Scrolls

Materials

  • Wooden craft dowel (anywhere between 1/2” – 1/8” diameter, 1 foot long)

  • Roll of brown craft paper

  • Masking tape

  • Designed paper

  • String, twine, or yarn

  • Scissors

Instructions

  1. Cut a long strip of craft paper, any length you want the scroll to be. Cut the width of the paper 10”. This ensures the scroll can be held by the dowel.

  2. Tape one end of the craft paper strip along the length of the dowel. Remember to center it.

  3. Lay the designed paper on top of the craft paper at the opposite end of the strip. Make sure the pattern is facing up. Leave about ¼” of the designed paper hanging over the edge of the craft paper.

  4. Tape the two papers together on the opposite side. Trim the designed paper to the same width of the craft paper. Also trim any excess tape.

  5. Tightly roll up the craft paper around the dowel, following the natural curl of the paper.

  6. Once you reach where the 2 papers are taped together, keep rolling so the little ¼” rolled up. Hold the rolled up craft paper and ¼” piece and roll up the designed paper the opposite way. The idea is that the designed paper acts as a cover to the craft paper.

  7. On the edge of the designed paper (opposite the dowel), make a small tab out of tape.

  8. Attach a piece of string to the tab, long enough to tie nicely around the scroll.

Tips

  • These can be made any size. Simply adjust the measurements. The basic instructions are the same.

  • We used paint marbled paper for our designed paper. Anything can be used, though. Pieced together origami paper works well, too.

Monster Mash-Up Book

This cute mix-n-match flip book can produce some hilarious results! Make it as scary as you want or add more pages to make more combinations.

Materials

  • 2 pieces of white printer paper
  • 1 piece of construction paper (at least the same size as the white paper)
  • Markers
  • Stapler & staples
  • Scissors

Instructions

  1. Fold all of the papers in half length-wise (so the page is 4 ¼” x 11”)
  2. Place the pages inside of each other like a book, with the construction paper as the cover.
  3. Staple the pages together at the fold. To do so, unfold the pages and staple through the 3 pages at the crease. Close back up like a book.
  4. Cut the white inside pages horizontally into thirds. The top third will be for heads, the middle for bodies, and the bottom for legs.
  5. On the first page (all of the thirds) draw a creature, keeping the body sections separated. Repeat for the rest of the 3 pages.
  6. Flip the different page sections to mix and match body parts and create weird looking monsters.

Tips

  • It takes more time, but the book looks nice when the body sections align somewhat. Try your best!

Artist Biography Books

Artist biography books are a fun way to teach kids a little art history. These books contain a short biography of an artist to read aloud, an example of their work, and the bookmaker's interpretation and impressions of the artist.

We make one book about each artist, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. We used photocopies of a book's (see Sources below) biographies and painting examples which were then cut out and glued to the book pages. Tweak this project to your heart's content, though. Two ideas are to make one book including both Picasso and Matisse, or include little biographies about other artists.

Materials

  • Several sheets of construction paper (depending on how many pages you want in your book)

  • Paper scraps or drawing materials

  • Stapler w/ staples

  • Glue sticks

  • Print outs of biographical information, Picasso painting example, etc. (See Sources or click image at bottom for PDFs)

 

Instructions

  1. Fold a few pieces construction paper in half (short end to short end) to serve as the outer cover and pages of the book. Tuck them inside each other and staple along the inside crease.

  2. Using the example painting as a model, decorate the cover in the style of Picasso. Using the paper scraps makes a more interesting visual than markers, but use anything.

  3. Cut out and paste the biography and painting example inside the book.

  4. On the last page, write your thoughts about Picasso - do you like his art work? How did you use his ideas/style in your own artwork on the cover?

Source

  • Book: " What’s the Big Idea?: Activities and Adventures in Abstract Art” by Joyce Raimondo

  • For more artist biographies, check out these websites:
CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE FOR PRINTOUTS

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE FOR PRINTOUTS