Kleas

playing...

It was Leslie who got me thinking about printing on fabric.  I couldn't resist signing up for her swap, so began playing.

First I went to the kitchen to see how different utensils worked for stamping.  It was fun to make patterns with the variety of tools, but I found it too challenging to get good results with the ink.  

Next I played with stamps, some commercial, some i carved myself.  I also experimented with squares of foam.

Wanting to test a stencil, i worked with some fancy lace paper.

Pretty, but was not sure how to line up the edges to cover an entire fat quarter.

More playing then I finally came up with a pattern that I liked.

For the swap fabrics, I used four different colors of paint (Martha Stewart satin) on a 100% Organic white cotton.  I chose four stamps and did a repeat design covering the entire piece of fabric.

After heat setting them with a hot iron, they were ready to go.

These are all on their way to Australia.

Willow House

is the name we chose for our little preschool.  I carved this gnome house stamp to use on all of our documentation and also made a tiny leaf to decorate a willow tree arching over it.

 

It's pretty simple, but that was the look we were going for.  What we have been lacking at our school, however, is willow.

Take one dear and very generous friend who provided the willow and add this vision (scroll down) and what I got was one dream come true.  Our very own willow house for the kids to play in.

 

It started with a pick-up truck full of willow.

 

We simply pushed willow branches into the ground and then weaved them together.

 

We continued weaving the branches in until all the gaps had been closed up.

 

It took us less than three hours to complete from start to finish.  Here's a side view.

 

You can bet it got played in immediately as the children squealed in delight at the sight of it.

 

I couldn't be happier now that Willow House has it's very own play house made out of willow.

ATCs for kids

I've been making artist trading cards for a few years now, and every time I've been in a swap, Peanut has been right by my side, watching, helping and just so curious about what I was doing.  When Blair and Erin planned this swap for kids, I signed him up immediately.  I'm not sure how they were able to do it, but they grouped the kids by age.  Peanut is in a group of six kids, all of whom are four-and-a-half years old.  He couldn't wait to get started.  Right away he knew he wanted to do watercolor.

This is a traditional style of watercolor painting that is used in many Waldorf schools.  Most of you are probably already familiar with this method, but for those who aren't, it's a simple and beautiful way of bringing color alive. 

Here's the method we used:

Using good quality watercolor paper, you begin by soaking the paper in a sink or bowl full of water.  Once the paper has absorbed some water (after approximately fifteen minutes), lift it out and gently run your fingers or a sponge on both sides to remove excess water.  At this point I folded the paper to the correct ATC size (2.5" x  3.5") and gently tore them apart.  By tearing the paper you get a softer edge and when it is painted, it soaks up more of the pigment making it create a naturally darker border.  Next, Peanut got out his watercolors and began mixing colors.  This is his favorite part, he loves to experiment with color.  The beauty of using such thick paper is that he is able to "erase" something he isn't happy with by clearing the paint off with water.  The last step, and my favorite part (because it is so magical), is once you are satisfied with the color and before the paint dries, take a salt shaker and shake salt over portions of the painting.  As it dries the salt crystals gradually suck up the pigment leaving star-like patterns on the paper.

It's more visible on a bigger painting like this one.

More variations.

 

Once Peanut finished the cards we decided to use the styrofoam stamping technique to stamp his name to the back of each card so he only had to write his name once.

 

Peanut is now eagerly waiting for the mailman after preschool each day. 

Thanks to Blair and Erin for hosting such a fun swap for the kids.

Tutorial-"Carving" stamps with young children

It's about time I get some thank you cards mailed out.  Julen IS closing in on six months and I've been dragging my feet getting those written.  But of course I couldn't possibly just make life easy on myself and BUY some cards....noooo, I had to start from scratch and decided to revisit an old craft I hadn't tried in a while, so carved a rubber stamp to make the cards.  As is typical of my four-year-old, he wants to join in on all the crafting that goes on in this house, so was eager to give it a try.  However, I would be crazy to let him get his hands on tools like these.  So we went for a more child friendly version of making a stamp and Peanut made his own thank you cards for his birthday gifts. Here's what we did:

Materials needed:

 
~Styrofoam trays (like the kind fish and chicken are packaged in at the grocery store or those that restaurants use for take out orders)
~scissors
~chop-stick or pen                                                                                                            ~paintbrush
~stamp pads and/or paint
~paper (not pictured) and I think a brayer roller would have been helpful, but I couldn't find mine

First cut off all the rounded edges of the styrofoam, so the"stamp" will lay flat.  Then cut into several, child manageable pieces. (I found that about 3 x 4 inch pieces worked very well).

Next, using a chop-stick or pen have the child create their image directly on to the styrofoam pad making sure to press hard so there is a nice indentation.  Peanut started out making a polka-dot design.

Once your design is finished, completely cover the styrofoam pad with paint or ink.  We used Peanuts' preferred method of painting with a paint brush (although this is where a brayer roller would be much easier). 

(This boy could paint for hours.)

Next, press stamp down evenly on your paper...

...and very carefully lift it up to see your image.

Here are all the stamps we made.

Peanut chose the flower design for his cards...

...which once they were cut out, we attached to the front of card stock using photo corners.

They make cute gift box tops as well.

 

Have fun!