Art With Anna Blog: August 2012

Do you ever wonder what to do with all those shells you picked up from your beach vacations? Here's a cute way to use them in your artwork, not matter your age. This project is adaptable for kids starting at age four and can be as involved as you want the older you are.

What you'll need:

Canvas, wood, or any hard piece that won't warp/bend
Old book
Tissue paper of various blue/green hues
Glue and water mix
Basics: paint brush, scissors (if you want to cut your tissue)
Glass beads/marbles with a flat side
Scrap paper
Spray adhesive
Sand
Seashells
Tacky glue
Optional: white tissue paper, letter stamps, glitter glue, sharpie and whatever else you can think that is beachy!

What to do:

Tear book paper and glue down to canvas with watered down glue. I like to tell kids, "glue on the bottom, glue on the top."
Next, tear strips of blue and green tissue paper and layer on top of book paper. This allows you to still see the text through the tissue paper. Layer in a striped way, as to show different colors of the ocean water. Like so:
Now, make sure all pieces are glued down flat by brushing glue completely over the piece.
If you'd like to add sand, spray some adhesive along the edge where you'd like the sand to stick. Pour sand along that edge and as you tap the rest off into the bowl, it will fall into place on the spray adhesive.
You can now add shells to the beach, glass gems in the ocean, etc. with tacky glue. This part is really fun for kids to get creative. If you really want to get into it, you could add flip flops with paper, an umbrella, a beach chair - whatever comes to mind!
To wrap up the project, I had kids look at their art and think of what word comes to mind or how they feel if they were on the beach. They came up with some really good stuff; mermaid, dolphin, fun, love, peace, inspired, dream, play, calm...
Stamp your word (or cut out your own letters) and then cut each letter out and glue down.
Viola! Ocean Art!