buncha stuff, and 4H cloverbud art project

First me, me, me, me

I dislike bandana hats, but it keeps the ear muffs from ripping out my hair.

I'm shaping up the stem on a leaf in this picture.

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Yet another hat in progress. This will eventually fit a 2 yr old. It is being modeled by Vicky, one of Karenskids. I like her dolls. They are soft, snuggly, durable, adorable, and reasonably priced for a large handcrafted doll. I keep waiting for a caucasian boy doll, but they always get snatched up before I see them.

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Ok, here is the project I did with the 4H Cloverbuds.

This is a project from Science Arts: Discovering Science Through Art Experiences (Bright Ideas for Learning) By MaryAnn F. Kohl, Jean Potter
You mix up 2 sets of tempera paints - one set with oil and one set with water. I put them in squirt bottles. First you put some drops of the oil based paint on the paper and move the paper so it oozes all over. Then you add the water based paint and do the same. It looks like some crazy lava lamp action while it's happening and the kids love it.
Now, I didn't do it quite right. I didn't have powdered tempera, so I used liquid tempera. I put the paint blends in squirt bottles. An eyedropper would have been much better.... I mixed in way too much oil. The parents had to leave with drippy oily paintings (hee hee) resting on paper towels. We used cheap white paper. If you were doing it at home with just a few of your own kids, I'd recommend using a thicker absorbent watercolor art paper.
Even though I didn't do it right, I think the pictures turned out beautiful and were a great experience for the kids. Like I said, they loved watching that oil and water blobby action, with the colors to make it really show up.

I photographed a few samples with white paper underneath them. The oil makes the thin white paper much more translucent, like wax paper. I just loved this project and would do it again, using less oil, eyedroppers, and maybe even with the powdered tempera (instead of the liquid.)