I did this Holiday Craft activity with my 5 year old daughter this morning, it took roughly two hours and she had a ball planning and making lists, checking them twice...
We looked through an old colouring in book from when she was small. We decided on a natural coloured nautical theme because I want this picture to hang in my future bathroom.
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| We found this picture of an old ship. |
We co-wrote a list of actions that would be needed to make a finished picture, she wrote some of the steps down. We then decided who would do what.
My daughter's name is Kelsey, and we were told of an old Sea faring story, that the fastest ship was called the Kelsey/Kelsie and when the sailors were returning from battle they would send the Kelsey ahead with flags flying. The lookouts on shore would see the ship approaching and know by the flags whether they had won the fight or not, or if the fishing expeditions had been successful or not.
She loved that this represented her namesake :)
THE SHIP - I used the extra copy that we made as a colour swatch to help her use the right colours in the right places, she was very careful in making sure that she stuck with the plan :)
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| The colour swatch |
THE SEA & SKY - I took an old box mounted canvas, it had a bit of paint on it from another project that we didn't finish. I wanted a textured background so I first painted white over the other colours, and then applied white tissue paper to the canvas, I added more white paint and really smushed it in! It created a really interesting canvas for our ocean and sky! Kelsey was so impressed.
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| The heavily textured canvas gave us a lot to work with! |
I then dried the canvas and painted picture with my trusty hair dryer. I added a layer of see through matte finish spray to either side of the painted ship and dried those protective layers.
THE SHIP - I decided to add some shadow and textured swirls to Kelsey's layer of paint. She was involved in this process and made a few suggestions that look great! I decided to NOT have harsh black outlines so we painted a thin wash over each line to recede them a bit.
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| The best part is that you are cutting it all out - so messy is ok! |
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| This stage took a little while but it was much quicker than air drying. |
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| All cut out and ready for some glue! |
THE SEA & SKY - I painted in the Green blue line of the water horizon, and then Kelsey did the sky and the rest of the water. We used a wide brush with soft bristles but also used out fingers - it felt great! I added detail after she was done, texture (more of it!) clouds, and spray.
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| The turbulent sky and water |
THE SHIP - Then I sat and carefully cut out the ship and sails - having the clear coat of matte sealer on either side made it stronger and it didn't tear - even when my 5 year old accomplice Kelsey jumped ON my ARM while I was CUTTING!!
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| Looking good! |
COMBINATION - We then placed the boat on the water to decide where it would look best, we decided on a slight tilt as if the water is rough. I pasted the picture with Bostik Clear adhesive and placed it. I had to add some glue to certain edges to really anchor them, get it? Anchor? *cough*
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| Glued and ready for some sea foam! |
We were nearly done, Kelsey told me to go ahead and do the sea spray, so I sat with white paint, tinted in some places with blue and lavender, I then stippled with a thin tipped brush, used my finger tips for some of the cloud detail and wave shapes.
VOILA!
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| Signed by the Artists |
Day ONE of a 6 week school holiday down... eek.
Let me know if you try something like this with your kids!
Visit www.sandybigara.com to see what else I am up too!
