Darby Voisin – Roylco

Product Spotlight: Holiday Color Diffusing Shapes

This month, we’re featuring two of our NEW products:

These color diffusing shapes help us get in the holiday spirit while simultaneously developing a deeper understanding of color. There are 3 easy ways to transform these shapes from A to B:

A. Plain Color Diffusing shapes–functional but still waiting for the magic to happen

B. Color Diffusing magic transformed the shapes into these beautiful works of art!

Method 1: Washable Marker & Water

This is the easiest method and the mess-free method. Simply use any washable marker to color the shape, and don’t worry about filling in all the white spaces! When you’re done, spray water on the shape and watch the colors diffuse and create secondary or even tertiary colors.

If you need a spray bottle for the water, we recommend Junior Paint Spritzers–they are perfect for small hands.

Method 2: Watercolor

Break out your trusty watercolor set and go to town! Because of the water used with the watercolor paint, the colors will diffuse throughout the paper as you paint. You can always add some extra water at the end and watch the colors diffuse even more. This is especially helpful if you’d like to make light or pastel designs.

Method 3: Liquid Watercolor & Water

This method creates the most impressive designs, IMHO. You can find liquid watercolors online or at your local craft store. Be careful because these paints can be POTENT! It takes quite a few washes to remove the paint from hands, but that is also what makes the designs so beautiful on Color Diffusing paper.

Simply use a spray bottle with the liquid watercolor to add splashes of color to your Color Diffusing shapes. Once you’re happy, spray the shapes with water and watch the colors blend!

If you need a spray bottle for the color or water, we recommend Junior Paint Spritzers–they are perfect for small hands.

Pro tip: Stick to primary colors! It’s easy to get carried away with color, but once they start diffusing, they have a tendency to blend into one, amorphous brown color if you get too complicated!

Try all 3 and let us know your favorite method!

If you like this, you’ll like Blots of Ornaments too! These ornaments have the added benefits of being cut out of extra thick, high-quality color diffusing paper so that they can be used as real ornaments on a tree or windowsill!

Posted on November 28, 2021December 17, 2021 by Darby Voisin

Craft Spotlight: Project Leaves with a Thanksgiving Turkey project!

It’s never too early to start thinking about seasonal crafts for the classroom, no matter what time of year! Prepare for Thanksgiving with our true-to-life sized R51080 Project Leaves in a variety of colors and shapes. Use the Project Leaves to create the tail feathers and simple construction paper cutouts to make the turkey head and body.

Project Leaves feature different colors on each side of the leaf shapes. You can use the shapes to talk about the changing seasons or adapt your fall science unit to include lessons about leaf identification.

Encourage students to engage with nature while appreciating the science behind it! Students can draw the veins within the leaf shapes to learn about leaf development. Trace out the shapes of the leaves onto sheets of paper, then cut them out and paste into a leaf collage!

Use leftover or traced Project Leaves to make a Thanksgiving turkey decoration! Learn more below.

Age: 4+

Duration: 10 minutes

Learning Objectives: Combine various leaf shapes together into a pleasing arrangement to make the turkey tail feathers. Use scissor skills to make a cut and paste project.

You’ll Need:

• R51080 Project Leaves

• Gluestick

• Brown, orange and yellow construction paper

• Marker

• Scissors

Celebrate Thanksgiving with a turkey decoration that all your students can take home!

Select 3-4 Project Leaves to make up the turkey’s tail feathers. Alternatively, you can trace the outline of the Project Leaves onto sheets of construction paper and cut them out. You’ll want to choose colors that work with the look of the craft.

Select the construction paper you will use to make the body. To save on construction paper, you can cut a sheet in half and divide between two students.

Fold the sheet in half lengthwise.

Draw a backwards B shape from the fold line. This will be the turkey’s body.

Cut along the drawn lines and unfold the resulting piece.

Next, pull out a light-sand colored sheet of construction paper.

Cut out a little turkey wattle and little turkey feet.

Finally, get a sheet of yellow construction paper.

Cut out a turkey beak.

Paste the turkey beak, wattle and feet onto the turkey body.

Make your selection of Project Leaves for the turkey feathers.

Align two of the leaves together. You will need to angle them outwards.

Place the third leaf in the middle of the two leaves. This helps to round out the look.

Finish off with your decorative leaf shape. Place it right on top. Now you’ve easily layered the turkey back feathers!

Paste the turkey body on top of the leaf arrangement.

Paste the turkey features on top.

Finish off with eyes for your turkey. Draw them in with permanent marker or pen.

Now get ready for a big celebration! Paste the turkeys along a banner and hang up on a wall or arrange your turkeys in a Thanksgiving display!

Posted on November 15, 2021November 17, 2021 by Darby Voisin

Spotlight On: Stand-Up People

Create cute, miniature people who can stand on their own two feet!

These sturdy card stock figures are terrific for a multitude of different art projects and as components in presentations for other subjects. Use paint, marker, crayon, pencil crayon and collage materials to decorate your stand-up person. The large size (7 1/4 x 11 1/2″) is perfect for bringing out the fine detail in your artwork.

Use these art bases for “All About Me” art! Glue a photograph to the face of a figure, and decorate the body to resemble your favorite outfit. Finish by writing your name on your stand-up person so your classmates will always recognize you!

A great beginning of school activity is pairing students off and challenging them to introduce their partner to the class! Have students interview each other, and create a portrait of their partner to present to the class along with personal facts like age, favorite food, and favorite color!

Are written book reports starting to become a grind? Add a new dimension to them by challenging students to create a portrait of their favorite character in their book. The portrait can serve as a visual aid to help keep other students engaged.

Bring social studies to life with historical figures! Consider assigning each table (or group) a theme, and each student will create a portrait of a different historical figure. If students have a math theme, they might create figures of Ada Lovelace and Pythagoras. A science theme could include Einstein and Marie Curie.

To watch a video a Stand-Up Person come to life, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37LTfRUm2UU

Posted on September 28, 2021September 28, 2021 by Darby Voisin