Are We There Yet?: Snowflake Art Project

We finally got around to doing our Winter Watercolor Resist project on Monday, the day we took off for a snow day. Appropriate thing to do on a snow day, don't you think? Make more snow! :)

We found the tutorial with a free template here, at Fun at Home with Kids -- but being the rebels that we are, we chose follow the tutorial, but fly free without the snowflake templates, and it was satisfying in the end, but a little harrowing in the thick of it.

* First of all, this is a three part project, done over a loong class period, or over a couple of days. The children, all in all, will have to: 1) design their snowflakes on watercolor paper with light pencil, 2) go over their design with glue guns (time consuming, especially for some), and 3) paint and "salt" all around the snowflakes, plus even possibly 4) mount the finished product on construction paper...

* Then there's the thing about not using the free template. Not having actually tested this out ahead of time, we learned rather quickly that, if you're going to design your own snowflakes to "draw" with a glue gun, they need to be of the very simplest form. And fat. Fat lines are better; they show up more clearly against the blue watercolor background.

* And it's not easy to draw with a glue gun. Keeping that "line" of glue even and straight is a trick!

* Also, try to get at least one cool temp glue gun, because it's really hazardous using a real "hot" glue gun. Just ask William.

* In addition, make sure everyone has their watercolor juju going, as large fluid, liquidy strokes of blue look the best.

* And if you do the salt technique, it works best to sprinkle it somewhat sparsely over a good paint-wet, but finished picture -- and hit it pretty quickly with a blow drier. The salt seems to do its "bleaching" work better that way.

* Then, when everyone's finished and the masterpieces are dry, make sure and have a good place to display them. They turn out quite nicely!