Holiday

Art, Art activities, Craft, decorating, DIY, Easter Eggs, Holiday, Make, Create, & Share!

Decoupaged Eggs!

April 13, 2022 Intheartroom

Create fun and colorful eggs this Easter with decoupage! Gather decorative tissue papers, glitter and some ribbon! These easy and fun eggs are a fun way to create a gift or decoration this Easter!

What you need:

Decorative tissue papers
ModPodge – I used Gloss
Glitter and/or Glitter glue
Paint brush
Eggs – I used real eggs that had been blown out. You can also use plastic dyeable eggs.
Pony beads or similar
Ribbon
Hot glue
Scissors
Hair dryer (optional)

Step one: Gather all your supplies!

Step two: Cut out pieces from your tissue paper – cut more than what you’ll think you will need and try to cut off as much of the background as possible. *If the tissue paper background is white, an your egg is white, then you don’t need to worry as much about getting rid of the background!

Step three: Brush the Modpodge on the egg in a thin layer (I did half the egg at a time), then add one of your tissue paper cut outs, brush another layer of Modpodge on top of the tissue paper. Carefully use your brush to flatten out the tissue paper and press down any wrinkles. The larger pieces of tissue paper you have, the more wrinkles you will end up with as it will have to curve around the egg shell!

Step four: Continue to add your tissue paper to your egg & layering Modpodge under and over each piece! Don’t be afraid to overlap pieces. Once your egg is complete, brush a layer of Modpodge on top of the whole thing, making sure all pieces are pressed down and sealed – I did half my egg at a time drying each half before Modpodging the second half! Let your egg dry completely – use the hair dryer to speed up the processs.

Step five: Apply glitter! The picture on the left is glitter glue in the center of the flowers and the photo on the right was brushed with Modpodge and covered with clear glitter! You could also add details with paint pens or Sharpies at this stage too!

Step six: You can leave your egg as it is or create a hanger with a piece of ribbon and a pony bead. Cut your length of ribbon, fold it in half, slide both cut ends of the ribbon in the bead (photo one), add some hot glue to the ribbon just below the bead, and slide the bead onto the hot glue. Let dry and then cut off any glue or ribbon below the bead. Add a drop of hot glue to the top of your egg and press the bead to it! While the hot glue is still wet you can sprinkle on some glitter!

Check out these fun eggs by students!

Looking for another Easter egg idea? Check out resist dyed Easter eggs and Marbled Easter eggs!

Art, Art activities, card making, Craft, Holiday, Make, Create, & Share!, Painting, student artwork

Cool Hands & Warm Hearts

February 10, 2022 Intheartroom

Have fun with warm and cool colors, creating simple & meaningful pieces of art that also make perfect Valentine’s Day cards!

What you need:

Watercolor Paints
Watercolor Paper x2 at least 8″x10″
Paint Brush
Masking Tape
Gluestick
Crayons
Course Sea Salt
Plastic Grocery Bag

What are warm and cool colors? Warm colors are reds, oranges and yellows, while cool colors are, blues, greens, & violets. Warm colors often make us think of warmth – fire, sunshine, heat. Cool colors tend to be more calming and make us think of water, sky, or ice. For this project we have three different elements: Your background paper, your hand, and your heart! We created a pattern by layering warm and cool colors for each element; Background in warm colors, hand in cool colors, heart in warm colors, or the reverse; background cool colors, hand warm colors, heart cool colors. Next to one another, warm and cool colors are very contrasting and make one another stand out! Decide if you would rather have a warm heart and cool hand or cool heart and warm hand!

Prepare your papers: You will need one piece of paper for your background and one piece to share for your hand and heart. Tape one piece of watercolor paper down to a work surface for your background with your masking tape. Cut the other piece of watercolor paper in two, trace an outline of your hand one piece, and draw a heart shape on the other (make sure your heart will fit in your hand outline). Tape your hand and heart pieces of watercolor paper to your work surface as well. Taping helps to keep your paintings flat while you work on them! Keep in mind the tape will resist the watercolor – try to apply the tape evenly around your background paper!

Listed below are three different watercolor techniques to make your warm and cool color hearts and hands! You can use any of the three of the techniques for any portion of your project – background, hand, & heart, or combine techniques or create your own! For each technique we will be using “wet on wet” – where we brush your paper with water, then add our paint. This helps our colors flow and mix around, giving us some really fun effects! Have your watercolors prepared and ready!

Crayons & Watercolor – Use warm or cool color crayons to draw designs or patterns on one of your elements (background, hand or heart). Brush water on your element, going over the crayon designs, then use watercolor paint to fill in your element – the crayons are waxy and will resist the watercolor!

Salt & Watercolor – Wet your element by brushing it with water, then dab splotches of watercolor on top! Watch as the paint flows and mixes on the paper! While the paint is still wet, sprinkle a little bit of salt on your element – notice how the paint pools around the pieces of salt! Let your element dry completely and then gently brush off the salt pieces to reveal the finished technique!

Plastic & Watercolor – This technique is made by using a plastic grocery bag – you may need to cut the bag open so it’s bigger and can cover your whole paper surface! Wet your paper with water and then add color to paper – in the example below we dabbed color on the paper but you can use almost any method for this technique! Once you have your whole piece of paper covered with color, and while it’s still wet, place your piece of plastic over the wet paint, pressing gently, and being sure to “scrunch” or “crinkle” the plastic on your paper. Let this dry completely (this can take some time!) and then remove the plastic to reveal a very cool technique!

Once you have all your elements painted, let them dry completely – it’s best not to use a hair dryer to speed up the process for the salt or plastic techniques as it may not allow the techniques to work well. When they’re dry and ready, remove the tape and cut out your hand and heart! Glue all of your elements together! Turn these into cards or pictures for Valentine’s day!

Change it up and make multiple hands – add something instead of hearts!

Art, Art activities, Craft, decorating, DIY, Holiday

Marble Pumpkins!

October 26, 2021 Intheartroom

Create these fun marbled pumpkins with some simple supplies! You can use real pumpkins or foam pumpkins Use nail polish to float your colors on water and dip your pumpkin for amazing marble effects!

WHAT YOU NEED:

Small pumpkins – either foam or real! – I used foam pumpkins from the dollar store!
Nail polish in various colors
Disposable bowl or bucket filled with water
Protected work surface
Wax paper to set your pumpkins on to dry!

Step one: Gather your supplies!

Step two: Carefully drip nail polish onto the surface of your water – I found that smaller drips will float better on the surface and too much nail polish can eat at the foam pumpkins. Don’t touch the nail polish brush to the water and don’t pour the nail polish – just let it drip!

Step three: Keep dripping your nail polish until your water surface is covered – the colors will spread and fill the water surface, try not to drip too much nail polish onto the areas that have already spread, as these drips will sit on top too much and be thick globs on your pumpkin! If using a foam pumpkin, the thick globs of nail polish also eat at the foam!

Step four: Once your water surface is covered, carefully dip your pumpkin! I held on to the stem and “rolled” my pumpkin onto the surface.

Step five: If your pumpkin didn’t get completely covered, add more drips to your water and re-dip!

Step six: Set your wet pumpkin on a piece of wax paper to dry (a fan can help speed up the dry time).

Use for some fun decorations, add names with paint markers for place cards, or use as gift toppers!

Art, Art activities, Drawing, Happenings, Holiday, Make, Create, & Share!

Christmas commissions!

January 4, 2021December 27, 2020 Intheartroom

Now that Christmas is over I can safely share some of the commissions I’ve been working on the past few months! I enjoy getting to create these pieces that are often made in memory of a special pet or given as a personalized, memorable, gift!

For the most part I start any commission from a clients photo, sometimes more than one photo – especially with multiple subjects or for correct coloration. The better quality photos I have to work from, the more details I am able to add in! However, I do like the occasional challenge of working from an old photo!

While pastels are one of my favorite mediums (you can read more about what pastels I like to use here), I’m always thankful for those commissions that bring a different medium to the table and break up the pastel work!

Once I begin a piece, I send in progress photos to the client for their approval of the work at different stages – I like to work with them to make any needed adjustments so the piece represents their subject and personal taste best! When the final drawing is complete and approved it’s signed and packaged before being delivered, shipped, or picked up!

Some pieces take longer than others (depending on subject, size, medium, & adjustments needed), accumulatively, the completed pieces this season took between 80 & 120 hours to complete.

I’m grateful to receive commission requests and be able to do what I love! Thank you for all your support this season (and all year long)!

A few pictures of the commissions in progress!

Art activities, Craft, decorating, DIY, Holiday, Make, Create, & Share!, Painting

Salt Dough Ornaments!

December 15, 2020 Intheartroom

Salt dough is fun and easy! The dough can be baked to harden, painted with acrylics and last for years! I had my nephew create some simple cut-out ornaments but you can also make 3-D sculptures with salt dough too! There’s various recipes for creating salt dough, and other similar dough – I’ve listed one below that we used with good results!

What you’ll need:

Flour
Salt
Warm water
Cookie Cutters
Rolling pin
Straw and/or Toothpick (or something to make holes in your ornaments for hanging)
Cookie tray
Acrylic paints
Paint brushes
Spray Sealer or Mod Podge
Ribbon

OPTIONAL SUPPLIES:
Beads to add to your ribbon
Glitter
Stamps – for making impressions on your dough
Sharpies
Hot glue or craft glue

Step one: Mix together 2 cups of all purpose flour, 1 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of warm water in a large bowl.

Step two: Add up to 1/2 cup more of warm water, one tablespoon at a time, until dough forms. Dough should not be sticky – if it is add a bit more flour!

Step three: Kneed your dough and roll it out on a flat surface – use flour to help prevent sticking if needed. We rolled it to 1/4″ – 1/2″ thick for cut-outs. You can also make sculptures with your salt dough instead!

Step four: Use cookie cutters to cut shapes out of your salt dough. Place cut-outs on a baking sheet (I lined mine with parchment).

Step five: Before baking your salt dough make sure to put a hole in your ornaments to hang from! A plastic straw works well or a toothpick for a smaller shape! Bake your salt dough for approx. 2 hours at 275*F or until firm and dried out. Time will depend on size and thickness. You can also leave your salt dough out to air dry. Be sure to fully bake/dry out pieces before painting and sealing to ensure they’ll last a long time!

Step six: Once your pieces have been baked or dried out, use acrylic paints to paint them with! We used acrylic craft paints!

Step seven: Paint your creations and let them dry completely!

Step eight: Once your paint is dry, seal your salt dough – I brushed on a layer of glossy Mod Podge. You can also use an acrylic spray sealer instead. Let dry.

Step nine: Add ribbon and beads to hang your ornaments from! Alternatively, you could also use pipe-cleaner or wire for hangers!

Step ten: Use a sharpie to add names, dates and details to your salt dough!

Step eleven: Hang those ornaments up!

We had a lot of fun making salt dough ornaments! Create your own ornaments from cut-outs like we did or create some 3D ornaments – you can use a little water to help pieces stick together. You could also make personalized gift tags & toppers, hand/foot print plaques, small sculptures (like snowmen!), key chains, pendents, pins, or magnets! Use Popsicle sticks, wooden skewers, or toothpicks for tools. Adorn finished salt dough pieces with pom-poms, pipe-cleaner, glitter, ribbon, beads, and other craft items! Try decorating pieces with marker instead of paint for easier clean up!

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

DIY Ornaments!

December 7, 2020 Intheartroom

Create some fun little ornaments with simple supplies! Find the instructions below each of the three pictured!

Snowman ornament!

What you’ll need:

Mason Jar Lid (not the jar band)
Small piece of sandpaper
Piece of 1/4″ wired ribbon – approx. 12″
Two small pom-poms
Piece of ribbon/twine for hanging
Acrylic Craft Paint (White, red or pink, Orange)
Mod Podge
Scissors
Paint brush
Sharpie pen
Hot glue or craft glue

Step one: Scuff up the mason jar lid with your sandpaper to help the paint adhere better!

Step two: Paint your mason jar lid with white acrylic craft paint – let dry and apply a second layer if needed.

Step three: Once your white paint is dry, use the orange paint to make your snowman’s nose – I made a dot near the center of my lid and towards the edge, and then connected them to create the nose!

Step four: Use your pink paint or make pink by mixing a little red paint to white paint and give your snowman rosy cheeks!

Step five: Once your orange and pink are dry, apply a layer of mod podge sealer over the entire surface, let dry completely!

Step six: Use a sharpie pen to give your snowman eyes & a mouth – check out the pictures below for face ideas! Also outline your nose. Tip: leave a white spot in your snowman’s eye to give him a spark! Download some additional snowman face ideas and practice your own below!

Snowman Faces & Practice Download

Step seven: Hot glue a ribbon to the back of your lid for a hanger!

Step eight: Cut and glue a piece of your wired ribbon, from side to side of your lid, glue pom-poms on the ends to look like ear muffs! Use leftover ribbon to make a bow for your snowman if desired!

Tree Scene Ornament!

What you’ll need:

3” Embroidery Hoop
2 pieces of approx. 3”x3” decorative cardstock
Small pieces of decorative cardstock
Mini paper snowflakes
Piece of 8” burlap like ribbon
9 Small foam mounting squares
Sequins
Glue gun
Craft Glue
Glue Stick
Scissors
Colored Pencils
Additional items to decorate with, such as, stamps, glitter, ribbon, stickers, etc.

Step one: Cut a piece of cardstock large enough to glue to the back of your hoop – this will become the background to your tree scene, use craft glue to adhere it to your embroidery hoop.

Step two: Work on getting your trees ready while your hoop dries! Using smaller pieces of decorative papers, cut triangles for trees! Make different shapes and sizes for added interest!

Step three: Use colored pencils to shade the side/edges of your trees, giving them a border!

Step four: If your hoop glue is dry, cut the paper off around the edges, you can also use an x-acto knife.

Step five: Add your trees to the hoop! Glue some trees directly to the background paper and use the small mounting squares to adhere some trees, making them “pop” off of the surface – stack mounting squares to add more depth.

Step six: Add sequins as tree toppers and/or ornaments on your trees and add the paper snowflakes (I cut one of my snowflakes in half to use around the edge). Add any other desired decorations and glue the piece of burlap like ribbon to the back for hanging!

Wreath Ornament!

What you’ll need:

Mason Jar Lid Band
6 Pieces of green pipe cleaner
Piece of 12” ribbon/twine for hanging
Glue gun or craft glue
Items to decorate your wreath with – I used pieces of artificial greenery and berries. Some other ideas may include miniature ornaments, pom poms, ribbon, etc.

Step one: Wrap all 6 pieces of green pipe cleaner around your mason jar band!

Step two: Collect items to add to your wreath

Step three: Glue your items to your wreath!

Step four: Add a ribbon to hang your ornament!

Give as gifts, hang on your tree, or use as gift toppers! Have fun making your own!

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

Father’s Day Pop-up Fishing Card

June 15, 2020June 15, 2020 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, Craft, Easter Eggs, Holiday

Marbled Easter Eggs

April 4, 2020April 13, 2020 Intheartroom

These marbleized eggs are a tradition in my family – I can’t remember a year where we haven’t used this method to dye some eggs! They don’t require very much to achieve the effect and have fun results. Everything used is edible so you can still eat your eggs too – we use our dyed eggs in an Easter bread, but they also make a nice decoration or Easter snack 😉

What you need:

Hard Boiled Eggs
Food Coloring
Cooking Oil
Distilled White Vinegar
Several Shallow bowls (one for each color you would like)
A Fork
Paper Towels
Clothes that can get messy and a protected work surface!

Step one: Fill your bowls with a couple inches of water and add one Tablespoon of white vinegar to each. Then add several drops of food coloring to each one – the more food coloring you add the brighter your colors will be. I used the primary colors (Red, Yellow, & Blue) to create all the other colors you see on my eggs!

Step two: Add one teaspoon of cooking oil to each bowl. Depending on your bowl size you may need to add more oil – a little bit goes a long way for this, you don’t want it to cover your entire water surface, use a fork to help break up and disperse the oil on the surface.

Step three: Take one of your hard boiled eggs and roll it around in your bowl of color and oil. Once the egg has been completely covered let it set on a paper towel while you roll all your remaining eggs! Tips: If you’re color is not showing up well you can clean your eggs with white vinegar first and/or add more drops of food coloring to your bowls. Roll eggs quickly (but gently!) to make sure you pick up some of the oil spots on your egg.

Step four: Take your colored eggs and gently wipe off any remaining oil with a paper towel. Now roll you egg in a different color – Keep in mind the first color you rolled your egg in and the second color will mix to create a new color! Tips: Don’t dip your egg into too many colors – it can just make your egg brown and loose some of the marbleized effect. Wipe off your egg before you dip into a new color! You may need to break up the oil on the surface again to help pick up the oil spots! Instead of rolling the whole egg you can just dip part of it for a two-toned egg!

We use our dyed eggs in an Easter bread every year but they’re pretty displayed in a bowl too! This is also a fun project to learn about color mixing and the science behind why oil and water don’t mix! Check out Mocomi kids for a quick lesson on the science and a density experiment you can do at home! Mocomi kids also has several egg experiments to do too 🙂 Have a Happy Easter!