Recycled paper flowers Workshop

Yesterday we had a great fun in the Hands Gallery creating paper flowers and hair accessories with kids and adults alike. I do love creating pretty things from materials destined for the bin, therefore I do collect almost everything - from old glossy mags pages to shiny sweet wrappers. This project is perfect for using it all, so you can create a beautiful item, that will not cost the Earth (literary). ;-) Pinterest is full of good tutorials for flower making, (just take your pick) but instead of buying expensive supplies from the craft store, look around your house. The only thing you need to buy is a wire ( I used the cheapest green garden wire) and maybe some beads but they are not crucial. The only thing I "splashed" on, was my light green tape (2,50 Euro). ;-)

The base of the wreath is made of the cheap brown packing paper. To achieve the vintage look of the flowers, I scrunched up the glossy pages first. The middle of the flowers are made of sweet wrappers.
And there you have it... Don't hesitate to ask, if you have any questions...

Funky Frottage (Workshop for children)

We are back after 2 weeks holidays and here are some pictures from yesterdays workshop.

This time we cut out, drew and and stitched some pretty faces and added lost of hair to create a base for our frottages (from French frotter, "to rub"). To achieve a successful frottage, you need to use a thicker paper (card similar to the supermarket pizza packaging, not cardboard!). The thin white cake boards would work.

The fun and unusual thing about these doll faces is, that you can change the hair styles as many times as you wish. That means, that you can make many different pictures using just one doll. Crazier the hair style, more fun it is!We made ours under the title: "Bad Hair Day" but nothing is stopping you to design monsters or even animals with  lots of hair, if pretty faces are not your cup of tea. ;-)

We used soft pastels for the rubbings and we sprayed them afterwards with a hair spray to stop them smudging.

It is also possible to rub the image through a metal craft foil but you need to rub it pretty hard. We used scrunched up paper towel to get in all the nooks and crooks between the hair.

Drop me a Facebook message (here) with a picture of your work, if you get to try this out... I would love to hear from you.

Here is how it goes, have fun!

The mystery Art Teacher - Part 2

The second surprise art package is on its way!
The lucky recipient will be again the 7 years old boy in Berlin, who had such fun blowing & drawing bubbles with the first kit back in May. This time, I packed two projects with watercolours. Lets see if he will enjoy them too. According to the mum, the first package really caused an immediate creative response and lots of joy for everyone involved.

This time I am offering some creative fun with masking tape, watercolours and salt. The idea is, to make quirky trees using the masking tape, then paint over it with watercolours, creating "dreamy" atmosphere (e.g. dusk, sunrise, snowy morning...) and then sprinkling some salt over it (adding unexpected textural effect).

The second photo tutorial in the pack offers the exotic birdie project featured earlier on the blog. Click here to see it.

Fancy a creative surprise package for your child? Let me know... ;-)