper will work, so recycle what you've got)

White glue

Boiling hot water

Flat Wire mesh (we used a mesh splash screen from the £shop)

Cloth/ tea towels

Glitter

Dried flowers (See my microwawe flower pressing tutorial for how to make these)

 Rolling pin

A large bowl 

The first thing to do is to shred the paper...we used toilet tissue, as it will break down quicker....

Pour over some boiling hot water and leave to soak for 15-20 minutes...

 Then poor the mushi paper-mix into a blender, add 1-2 table spoons of white glue....

Blend until you get a smooth(ish) mix...

Ellie, Caleb, Little Miss Moo and Scarlett thought my blender was very noisy...

Spread the mushi mix out on the wire mesh, over a bowl, then squeeze out as much of the water as possible...flattening the paper mix in the process...

Place a tea-towel/cloth on top, then flip it over to transfer the mush onto the tea-towel, taking away the wire mesh...Place on the table, then cower with another piece of cloth, and keep pressing, and flattening the mix to get out the excess moisture....

Change the tea-towels/ cloth, then using a rolling pin, flatten the mix....

 Remove the tea-towel on the top, and add some dried flowers and glitter... 

Replace a tea-towel on the top, then use the rolling pin to press the flowers and glitter into the paper mush, thinning and flattening as much as you can in the process....

Ellie did a great job flattening the flower paper...

Leave the paper on the tea towel to dry out...

I tried speeding up the process by putting it on the oven on low, but it actually took 2 days for the paper to dry out properly...

Then I cut out round circles of the paper, using a cookie-cutter and a scalpel...

 

 ...so that the children got one  flower paper disk each...

 MARBLED FLOWERPOTS

Whilst we were waiting for the tissue paper to soak and dissolve in boiling water, we went outside to make some marbled flowerpots...

I got the inspiration for this project from henry happened.

YOU WILL NEED:

Terracotta plant pots

Nail varnishes (use old ones, revive them by adding a little acetone/nail varnish remover to the bottles and shake)

Big bucket half filled with water

+

soil and seeds for planting later....

This one may be best to do outdoors because of the fumes from the nail varnishes...

Poor 2-3 bottles of nail varnish into the water...choose some nice, contrasting or matching colours...

Let the varnish spread out on the surface of the water...use a stick(or similar) to gently swirl the colours together....

Dip the terracotta pots in, on their side, and gently rotate to pick up the varnish....

.....watch the beautiful effect the nail varnish makes...

Ellie had a great technique, twisting the pot into the water...

If needed, re-dip to cover the entire pot....adding more nail varnish as needed...

Put aside, and leave to dry!

In places, the varnish will be quite thick and lumpy, so leave to dry for at least 1 hour...

The marbled plant pots are now ready for planting in...

A bit of soil/compost, and some pansy seeds....

....and a little water...

The kids got to keep their own marbled plant pot, and now they've just got to wait for the seeds to start growing...

CARDBOARD FLOWER BOX AND SUNCATCHERS

Whilst we were waiting for the varnish to dry on our marbled flower pots, we finished making our flower paper (above) then we made a beautiful flower box and some sun catchers for the window...

I got the inspiration for this project (and the next) from artful parent, a great blog dedicated to children's art projects.

YOU WILL NEED:

Small cardboard box

Scissors(knife)

Transparent contact paper

Flowers and leaves

Cut out the sides of the box, leaving approx. 1" around the edges (as in the picture above)...

Attach sheets of contact paper on the inside of the box, sticky side out....making sticky windows in the box... 

 

  

Let the kids place flowers, leaves and petals onto the sticky back plastic...one side at the time, then cover with another sheet of contact paper....

...and there you have it: a beautiful flower box...

Little Miss Moo was absolutely fascinated by the colours  of the flowers against the light....

And we had a look at how it looked when placed (temporarily) on top of a lamp in a dark room...

...beautiful...

Scarlett and Caleb had fun putting their heads inside the box to have a closer look...

We also made some lovely flower sun catchers out of the squares we cut out from the box (waste nothing...) so that the kids could take a piece each home...

Scarlet makes a beautiful picture....

As with the box, we stuck on some contact paper to one side, then the kids placed flowers, leaves and petals onto the sticky side....

Ellie created a beautiful display by ripping the petals of the flowers before placing them on to the sticky back plastic....

Then we covered the flowers with another sheet of transparent contact paper...

Caleb was very pleased with his....

And Little Miss Moo loved the way the colours of the flowers come up when the light shines through...

LEAF RUBBING AND WATERCOLOUR BANNER

We finished of the session with some fun messy play, making a leaf rubbing and watercolour banner.. 

YOU WILL NEED:

Easel paper roll/large sheet of paper

Leaves

Crayons

Watercolours/ paint

Brushes and water

Spread the leaves out in the middle of the table...

...cover with paper.(use a bit of sticky tape to hold in place)

 Then show the kids how to bring out the shape and details of the leaves by rubbing the sides of the crayons over the paper....

 Scarlett said she would rather try to draw the leafs....

Next, we tidied away the crayons and the leaves under the paper, then we got out the paints, and I explained how, if the paint is watery enough, the wax in the crayon marks will resist the paint and make a lovely effect:

And so, they went to work...

Little Miss Moo and Scarlett just painted the same spot over and over until the paper broke...(never mind...they had fun, that's the main thing!!)....

 

.....but Ellie got the concept straight away , and Caleb was so gentle with the paint that they got some beautiful results...

 

We really did have lots of fun, and I got to recycle some paper, a cardboard box , the (dying) flowers I got for our anniversary last week and my old nail varnishes....not bad hey?

I  hope you feel inspired to try out some arty projects with your kids...

Please visit my pinterest board kids crafts and fun for more great ideas of things to do with your kids over the holidays...

Let me know what you think about todays kids club, or maybe you have a great idea for something to do with the kids over the holidays that you would like to share: Please leave a comment below...

And don't forget to visit my post:  a celebration , and leave a comment at the bottom of the post, to be in with a chance of winning a set of 3 of my lace print plates...

Due to a technical glitch my end with the comments section, I have decided to extend the deadline for this competition, so the draw will now take place on Saturday 24th August  and the winner will be announced on the following Monday....

Thanks for looking!

xxx

June