Halloween pin'ata's

I made some paper mache pinata with my after school kids. We used an air filled balloons for the molds.We created a mummy putting the large part upward for the head and then we put the large put facing down to create a pumpkin. The mummy is two layers of white torn paper. The jack o lantern is torn paper with fringe cut orange tissue paper.The faces are made with construction paper.

skulls !!!!!!

I don't know if you like skulls but I do and my sculptresslink etsy shop is full of them.

These are hair accessories and jewelry all skull wear made from polymer clay by me and are available for purchase on sculptresslink.etsy.com

Ceramic jack o lantern

This is a simple fairly simple clay project that you could probably do with older elementary students say in 4th or 5th grade. I made it is part of a hand building clay class I am taking. This was made with two pinch pots one stacked on top of the other. A coil was rolled and put over the seam then smoothed out. I made the lines on the pumpkin with a oval shaped chopstick but the rounded edge of a Popsicle stick would probably do. After the bisque firing I just used a orange acrylic paint on it and let parts of the stoneware color of the clay show through on the lines and the stem.A hole was cut in the bottom and on Halloween I am going to out a battery powered tea light in it. You could also vary this to be a pumpkin and skip the Halloween holiday edge then it could be a table topper for thanksgiving or other fall occasions as well.Just be sure if making the pumpkin variation that you cut a hole in the top or bottom to let the air out before firing.

I just love fall! I get so much inspiration from this season. The sights, the sounds the colors. I love picking pumpkins and painting/ carving them. I love hayrides, long walks to see the changing leaves and warm apple cider. So I have been working on a series of different fall themed drawings with students. For my Saturday classes for 7-10 year olds we have been creating fall scenes using markers. We talked about how to get different values out of the marker color be varying the pressure you apply on the marker. We also have a small how to draw a pumpkin tutorial and a discussion on horizon line and foreground, background and middle ground. We discussed how items in the front are larger then items in the back.

I created another variation of a marker drawing. The one below was draw with water based markers then a used a brush and brushed water back into it for a more water color effect.

leaf wreaths

This project is a great green project and uses not that many materials. You will need paper plates, scissors, brown paper bag/craft or construction paper, markers, glue stick. Step 1 use a common every day paper plate

Step 2 fold cut the ring off the outside of the plate fold it in half and cut out the inside.

Step 3 fold construction paper in half twice or use a still folded brown paper bag and cut leaf shapes.

Step 4 draw veins on leaves with a variety of colored markers

Step 5 Use a glue stick or bottle of white glue. Glue larger leaves onto ring so that they stick out past the end of the ring.

Step 6 Continue gluing leaves so that they overlap. Fill the entire ring.

Raven masks

These raven masks are made from construction paper. I usually read students the book "The Raven" by Gerald McDermott before we read the book.

. The mask is of folded red construction paper and I usually fold the paper in half width wise and from the fold measure in about one inch then cut a one inch slot while the paper is folded for the eye. for the beak I fold a piece of black paper in half length wise and cut a curved edge on one side while paper in still folded glue stick that side together. On the opposite side that connects to the face paper cut the center fold and fold two tabs about 1/2 inch in width line up the center folds on the two pieces of paper open the black piece into a triangular shape and glue stick onto the back ground. Hole punch with a single hole punch the side just below the eyes. Tie yarn into the hole punches in order to tie mask around face. Kids love it!

I have been experimenting with tissue paper and collaging with it.I had red and blue left from my project based on the "There are Cats in this Books project" I also found orange paper when I was at the drug store. This entire piece is made with torn pieces of construction paper and a glue and water mixture.