Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Art Projects That Kids Of All Age Will Enjoy

By Kate Halfey


Art is one of the world's great methods of communication, expressing ideas and emotions. For children, who don't always understand their own emotions or how to express them, art can become a vehicle for letting go of emotion or expressing joy and creativity. Here are a few art easy art projects that provide your children with an opportunity to express themselves and create something beautiful in the process.

Creating a bold work of art isn't difficult at all, especially when you download a mural of a famous painting from ArtProjectsForKids.org. There is a huge variety to choose from, including famous works by Monet, Kandinsky, Van Gogh, Rousseau and many more artists. This is a great way to teach your children about a specific artist and different styles of art. All the kids have to do is color each section of the mural, which can be downloaded and printed from your home computer. You can use any medium to color the pieces, including oil pastels, markers, crayons or different types of paint. In the end, you just reassemble the painting and you can even glue it down to a board or canvas and hang it for everyone in the family to enjoy.

Getting messy is certainly a highlight of art projects for many children, and nothing is messier than making a huge creation out of paper mache. There are so many options, from making a little vase for plastic flowers to a colorful bowl or perhaps creating your own huge robot. One fun decorative option is to create a huge letter and cover it with paper mache glue, paint it and hang it in your child's room. The glue is easily created using a mix of water and flour and then boiling this together and letting it cool down. You also can mix regular Elmer's glue with water to form a paste. Newspaper provides a cheap source of paper. You will definitely need a lot of paper, so save a week's worth of newspapers or ask friends and family to contribute their papers.

For the project with the letter or first initial, you will need two large pieces of cardboard onto which you trace identical versions of the same letter. Cut them out and then glue down about a half dozen Styrofoam cups to one side and then glue the other letter to the other side of the cups to make a 3-D letter. Once this all dries, you and your child can wrap the letter carefully with strips of gluey paper mache, and be sure to add several layers. The following day after everything is dry, paint it with one color of acrylic paint and then allow that to dry overnight. Then if you wish to add some accent colors, you can add them. When all the paint is dry, coat the letter with a sealer or matte gel like Mod Podge and this will preserve the paint.

Tie dye is often a hit, and can be a fun project for children 8 and up, as there is some skill involved. While you can purchase all of the needed items separately, for your first venture into the tie dye world, it might be a good idea to purchase a kit that contains all the dyes, ash, rubber bands, gloves and other items you will need for the project. You also need shirts made from 100% cotton as dyes adhere better to the natural fibers. Cotton shrinks, so definitely consider getting a shirt one or sizes bigger than you typically wear. For younger kids, it can be fun to simply let them decorate a t-shirt with fabric paint which comes in a huge variety of styles and colors. This is a great project for a sleepover or a birthday party.

Children love to celebrate various holidays throughout the year, and every special day is a good excuse for a fun art project. For example, children can create paper lanterns and make dragons out of paper lunch bags to decorate for the Lunar New Year. For Christmas, they can help you deck the halls by creating homemade ornaments such as tissue paper poinsettias or snowflakes. No matter what holiday is coming up, there are hundreds of art projects that go along with the occasion. Just spend some time online looking for something that suits the age and ability of your child and everyone will have a great time.




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