Happy Easter

Even though this monday was a holiday 'Malvinas day' we decided to go ahead and have a fun Easter class. We stared off making our own Easter egg baskets by drawing images and patterns with crayons then painting over with water colours. When dry we put green crate paper in the inside and assembled the basket adding a paper handle. Then it was time to make some eggs to go in the basket. On the first eggs while still hot we used crayons so that it would 'melt' on and form a strong colour. On the next we stuck on small stars before leaving the egg to dye in colour. After a few minutes we took it out and peeled off the stars to leave white ones on the egg. We also made Easter cards, with a chick hiding in an egg, which you could open and close using the leaver. We finished off the class with an Easter egg hunt !

Flying high

I had wanted to work with paper mache this week by making Hot air ballons with the children. But after my trial try, the week before I realized how hard and long it takes to actually make a good paper mache craft. I decided this would be too hard for the age I have [ but always fun to do with over 7s'] so went back to researching simpler ways to make a Hot air ballon. I found this great website -

http://www.sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=1047

Which shows you how to make one by covering a ballon with watered down glue, sicking on crate paper and once its dry adding star stickers. Its lots of fun to do and is harder than it looks. An adult will have to add the string and basket at the end.

Still in Ba !

I am happy to say that due to some personal circumstances we have had to delay our move to Brazil which means I am here in Ba for the next few months. I have therefor decided to start up Art en Casa again for the time we are here. I hope you will join us for the start of classes at the end of this month March 26th 2012. Looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.

un beso

Bella

End of the year

Thank you so much to all the parents who took the chance and faith to send their children to Art en Casa this past year. It's always a treat to meet new families, most of who are here on their very own South American adventure. I especially want to thank the parents who have been sending their children since I started all the way back in 2009. I hope most of you will still be here when I return. I will really miss you all !

un beso grande

Bella

Christmas part 2

So sadly this was the last week for Art en Casa for a while as after Christmas I will be away for 6 months on a travel adventure, experiencing life in Brazil and Costa Rica but I promise to be back. We played some fun Christmas games to finish off term, pin the nose on the Reindeer, and memory christmas cards. We also added to our festive crafts by making our very own stocking where the kids got to work on their threading skills. We made winter collagues with snowmen and Christmas tree and used lots of glitter which children always love. The children then finished off the class with a small gift which made then very happy especially the lollies.

Christmas part 1

I love Christmas craft time, it must be my favourite time of the year for making things because there is always so much to choose from. Here in Argentina people dont go so crazy with Christmas decorations or gifts so the only place to find any decoration is in the 'chino' shops and even they dont always have basic stuff like wrapping paper. So this year i thought it would be fun to make wreaths so at least the kids could have one to hang on their doors. I pre-cut out holed out circles which the kids painted green. Then they cut out lots of leaves and berries to cover it all up. We then made little standing Christmas trees which are super cute to have around the house.

The Desert

With the children growing up so fast and being able to focus for longer periods of time I have started to do more complicated projects with them. This 'making a desert scene' is lots of fun, looks great, but also takes time and focus. First the children draw with a pencil the dividing lines of the landscape. They then paint each with the correct colour and before the paint dries etch in patterns into the paint to give it more depth and texture. While they wait for the landscapes to dry they can then work on making a sun, snake, cactus and camel. These are drawn, cut out, painted and finally stuck on. The end result as you can see is really great !