Bubble wrap flower printing - Art for kids

So many possibilities with bubble wrap printing! Last time we used triangles of bubble wrap to print wisteria (perfect for lilac or delphiniums too), and that got us thinking about other flowers shapes we could try. At the moment the hedgerows here are awash with billowy cow parsley. Look closely, and the little, lacy white flowers are clustered together at the end of spoke-like stalks.



So first, we painted our background a mix of greens.

From early on I've encouraged the kids to use different shades of the same colour when they're painting or drawing - various greens for the grass and for trees, blues for the sky or sea and browns for wood. It's simple to do, looks really effective and helps them understand about colour mixing and light and shade.

Put your similar colours on the same plate or palette. We used green, blue and yellow poster paint, and mixed the yellow and blue together to make a different shade of green, leaving just a little of the blue and yellow unmixed.

Then dip an ordinary decorating paintbrush into some water (a big brush makes it easier to paint a large area quickly). Make sure it's not dripping wet, just keep it damp, and then have fun painting the different greens onto the paper, mixing them into each other, with the occasional streak of blue or yellow too. The key is to do it quickly and then leave it. Try not to over-work the background.

While that's drying, cut out a circle of bubble wrap dots like this ( 7 dots in total) - but make sure not to cut too close to the bubbles, so you don't deflate any of them! We then glued the unbubbly side to the bottom of a cork, to help with the printing.



While the glue's drying, squirt some more green paint onto your plate and mix in some blue on one side to make darker green. On the other side of the plate, mix in some white paint for a very pale green.



For the stems we used those thin wooden coffee stirrer sticks, but you could use lollypop or popsicle sticks or anything like that to print a thin, straight line. If you've a few spare sticks break one up, so you can print different length lines.

Press the stick into the dark green paint - make sure there's paint all along it, and print a stem onto the green background. If your stick is much wider than ours (and too wide for a stem), use the thin edge to print two or three lines next to each other. This should make the stem look the right thickness.

Press a clean stick edge into the pale green paint and print this thin line down one side of your stem, as if the light's catching it. This gives a more 3D effect, and helps lift the cow parsley out from the background.





It can get pretty messy, but sure that's half the fun!



It's worth having some freshly picked cow parsley to look at, so you can see the shapes of the stems and flowers (though be careful when you pick it as the sap can sometimes irritate your skin). Add more stems to your painting. At the top of each one, use the thin edge of a stick and the dark green paint to make spoke-like stalks, crossing the printed lines in the middle, like stars.



Get the flower stamp ready and either paint the bubble wrap with a good layer of white paint, or press into some white paint (make sure the paint isn't too thick though, or you'll end up with a big white splodge).

*You could cover a piece of thin kitchen sponge in white paint to make your own DIY stamp pad*



Carefully print your white flowers at the end of all the spoke-like stalks.

Bubble wrap wisteria - Art for kids

Wisteria is such a stunner, with its beautiful, delicate, cascading flowers. It can be completely magical, and I'm always looking out for it when we're driving along at this time of year. My daughter's doing the same now! We've tried and frustratingly failed to grow wisteria at home, so have to enjoy it elsewhere, like at the place we stayed in France after Easter. Thanks to the holidays being a bit later than usual it happened to be perfect wisteria time - all the flowers were out, buzzing with bees, just before the green leaves and whip-like shoots appear. I took so many photos! Don't think they completely do it justice, but we did enjoy sitting under such an amazing canopy of flowers - and the gentle scent was something else.

There are some wonderful art ideas for kids using bubble wrap and I thought it would be just the thing for a simple wisteria project.
All you need to do is cut some long triangles from the bubble wrap - round it a little at the wider top end. Cut a few different sizes too.

We used ready made purple poster paint. I've always had a lot of trouble mixing purple from blue and red, so I looked it up this time, and apparently you can only really mix purple from 'true' blue or red - that's when there's no tints of other colours like yellow or green in them. If they aren't true (and mine aren't), you end up with a rather disappointing murky grey-brown colour.

So, we used a good squirt of purple paint and about the same amount of white, with a dab or two of blue on the edge. Mix these with a brush, but it's much better if you don't mix them too well. Keep some swirls of white and dots of blue. This all helps with the paint effect.

Press your bubble-wrap wisteria shape into the paint - make sure it's all covered, but don't overload with paint, or it'll get very smudgy. A bit smudgy is fine, but it's good to see the bubble circles too.

We found holding the bubble wrap at the top and bottom helped a lot when we were placing it on the paper.

After you've printed a few flowers, add another few blobs of white, purple and blue, but don't mix them in this time, so you get clear splodges of the different colours on your wisteria shapes.

Keep the the colours topped up, so your flowers have more depth and look more interesting. Experiment with with your colour mix until you're happy with your wisteria.

Make the blooms hang down at different heights and overlap your flowers, layering the colours at the top - but remember to keep some of the pointy shapes at the bottom nice and clear.

It took no time at all and Daisy's really pleased with her painting. She's planning to add a few bees. You could also add some green leaves or shoots when the paint is dry if you want. And, as someone pointed out on Instagram, turn the page the other way up and you've got a flowerbed full of delphiniums!

Princess Leia - Star Wars craft

Princess Leia joins the crew to celebrate Star Wars day!  She's made like the other figures, but the most important thing to get right was her rather distinctive hair style. Think we cracked it...

You'll need:

Egg carton

Pencil

Ruler

Craft scissors

Nail scissors or similar (optional) Adult supervision required

Paint

Craft glue
Plain paper

Black felt-tip or gel pen
Silver metallic pen

For a lightsaber:
Coloured straw

Black marker pen (like a Sharpie)

1. As with the other figures, roughly cut out two middle cones from the egg box so they're easier to work with. On one, draw a pencil line around the bottom of the cone, just above the bumpy cardboard joins. Cut along the line. This will be the body.

2. The second cone is for the head, and you only need the very top part. Either estimate this, or use a pencil and ruler to mark about 1.5cm (1/2in.) from the top on all sides, join the marks and cut out. A handy way to do this is to cut up two adjacent corners to the pencil line, bend the card back and cut off the flap - it should be easier now to cut along the rest of the line.

(If your cone has a hole in the top, see the tip at the bottom.)

3. For the arms, fold a piece of the egg carton lid in half and draw an arm (roughly about 3cm/or 1in. long) on the fold. Make it a little wider at the unfolded end. Cut out and open up.

4. Either cut the arm strip in half after the painting step (Step 7), and glue the pieces either side of the body, or, with adult supervision, use the nail scissors to make a hole roughly in the middle of one of the arm sides (keep the scissors closed, press down and twist from side to side.)
Once you've made the hole, snip up to the top of the cone and down the other side until the slot looks level. Cut an extra sliver out to widen the gap for the arms. Make sure the slot goes far enough down the body, so when you push the arm strip in, it sits below the top part of the cone (the head will be glued here later). Don't glue any of the pieces together just yet.

5. For her side buns, cut out a strip of plain paper, about 5cm by 8cm (2in.x3in.) and roll it as tightly as you can.

6. Then cut across your roll. Cut a few and make them as thin as you can. Choose two you're happy with, and gently squeeze them back into a rounder shape, letting them unfurl a little. Dab glue on the sides of Princess Leia's head and stick them in place. This might be easier to do with the head sitting on the body. 

7. Painting time. Take the head off and paint the body and arms white.

TIP: As with Darth Vader, place the body on a spare egg carton cone to make painting easier (and less messy!)

Make a skin colour by mixing white with a little red, a touch of yellow and the tiniest dab of blue. Paint one side of the head. When that's touch dry paint on brown hair, painting the buns too. It helps if you draw the outline of the hair on the face first with a brown or black pen before painting. 

Again, put the head on a spare egg carton cone while you're decorating it. 

9. When the paint is dry, use the fine black pen to draw on a face and if you have a silver pen add a belt (see pic above). Glue the head on and if you have cut the arm strip in half, glue them either side.

If you'd like to make a lightsaber or another type of weapon for Princess Leia, have a look at the steps for Luke Skywalker

Tip: If your egg cones have holes in the top, brush glue inside the cones and push a small piece of newspaper up to fill the hole.

Curly wurly snakes!

Wrap them wherever you like!

These spirally snakes are sssssssimple to make and they're really good for scissor practice too.

You'll need:
2 toilet paper tubes (or a kitchen paper tube cut in half)
Paint
Paper
Craft glue
Glue stick
Plain paper
Yellow felt-tip or highlighter

1.  Paint stripes up one tube using any colours you like. It looks good if you keep to a set pattern, so if you paint yellow, green then blue do the same around the rest of the tube. Try to keep the stripes a similar size.
On the second tube, paint the same colour pattern around the tube, leaving a space near one end. Make the stripes a little thinner this time. Paint the bit you've left black, or whatever colour you'd like for your snakes tongue! Paint the inside of this end black too.

2. When the paint's dry, carefully cut the tube to make a spiral. Take your time and make small snips with the tips of the scissors. Don't make the angle too steep at the beginning - just a gentle rise. When you've been round once, the important thing is to keep the width of the spiral (your snake's body) the same all the way up. Keep checking to see if it looks right. This can be tricky and needs concentration but it's great scissor practice. If it helps, you could try drawing a spiral on first with a pencil, or, for younger makers, start it off for them, as this is really the trickiest part. Let them have a go at cutting the rest of the spiral. It doesn't matter if it's a bit wiggly!

3. Snip the end off so you have a nice straight bit to stick the head to.

4. Use a pencil to draw a diamond shaped head on your other tube ( make sure it's not too small)

5. Use sticky tape to attach it to the twisty body.

6. Cut out an eye shape from the spare tube. We tried two different shapes. Draw around it twice on some plain paper and colour in with a yellow felt-tip pen or a highlighter. Add a black pen line down the middle. Cut them out and use a glue stick to glue them to the head.

7. Cut a thin strip from the black end of the tube for your snake's tongue. Straighten off both ends and cut a 'V' in one of them.

8. Use sticky tape or glue to stick the tongue to the back of the head. Add two black nostrils and any other detail you like. Now your snake is ready to explore!