African Art Projects For Children

The ancient African art mainly consisted of masks and figures that were used for various religious ceremonies. Apart from these, the other artforms included sculptures, paintings and decorative objects. The decorative objects mostly included textiles and everyday tools, which formed an integral part of all African cultures. African art has always been appreciated for its intrinsic aesthetic value. It comprises of an enormous collection of rock paintings and sculptures that are considered to be their greatest achievements. Most of the artwork in Africa has tremendous visual appeal and inspires a number of children's art projects in schools. Art teachers take various African art pieces as reference subjects.

The easiest African art project for children is to create a paper flag of one of the countries in Africa. Apart from wood, African sculptures were made from a variety of other materials, such as mud, beads, ivory, terracotta, metal and stone. Children can create replicas from ivory soap bars. Clay can also be used to create small figures, which can further be painted with gold acrylic, to decorate them. The Zulu tribe in Zimbabwe has been writing letters, using beads since a very long time. The cryptic messages and proverbs in these letters depend on the design, color and placement of beads. These letters are also good topics for art projects for children. The red, black and white shields of Kenya can be easily made of cardboard, paint, bells, shells and paint.

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Fun DIY Art Projects For Your Family

One of the primary problems that many parents face today is how to bring back the quality time with children that was lost with the advent of dual jobs and many long hours of overtime in the office, which has been heightened especially in the face of the global financial crisis and the major recession affecting almost every household in the country. If you are one of the parents who are looking for ways to bridge the growing gap between you and your children, home art projects may be the solution you are looking for.

DIY art options

There are various do-it-yourself home art projects that can be done inside the home. Contrary to popular belief, these art projects are also ideal for people looking for affordable ways to reconnect with the family on a budget. With the right project ideas, there is no need for anyone to begin spending large amounts of money on professional quality paints and artists brushes that can leave gaping holes in any average household's budget. Here are some of the best do-it-yourself home art projects that you can try out for yourself.

Patriotic cards
Whether for the fourth of July or simply as a year-round sign of you and your country's love for the motherland, patriotic cards are one of the beginner's home art projects that you can look into. Using classic American themes ranging from the flag to the good old American eagle, the patriotic card is both easy to use and a hands-on activity that is perfect for your young children. To do this, the only that you need are some art papers, glue, a pair of scissors, and some marking pen for drawing in the details of your project. One of the basics is to draw a card in the image of a flag. Let your children explore their creative side through the use of various art elements to decorate the card, aside from the main motif of the flag. For very young children, help them out in using the scissors for safety.

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Preschool Art Projects - Under the Sea

Under the Sea

No preschool curriculum is complete without a wide variety of art projects. Arts and crafts give children a method of expressing themselves creatively, as well as allowing them to develop fine motor skills such as cutting, pasting, and drawing. Certain themes, such as the ocean and the creatures that live in it, lend themselves perfectly to preschool art projects.

Ocean life is full of fun shapes and colors which are replicated in these preschool art projects. First, here's a project where the kids create stained glass ocean animals by using tissue paper with contact paper or waxed paper.

Look through books about the ocean and its life forms for inspiration first before letting the children create their own sea creature forms from contact paper or waxed paper. Once they have cut out their shape, decorate the shapes with tissue paper to create a stained glass effect. Remember to use glue if waxed paper is being used.

Create your own Aquarium!

In conjunction with the ocean life theme, organize a field trip to a local zoo or aquarium to observe fish in their habitat. After the field trip, try one of these preschool art projects on fish and aquariums.

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Watercolor Art Projects For Your Kids

When you are looking for an idea for something productive to do with your child, then maybe being involved with an art project is the answer. This kind of art is a simple craft that will be fun for you and your child to do together. There are a few watercolor art projects for kids to do.

The watercolors are your best choice for kids to be involved with as this can become quite messy and the watercolor paint can be easily washed off. First decide just what it is you will want to make. Start the project by first drawing the design or image with the use of a crayon or even a marker on a sheet of art paper. Then dip the brush into water and go on to wet the brush and then run the brush over the entire paper. Now you can begin to paint on the art paper. The paint shall fill everywhere other then the area that was drawn with the marker or crayon.

Another idea it to use a rectangular sheet of art paper and put four blobs of four colors in the corners of the paper. Then your child can use his or her fingers and begin to spread the colors, two blobs at a time in anyway they want to create some kind of design and ending it when meeting in the center of the paper.

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Easy and Fun Tissue Paper Crafts for Kids

A rainy day is a great opportunity to get out the arts and crafts boxes and spend time with the kids making personalized gifts for friends and family. Nothing expresses love as well as a homemade card or a giant tissue paper flower. Many artists choose tissue for art projects because it can be easily shaped and cut into patterns for multiple craft projects.

This art medium is perfect for young kids as it is nontoxic and perfectly safe, with no sharp corners to cut into tender fingers. Tissue can be purchased in a wide variety of color hues and sizes. It is recommended that a giant package of tissue paper be bought because there are so many craft ideas tissue can be used for.

Tissue paper is popular with children and parents alike because it can be torn or ripped easily, avoiding the necessary use of scissors for art projects. The colors are bright and the tissue paper is very easy to handle for small fingers. Art projects for kid to create with tissue paper include beautiful and colorful tissue paper flowers.

These flowers can be given away as gifts or tied together to make a chain of colorful flashy paper tissue flowers to hang in their room as flower swag. To make a tissue paper flower, take a piece of paper and gently scrunch it into a fan-like shape. Holding the tissue pinch in the center, tie the folded paper with a pipe cleaner, preferably the same color as the tissue paper. Fan out the tissue paper to reveal a beautiful flower.

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Fun Art Projects for Kids

Many children absolutely love creating art. Crafting, drawing, and painting are more than just enjoyable to kids - they are also beneficial for helping improve small muscle skills and hand -eye coordination. Experience with the arts at a young age will also nurture an appreciation for art that your child will carry into adulthood. Try this pair of simple art project ideas if you want to give your child a creative and enjoyable opportunity to also develop several different skills.

Hand Tracing Creations

When you want an art project that is enjoyable, quick, and affordable, it is hard to find one that would be better than hand tracing. The only materials you will need are crayons, paper, and the hand of your child. Begin by having your child trace their hand on a piece of paper with one of the crayons. Next, let their creativity run wild by transforming the hand tracing into something unique. Many people will remember this activity at school during the Thanksgiving season when they were taught to transform their hand tracings into a Thanksgiving turkey, but there are many other artistic possibilities. How about letting the fingers be spiked hair, and drawing a silly face on the palm place of the tracing? Or try turning the paper upside down so that the fingers of the tracing can look like the legs of an insect, or any manner of scary creation. Hand Art is an affordable and imaginative option for an art day. And make sure you and your child select their most loved couple of creations so that they can be displayed in picture frames in your home.

"Tie Dye" with Paper Towels

With a roll of plain paper towels, water, several rubber bands or grocery "twist-ties", a handful of paper clips, some small bowls and a watercolor paint set, your children can make a myriad of tie dye art. Begin by protecting the tabletop where you are working with some sort of vinyl or plastic tablecloth. Next, fold one of the paper towels in a fan-fold alternating pattern. Take rubber bands, twisty -ties or paper clips and attach them in various places along the paper folds. Then, pour a little water into each of the small bowls. With the paintbrush and watercolor paint set, stain each bowl of water with a different color. Dip the various edges of the folds of the paper towel in the bowls of colored water.

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My Last-Minute Mother’s Day Gift

My father scanned our family photos last year, and I’ve been dying to play around with them ever since. This image had lost a lot of it’s original color, but I had fun handpainting it back in. (Just for the record, I'm the cute one in the chair.)

1. I printed my scanned photo onto watercolor paper, using my Epson Photo 1440 printer. A high-resolution setting is best to get a nice, bright image.
2. I used Prismacolor® Watercolor pencils to add color to the picture edges. Try to match the colors and shapes that are started in the photo. Color can be added inside the picture as well, as I did with the sky and skin tones.
3. Brush the drawing with water to turn it into a painting.

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Mother’s Day “Pancake Recipe”

This is a compilation of what my 1st and 2nd grade students wrote today, when I asked them how they would make pancakes. The only thing is, they have no idea how cute their writing is!

1. Students glued a photo of pancakes to their paper (download here), and drew a fancy border around the outside.

2. The PANCAKE title was to be written in block letters. I drew a sample on the board for them to follow. The letters and border are colored in with pencil, preferably using colors already in the photo.

3. Following prompts such as “Mix _____ cups of ______. Add _________. Bake / cook for _____ minutes at __________ degrees”, students fill in their own answers. Or better yet, add some other steps. Be prepared to giggle at their responses!

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Metal Tooling Mother’s Day Card

Gold metal tooling is great material for making textured art. Add Sharpie markers and you have a very expensive looking Mother’s Day card.

1. Each student gets a 3" x 5" piece of gold tooling, and place it on a few layers of newspaper. They draw firmly with a dull pencil to engrave the image.

2. Sharpie markers are used to color it in.

3. The final art may be mounted on a 6" x 9" folded card using double-sided tape. I recommend a quality card stock because this card is a keeper.

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Mother’s Day Collage Card

This is a simple layout, but needs to be done neatly to make it look nice. My secret is to use glue sticks to make the tissue paper lay smooth and flat.

1. Students use scissors to cut out the flower and vase shapes from blue, green, pink and yellow tissue paper.
2. Glue is spread all over the front of a folded card and the tissue pieces are attached. Don’t worry about any excess glue as it will not be sticky when dry. To make all the edges lay flat, students gently rub a bit of glue over the top of each piece.

3. Messages are added in crayon on the front and inside the card.

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Tissue Paper Flowers for Mother’s Day

Need a pretty but inexpensive project for Mother’s Day? All you need is an old baby food jar, tissue paper, white glue and a couple of green pipe cleaners.

1. Tear blue tissue paper into small little strips. Make a 50/50 mix of white glue and water, brush on the outside of a baby food jar, and apply overlapping strips of tissue paper. Continue until the jar is covered. Brush a final layer of mixture over all to smooth the surface before it dries. Let dry.

2. My inspiration for the flowers comes from “Tissue Paper Flowers” by the editors of Klutz. Proportion of the flowers to the jar is important, so I’ve made a pattern that you can download HERE. You make a small green folded “nubs” on one ends of the pipecleaners, slide on two yellow circles, and two white star flowers. Use a small amount of clay or playdough inside the jar to support the stems.

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How to Draw a Peacock

Learning to draw radial symmetry is a CA Visual Arts standard, and is precisely what is called for in drawing this colorful peacock. I’m in love with this kinder’s drawing, in which she chose to use flowers to cap the feathers, instead of ovals.

1. Starting with a horizontal watercolor paper, students draw half a circle at the bottom.

2. A head with neck is added, and a beak and eye.

3. Oval feathers with lines are drawn at 9, 12, and 3 o’clock.

4. More feathers are added at 10, 11, 1 and 2 o’clock.

5. One more feather is added between each already drawn. A black permanent marker is used to trace all the pencil lines.

6. Crayon lines are added to the feathers. When complete, watercolor paint is used to color the peacock body and the background.

Thanks to Katharine, a kinder, who made this amazing peacock. I can’t get over her flower-topped feathers... nothing short of brilliant if you ask me.

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Mother’s Day Art Project

I’ve used this card for kinders for several years and I'm still surprised at how nice they look, especially when colored with bright patterns.
1. Start with large white construction paper (12" x 18") and cut it in half to make panels of 6" x 18". Fold the panels into thirds to make a card that measures 6" x 6". Arrange folds so that the card makes a “Z”. Cut lots of posterboard “M” and “O” block letters for the students to trace. To save time, I left the “O” without the center cut out, and asked the students to just draw their own.

2. The students are to center the letters in each panel, trace with a pencil, and then with a black marker. The students colored in a different pattern in each letter, and then different colors for the background.

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Russian Cathedral Drawing

St. Basil’s is a famous cathedral in Russia, which was originally designed as a cluster of chapels. It’s unique architecture manages to look both old and new at the same time.

1. For this lesson, I led the students in setting up their basic building shapes, but then gave them THIS color photo for a guide. Starting with letter size paper, they drew a large rectangle in the middle. An “onion” shape was added on top.

2. A somewhat shorter rectangle is attached to the left and right. A curved top with ball is added.

3. Now the fun part – lots of curves and angles and swirls are added to decorate the entire building.

4. When the drawing is complete, all the lines are traced with a black Sharpie marker and the shapes are colored in with crayon.

Thanks so much to Keana A., a 1st grader who let me share her drawing. Can you tell she comes from an artistic family?

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Hand-Colored Mother’s Day Card

If you would like to make a homemade Mother’s Day card, I’ve collected a bunch of decorative letters from clipartETC.com and arranged them on a jpeg file that you can just print and color.

1. Click on the image above to download my prepared jpeg file. Print on a sheet of heavy 8.5" x 11" paper with the landscape setting and all footers removed.

2. Use colored pencils to fill in the letters.

3. If you would like to make it into a card, tape to another paper and write a message inside.

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Klimt’s Tree of Life Mural

Gustav Klimt was a Viennese painter who was perhaps best-known for his love of translucent, mosaic colors and forms, and curling background lines and patterns. His “Tree of Life” painting is a favorite of mine.

This template contains 30 pages and measures 48"x 48" when complete. Click HERE to see a preview of the blank template pages. You can purchase my pdf file with instructions and color guide for just $5. Click the “Add to Cart” button to make your payment via Paypal and receive immediate download instructions.

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Happy Earth Day Coloring Page

I found this really great free font called Wild Wood at Font.DownloadAtoZ and made a quick coloring page for those still celebrating Earth Day today. I can’t promise that all the little twigs and leaves will be easy to color, but I'm sure it will look great when it’s done. You can download your blank template HERE. Have fun!

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Magazine Color Collage

Collage is a French word which means “glue.” The term was coined by Braque and Picasso in the beginning of the 20th century, when collage became a distinctive part of modern art.

1. I've found this to be a really good project for kinders and 1st graders. They enjoy the hunt for images, and benefit from some simple guidelines. Each student needs a couple of magazines, white paper, scissors and glue stick. They are to choose one color, and then collect as many different objects or swatches in that color as possible.
3. All of the images are glued onto the white paper, with the goal of overlapping and filling it up. This is really simple, but the fact that each picture will have a theme really unifies the images and can create some stunning artwork. Plus, everyone is getting lots of scissors cutting practice, without really thinking about it!
CA Visual Art Standard: Creative Expression, Kindergarten
2.3 Make a collage with cut or torn paper shapes/forms.

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Fruity People Collage

One CA Visual Art Standard centers around how to create feelings with one’s own artwork. This book “How Are You Peeling?” is full of some very creative photographs of fruit and vegetables, all made to reflect a wide variety of emotions. Reading it first helps to make connections that certain shapes can look a lot like faces, when using one’s imagination.

1. I’ve collected some photographs of fruit and vegetables, the low resolution type that are free for comp making. You can download the 2-page file HERE. Print as many copies as needed on inkjet paper.

2. I recommend that the students start by choosing a large shape to make the head, then the body, legs, arms, and finally details on top.

3. After all the body parts are collected and laid out, they are glued down with a glue stick.

CA Arts Standard: Creative Expression. 

2.5 Use lines in drawings and paintings to express feelings.

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Recycled Magazine Bowls

In honor of Earth Day, I’m having a Recycle Art Week at my school. These bowls are fun to make and truly about reusing that which just ends up in the trash.

1. Every student needs a 1" wide x 12" cardboard stick, scotch tape (preferably in a dispenser) and a magazine. To begin, students are to tear out magazine pages, taking care to choose those with the most color. The students then place the stick at a corner of a page and wrap the paper around it as shown in the diagram. Careful folding and creasing helps. When the page is completely wrapped around the stick, pull the stick out from one side. Tape the rolled paper corner down so it doesn't unwrap.

2. The first strip needs to be rolled up tightly, much like a tape measure is rolled. When finished, tape the end to itself so it doesn't come apart.

3. To continue, each new strip is attached with tape where the last one ended and wrapped to the growing roll until it is the size that is desired. When complete, hold the flat roll and shape it into a bowl. Apply a generous coat of Mod Podge on one side and let dry. Repeat for the remaining side.

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