Teach Art to Your Children v 2.5

Continuing on with my weekly series on projects that you can teach to you children. We worked with acrylic paint and a sewing machine this week to make a cute Valentine's kite/garland:

This week with the girls, I was planning to teach them how to make quilled Valentine's. The 6 year olds could not grasp the quilling tool so I had to think up another project on the fly. Enter the "heart kite". We cut out 5 pairs of matching hearts and one large heart out of 300lb watercolor paper. The girls quickly got busy using the acrylic paint as watercolor, swirling it around on all the white hearts.

To complicate the hearts, once they were dry I taught the girls how to stencil on some interference paint. They loved how the special effect paint shimmered! A cosmetic wedge acts as a perfect stenciling tool, easy for children and adults alike.

Dry hearts then entered the sewing machine to make the kite. Pair the hearts with the good sides facing outward. (Once they are sewn together, we bent the edges out slightly to create a 3D effect.) The children guided each through the machine as we discussed the parts of the machine and how to make sure the hearts were spaced evenly. They left talking about bobbins, zig-zag and special effect paint.