THE TOOLS
MATERIALS:
- Liquid Watercolor + Paint Pallette
- Glitter + Clear Liquid Glue (optional but so so fun!)
- Salt (use what you have on hand)
- Aqua Brush (this is my go to one) or any larger paintbrush
- Scissors (Kid Friendly/Age Appropriate)
- Watercup
- Watercolor Paper (This is my Favorite and is a great price for quality!)
- Ruler or Straight-edge
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THEME: Watercolor + Weaving
ART LINGO: ‘Wet on Wet’ + Warm Colors
APPROX TIME: 30min – 1 HOUR
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: 8Yrs +
The Magic of summer is here! The weather is warming up, the days are longer and the kids are all outside YAY!!!! Here is a super fun outdoor (or indoor) project to keep those idle hands busy with weaving, watercolor and my favorite…GLITTER!!!
If I could live in a light pink bubble filled with sparkles, rainbows and unicorns I would! I love this project for that very reason; it’s creative and open-ended (no two weavings ever look the same) fun and free flowing with the wet on wet watercolor and tactile with the in and outs of paper weaving plus add the magic of glitter and SWOON..I am in LOVE!! I decided to go full summer mode with this one and picked some ‘warm’ hued watercolor and fringed the end of my weaving just for the fun of it all! Feel free to use any color combo you wish and get as creative as you want: use washi tape for a border, add gold pen markings to the weaving when finished, the possibilities are endless!
There are a million ways on Pinterest to do a paper weaving so I am not going to get too fancy with my weaving skills (Another day soon thou I will), I decided to keep this weaving simple with an easy checkerboard weave (You can find my template here… the magic is the wild colored watercolor that makes it come to life and the weaving is just the icing on the cake!
You ready or what???!! Grab your materials crank up some summer time tunes and let’s get ready to create some Summertime Disco Magic!!!
STEPS
Step 1:
Grab two pieces of watercolor paper (they can be any size, I used 9×12, but I would love to try this project with a 5×7 or a 13×17 piece of paper sometime thou!). Pour a few drops of your liquid watercolor into your paint palette, I was going for a warm summer hue so I choose the warm side of the color wheel (Red, Coral, Yellow, Orange & Magenta). To do a wet on wet technique use your paintbrush (or PRO-Trick: use a spray bottle) and cover your entire page with a light wash of water. Your paper should be shiny but not sopping wet, take your brush and dip it in your first color and just start playing on your paper: see what happens when you hold the paintbrush on your paper in one spot…does it make a firework of color, does it run down the page? (See Step 1)
When ready wash your brush and grab your next color, keep going with your wet on wet watercolor until you love what you see! If your paper is becoming too saturated with water you can take a rag or paper towel and dab it on your paper to dry up any puddled areas, this is also a fun technique to add texture to certain spots!
Step 2:
While your watercolor painting is still wet add some salt to various areas of your piece. The salt acts as an absorber, it will ‘eat’ your watercolor and leave these really cool mini starburst behind…so so fun!!! (See step 2). I layered the salt thicker in certain areas to really add some great texture to my pieces. Have fun and get wild with this pantry staple!!
Step 3:
Once you are finished with your first piece move onto your second and follow steps 1 & 2. Allow your pieces to dry and rub off the salt! (See step 3) Now you are ready to make your watercolor weaving template. You can find the directions to the template here.
Step 4:
Using the template cut one of your pieces of paper in 2” strips, making sure you cut your paper vertically. I like to use a ruler for this so they are fairly even but I have seen some really cool projects from my kiddos when they freestyle it and cut different sized strips or hand tear each strip! Use your imagination and have fun here! For your second piece of paper you will want to draw Iines vertically on the backside of your paper and stop 2” from the top, you will then cut along the lines being sure to stop 2” from the top, this is a fun PRO TRICK I love to have my kids in class use to help keep their weaving organized and stay together nicely! (See Steps 4)
Step 5:
For this paper weaving we are going to do a simple checkerboard weave. You will take one of your long strips and begin going over and under each flap of your weaving paper (See step 5). Once you finish a row, take a strip and start again but this time you are going to to shift over one row and continue going over and under. For example if your first row you did over, under, over under…. your second row will be under, over, under over…. you know you did it right when it starts to look like a checkerboard. If you get confused at all refer to our template here to help you! Every few rows be sure to push gently up on your strips in your weaving rows to make sure your weaving is nice and tight. (See step 6)
Step 6:
Keep going down your weaving page until you get towards the bottom, being sure to tighten your weave every once in a while by pressing up and side to side on your strips and weaving paper. You can stop whenever you like, I went almost to the end and then decided to fringe my paper. (See Step 7) PRO TRICK: when finished weaving turn your paper over and place a strip of tape on all four sides of your weaving to hold it all in place, think of the tape as creating a frame around your weaving but on the backside.
Once you like what you see now is the time to add in the fun! I simply put a few drops of clear glue in various places on my weaving and then let the glitter rain down!! You can put glitter everywhere or in just a few checkered areas, the only rule….HAVE FUN MY FRIEND! PRO TRICK:have a larger piece of paper laid down under your weaving when working with glitter so you can shake it on something other then the floor :)…..then fold the paper like a taco and pour it all safely back in its container! No more glitter messes again!!
When finished you can hang/frame your beautiful weaving for all to see! This is such a great project for a summer day and the possibilities are endless with how creative and colorful your weaving will be!!
Stay creative, friends!!!
xx Mrs. K!