Making Art at Home

This page is a collection of ideas to keep kids making at home with materials they may already have.
Ideas can combined with other ideas to create new ideas and projects. The possibilities are endless!

Drawing:

100sillydrawingprompts.pdf
File Size:	158 kb
File Type:	pdf

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At home, students can practice drawing with pencil or pen. To expand a beginners selection, start with the Crayola aisle (crayons, markers, colored pencils). Beyond the basics, try color sticks, chalk pastels, oil pastels, and even watercolor pencils. Ink Joy and glitter pens are fun for writing and drawing. Flair pens or Shuttle Art markers are awesome for those who like to color. Fold copy paper in half to make a sketchbook, use a simple folder to keep drawings organized, or use a piece of copy paper to create a single fold book.

The following videos offer ideas, tips and tricks to anyone interested in drawing:
20 Drawing Tricks for Boring Days
9 Easy Doodles to Fill Your Sketchbook (some of these ideas are done with watercolor but can be done with colored pencils instead)
Single Sheet 8 Page Book
Accordion Fold Doodle Book
Make Your Own Sketchbook

Drawing Tutorials: Art for Kids Hub

Painting:

Water soluble paints (watercolor or tempera) work well for student projects. Wear an old shirt if working with acrylic paint.
Alternatives to paint: try painting with coffee, tea, charcoal, food coloring, DIY watercolors (use washable markers), dissolve candy/sprinkles...experiment!

The following videos offer ideas, tips and tricks to anyone interested in painting:
6 Paintings for Beginners to Try
Luminex Art
Painting Tricks
Make Your Watercolor Painting Look Magical
More Watercolor Painting Ideas

Collage:

21.2thebestcollagematerials.pdf
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Cardboard Rainbow Collage
Instructions
Supplies: cardboard (or heavy paper), round plate (template), paper (scrapbook paper, construction paper, tissue paper, magazines), glue stick or white glue, cotton balls or white pom poms, scissors.

Larry Loudmouth Paper Collage
Instructions
Supplies: construction paper, pencil, scissors, glue stick or white glue. Try using a ruler to help cut straight lines and found objects (lid, bowl, cup) to make circles.

Arcimboldo Portrait
Instructions
Supplies: white card stock, magazines, scissors, glue stick or white glue.

Printmaking:

Styrofoam Printing
Instructions
Supplies: styrofoam (take home container), scissors, pencil (to draw on foam), printing ink, brayer, paper.
Supply substitutions: apply paint with a paint brush to your foam plate for ink or color with markers.

Collagraph Printing
Instructions
Supplies: cardboard, sticky foam, yarn, puzzle pieces, lace, printing ink, brayer, paper.
Supply substitutions: use card stock paper or thin cardboard (cereal box) glued on top of cardboard to make printing plate. Apply paint with a paint brush to your plate for ink.

Monoprinting
Instructions
Supplies: cardboard (circle or square), tin foil, paint (tempera or acrylic) and paint brush, cotton swabs, old cloth or paper towel, paper.

Fibers:

Paper Plate String Art
Instructions
Supplies: yarn, paper plate, scissors, pencil, yarn needle
Supply substitutions: try a paper clip or ball point pen to punch the holes. Fold a small piece of tape on the end of your yarn to help push it through the holes. Embroidery thread could be used in place of yarn.

Paper Weaving
Instructions
Supplies: construction paper, scissors, glue stick or white glue

Straw Weaving
Instructions
Supplies: drinking straws, tape, yarn, scissors, skewer (optional)

Weaving on a Cardboard Loom
Instructions
Supplies: piece of cardboard (square or rectangle), ruler, marker, yarn, yarn needle, scissors

Circle Weaving
Instructions
Supplies: cardboard circle (paper plate or CD), yarn, yarn needle, scissors

Finger Knitting
How To
Finger Knitted Bunny
Instructions
Supplies: thick yarn, ruler, scissors, felt (optional)

Sculpture:

Paper Sculpture:
Instructions:
Try to make each of the paper building techniques in the image to the right. Once you have practiced these techniques, how can you use paper to create a sculpture?
Ideas to try: build a playground, design a bedroom, create an abstract sculpture.
Supplies: paper, scissors, glue stick or clear tape

How to make Paper Mache Paste
Paper Mache Recipe
Ideas to try: cover the top half of a balloon to create a bowl, build something out of cardboard and other recyclable items and paper mache over it for a better surface to paint.

Soft Sculpture
Instructions
Supplies: felt or fabric, scissors, stuffing, needle, embroidery floss/thread, pins, white glue (optional)

Ceramics:

How to make Paper Clay
Instructions
Ideas to try: flatten a sphere and shape with a cookie cutter, cut a fish out of a piece of cardboard and add paper clay to make it 3D, make "rocks" that can be painted for an indoor rock garden.

How to make Air Dry Clay
2 DIY Air Dry Clay Recipes
Ideas to try: make a pinch pot bowl to keep keys or jewelry, sculpt your favorite animal, stamp found objects into a piece of clay to make a pendant to put on a necklace. Dry pieces can be colored with a variety of materials (try crayons, markers, watercolor paint, acrylic paint).

Cloud Clay (play doh alternative)
Cloud Clay Recipe
Store in an airtight container to extend life.

Digital:

Pixlr: Photo editing website
Pixlr 101
Ideas to try: digital painting with various tools, alter photographs.

Stop Motion Animation
Instructions
Ideas to try: use your Chromebook (extension in Instruction video) and found objects to make an animated video.

Photography
Ideas to try: go on a scavenger hunt looking for certain related items (color, letters, objects, shadows). Take 9 pictures and insert them into a 3 by 3 table in Google Docs. Take photographs of the special people in your life. Check out these ideas for ways to display your photographs.