First Friday Art Class for September 2013 - Paper Sculpture Apples

We are back after a hiatus for the summer. We're on our third year of doing this class and I am so excited to get back to it!!

When I think of September I think of apples. We did a really fun art piece today based on apples. I found the idea for this project HERE. When I saw it I knew the girls would love it!

And then I went crazy creating samples for them to see...

When the girls arrived I had most of the supplies already laid out and ready to go.

They each had several dictionary pages for the "core" pieces, a pair of scissors, and a template for the smallest piece. I didn't want them getting bogged down with the initial shape. So I just quickly cut some templates out of an empty cereal box.

I also laid out lots of red and green printed scrapbook papers. (Many of them were Christmas papers, but you see so little of it, you can't even tell--so this is a great project for stash busting your scrapbook paper). Oh, and we had our usual September class treat--caramel apple suckers.

We talked about how art can help you with problem solving and spacial solutions. I asked the girls where on the apple they thought we should start--the biggest pieces at the back or the smallest core piece? Your first thought may be the biggest piece. But we discussed why you'd start with the smallest and go from there out.

We also discussed other shapes that would lend themselves nicely to this project. We came up with hearts, circles, trees, and flowers. 

So here are the steps (paperkawaii has wonderful in-depth instructions on their site!):
1. Cut out your pieces--starting with the book pages, moving out to the printed papers. For our apples we did about 4 layers of book pages and 3 layers of scrapbook paper. Don't forget the stem and leaf.
2. Distress the edges of each layer.
3. Assemble the apple.
4. Sew or glue the layers together (I did the sewing for the girls).

The girls then decorated a piece of MDF (that I had painted white before class) with stamps and ink. We then mounted their apples on the MDF with Mod Podge.

Here they are all at work...

The girls did wonderfully on their apples. I love how they're all so different and all so beautiful.