A follow-up to the flower printing of a couple of weeks ago.Making handprints and bubble-wrap prints for the Engineers birthday.
Papier maché pen holder.
Read on if you're interested in how any of these went!
Perhaps you remember our printing with wildflowers activity. I made a bunch of knapweed prints and then didn't like to throw them out afterwards but didn't know what to do with them. Well on Sunday we had church-at-home (this happens when Nutmeg doesn't wake up at a suitable time to allow us to get to church) and were reading about the parable of the beautiful pearl. That was the inspiration for this:
Froglet glued the flower-print-pearls in such a neat row on his crown! We used school glue applied with the end of a cork.On to our next craft: for the Engineer's birthday, we made some very simple handprint pictures. All you need is a strip of bubble-wrap (preferably a couple of inches wide), paint and hands. Oh, and paper.
Paint the bubbly side of your bubble-wrap...
Print it along the edge of the paper... all the way around...
Then add your handprints and voilà, a lovely picture for Daddy!We've been working on this papier mache pen-holder for several weeks now. The Engineer thought it looked like fun so he got involved in this one. We used a glass as a model, wrapped cling film over it and then started layering on the newspaper using a glue-and-water paste. No flour as I don't want it to get maggots or anything unpleasant like that. As you can see it's a messy business! Froglet's fingers are a bit small for squeezing the paste out of the paper.
After the first few layers we let it dry and discovered that the glue had got inside the clingfilm and was making it all stick to the glass! A tense few moments ensued while I pried it off. Then we applied new cling film and a new, clean, glass before adding more layers. The same thing happened again, but eventually we had enough layers to remove the glass altogether. Then we trimmed the rim and did a last layer of white printer paper, folding it over the rim .o as to get a nice smooth edge. We tried using kitchen roll first but found that it was very hard to squeeze the paste out without it all falling apart, and when it dried the newsprint showed through as if it weren't there at all.
After the first few layers we let it dry and discovered that the glue had got inside the clingfilm and was making it all stick to the glass! A tense few moments ensued while I pried it off. Then we applied new cling film and a new, clean, glass before adding more layers. The same thing happened again, but eventually we had enough layers to remove the glass altogether. Then we trimmed the rim and did a last layer of white printer paper, folding it over the rim .o as to get a nice smooth edge. We tried using kitchen roll first but found that it was very hard to squeeze the paste out without it all falling apart, and when it dried the newsprint showed through as if it weren't there at all.
Now it is all hard and white and makes a satisfying hollow sound when you tap it, but I've not been able to convince Froglet to paint it yet. That will be for next time.
Our crafts next week will be bird-themed - if you know any good ones please share!
