This is the perfect rainy day (or, in some cases, snowy day) mixed media art project. Create handmade holiday gifts for Easter.
Creating handmade gifts is a gratifying experience no matter the holiday. So, why not embrace Easter with a mixed media art project? This project is suitable for working on your own, or for setting up as rainy day art project to complete with children.
For this project, you will need the following materials:
- Easter themed clip art: you can find these images on napkins, party goods, old greeting cards, old books and on the Internet.
- Easter themed embellishments: use rubber stamps, stickers, charms, brads, eyelets, die-cuts, and other embellishments typically found in the scrapbook section of most stores.
- Heavy-duty glue stick: these can typically be found in the scrapbook section of most stores.
- Cardstock: choose pastel “Easter” type colors.
- Heavy-weight paper: drawing paper is suitable for this project, or you can use heavy weight resume or business type paper.
- Scissors: you may wish to use scissors or cutters with decorative edges to add interest to your book’s pages and cover. This is optional.
- Stapler: because the staples will be showing, consider picking up some colored staples for a prettier and more finished look.
Follow these simple steps to create your Easter themed mini book:
- Gather all of your supplies and set up your work area. If you are working with children, set out one piece of paper, one piece of cardstock, a glue stick, a pair of scissors, in front of them and place all the embellishments in the center of the table.
- Take the heavy-weight paper and fold it in half. Fold it in half again. And then fold it once more.
- Staple the longest folded edge in the center.
- Cut along the edges where there are folds so they become loose pages.
- Take out the cardstock and measure it against the booklet to fit the outside cover. Cut the cardstock, and glue it to the outside of the booklet. Staple the booklet on the top and bottom of the binding.
- Add the Easter themed clip art to the front and back of the cover.
- Add the rest of the Easter themed embellishments. Work this into a collage, create a scaled presentation, or create heavy layers. There are no rules to how this is completed, so let your imagination take over.
From here, the rest of the project is entirely up to you. If you prefer to leave the pages blank, then your handmade Easter themed mini book is ready for gifting. However, you may wish to fill the pages with:
- Additional clip art
- Collages
- Journal entries about Easter
- Quotations
- Poetry
- Line drawings (a mini coloring book)
As you can see, there are a lot of options for this project. Whichever direction you decide to go with this is entirely up to you. Above all, have fun with this. Because this is such a quick project, you will be able to create several in one sitting.
