Thank You Art Campers!

kids art camp roylco

Thank you to all our wonderful art campers who participated in our 2014 Art Camp! We had a blast!

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Although it was unusually cold for the middle of summer, we did lots of activities that kept us up on our feet and moving about. The kids not only took part, they engaged fully with each other and made the best of friends!

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We had some silly moments…

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…some sneaky moments…

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…and some out-of-the-box moments!

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All of these moments brought about a willingness to explore with new materials and develop artistic ability using fine and gross motor skills!

We’ve put together a gallery of faces featuring our lovely campers. Thanks again for all the great memories and we hope to see you soon!

ThankYouAllKids

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Weaving Mat Windsocks

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After you’ve done your spring cleaning, hang up some bright and colorful windsock decorations! 

Age: 3+

Duration: 15-20 minutes

Learning Objectives: Exercise fine motor skills with precise weaving. Make a beautiful windsock craft for summer time using a multi-step process.

weaving placemat windsock

You’ll Need:

R16019 Placemat Weaving Mats

• Hole punch

• Tape

• Yarn

• Scissors

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weaving placemat windsock

Each pack of Placemat Weaving Mats come with an assortment of beautiful patterns and designs for the placemats. The placemats will be your base for making the windsocks. Choose the one that will best represent your windsock! The slots are pre-cut for easy weaving.

weaving placemat windsock

Each pack features die-cut patterned strips that can be intertwined with the placemat slots. Weaving the slots should be done in an over-and-under pattern. For each column you complete, be sure to alternate the start of your weaving.

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Here’s what the placemat looks like when it’s all finished and woven!

weaving placemat windsock

You can secure all of the strips down with tape.

weaving placemat windsock

Roll the placemat into a cylinder and secure the edges together with tape.

weaving placemat windsock

Take one of the placemats with the pre-cut weaving slots and cut along the edge on one side. Repeat for the opposite side. This will allow you to easily detach the resulting slots apart to make your own streamers for the windsock. Alternatively, you can use scrapbooking scissors to cut your streamers from tissue paper or decorative paper.

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Tape the individual strips to the inside bottom edge of the windsock.

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Make sure the inside edge is completely filled with streamers.

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Hole punch two holes on either side of the placemat weaving mat cylinder.

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Cut a length of yarn and tie through the holes in the windsock.

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Here’s a beautiful ensemble of Weaving Mat Windsocks hung up in front of a classroom wall! How pretty does that look? Good enough for a summer art display!

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Guest Post! The Museum uses our Rolly Scrolly Paper!

THEMUSEUM in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada hosted their amazing “Unwrapping Egypt” exhibit this summer. Museum-goers could visit the exhibit and become immersed in the culture and beautiful history of Ancient Egypt. We at Roylco were lucky enough to participate in some of the children’s programming with our Rolly Scrolly Paper! Check out this special hieroglyphics project with a written commentary from the senior education interpreter!

Brent from THEMUSEUM gives his impressions of the project below! All photos are courtesy of THEMUSEUM unless otherwise noted.

To view the full blog post at the museum’s website, please visit the link here!

Brent says:

“Our current exhibition, Unwrapping Egypt, features a complete reproduction of the artifacts found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun. They’re adorned in marvellous colours and, more importantly, feature hieroglyphics, the pictorial symbols of the written ancient Egyptian language. To connect what campers have seen in our exhibition space, we decided to put their transcribing skills to the test using Roylco’s R15406 Rolly Scrolly Paper…

There are cool things written on scrolls, and they can be rolled and unrolled in such a way that is relatively unique. While children this age may have difficulties reading and writing, they are quite adept at applying intuitive thought processes to emulate what scripts might look like. Roylco’s Rolly Scrolly paper is a perfect medium to allow children of this age to express intuitive thought.

Our campers from 7-9 are able to recognize patterns with symbols more readily, and are intrigued by the discovery of novel patterns connecting what they’ve seen in the exhibit space.

This activity was a tremendous success in achieving our goal to awe, enlighten, and inspire our campers.”

Visit the whole blog post here!

Thank you so much to Brent for providing us with this awesome commentary!

Image and original post © THEMUSEUM

We’d love to see more ideas like this one! If you’ve got a brilliant craft idea or have made a version of one of our crafts that you would like to share with us, send an email to us with photos, descriptions or a link to your work. We will create a feature post and link back to you with full credit. Contact us through the contact form for more details. We’d love to hear from you!

Thank You 2013 Art Camp Kids!

Group ShotToday’s post is a little bit different than our regular series of posts! The folks at Roylco enjoyed a fantastic summer art camp in 2013 thanks to our brilliant art campers. Using our classroom materials, the group completed a variety of amazing projects. We would like to say, “Thank you!” to all of our campers and showcase some of our favorite moments from the camp!

drawing, coloring, all about meGetting to capture smiles like this was definitely one of our favorite moments. Using our “All About Me” products, our art campers were able to express the best of their own creativity with representations of themselves!

color diffusing, straws and connectors, architecture paperThese were some of our favorite moments: getting to see the Art Campers working together and having fun while learning new concepts. The kids learned a variety of skills, everything from building, stacking, painting, gluing, molding, sorting and more!

hanging stained glass, umbrella, masks, animal hop

The best was when we let the campers take their own initiatives with their crafts. Let’s have an animal foot race! Or, let’s find a good place to hang our stained glass frames. It’s an endless lesson in fun and excitement.

art campWe had wonderful hot summer days to enjoy our good company! That, combined with good spirits and creativity turned our summer art camp experience into a dream.

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We all loved to pose for photos with our new friends!

Kids NamesWe have to give a shout-out to our best buds at the 2013 Art Camp! Everyone did an amazing job and had a blast together. Thank you so much, art campers!

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Craft Spotlight: Fabric Mosaics

2014-06-30-FeatureImageR15651 Fabric Mosaics are great for tactile activities such as beading and stringing! Who knew! At our art camp, we tried out a technique where we interwove Brilliant Beads with Fabric Mosaics on string to make colorful and unique jewelry!_DSC0303First, we started out by folding the Fabric Mosaics in half and cutting out the center. This made a hole that we could use to string the yarn through. IMG_00000576We made sure the kids cut out the centers very carefully. IMG_00000580Once all the mosaics were cut, we tied a knot at the end of each length of yarn. IMG_00000587We first strung large Brilliant Beads up against the knots. This made sure that none of the Fabric Mosaics could slip out. IMG_00000588 Then we started layering our bead arrangements! IMG_00000596The bright colors in the Fabric Mosaic pack worked so well with our Brilliant Beads! IMG_00000606The combination was simple: alternate a Fabric Mosaic with a Brilliant Bead and back again. Keep going until the whole string is decorated or filled up! IMG_00000610Getting ready to finish up! Now we can loop the beaded string into a bracelet… IMG_00000620…like this one! IMG_00000624Or a necklace! Simple and easy, yet great fun to make! Line-18 Thanks for checking out this post! Like us on FacebookShare this post with your friends, or Subscribe to this blog today to receive original craft project updates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!

Art Camp – Register Today!

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Last year’s summer camp was such a great success… We’re doing it again this year! The event will take place between July 14-16 in Waterloo, Ontario. To register for this event, see details below!!

You are invited to attend…

Roylco’s 2nd Annual Summer Art Camp!

July 14-16 2014

9AM – 2PM

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

FREE ADMISSION (registration required)!

For years, we’ve provided art materials and instructions to schools, art camps, museums, educational groups and community centers across the country. Using our knowledge and experience, we are organizing a 3-day summer art camp to build collaborative art experiences with children ages 4-6 and document the event using video and photography. The art camp will help your child become familiar with our products before attending the all-important photo shoot scheduled for July 17, 2014.

Your child will discover techniques in:

• Painting

• Cutting and Pasting

• Sculpting

• Molding and Collaging

• Solving Puzzles

• Discovering Amazing Science Facts

• Exploring Math Concepts

• Working with Peers on Projects

Our friendly staff and volunteers will supervise and direct the art program starting from 9AM to 2PM every day. Lunch and snacks will be provided. Please notify us of any dietary restrictions beforehand. A signed release form will be required for both the art camp and the photo shoot.

TO APPLY FOR THIS FREE PROGRAM:

Email: anita[at]roylco[dot]com with “Art Camp” in the subject line

Phone: (519) 885-0451 Ext. 0

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Learn more about this event by sending us an email through the contact form!

Craft Spotlight: Bouquet Paper

Feature-Image-bouquetpaperNo need to pick flowers! Make your own decorative bouquets with our realistic R24560 Bouquet Paper! The ingenious flower designs allow students to overlap the different flower images to make their own three-dimensional flowers!

IMG_00000396Sheets of Bouquet Paper line one of the art tables at our Summer Art Camp. Each of the flower images can be popped out from the backing and combined with other flower images. To see more information on our R24560 Bouquet Paper click the following link!

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Simply overlap the flower designs. Each flower image is marked with a center hole to allow students to thread a pipe cleaner through and secure the flowers together. The pipe cleaner acts like the flower’s stem! Make sure the flowers all align at the center hole before you secure them with the pipe cleaner.

IMG_2353You can add leaves to the flowers as well. The hole for the pipe cleaner is located at the base of each leaf. Adjust the position of the leaves along the pipe cleaner ‘flower stem.’

IMG_00000432Each of the Bouquet Flower petals and leaves can be carefully folded along the center to add a realistic touch to your designs. Here, one of the Art Campers adjusts her flower bouquet!

IMG_2364The flowers were placed inside of clean and empty water bottles. The inside of the bottles were decorated with our 15203 Decorative Hues Paper located HERE. Students selected their favorite paper design, rolled it up into a tight tube and slipped it through the top of the bottle. Now it looks like a vase!

IMG_2369Perfect for adding a happy touch to your crafting table tops!

Line-11Thanks for stopping by! If you have used this craft in the past, send us photos of your work to subscriber@roylco.ca and we will feature them in an upcoming post!

Craft Spotlight: Animal Silhouettes

Feature-Image-AnimalSilhouettesMake your own garden safari with our Animal Silhouettes! Animal Silhouettes feature stylish animal designs, and special glossy and matte sides to allow students to experiment with their coloring using different materials. Check out more of our Art Camp photos below!

Students can learn how to draw various graphical patterns and designs on the intriguing black card and use multiple media such as gel pens, chalk, glitter glue, pastels and more!

View our pdf HERE for more ideas on Animal Silhouettes!

DSCF7201Each Animal Silhouette comes with a backing that you can pop off. Separate the interior shape from the outer shape.

DSCF7202Animal Silhouettes come in a range of designs–24 animals in a neat little pack! Choose between a monkey (pictured above), camel, kangaroo, lion, moose, penguin, horse, ostrich, bear, pig, alligator, hippo, rhinoceros, elephant, kudu, tiger, bull, wolf, snake, duck, rabbit, turtle, squirrel and hedgehog. With so many to choose from, your students will never get bored of their art work!

DSCF7206We set out pastels and chalk for the Art Campers to use. This young artist decided to experiment with different colors of chalk in vertical lines. She followed the vertical design of the kangaroo’s body to make her patterns.

IMG_2263Another camper decided to use the glitter glue in multiple colors. He mixed blue and green to color in the turtle’s shell and used red to define the turtle’s feet and tail. The random pattern of lines generated by the glitter glue helped to give the turtle an abstract, “drip-like” appearance.

IMG_2269Here’s a brief view of some of our art projects combined: The Floppy Foam Brushes were used to make the glitter hearts (stay tuned for an upcoming post on this project this Friday!), while our Animal Silhouettes were placed alongside in a sunny spot to dry.

IMG_2278Thanks for viewing our projects!

Line-21If you would like to share with us some of your project ideas, please email us at subscriber@roylco.ca! We’d love to feature your students’ projects in an upcoming post!

Craft Spotlight: Animal Paint Scrapers

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What better way to explore patterning, lines and painting than with our uniquely designed paint scrapers in the shape of animal claws, toes, wings or hooves! Check out our R54560 Animal Paint Scrapers here

Our crafters had a blast experimenting with the Animal Paint Scrapers and paint. We used printed R15406 Rolly Scrolly Paper to bring out the brightness of the paint colors.

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First, we filled up bowls with thick tempera paint. Each paint scraper was dipped into the paint to saturate the edges. Next, one of our crafters came up with the idea that she could spell her name out with the paint scrapers using the unique waved edge as a writing tool.

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If your students would like to try out writing their names with the paint scrapers, we suggest you first provide them with pencils to write their names out as a guide for when they begin painting. This will help you keep track of how large or small the name will appear on the paper as well. Keep lines light in case anything needs to be erased!

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Another crafter decided to try spreading glue across the Rolly Scrolly paper using our Animal Paint Scrapers. She later spread colorful glitter on top and shook off the excess glitter to reveal an interesting pattern.

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The crafters learned some important characteristics about the paint scrapers: Each of the paint scrapers had their own distinct edge to create interesting textured lines. Some lines turned out thick while others were thin.

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By adding stylistic effects with the edges of the paint scraper, our crafter was able to turn her name banner from ordinary to extraordinary!

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Let us know how your students’ paint scraper art turned out by sending photos to subscriber@roylco.ca! We’d love to see your classroom artwork!