Tutti Frutti Wrapping Paper

Thought I would just share with you some of the images of the wrapping paper the children from my Make and Do group at a primary school made.  I knew that they had been doing a healthy eating topic at school, so it was only natural to tie this in and create some Tutti Frutti wrapping paper.

In the first session we look at various fruits that had been cut in half, and the shapes we could see within them.  They then made some simple line drawings of them and chose one to transfer onto their polystyrene sheet (the smooth side of polystyrene pizza bases are perfect for this).

In the second session, we looked at how they would place their image on their sheets.  Some opted for a random pattern whilst others did a repeat.  This is what they created.

I've had a great time, and I'm back for the next bit of the term to do some more work with them.  I'm really looking forward to it.

This years Christmas cards

Last Sunday I spent the afternoon with the children creating our Christmas cards for this year.  We decided that we would do some more printing (see previous printing post to find out how) as both of them love this activity and I knew that both of their designs would look great.

The Fairy practised some snow flake designs and I tried to encourage the Tinker to do some lines that went through each other to create a snowflake... this didn't quite do to plan.  He likes wild lines and dots!  I ended up helping him create a couple of snowflakes on his, to make is look a little Christmassy before he got to work with his dots!  Then we covered up and got to work!

Peeling the paper off the polystyrene is the Tinkers
favourite bit.  He loves to reveal his image!

We had a real little production line going... the table was covered!

I managed to finish them off this week by sticking them to card (in between tending to a poorly little Tinker.)

Our finished cards look like this...

by the little Tinker (age 3)

by the Fairy (age 7)

 I love making Christmas cards, especially if the children are involved.

Printing with children

Yesterday was one of those days I had been saving this rainy day activity for.  The sky was grey, the wind was blowing and it was wet and generally gloomy.  To top it off, the temperature has made it feel more like winter than summer!

  At the beginning of the summer I had put a couple of polystyrene pizza trays to to one side as these are perfect for polystyrene prints.  You can also use polystyrene trays, just cuts the edges off to create a flat surface to work on.  You can buy sheets to do this on, but it makes sense to recycle packaging.

There is a four year gap between my children and I some times find it difficult finding activities they can both do for themselves at the same time. But this really is an excellent activity to do with people of all ages, and abilities as really simple marks can produce an excellent piece of work.

You will need:-

- a polystyrene sheet

- a pencil or ball point pen

- printing ink or thick poster paint with a little washing up liquid added to it

- a tray to put your ink/paint in

- paper

- a roller or paint brush

1.  I prolonged the activity by giving them paper first so that they could get an idea of the designs they would like to use but you can go straight to mark making on polystyrene if you wish.  The Little Fairy needed to be encouraged to keep her designs simple, she kept wanting to do little intricate designs, but simple designs work best for this.

2.  Make marks on you polystyrene sheet.  I found it useful giving mine blunt pencils to use as in the past I have had children actually going through the sheets due to them trying to leave pencil/pen marks.  It is simply a tool for creating an indentation. 

3.  Cover the sheet with an even layer of ink or paint, using a roller if possible.  If not, a large paint brush will do.

4.  Place a sheet of paper of the polystyrene sheet, being careful to keep it in the same position, and apply pressure.  A rolling pin can be used for this as it provides even pressure across the paper.

5.  Carefully peel back your paper to reveal your master piece!  If the image is very faint do it again on a clean sheet using a little more ink/paint.  The polystyrene can be used over and over again making it perfect for creating items such as cards and wrapping paper, paper table cloths etc.

Here are some I'd done with a group of school children earlier in the year.  Their topic was fruit and they created their prints from line drawings they had produced after studying different fruits cut in half.