Make every day a celebration!

Make Playful Friends. Animals, aliens, and anything else you can imagine.

Try This? Choose construction paper as a background. Glue cut shapes onto the background to create abstract figures. Use a marker to add personality. Focus on gesture instead of realism.

Play with texture and form.

Try This? Pick a piece of construction paper as the background. Cut strips from a contrasting piece of paper. Play with how you can change those strips. Fold them. Crumple them. Use a stapler, tape, or glue to put your sculpture together.

Collection Connections: Investigate how Lee Bontecou‘s Untitled, 1966 uses textures and form.

Make art that moves in the wind.

Try This? Cut a square from a piece of paper. Decorate with tissue paper and contact paper. Cut diagonal slits. Fold in the corners and affix with a brad. Put the brad through a straw.

Collection Connections: Continue to make art that moves with these extension activities.

Suncatchers enliven windows

Try This? Use paint or ink to paint the plastic film in the kit. You can use the pom poms to give your painting a soft appearance. Let the paint dry completely before taping to a window.

Printmaking with materials at hand

Try This? Use acrylic or tempera paint. Apply colors to a piece of bubble wrap. Place a clean sheet of paper atop the wet wrap. With a clean hand, gentle press down on the paper. Peel the paper off the bubble wrap.

Flower Sculptures

Try This? Cut shapes out the plastic folders. Use a brad to connect pieces. You can add corks or cardboard to serve as the base.

Collection Connections: Continue to make art that moves with these extension activities.

Art that tells a story

Try This? These puppets are made from the plastic folders, with the brads as the affixer. The Tyvek bag can be used to make a sock puppet. The popsicle sticks and paper make great stick puppets.

Collection Connection: Explore how Kiki Smith was inspired by stories to make her sculpture Seer (Alice I), 2005.

Crowns for All

Try This? Start by cutting a strip of paper about 3 inches wide. This will be the base for your crown. Add various materials, like raffia, cut paper, or paper straw beads. Have a friend staple the crown together, ensuring it’s not too tight or too loose.

Collections Connection: Choosing your own style is empowering. Explore stupendous style in James Gobel‘s I’ll Be Your Friend, I’ll Be Your Love, I’ll Be Everything You Need, 2009.