Category Archives: What We’re Making

What We’re Making: Fish in Motion

October 23, 2016Creativity/Spirituality, What We're Makingfish, group art project, group craft, group craft project, paper, paper craft

Don’t these moving fish look neat!?

Kaye found the instructions for these here, just follow the link for their excellent walk-through! There’s a definite origami feel to the first few steps (folding the paper to make it a square, making further folds and then unfolding). Once you get to cutting you may need to assist participants with not cutting too far into the paper. Kaye said she also provided templates for the lower jaw, back fin, and side fins for those who wanted to use them.

This was a really fun papercraft, taking something solid and making it move.

I think these would be really cool to hang on the wall next to some watercolor jellyfish!

Happy creating, all!

What We’re Making: Silly Faces Books

October 16, 2016Creativity/Spirituality, What We're Makingcartoon, cartooning, draw, drawing, group art project, group craft, group craft project

Did you have one of those “Learn to Draw Cartoons” books growing up? I remember my brother had one and loved it. (Incidentally, he works as an artist for video games now!)

Earlier this month Kaye pre-made these wonderful Silly Faces books for our participants to draw in and on. It was just a simple front cover of posterboard, three internal pages cut horizontally into thirds, and a back cover of posterboard. She said they would really work best if you have a binding machine; we used binder rings, which worked well enough, but the pages dangled a bit.

Kaye put examples of different cartoon eyes, noses, and mouths out on the tables for participants to reference. Then she instructed them to open their books, and draw what ever eyes, nose, and mouth they wanted on their first page. Then they all turned those strips to the next page and drew another set of eyes, nose, and mouth. Finally they drew more features on the last page of their books.

Of course the point of cutting the pages horizontally is to mix and match the faces around in fun ways! Our participants loved changing up the faces, as well as learning simple cartooning techniques.

This is one of those nice activities, too, that participants can really add to after our initial art period. They could decorate the covers, or add more face pages!

Have you ever tried drawing cartoon faces? A book like this would be a fun way to start, or even to practice your skills!

What We’re Making: Leis and Surfer Shirts

September 15, 2016Creativity/Spirituality, What We're Makingleis, necklace, paint, paper craft, surfer shirts, watercolor

Maybe it’s almost fall, but here in Texas, it still feels like summer. And to me, summer means going to the beach! In August we made our own leis and surfer shirts with our groups to really get in the spirit of the season.

The leis were made from construction-paper flowers interspersed with sections of straw. Kaye prepped the flowers and straw pieces ahead of time, and also wrapped one end of the string in tape for easier stringing. Once on site she taped the strings to the table at each participants place, leaving enough room to knot the leis after the participants were done. She said this made tying the final necklace together much easier!

For the surfer shirts, Kaye cut shirt-front shapes from butcher paper. To decorate the shirts, we provided both watercolor markers for drawing, and sponge stampers and ink pads for flower-making.

Then everyone could pin on their surfer shirts and put on their leis and be all set for the beach!

Did you go to the beach this summer? Show us your fun beach attire!

What We’re Making: Happy 4th Stars and Wreaths

June 26, 2016Creativity/Spirituality, What We're MakingFlag Day, Fourth of July, paper, patriotic, wreath

It’s definitely summer here in Central Texas! We’re getting ready for July 4th celebrations with some fun Red, White, and Blue decorations.

Here’s one of our participants showing off what we made: 3D Paper Stars, and Doorknob Wreaths!

We made the 3D Stars using a template (found here: http://www.hopefish.co.uk/how-to/how-to-for-crafts/3-d-three-dimensional-christmas-stars.html) printed onto cardstock and decorated with markers. To make one yourself you’ll also need:

scissors to cut out the initial shape,
a ruler to help crease the fold lines, and
tape to help the final piece hold its shape.

If you’d like to hang up your star for display, you’ll also need a small hole punch and some ribbon.

First, decorate the blank side of the star however you like. (We modeled a Stars and Stripes design, though our participants were encouraged to be creative.)

Then, flip it over to the lined side and crease all of the lines (using the ruler to help keep the creases straight). If you’re going to hang up the star, punch through the holes at the top.

With the lined side facing you, fold along the lines so that the long lines go out and away from you, and the short lines come toward you. The center point will also move out and away from you.

Fold the edge flaps together and tape them. Run a ribbon through the holes and hang up your star for all to see!

The Doorknob Wreaths we made out of snack-sized Styrofoam plates and plastic tablecloths cut into strips. Kaye says she’s used crepe paper for the strips in the past, but that the plastic tablecloth is easier to use for participants with fine-motor difficulties.

Simply cut the center out of the plate and tie the plastic strips around the edge in whatever pattern you like. Very simple but the end result is quite festive!

Of course these could easily be customized for any holiday or celebration, using whatever colors you like. I think they would make a nice garland if you strung a bunch together!

Happy Creating!

What We’re Making: Spring Bouquets

May 28, 2016Creativity/Spirituality, What We're Makingflowers, paper craft, spring bouquet

A Mother’s Day Spring Bouquet! Earlier this month our participants made flowers for someone special in their life. This paper craft was simple to do and the results just burst with color and life!

Take a piece of green construction paper and draw even lines across the short edge (this may be best to do ahead of time for a large group, as it’s the most time consuming part).

Then fold in half length-wise and cut the down the lines. Make sure they stay connected at the bottom! (But, if not, there’s always tape. :-))

Take a paper candy cup and cut the folded edges in toward the center to create petals. Then color the centers and petals if you wish!

You can cut other flower shapes (like this tulip shape) out of pretty construction paper, or patterned scrapbook paper.

Glue your blooms to the top of your green stems.

Then roll the green piece of paper into a circle and secure with a paperclip. Voila, a lovely bouquet!

You can also tuck a card among the flowers if you’re giving them as a gift.

Here’s some pictures of our participants at work!

Who in your life could use something springy to brighten their day? Why not make them a lovely bouquet!?

Clay Sculptures and Wildflower Prints

May 11, 2016Creativity/Spirituality, What We're Makingbluebonnet, clay, prints, recycled, sculpture, stamps, wildflower

Last week Kaye led another spring-filled day of art here in Austin. 🙂 Here’s what our groups made!

Our participants love the tactile nature of working with clay, and really, who doesn’t? We focused on some classic techniques: pinch pots and coil pots. Participants could also use the clay and texturing tools in whatever way their imagination led them!

We also used recycled materials as stamps to create flower prints. Some of these transformations were:

Cut sponges (those were new :-)) became stems for flowers,

paper towel rolls (reinforced with painters tape so they wouldn’t disintegrate!) became leaves, and

single-size soda bottles became flowers.

The bluebonnet prints were especially fun, as participants got to dab on the blossoms with their fingers. We used purple for blossoms in shadow, blue for blossoms in sunlight, and light blue for highlights.

Kaye said the bluebonnet prints could be hung up to dry, but that the soda bottle flowers were best drying flat so the paint didn’t run.

The drying rack looks like a garden! Here’s to a spring full of creativity!

What We’re Making: Spring Celebration Cards

April 21, 2016Creativity/Spirituality, What We're Makinggreeting card, group art project, handmade card, Spring, Texas, umbrella

Spring is here!

Here in Austin, it’s wildflower season; the highways and fields have exploded in Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes and Pink Evening Primrose… it’s a beautiful wash of color in what are normally plain patches of grass.

With our groups last week we made cards to celebrate Spring! Kaye also worked in quite a bit of learning with these, she’s so good at that. 🙂

To make our Spring Showers Bring Flowers cards, the participants got to practice their accordion folding skills, talk about what rain does for us, and learn the ROYGBIV of rainbows. Participants could do a little or a lot with their card, as you’ll see in the photos.

Here’s how we made them!

Choose a piece of colored construction paper for your umbrella.
Fold your construction paper accordion-style from the short edge. (You might find it helpful to use a popsicle stick to keep the folds even.)
Fold the umbrella paper in half.
Run a gluestick across the card like so:
Glue down the folded umbrella paper.
Glue the center of the folded umbrella paper together.
Draw a face under your umbrella! (We traced a circle there ahead of time to give our participants an idea of where to start.)
Bend a chenille stem at the end to form the umbrella handle.
Run liquid glue* down the chenille stem, and place it in the crease of the card underneath the umbrella. Hold it in place until it sticks.
Above and to the sides of the umbrella draw dashes for the rain. You can use a ruler to keep the lines straight.
On a separate piece of paper, draw a cover for your card. Here we made a rainbow and wrote “Happy Spring”!
Using glue stick, position your artwork inside the cover of your card and glue it in place. Enjoy your beautiful work as it reminds you of spring!

*A tip for the umbrella handle: we used chenille stems, which are such a fun tactile addition, but which didn’t want to stay glued down, even with liquid glue. Kaye’s solution was to have participants try it themselves, let it dry as well as it could, and Kaye would come around to help touch up any spots that weren’t sticking with more glue. Double-sided tape might even work better, in retrospect. We’ll try that next time!

Here are some of the cards our participants made!

Happy Spring to you! Who would you make a Happy Spring card for?

What We’re Making: Rodeo Wear

March 27, 2016Creativity/Spirituality, What We're Makingcowboy, cowboy hat, cowgirl, hat, Lone Star, necklace, rodeo

March means many things for Austin, one of which is Rodeo! Yes, the rodeo was in town this month and we made cowboy hats and Lone Star necklaces to celebrate.

For the cowboy hats, we cut out the hats and the headbands and stapled them together ahead of time. That way the participants could just decorate straight away, then we’d size the headbands to their heads and staple them to fit! We used posterboard cut into strips for the headbands, and we made sure to have extra strips to size participants that wear helmets and need a little extra head room. 🙂

For the Lone Star necklaces, we cut out stars from foam board ahead of time. The participants used large plastic needles to thread the cord through their star. Then they knew that point would be the top of the star, and could get to decorating! We used Sharpies, glued on jewels, and tied on plastic strips for a great overall effect.

Such fun to make and wear! Keep on ridin’, all you rodeo folk!

What We’re Making: Foil Designs

March 7, 2016Creativity/Spirituality, What We're Makingaluminum foil, group art project, group craft, Sharpies

Oooooo, shiny!

What a fun take on tangle art*. The 3D nature of the yarn and the sheen from the aluminum foil really makes these stand out!

Here’s how to go about making your own foil designs!

You will need:

pieces of posterboard, size 10″x12″ (color doesn’t matter, as you’ll be covering it all in foil)
yarn that can stretch across your posterboard (again, color doesn’t matter since it will get covered in foil)
scissors to cut the posterboard and yarn
glue sticks or liquid glue (liquid glue would be better if your group is small enough to supervise thusly; we used glue sticks for our larger groups)
pieces of aluminum foil, size 12″x14″
Sharpies of many colors (use the regular tip Sharpies; the fine tip ones tend to tear the foil)

Decide how you’d like your yarn lines to criss-cross your posterboard, then glue them in place. Let the yarn hang over the edges of the posterboard.

Once your yarn is glued down, cut the extra yarn from around the edges.

Then, lay a piece of aluminum foil on top.

Gently start smoothing the foil over and around the yarn, so that you start to see the outlines against the smooth posterboard.

Once it’s totally smoothed out, you should have very clear outlines; it will look something like this!

Fold the foil around the edges to keep it in place.

Now you’re ready to color! You can do some solid-colored sections:

But also try some patterned sections!

And keep coloring until you’re happy with the results!

Check out some that our participants made!

(On the bottom right there you can see that, if you happen to tear the foil, no worries, just tape it back together! We only had matte tape, but if you’ve got a shinier tape it’ll blend in all the more.)

I love the combination of all of the colors and patterns. And I love that these are made with materials so many of us already have in our houses! Send us pictures if you give this one a try.

*Not familiar with tangle art? Here’s a good Psychology Today article about it.

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A blog about creativity and spirituality