messy texture printing for kids

I did some messy texture printing with my son, who is 3, and at work with a group learning family crafts.

I put a tablecloth down (on a coffee table in my house) and chose some textured items like bubble wrap, a toothbrush, sandpaper, cling film and foil crumpled up, lego blocks and sticklebrick piece, a toy car with tread marks on the wheels, wool, string, a cotton reel, corrugated cardboard and a brush, sponge dabber and roller.

I put out some acrylic paints and let my son play about by dabbing the textured things in the paint and stamping them on the paper. He enjoyed it.

Here's when the adult community group learning family crafts had a go at the same activity:

They also enjoyed it!

This activity is more for "process" than product. It's a nice way for children to experiment with making marks and finding out about different textures. However if you want to make it into something, we chopped up my son's one and made part of it into a birthday card...

2014

some things I made this week

Banana and walnut cake (nearly all eaten in this photo!)...

Shell block-print make-up pouch...

 Knitting some grey cardigan and small blue mobile phone pouch...

Christmas Cactus stencil print

I made a stencilled card for my Dad's birthday...

First I took a photo of a Christmas Cactus plant I have, then I printed the photo and traced the shapes of the leaves and flowers. I coloured in selected areas of the traced design:

Then I traced the areas that I would stencil in different colours, as separate layers, and cut them out of card with a craft knife:

Then I stencilled the design onto a blank card using a brush and acrylic paints:

I stencilled the 'soil' by cutting out that area and drawing in there with a black coloured pencil, as opposed to paint, to add some texture to the picture.

A Christmassy-New Year-Birthday print!

You can make a stencilled picture with your own design by following those steps.

stencilled tote bag

I made a hand-stencilled tote bag yesterday, as a demo for my first Handmade Crafts class, which starts tomorrow evening in Forest Hill.  Here's how I made it...

I wanted to use the bag for carrying books, so I made some sketches about books and butterflies, which I used for the design.  I drew the butterfly/books on a piece of A4 card and cut out the shapes using a craft knife.  Then I sprayed a little glue on the back of the card and stuck it onto the blank bag.





I put some fabric paints out on a piece of acetate (a paper plate would be fine) and used pieces of sponge to stencil the design through the cut out shapes in the card.  It's better to dab the paint on gently and repeat the application, rather than blobbing lots of paint on, as the paint could get under the stencil and spoil your design.  When I had finished applying the different colours that I chose, I peeled the stencil off.

Then I sprayed some more glue onto the back of the stencil and stuck it onto the bag again, as I wanted to repeat some of the butterfly-books and fill in the bottom corners of the bag.  I got a bit of paint under the stencil by accident this time, but it can be fixed afterwards with a paintbrush.

When I'd finished (both sides) and the paint was dry, I ironed the bag on the reverse, to fix the fabric paint and make it washable.  Here's the finished bag again:

                                    

Handmade Crafts classes starting soon!

I will start teaching two new 'Handmade Crafts' classes at the Ackroyd Centre, Forest Hill, on Tuesdays, and Pat-a-Cakes coffee shop in Crofton Park on Thursdays.  They will start on Tuesday 18th and Thursday 20th September then continue weekly.

The classes will be an hour-and-a-half long, and in each session participants will make a different craft project to take away - for example: a stencilled tote bag, felt necklace or handmade notebook.

Classes will be drop-in (no need to book) for any level of crafter, and I hope they will have a relaxed sociable atmosphere.

Both classes will start at 7pm until 8.30pm, and the cost is £10 including materials.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this new class!

p.s. The first class will be stencilling a tote bag (reusable shopping bag) with your own design...

press printing and potato printing

I did some quick tests for community art classes that I taught this week.  The first method is polystyrene press printing.  It's a nice simple introduction to relief printing.  All you have to do is scratch your design into the polystyrene tile using a pen or pencil, roll some block printing ink onto the tile, then print it by placing the tile face down on a piece of paper and applying pressure with your hand or by rolling it with a clean roller.
You can get polystyrene tiles for craft use at www.homecrafts.co.uk 

Next I did some potato printing to get ready for a 'Crafts for Families' class that I started teaching this week.  Again, a simple but effective way of making a quick print.  I printed the heart stamp onto some plain cotton and then sewed it by hand into a little drawstring bag.  Parents can do this activity with their children - if the parent cuts out the potato, the kids can do the printing and then the parent make it into a bag for their child to carry around their toys, slippers or pyjamas.