Category: Craft

Art, Art activities, Craft, DIY, Make, Create, & Share!

Painted Watermelon Flower Pots!

Intheartroom

Bring on the summer vibes with this fun and easy painted flower pot!

What you need:

  • Terracotta flower pot – mine is approx. 6″
  • Krylon, indoor/outdoor, Gloss Clear Coat
  • Acrylic craft paints – I use Apple Barrel bran in Spring Green, Bright Red, & white.
  • Sharpie Marker
  • 3/4″ Paint brush (or similar)

Step one: Paint the rim of your flower pot with green – also cover the rim on the inside portion of your flower pot too! (Note: if you’re re purposing an old flower pot make sure it’s scrubbed clean and dry!) It may require two coats of paint – in this case let your first layer dry completely before applying the second.

Step two: Mix together some red and white paint to create a dark pink color for your watermelon – add little bits of white to your red at a time until you get the color you’d like! Paint the whole bottom part of your flower pot with your pink color!

Step three: To add the light green stripes on the rim of your flower pot, mix a little white & green paint together. Once you have a light green, we want to use a “dry brush” technique for creating the stripes on your rim. This means that we don’t want a lot of paint on your brush and we want to see the texture of the brush stroke show up on your pot. To do this, wipe off most of the green paint from your brush and then paint your stripe! Remember we want to see the texture and create stripes that are all different!

Step four: Once your flower pot is completely dry, apply your clear coat. Let dry, and then using your Sharpie, draw your watermelon seeds!

Have fun creating this simple Summer project! Use your finished watermelon pot to hold pencils, start seedlings, as a cover for a plastic potted plant, to hold kitchen utensils, or just as a decoration!

Art, Art activities, card making, Craft, DIY, Holiday, Make, Create, & Share!, origami, paper art, pop-up

Father’s Day Pop-up Fishing Card

Intheartroom

Could you even fish for a better Dad? Make him a special Father’s Day card to let him know how Fin-tastic he is 🙂

What you need:

  • Card stock in the color you’d like for the outside of your card – 8.5″x11″, folded in half to make a 5.5″x8.5″ card
  • Card stock in the color you’d like for the inside of your card – 8″x10″, folded in half to make a 5″x8″ card
  • Watercolor paper – 8″x10″
  • Watercolor paint
  • Sea Salt (table salt can be used instead, however, the effect we’ll be creating will not be as dramatic)
  • A piece of a mesh onion bag (or any mesh bag you may get fruits of veggies in)
  • Tin Foil
  • Sharpies
  • Scissors
  • Paint Brushes
  • Pencil
  • Ruler
  • Glue stick & Craft Glue

MAKING THE WAVES:

Step one: Prepare your watercolor paints. I prefer watercolors from a tube and mix them with some water. I used cool colors – shades of blues, greens, & purples for my waves.

Step two: Cover your entire piece of watercolor paper with your paint – Work quickly to achieve a “wet on wet” technique where your colors will move and blend together while all your paint is wet!

Step three: While your paint is still wet sprinkle sea salt all over your paper! The salt creates a cool effect on your watercolor paint that gives us a unique look for your waves. Your paint still needs to be wet for the effect of the salt to work – the wet paint will pool around the pieces of salt, creating the textured effect! Adding too much salt can cause the effect not to show as well. If you only have table salt you will still get the effect just not as dramatic as the larger pieces of salt!

Step four: Let your paper dry completely – the salt effect works best if your paper dries naturally vs using a hair dryer to speed up the process (you can move onto one of the other card making sections for the time being). Once it’s dry, brush off the pieces of salt.

Step five: Cut your watercolor paper into stripes – you need one strip that measures 8″x 2″ and two strips that measure 8″x1.5″

Step six: On the back of your strips draw a wave pattern and cut out – you can use your first cut out wave to trace on your other strips or create a different pattern on each strip. I saved pieces of the wave I cut out to use a splashes of water later (you can also cut splashes out of your leftover watercolor paper).

MAKING THE CARD BASE:

Step one: Fold your card stock papers for the inside and outside of your card.

Step two: On the folded edge of your inside card stock, complete the measurements shown in the photo.

Step three: Cut on the lines shown in orange.

Step four: Open your card and fold in the sections cut in the last step – use your fingers on the back of your card to push the sections through. Fold the sections on your same center crease line, just in the opposite direction! Create new crease lines at the point you cut to. (The top image shows what your card should look like when it’s closed and the bottom image shows what it should look like open)

Step five: Fold your card back up and cut on the orange lines.

Step six: Open your card back up and fold in the sections you just cut – the same way you completed step four. You will have two sections to fold on each of your original sections or blocks. (The top image shows the cut lines before folding, the image on the right shows the folds, and the bottom image shows what your card should look like folded)

Step seven: Once you have cut and folded both sides your inside card is finished and should look like the photo!

MAKING THE FISH:

Step one: Gather your sharpies, tin foil and piece of mesh onion bag.

Step two: Tape your mesh to your work surface and then tape your tin foil on top.

Step three: Draw and color your fish on the tin foil with your sharpies – the mesh creates a scaly texture for your fish! My fish are not much larger than an inch.

Step four: Carefully cut out your fish!

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER!

Step one: Glue your fish to your wave pieces with a craft glue.

Step two: Glue each of your wave pieces onto the blocks you created.

Step three: Use a glue stick and add any splashes of water you’d like from your watercolor paper.

Step four: Close your card and using a glue stick, glue the inside card to your outside piece of card stock – your outside card is slightly larger so you’ll have a nice border around your inside piece!

Your card is complete! Decorate the front of your card and add a special message for your dad! Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads!

Art, Art activities, Craft, DIY, Drawing, Make, Create, & Share!

Scratch Art

Intheartroom

Scratch art or scratch board is a fun type of art where you typically scratch the surface of a paper or board, of a darker color, to reveal a lighter color or white. This easy project is a fun way you can create your own scratch art at home!

What you need:

  • Oil Pastels
  • Black Acrylic Paint
  • Card stock
  • Toothpick or Wooden Skewer
  • Paint Brush

Step one: Cut your card stock to the desired size (mine is approx. 6″x6″) and color it in completely with your oil pastels! Make sure to press firmly and fill in any white spots of paper.

Step two: Water down some of your black acrylic paint – we want to thin the paint out just a little but not enough that it’s dripping off your brush. Paint your entire piece of paper – going over the oil pastel you colored in the first step!

Step three: Let your paint dry and then use your toothpick or wooden skewer to scratch the black paint off the surface of your oil pastel! If you make a mistake you can cover it up with a little more black paint.

Continue scratching your design until you’re finished!

Not sure what to draw? Try a scratch art zentangle – check out this post on how to create a zentangle and apply the method to your scratch art! Send me photos of your scratch art to add to the followers gallery!

Art, Art activities, Craft, DIY, Drawing, Make, Create, & Share!

Shrinky Dinks

Intheartroom

These have always been a student favorite! It’s like a magic art project – you draw on the shrink film, heat it up, and watch it shrink! Shrink film is so much fun, there’s really a lot of different ways you can create with it – it’s not just for kids!

What is it? Shrinky dinks are a type of plastic – polystyrene. Certain types of polystyrene are often used in food packaging and containers, it’s got the number 6 plastic code…..which also means if you have a take out container or some other type of plastic with the number 6 plastic code, you can make a shrinky dink out of it!

You can also buy Shrinky Dink sheets. I used the “Ruff n’ Ready” sheets. They’re my favorite, with one side that has a sanded surface, which, takes mediums really well! However, you can re-create this with recycled plastics too – just use some sandpaper to scratch up your plastic!

Shrinky dinks shrink about 1/3 their original size when heated – I use a small craft oven; a toaster oven, kitchen oven, or heat gun, can also be used! When they shrink, the colors on your artwork become more condensed, making them darker. I typically use colored pencils or markers on the shrink film. I’ve also use chalk pastels and pens. You can cut shapes out of the shrink film before you shrink it, as well as punch holes in it for key chains, etc.

For this project I’m making a key chain but check out some other ideas of things you can create at the bottom of the post! I’ll also be drawing my own design but as this shrink film is transparent you can also trace a page from a coloring book, magazine or book!

What you need:

  • Shrink Film, or #6 Plastic
  • Scissors
  • Hole Punch
  • Colored pencils or Markers & a Sharpie pen
  • Pencil
  • Paper
  • Key Chain – unless you plan to make something else!

Step one: Cut your shrink film to the desired size – keep in mind it shrinks to about 1/3 it’s original size! Trace your piece of shrink film on a sheet of paper.

Step two: Draw your design on your sheet of paper with a pencil – once you’re happy with your design trace it onto your shrink film with a sharpie pen. You can tape your shrink film to your paper to help keep it from moving!

Step three: Color in your shrink film design – I used colored pencils but you can use markers or pens as well!

Step four: Once your design is colored, punch a hold in your shrink film, using a hole punch, so you can turn it into a key chain later!

Step five: You can also cut out around your design if desired!

Step six: Bake your shrink film! 325* F for just a couple minuets – You’ll notice it crinkles up and then will flatten back out as a much smaller and thicker piece of plastic.

Let your shrink film cool for a few minuets. It’s fun to see how much it shrinks compared to your original drawing!

As it shrinks your colors also become more condensed, so they appear darker!

Step seven: Add your key chain pieces to your shrink film!

Trace a coloring book page instead of drawing your own design

Besides a key chain you could also turn your Shrinky Dinks into zipper pulls, magnets, pins, hair clips, jewelry, mini artworks, or anything else you can think of! I use the Shrinky Dink “Ruff n’ Ready” variety but they also offer several other types that you can use for different techniques!

Send me your Shrinky Dink creations to add to the Followers Gallery!

Art, card making, Craft, DIY, Make, Create, & Share!, paper art

Paper Quilling Art

Intheartroom

Create unique and decorative designs out of paper! Paper quilling involves nothing more than rolling strips of paper and utilizing these rolls by forming different shapes, designs, and patterns. It’s a simple process that can create, what looks like, complex pieces of art! Here, we’ll make a finished design with the paper quilling process that can be turned into a greeting card or decorative piece of art, however, paper quilling can also be used to decorate boxes, make jewelry, ornaments, and embellish other works of art with!

What you need:

  • Paper for quilling – I suggest a thinner card stock, typically copy paper is too thin, experiment with what you have and see what works best! I’ll be using papers in shades of blues and greens for this example, however, feel free to change up your design!
  • Card stock – cut to 5″x5″ (or desired size) or folded into a card
  • Glue – A glue stick and craft glue (I used Tacky glue – Elmer’s would work too).
  • Tweezers – these may come in handy to help hold your glued areas and place your paper rolls!
  • A needle or toothpick – these are to help roll your paper strips, try both and see which works best for you! I prefer the toothpick!

Step one: First take your paper for quilling and cut one piece that’s 1/4″ wide and 11\

” long. Then cut several other pieces it into strips 1/8″ wide and about 6″ long – A paper cutter is the easiest way to do this but you can also use a ruler and xacto knife! Take your 1/4″ x 11″ strip of paper and glue the ends together, overlapping about 1/2″, to create a circle. Glue your circle to a piece of card stock (cut to your desired size or folded into a card) with craft glue. This circle will be what we fill with your quilled paper!

Step two: Now we will be quilling your other strips of paper (1/8″ x 6″), first, take a strip of your paper and using either your needle or toothpick tightly roll the paper around it. You can either roll the entire piece of paper upon itself, while still on the toothpick/needle, or just use it to help get the roll going an roll the rest by hand (this is the method I find easiest).

Step three: Carefully remove your paper roll from your toothpick or needle (if your roll is still on it) – it’s okay if it unwinds and loosens up slightly. Use the glue stick to glue down the end of your roll. If needed, you can tighten back up your roll by gently pinching the roll between your thumb and index finger and pulling your end piece and then glue. You can use your tweezers to help pinch the glued area until it’s stuck!

Step four: Now we can take your roll and use it as it is, or pinch the ends to form different shapes to use in your project! The next few photos we’ll go over some additional ways to create different rolls with your paper!

Create a half roll – by only rolling a portion of your strip.

Create an ‘S’ roll – by rolling half of your strip and then roll your other end in the opposite directions.

Create a triangle – Start with a rolled circle and pinch into a triangle.

Create a heart – Roll half a strip, then roll the other half in the same direction, pinch the strip in the center of the rolls to form the heart.

Create a square – Start with a circle roll and pinch corners to create a square.

Create an eye – Start with a circle and pinch ends to create an eye shape.

Step five: Create several quilled pieces of paper – for my example I mostly used the, half roll and S roll methods. I wanted it to look like my circle was filled with wavy water – these methods allowed me to create that effect using line!

Step six: Arrange your quilled pieces in your circle as desired. If you have gaps you can use single strips of your paper to fill in more spaces or create more quilled pieces to fill gaps. Glue all your pieces down with craft glue (I found it easiest to apply a thin layer of glue inside my whole circle) use your tweezers to help hold your pieces in place – you can even use your toothpick or needle to help move pieces around, if you have some tricky pieces to get to!

Step seven: Complete your project by adding a small cut-out on top! I made my quilling to look like water so I added a shark on top! If you made yours to look like water some other ideas for your cut out could be: a turtle, jellyfish, fish, sail boat, sea shell, octopus, etc. Instead of creating your own cut out you could also use stickers or 3D elements such as pom-poms, shells, silk flowers, etc. The same method could also look like wind or clouds – cut outs could be birds, kites, tree branches, rainbows, etc.!

Some other ideas would be to start off with a different shape to fill – you could do another simple shape or create a more complicated outline, like a letter, to fill with your quilling! You also can just create quilling that’s not inside a shape – like the flower in the video. Get creative and have fun with the possibilities of this art form! Send me pictures of your paper quilling masterpieces to add to our followers gallery!

Art, Craft, DIY, Make, Create, & Share!, origami, paper art

Origami Bookmark Monsters!

Intheartroom

A quick way to get creative and have some fun while making a little piece of art you can use to mark the pages of your favorite books! We’re going to be making our bookmarks into monsters but after folding the base you can turn your bookmark into anything!

What You Need:

  • Paper – I used white printer paper, cut to a 5″x 5″ square, for the bookmark
  • Construction paper or colored paper for details on your monster
  • Markers or colored pencils
  • Scissors
  • Glue stick

Step one: First we’ll be folding your bookmark – start with your 5″x 5″ square of paper and fold in half, and then fold in half again. Open your paper back up – you should have a horizontal and vertical crease that runs through the center of your paper.

Step two: Fold your paper, corner, to corner, forming a triangle. Unfold and then fold the bottom corner to the center mark.

Step three: Fold the bottom edge up on the center crease. Then take the two bottom corners and fold up to the top point.

Step four: If you carefully look inside your origami piece you’ll see there’s a little pocket that’s been formed – Take the two point pieces you just folded up in the last step, pull them back slightly and then fold them down, inside the triangle pocket.

Step five: Now you have your origami bookmark! Let’s turn it into a monster! Cut a piece of colored paper into a 2″x 2″ square and glue it inside your bookmark, so half of the square is visible (make sure not to glue the pocket together as this is how it stays on your book corner) – this will be the inside color of your monsters mouth. Cut pieces of paper to use as teeth for your monster, I used small triangles and rectangular shapes for my teeth. Cut circle shapes for you eyes or spots on your monster – you can use paper punches or a hole punch too.

Step six: Color your monster with your markers or colored pencils and add details like scales, fur, spots, etc.! Color your eyes on the circle pieces you cut.

Step seven: Assemble and glue all of your elements together!

Slide your book page inside the monsters mouth to mark your page!

Make a whole bunch of fun monster bookmarks! You can also use googly eyes, stickers, glitter, pom-poms, pipe cleaner, etc. for details on your monsters! Or get creative and turn your origami into something besides a monster! Send me pictures of your bookmarks to add to our followers gallery!

Art, Craft, DIY, Drawing, Make, Create, & Share!

Embossed Foil Art!

Intheartroom

Using kitchen foil and some glue you can create some beautiful pieces of art! This project is fun for all ages and is something everyone can do! I’ve shown step by steps for the simple process and included some ideas below for more variations to try!

What you need:

  • Aluminum Foil – heavy duty works best but any will do if you’re careful!
  • Cardboard – for this project a smooth heavy cardboard works best….like what the back of sketchbooks are made from. Or cardboard from cereal boxes, or similar, works too – I don’t suggest corrugated cardboard, sometimes the texture of the cardboard gets in the way!
  • Elmer’s glue & Glue sticks
  • Sharpies
  • Coloring pages – optional

Step one: First cut your cardboard to the size you’d like your finished piece. Draw your design or pattern directly on your cardboard with a pencil – this is going to get covered later so it doesn’t matter if you make any mistakes! Keep in mind, in the following steps, we will be tracing your lines with glue…..it may be best to keep your design simple with less details. Not into drawing? Use a coloring page instead! Cut and glue the page down to your cardboard instead of drawing a design.

Step two: Now that you have your design on your cardboard carefully trace your lines with Elmer’s glue – make sure your glue lines are not getting squashed by the glue nozzle, lift your glue bottle from the cardboard slightly as you trace your lines! These lines are going to be the “embossed” portion on your foil. If you make a mistake you can gently wipe away a misshaped glue line while it’s still wet (q-tips work well for little areas). Allow your glue to dry completely! I let mine set over night.

Step three: Once your glue is completely dry cut a piece of foil slightly larger than your cardboard – we want it large enough to fold the foil around the sides of the cardboard.

Step four: Use your glue stick and go over the entire front surface of your glue design. Gently press your foil over your dried glue design and carefully use your fingers to smooth the foil over your dried glue lines revealing your embossed design!

Step five: Once you have your foil smoothed over your glue lines, fold the edges of your foil on the back of your cardboard – you can tape or glue if needed. Now you can take your sharpies and color your design! Your Sharpies will blend on the foil surface – I used blues, yellows & greens to create the different shades on my example!

Variations:

I’ve also done this project before with pressed dried leaves glued to my cardboard instead of using glue lines – make sure your leaf is dried if you want your artwork to last longer and use the leaf vein side up to get the most texture out of the leaf! Glue your leaf to your cardboard and use a glue stick to apply your foil. Instead of coloring my leaf I used black acrylic paint, painting the whole foil surface in a thin layer and wiping it away before it dried with a paper towel – you could use the paint method for the process above too. I also use corrugated cardboard for my leaf project – notice how the corrugated cardboard creates lines on your finished piece?

For younger ages you can change up the process and instead of drawing or tracing a design with glue you can dip pieces of cotton yarn, or string, in Elmer’s and create abstract string art on your cardboard, let dry, and then cover with your foil. You could also skip the glue and wrap the string around a piece of cardboard (use your glue stick over top)! Below, we’ve used the string wrapped around a heart cut out!

You can turn your finished projects into ornaments or hanging decorations like I did with the heart project by punching a hole in the cardboard and adding a ribbon. I also turned one of the embossed leaf pieces into an art journal cover! Send me pictures of your embossed foil art to add to our followers gallery!

Art, card making, Craft, DIY, Make, Create, & Share!, origami, pop-up

Mother’s Day Hydrangea Pop-Up Card

Intheartroom

Make your mom this fun hydrangea pop-up card for Mother’s day! Though there are a few steps to this project, with just some basic supplies you can create this simple, yet amazing, pop-up card. I was inspired by hydrangeas for my pop-up flowers which can come in blues, pinks, and purples – but you can make your flowers any color or multiple colors! We’ll be starting with white paper and be adding the color to our paper as we go but feel free to skip the coloring steps and just use colored paper! Check out the video at the bottom for steps as well!

What you need:

  • Copy Paper
  • Colored card stock or Construction Paper- measurements
  • Green Construction Paper
  • Pencil
  • Washable Markers
  • Scissors
  • A Small Paint Brush
  • Small Dish or Cup of Water

Step one: Cut your white copy paper into 7 squares that measure 4″ x 4″ – each of these will become one of your flowers! Fold each of your 7 squares as shown in the picture – Fold in half lengthwise, left to right, then fold the bottom edge to the top edge, finally fold the bottom right corner to the top left corner to form a triangle. You want to make sure one point of your triangle is closed (should be the point that’s towards you) – that’s the center of your paper, the other points should have multiple flaps of paper.

Step two: Making sure the center of your paper is at the bottom, draw a curved line at the top of your paper and cut out. Use this cut out to trace the curved line on all 6 remaining triangles and then cut them out!

Step three: Now that you have all 7 flowers cut it’s time to add some color! Grab your washable markers in the colors you would like! Color just along the edges of your folded flower (making sure to hit all the folds & flaps along the edge). You can use one color or multiple colors on the same flower – just keep in mind our colors may mix.

Step four: Now we’re going to make that color spread! We will need your paintbrush and a small dish of water. Paint with water over top of the marker – this will make the marker ink spread and give a slight tie-dyed effect to your flowers! Make sure not to keep brushing over your flower in the same spot or use too much water – this will make your paper weak and cause it to tear! Keep your flowers folded and let them set for about 15 – 30 mins. to let the color continue to spread!

Step five: While your flowers are setting; Cut a piece of card stock or construction paper for your card that measures 11″x 7.5″ – this will be the background to your flowers. You could also color a background for your flowers instead of using a solid color! Fold your paper in half so it measures 7.5″ x 5.5″. Decorate the front of your card however you’d like (just leave the inside black for now).

Step six: Now that your flowers have set, it’s time to carefully unfold them all! They may still be a little wet – make sure to be gentle when opening them so they don’t rip! Lay your flowers flat and let them dry completely – you can speed this up with a hairdryer!

Step seven: Once your flowers are completely dry, then we will be cutting one “petal” out from each of them. Next, close the gap we created by overlapping and glueing the two petals together (glue the two petals marked with yellow dots in the picture) – giving your flower a 3D form and a total of 6 petals.

Step eight: Fold each flower in half, flattening it – so we can see three petals. Next we will be layering and glueing all of your flowers together in a certain pattern to create the pop-up. We will only be gluing the top portion of your petals in the next steps (from the yellow line shown in the picture and up) – do not apply glue on the entire petal or your card will not pop-up properly.

Step nine: Layering your flowers; Lay one flower down and apply glue to the tips of the petals that are marked with yellow dots in the photo. Glue two flower petals on top as shown in the second photo – you should now only be able to see the center petal of your original flower (marked with the green dot).

Apply glue to the tips of the petals marked with yellow dots and add another flower on top – lining it up with your first flower. The green dots show the petals from your last layer.

Apply glue to the tips of the petals with yellow dots and add two more flowers vertically – lining them up with your other vertical petals. The petal with the green dot should be the only petal from your previous layer showing.

Add glue to the petal tips marked with yellow dots and finally take your last flower, gluing it down horizontally – lining it up with your other horizontal petals. The green dots show the petals still visible from your last layer. Keep your flowers folded.

Step ten: Create leaves for your flower out of green construction paper and add veins with a marker. Glue the leaves to your flowers – you can add leaves to each side of your folded flowers. Make sure leaves are glued to one petal – not on a crease line of two petals. Leaves should also not go past the yellow line shown in the photo.

Step eleven: Open up the card you prepared in step six and lay your flowers along the center line as shown. Add glue just to the tip of the center petals, shown with a yellow dot, on each side of your flower (the very center petal) – close your card and press. It’s best to let your glue dry for quite a few minuets – setting something heavy, like a book, on your card while it’s drying can be helpful!

Once your glue is dry carefully open your card to reveal your pop-up!

You can change up your flowers by starting with colored paper instead of white, or using different methods to decorate your paper with. You can also change the shape of your petals in step two by making a different type of line, rather than a curve. Have fun and get creative making your mom something special! Send me pictures of your finished pop-up cards to add to our followers gallery! And happy Mother’s Day to all you mom’s out there!

Art, Craft, DIY, Drawing, Make, Create, & Share!

Finger Print Doodle Art

Intheartroom

Get creative and make some fun art that all starts with your finger prints! It’s a simple and easy project that you can turn into some charming pieces of art!

What you need:

  • Ink Pads or Washable Markers
  • Paper – I prefer card stock, but any white or light colored paper with a smooth surface will work!
  • A Sharpie marker or pen (or any felt tip pen & marker)
  • Some paper towels

Here’s the basic process:

We’re pretty much making your finger into a stamp – so the first thing you need to do is cover your finger print in ink! If you don’t have an ink pad you can use washable markers and color your finger prints instead! Try using your thumb and pinky finger to make different size prints!

Once your finger is covered in ink stamp it firmly on your paper. You might be able to stamp your finger more than once before having to apply more ink. Wipe any remaining ink off your finger on a damp paper towel before using a new color or use a different finger for each color – Unless you want to mix colors 🙂

After you have some finger prints stamped onto your paper, use your Sharpie and/or pens to add details and turn your finger prints into something!

Try “building” with your finger prints to create more complex objects! Remember you can make different sizes with your thumb and pinky too!

Here’s a few more ideas for your finger print doodles:

Add other elements, like googly eyes, to your prints! Some other elements could be: glitter, feathers, sequence, pom-poms, string & ribbon!

Instead of turning your finger prints into doodles you could also use them to embellish other projects!

Use markers, colored pencils or other mediums to add additional details to your doodles – like the stem and leaf in this picture!

Turn your finished pictures into greeting cards, bookmarks, framed art, and more! Get creative and have fun! Send me pictures of your doodle creations to add to our followers gallery! Happy doodling! 🙂

Art, Craft, DIY, Drawing, Make, Create, & Share!

Foam Printmaking!

Intheartroom

This is an simple project with a lot of variations and you’ve probably got all the items you need to make it on hand! Printmaking is the art of transferring an image from a template or “Matrix” to another surface – typically onto paper or fabric. There are several different types of printmaking techniques like, woodcuts, linocuts, engraving, lithography, screen printing & monotyping. With printmaking you are able to make multiple prints of the same image (with the exception of monotyping). For this project we’ll use a simple process to create your own matrix and original prints!

What You Need:

  • Foam – Like a foam plate or foam food package – I recycled a foam take out container for my examples!
  • Scissors
  • A ball point pen
  • A toothpick
  • Washable Markers (Sharpies or permanent markers will not work for this project)
  • Paper to apply your prints to – I prefer card stock but copy paper or any paper with a smooth surface will work!
  • Paper towels

Step one: First you will need to cut your foam! If you’re using a take out container make sure you cut out a flat area of the container. I find that a piece of foam around 2 – 4 inches works best to get started with! You can make your matrix any shape you’d like!

Step two: Use your pen to draw your design on to your foam – the goal is to make an indent on the surface of the foam, so you need to use a fair amount of pressure, but be careful not to go through your foam! Also keep in mind your design will be reversed once it’s printed – so if you were to do a letter or word it would be backwards when you printed it!

Step three: Adding color! Use your washable markers to color on your foam – you can go right over top of your design you made in the last step. The marker ink stays “wet” on the foam so your colors will also mix if they touch – this gives us some cool effects! Mixing colors on your foam may also make your marker tips dirty – you can scribble off any mixed up colors on a scrap piece of paper.

Step four: Now that you have your foam colored in it’s time to stamp it on your paper! Carefully flip your foam over and firmly press it onto your paper. Being careful that your foam doesn’t move, press firmly with your fingers all over the back of the foam to help transfer your print! Then carefully lift your foam from the surface of the paper to reveal your print!

Tips: Sometimes the first print does’t always work well – that’s okay! You can keep practicing with more prints until you find what works! If you want to change colors on the surface of your stamp without your colors getting mixed up you can wipe off any leftover marker ink on a paper towel or rinse your foam in water (just make sure it’s super dry before using it again). Don’t take too long on coloring your foam – this gives the marker ink a chance to dry up on the foam and it won’t print as well. I find that any paper with a smooth surface works best!

This heart print was made by coloring my foam and printing it several times to create one piece of art. It was inspired by the work of artist Jim Dine – An artist part of the Pop Art movement. Pop artists used images of popular mass culture (‘Pop’ art) in their works and many used printmaking methods to create their works of art. Check out other pop artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Liechtenstein, & Peter Max.

You can also make a more complex and detailed design on a slightly larger piece of foam, and instead of using a pen to create your impressions with, use a toothpick. While you are able to get smaller details with the toothpick the foam itself won’t allow a lot of tiny details close together (it just kind of gets smushed and that won’t make a good print!) so when completing your design keep in mind to make sure your lines are not too close together (notice on my fish print where his body curves that it didn’t print well – too many lines, too close together!). Also be sure that when you color your foam not to take too long as this gives the marker ink a chance to dry on your foam!

Go abstract! If you’re not sure what to do or want to create a more simple print, try some abstract lines, dots or patterns. Here, my foam is a triangle shape, and I’ve just done some squiggly lines and a couple dots with the pen. I printed my foam in a pattern to create a book mark!

These prints are a ton of fun to make and you can use them to create a lot of different finished projects with! Send me pictures your prints and I’ll add them to the follower gallery! Get creative and happy printmaking!