After reading so many books that featured Asian Elephants last week, we decided we needed to do an elephant craft project. First I browsed on-line for elephant images, and found some beautiful hand-embroidered pillow shams and purses. A lot of times the elephants were silver thread or silver sequins, so we decided to use foil. I had seen a technique that I wanted to adapt (see original post here), so we gathered our supplies: foil, glue, cardboard, paints. Here is our finished elephant craft. Didn’t my son do such a great job?
Elephant Craft Instructions
Step 1: Have children draw an elephant onto the cardboard using a black sharpie. Vivi asked me to help her with the ear:). The smoother the cardboard, the better the final product. We used one corrugated sheet, but another on the back of a notebook and the second was much smoother.
Step 2: Squeeze glue over your lines. My 7 year olds needed a little bit of help with this- this project is probably better for 8+.
Step 3: Wait until the glue is dry- it can take a while depending on how humid it is outside!- then wrap up your cardboard with foil. You can tape it if you like, but it stays pretty well on the cardboard if you fold it over:
Step 4: Using your fingers, rub over your hidden drawing- and watch it magically appear! You will see that this elephant’s cardboard was corrugated, and the lines are coming through. My son’s cardboard was from the back of a notebook and is much smoother.
Final Step: Paint with tempura/acrylic/poster paints (not water colors or washable/finger paints). We first did this project with sharpies, but the colors were not as bold as we had hoped for. The kids just painted over the sharpies, and got the bright, vivid colors you see here:
Love it!! Gorgeous works of art- clever project!
Thanks Sarah!
Just stumbled upon your site! This is a great resource for homeschoolers or teachers! I just posted about this Asian elephant on Craft Gossip! The foil technique is really neat!!
http://lessonplans.craftgossip.com/?p=5809
I’m so glad you like it! I have lots of homeschooling friends, so I will pass on your web site:). I love everything to teach the kids about the world- if you have any other ideas let me know. It’s so fun to share!
Hi! I love your elephants! And thank you for linking back to my blog and our owls. 😀
Absolutely!:) The owls were my inspiration- they remind me of “Mexican repujado”- the technique is totally different, but the look is the same. If you google it you can see the beautiful repujado. So beautiful!!!
Oh my gosh! I love this!! We are totally going to try it for a post I’m writing about Thailand for Mamasmiles. She has an Exploring Geography series!
Yay! So glad that you liked it:)- we had fun!
Loveeeeeeeeee this one. I had tried a similar technique for my Foil lizards.. http://www.artsycraftsymom.com/2012/10/lizard-craft-with-foil-marker-and-ceramic-paint.html
My 12 year old (soon to be 13) Son Is in search of an international pen pal. We are in TEXAS and the Thailand has his attention. But he is a traveler and loves other cultures. Id prefer this pen pal communicate via snail mail because technology takes up enough of our day to day lives. Thanks and I look forward to bridging long lasting communication and education!