Pre Art- Party Fun

I believe in trying things out before i have to get a group of kids doing it.  Lesson learned from many years of supply teaching where I'd get this science experiment I was supposed to do with the class and it doesn't work out the way it is supposed to.  And I have to explain what was supposed to happen as well as why it didn't happen.

So these past few days have been trying out the art/ crafts i have found on the internet. 

http://babbledabbledo.com/art-for-kids-cosmic-suncatchers/

I tried it once with lots of glue and once with a thin glue film.  It was fun swirling the drops of food colour around.  Then it had to dry.   The thin one came off thin and wrinkly.  Not something I want to hang on my window. :(   I looked at the one that had more glue and  it worked out quite well.  It took at least 3 days to dry- maybe more, so it's not really good for a party.  It would be quite messy to take home a margarine lid full of coloured glue!.It would be my luck that every car with   one of the party kids will have to stop hard and fast so the glue will spill all over the kid and Katrina would hear about it the next day!  So while I now  have one hanging in my window, we'll do something else.

  So next we got some small sun catchers from the dollar store and my daughter painted one of them.  I had to paint over what she did because she didn't fill in the holes very well, just painted it with lots of streaks, bubbles etc.  They are rather small- 3 inches long and tall.  It worked well tho, so it's on the list of possibilities.

Katrina and bruce did this activity:  http://www.bhg.com/recipe/candy/picasso-pops/

I thought that wax paper would be better than aluminum foil so they did it that way.  The 6 min. suggested made the candy all melted and frothy. They didn't want to peel off the wax paper very well either.  Kat. did like eating them.  She said: ' this is so good.  I am definately doing this at my party!'  Kat. got bored and bruce did the next try- using the aluminum foil.  He only did a 4 minute melt.  They came out pretty.  Now they are cooling.  The fruity hard candy melted into each other more, leaving a more finger-painted look rather than a variety of colours next to each other like on the website page.  After cooling the red/ white mint candy bits came off very easily.  They didn't get runny so they looked more like the candy on the website.  Aluminum foil it is!  ONly takes a few minutes per kid, tho.  On the plus side, no handwashing needed after this artsy activity!

Speaking of finger painting, i tried it with shaving cream.  Put some shaving cream on a paper.  Add food colouring.  Swirl around with fingers.  Wipe of shaving cream off and you have your work of art!  It was fun.  However, wiping off the shaving cream using a ruler ripped the regular paper.  It worked ok on the bristol board tho.  So when I saw some finger painting paper at our local Creative Learning Toy Store, I figured for 6 or 7 bucks it would work better and there'd be plenty of paper left over for Katrina to use during the summer.   Katrina was nervous because she was afraid the dog would lick her hands and get sick from the shaving cream.  I think we used too much cream & too many colour drops.  Not sure whether to do this one.  Kat didn't seem to enjoy it.  I think she'd like it better with edible whip cream.  Can you imagine all the kids licking their papers clean to see the art work under the cream?!  That would be worth a picture!

I found this neat ' self portrait' art class here:
 http://missmancy.com/wp-content/plugins/category-grid-view-gallery/includes/CatGridPost.php?ID=2909

I bought a  12 x16"  canvas already wrapped around wood ($2. at dollar store) to make sure Kat could get her hands and feet painted on.  When i tried it with a regular  8 1/2 by 11'' paper, i got my hands traced but then had to draw on small feet.  It did turn out kind of cool tho!  

Katrina is on an origami kick so we found a simple ninja disk that turns into a star here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcCS86eikJs  

 that is easy enough and repetitive enough that everyone can make it.  And it looks cool!  And you can throw it, if you want!  So this one is in for sure. Oh, and it will take at least 20-30 min. to make.

And finally- marker art! found here:  http://elementaryartfun.blogspot.ca/search/label/Coffee%20Filter%20Circles

We tried these last night and they turned out really well.  It also works if you colour 1 side with the markers, not using dots, then wet it so the print goes thru to the other side and then colour that side using dots.  I found that if you don't use dots on the wet filter all you get is a dried up marker which you then have to lay aside until it re-inks itself.  For whatever reason, dotting your wet filter does not do this.

The dollar store also had cute little bird houses for painting.  I would think this is a straight-forward paint job but you never know, so i bought 1 as a sample for katrina to do at home first. They are the most exp

OCD alert:
   When i was buying the stuff from the dollar store, the lady who was at the checkout was using a broom  to clean their checkout area.  Then she gave the dustpan which she pulled out of nowhere  to the other person in the booth while she was doing MY order!!! Ocd wasn't thrilled but Karin said: it's OK.  It's not a dirty floor or broom or dustpan.  A few years ago i would have had an internal fit and likely went and washed all the stuff when i got home, or threw out the container/ boxes stuff came in if i could.    Unfortunately MY broom and dustpan at home are 'dirty'.  But that could change...

Sent out 11 invitations.  If everyone comes it'll be a house full!