Get cozy, creative, and cardboardconstructive from your casita with our architecturally trending DIY ~ ARTFUL A-FRAME WITH KIDS! Take a peek at our {hands on + mixed-media} process creating with crafty kids in Carbondale, Colorado in our downtown art studio at 449 Main Street and be sure to follow our artful adventure on Instagram!
An A-frame is an architectural house style known for its steep-angled roofline that generally begins at the foundation and meets at the top in the shape of the letter A. They became quite popular around the world in the mid-50s through the 1970s, but they’re totally trending today!
SUPPLIES FOR ~ ARTFUL A-FRAME FOR KIDS:
Paper and pencil
A-frame online inspiration, included below.
Utility knife (adult-use)
Straightedge and geometric shape stencils
Wooden sticks and a tool for cutting (optional)
Glue
Scissors
Paints, brush, water & container
Embellishments (optional)
PROCESS FOR ~ ARTFUL A-FRAME FOR KIDS:
ONE Collect cardboard upcycled from a large pizza box top.
TWO Take a peek at trending #aframe inspiration on Instagram. We’ve included a lovely list below!
THREE Start with a few simple triangles, pre-drawn onto sketch paper, for mini open-ended sketches. Young artists can work towards their vision, sketching within these triangles, to then create their favorite design to construct. Focus on sketching the main elements which might include doors, windows, sliders, decks, and more. A-frames are most often two-stories and symmetrical, but the sky is the limit! Just be sure to set your sights high and soar!
FOUR Use simple sketch ideas to begin construction. Here are some simple sample layouts for visual reference to artfully inspire.
FIVE Precut a large cardboard piece into a triangular base using a utility knife (adult-use) at a 45° angle. Then measure a 1 1/4″ border around all the three sides using a pencil. Midway, mark the second story with a horizontal line or keep it open for a single story with a vaulted interior. The inside of your A-frame is a completely open canvas to artfully design.
SIX Pick a favorite color. Using acrylic paint, cover all three sides with a solid coat. You can also use painter’s tape to get a crisp edge.
SEVEN Precut cardboard pieces into smaller, more manageable pieces for younger artists to explore. This makes cutting cardboard much easier for smaller hands. We usually have a bowl full of squares and rectangles in a variety of sizes. From these basic cardboard shapes, children can use a ruler or geometric stencils to create their own unique shapes for doors, windows, and additional parts.
EIGHT Select three main colors to complete your color pallet. On a separate work surface, paint individual elements, such as doors and windows using a medium-sized brush and acrylic paint. Dry all pieces separately. Keep interior pieces moveable so artists can rearrange and make changes to their layouts before finalizing piece placement by gluing down.
NINE Tiny cardboard pieces can be added to personalize. Take a peek at the divided lites in the windows in this A-frame. Many artists focused on symmetry for their A-frame but asymmetry is also a wonderful possibility. Young artists will love exploring this process and everything in between.
Love the circular and triangular windows on this blue A-frame with pom pom ribbon to compliment the archway entry!
TEN As a favorite “optional element” artists can add wooden pieces to make this project more real-world in construction. Kids LOVE working with wood! We collected cattails in the fall and most importantly pre-dried these sticks in the sun for several weeks so they wouldn’t shrink and pop off the cardboard when glued down. Cattails are an amazing and abundant resource in the great outdoors. They simply grow around wetlands and are easy to cut with heavier weight scissors. My daughter and I cut over 200 for this project. The best part about cattails you’re wondering? Cattails are smooth, straight, and simple to cut. Older children can cut cattails independently using small (6″) diagonal cutters or dikes, of course with adult supervision, to specific lengths. Younger artists can mark the length with a pencil and have an adult assist with the cutting. In the springtime, cattails have been drying out all winter so they’re ready to go without dry time. Collect, remove the top fluff, peel the outer layers to get to the center stick, and simply cut to any length! This element in nature is brilliant!
Additional wood pieces to artfully add might include, craft sticks, popsicle sticks, skinny sticks, mini craft sticks, natural mini wooden craft sticks, jumbo craft sticks (great for decks and porches), tiny dowels, wooden skewers, toothpicks, flat rounds, and more!
Most wooden pieces can be glued down with a generous application of white glue and dried overnight. A popout deck or balcony might need a little hot glue reinforcement. Doesn’t this A-frame have a wondrous in the woods or lovely log cabin feel?
Artists LOVED working with real wood as a “real world” architectural element for diversifying their siding in directions including vertical, horizontal, and artfully angled. The natural cardboard also remained as a natural compliment to spaces not covered in wood. Artists got clever and crafty adding window boxes, circular windows, stairways, railings around balconies and decks, entry archways, tv antennas, and more! Kids are just oh so clever and always so very crafty!
Tag us on Instagram with your creations. We’d absolutely LOVE to see what you’re making and creating! As always, thank you for following our artful adventure on Main Street in the heART of the Carbondale Creative District! Send us a noteanytime! We’d love to hear what you’re thinking, dreaming, envisioning, and of course, our favorite ~ CREATING!
Much love and happiness creating in this creative + colorful world filled with collaboration + connection + community + arts & crafting! Happy Springtime from our studio to your cozy, crafty, and creative cozy casita!
Happy forever fall! October days in Colorado have been most beautiful, filled with sweet sunshine and warm weather! Our studio just wrapped up our first six weeks of a fresh + new school year and we’re excited to announce SESSION II STARTS THIS WEEK! We have just a few spaces in our art workshops offered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays! Jump in and join us if you’re in the Roaring Fork Valley!
We’d love for you to peek at the most recent project dreamed up + designed + created by creative children in our workshop ~ Ruckus in the Radiant + Rare Rainforest! You might just be inspired to make your own! Tag your creations @handmakery on Instagram!
SUPPLIES FOR ~ RUCKS IN THE RADIANT + RARE RAINFOREST:
A SIMPLE PROCESS FOR ~ RUCKS IN THE RADIANT + RARE RAINFOREST:
ONE Read The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest as a fantastic introduction to rainforests. Get inspired using simple black & white imagery for discovery, inspiration, and reference. Imagery may include rainforest plants, flowers, leaves, and trees. Use a thin brush and black India ink to “draw” on a large scale, filling a large paper with a variety of observed + organic habitat. Illustrations should remain separate so they can eventually be cut apart. Dry.
TWO Using tempera cake paints in neons and fluorescents to bring color into the rainforest habitat. This semi-transparent paint will allow the black lines to still shine through. Dry. Cut plantlife apart, leaving the exterior black line.
Early online enrollment at HANDMAKERY is highly encouraged as seating is limited! Start making + creating + connecting in a colorful community focused on a creative + collaborative childhood!
THREE Use pencil to lightly sketch rainforest creatures. Start with simple shapes like circles and ovals, eventually moving to smaller shapes and detail. Use simple black & white imagery for animal inspiration. Move to a permanent black marker to outline, detail, texture, and to bold each creature. Cut out each animal with scissors keeping the exterior black line. We did most of the cutting so young artists would have more time drawing and painting.
Each artist selected their own creature combinations to incorporate into their rainforest. Creatures included poison dart frogs, snakes, exotic birds, sloths, leopards, monkeys, and more! It was exciting to see the different combinations of animals each artist selected to personalize their piece.
FOUR Explore lightweight cardboard and white glue construction for additional plantlife popouts and to add additional dimension. Paint cardboard pieces using solid body tempera paints in neons and accent with tempera paint pens.
Detail dry painted cardboard pieces with glitter sticky foam or smaller mixed-media components such as pom poms, circle stickers, buttons, oil pastels, washi tapes, patterned papers, and more.
FIVE Layout the cutout “creative collection” of rainforest plants, black & white creatures, and dimensional habitat on a horizontal, pre-painted, black cardboard, backed with a smaller piece of foam core for strength and stiffness. Arrange pieces considering foreground, middle-ground, and background. Pieces can flow off the black cardboard to allow more space and to add dimension.
A beautiful rainforest flower painted in paint pen to popout.
A birds-eye-view of rainforest animals accented with eye catching patterns. Creatures remained in a black + white color scheme for a brilliant + bold + contrasting statement.
SIX Use three to five, precut egg carton pieces to pop out selected pieces. Use white glue to attach a low profile egg carton piece to add height and a bit of pop.
SEVEN Arrange finished pieces on the pre-painted black cardboard, again, that has been backed with foam core for added durability, flatness, and strength. Use a light amount of white school glue to tack down pieces so they’re not fully glued down, so pieces still have a flex & flow. Use a neon poster board to create a vibrant frame to finish off and showcase. Drill holes in the top two corners and add a piece of twine to display.
A peek at a few pretty pieces in progress as artists were planning and popping with a unique perspective, point of view, and of course a powerful punch, all part of the process and on point. Now say this three times!!!
Having a project with “several separate pieces” allowed artists to move around pieces to the puzzle, to build, and to layer their one-of-a-kind ~ Ruckus in the Radiant + Rare Rainforest so it was unique to each artist. Keeping all animals black & white created a wonderful contrast to the colorful habitat.
Every artist walked away with a one-of-a-kind creation with a collection of creatures they were proud of creating!
A little hand-stamped + black & white saying we printed for each artist to frame using materials of their choice. Little wooden clothespins were used to clip onto the twine of their projects. We discussed how this piece was truly an artist statement to ~ RISE + RALLY + RESECT + RADIATE YOUR HEARTS for the RUCKUS in the RADIANT + RARE RAINFOREST to remind humans to protect and preserve this special land!
The week wrapped up with our traditional recognition ceremony + mini art show as makers took home ~ a most marvelous mini-masterpiece on Main Street in the majestic mountains!
Tag us @handmakery with your creations on Instagram! Follow our blog for more inspiring process-based art projects! As always, thank you for following our artful adventure on Main Street in the heART of the Carbondale Creative District! Send us a note anytime! We’d love to hear what you’re thinking, dreaming, and envisioning! Much love and happiness creating in this creative + colorful world filled with collaboration + connection + community + arts & crafting! Ami
Incredibly excited to share with you our original ~ DIY Papier-mache Figures created in our Mini Makers Workshop with 5 – 10-year-old artists! Our next session of weekly art workshops begins the week of October 16th, YES, next week! We have a workshop for just about every age under the sun! Take a peek at our upcoming schedule filled with weekly workshops, craft nights, holiday camps + events, and celebrations! Excited to announce we’re now hosting birthday parties in our beautiful + NEW art studio on Main Street! Be on the lookout for our first ever ~ Ladies Craft Night coming soon!
First Friday was our ~ Opening Night Celebration at our NEW art studio location at 449 Main Street in downtown Carbondale | CO! With a wide array of ages and not knowing exactly how many guests we’d have joining in, we kept it celebratory + simple + full of dazzle, painting and embellishing ~ Celebration Crowns! Main Street was blocked so everyone could enjoy an evening strolling the streets of historic downtown! The night was festive and full of flavor, with everyone back-in-town from summer adventures. The community was alive, vibrant, and actively adventuring around this artistic town!
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