First Friday Art Class for December 2012 - The Nutcracker

Our theme today was, of course, Christmas--specifically The Nutcracker.

We began by making THESE SNOWFLAKE BALLERINAS from krokotak. (Their instructions are wonderful and they even have the ballerina template for you to print.)

We took them one First Friday Art step further and decorated them and gave them faces and hair.

They turned out so cute and each girl took supplies home to make a couple more.

We didn't have a chance to do these in class, but the girls took home a template to make TINY, TINY ballerinas like this...

Here's the template if you're interested. She should print out to about 4" tall and a snowflake made from a 2-1/2" x 2-1/2" piece of paper is just right for her. (This is all very fortuitous since you have a 2-1/2" strip of paper left once you cut your 8-1/2" x 11" paper into a square for the larger snowflakes. So with the little scrap left from a big ballerina, you can make a tiny one.)

After our ballerinas were complete we moved onto Nutcrackers. This project was inspired by THESE GREAT NUTCRACKERS from Alisa Burke. She did hers on wood. I knew we wouldn't have time for that so we did ours on paper.

(Side Note: I really enjoy drawings where the parameters of the paper are your limitations. I think it forces creativity and makes for a very interesting finished product.)

Here's a Draw a Nutcracker handout that helped them get started...

How to Draw a Nutcracker in 4 steps:
1. Start with a rectangle - either drawn or cut from paper, tall and thin or short and stout--whatever you prefer
2. Draw the face shape. We did a straight horizontal line with an upside down ant hill below it. Leave yourself room for the hat when you draw the straight line. You can do a giant hat and tiny body or a tiny hat and giant body or something somewhere in between.
3. Add the facial features, including (of course!) big teeth
4. Add all the other details including hair, clothing, accessories, etc. (We looked at pictures of Nutcrackers and noticed they have swords or drums, most have mustaches, their uniforms are very detailed with lots of buttons and medals and amulets.)

They really took this idea and ran with it. They were planning to draw their entire families in the form of Nutcrackers when they got home. :)

And our Christmas class just wouldn't be complete without a festive treat. I saw these JELLO HOT COCOA PUDDING MUGS a few weeks ago and knew they'd be perfect for our December class. (Also I have a weird obsession with food that looks like other food. Seriously, I  L O V E  it!)

(Modifications: I couldn't find plastic shot glasses so I used small Dixie cups. I used Pull n Peel licorice for the handle because my mugs were a bit too short to use the pretzels. Also, I added 2 pieces of Cookie Crisp cereal to the plate to complete the look. Next time I may just make a small cupcake and use that for the "mug" since we're not big gelatin or pudding fans in our house. But the girls did go crazy for these!!)

All in all a great, festive class with a wonderful group of girls!! Merry Christmas. See you in January.