Sabrina Ward Harrison Collage

Sabrina Ward Harrison is one of my favorite contemporary artists.  I personally draw a lot of inspiration from her work.  She makes images that are a collaboration of many mediums - drawing, painting, photography, text, etc.  Essentially, it's like journaling but going beyond the typical pen and paper.  She asks questions and explores feelings about life and about growing up.
She has published many books of her work.  My favorite is "Spilling Open - The Art of Becoming Yourself."

Here is a collage we made in class, inspired by Sabrina Ward Harrison.

Materials needed:
- Watercolor paper
- Brushes
- Sharpie Markers
- Photos....(You can take some yourself of the kids or ask the parents to give you some extra duplicates of photos they have at home.  You can incorporate photos of their family, their house, their vacations, whatever)
- Glue
- Magazines
- and anything else you may want to add to a collage
- Mod Podge

Directions:
1.  We began by painting our paper in big colored blocks.  I encouraged them to use their favorite colors because this piece of art is all about them.
2.  Once the paper was dry, we glued on photos, magazine pics of their favorite foods, etc.
3.  We added text with Sharpies...(I gave the younger kids sentences to finish such as "I like art because it makes me feel __________."  and then I helped them write it on their paper.  They can also practice writing their names over and over.  The older kids we told to to think about the same sentence and write down how it makes them feel, elaborating more or they could choose to write about whatever they wanted.)
4.  Add anything else you want to your collage and seal it all up by painting it with a nice coat of Mod Podge!

Easy-Peasy Homemade Scratch Art

I love scratch art paper and was curious to see if I could make my own.  Here's how we did it:

Materials needed:

• white paper (heavy enough to take paint)
• crayons in bright colors (take out the black, brown and dark blues)
• black tempera paint (tip - drop a few drops of dishsoap in it, for some reason it helps)
• paintbrushes or sponge brushes
• wood dowel with a sharp end or toothpick

1. First, have the kids draw a big rectangle on the white paper that fills up almost the whole page. (Having a border will help later, so kids don't paint to the edge of the paper and get paint everywhere)
2. Then, pressing hard color with crayons on the white paper inside the rectangle.  Encourage them to fill up the whole rectangle!  Don't leave ANY white showing!  Suggest to them that they might want to just draw designs or bold strips of color because we will be painting over the crayon. 
3. Next, the kids will paint with black tempera covering their entire colored rectangle!
4. Let dry thoroughly.
5. Last, give the kids their scratching tool and scratch away!