Painted Popcorn Craft

Indiana is the largest popcorn producer in the United States. Several major brands, including Orville Redenbacher's, originated in Indiana. So it's no surprise that Indiana named popcorn as its official state snack. Illinois is also a major popcorn producer that has named popcorn as its official state snack. I love popcorn and thought it would be fun to design a popcorn craft focused on the 4th graders in Indiana and Illinois studying their state symbols rather than the preschoolers who typically make popcorn crafts. Affiliate links below. 

Painted Popcorn Craft

Materials: 

• cardstock (white and red)
• microtip scissors
• 1" circle punch
• acrylic paint (yellow and white)
• 0.4" paint pouncer
• craft glue
• Flair pen (red)
• colored pencil (brown)

Steps: 

Cut a rectangle from white cardstock, approximately 3" x 4". Cut a square that is about 3.5" then cut a wiggly edge on all sides. The easiest way to do this is to keep the scissors still and move the paper back and forth. Punch a white circle. Cut four strips of red cardstock, each about 3/8" thick and longer than 4". 

Protect your work surface, then dip the paint pouncer in yellow paint. Pounce it randomly on the wiggly cardstock. 

Without cleaning the pouncer or letting the paint dry, dip the pouncer in white paint and continue pouncing randomly until the cardstock is covered. Be sure not to cover up all of the yellow. 

While the paint is drying, glue the red stripes to the white rectangle to make the popcorn box. If you were to glue the popcorn to the box right now, it would look like this. 

Center the words POP and CORN on the punched circle using the red Flair pen. Then color around the outside edge of the circle. Glue it to the popcorn box. 

Use a brown colored pencil to lightly outline some of the popcorn kernels, following the lines created by pouncing. Add little brown triangles between some of the pieces to show where there would be shadows between kernels. Add a few small curves here and there to mimic popcorn hulls. Then use the scissors to refine the shape of the popcorn. Follow the colors, thinking about how popcorn would actually sit. When you are happy with it, glue it to the top of the popcorn box. 

I really enjoyed this project. Paint pouncing is FUN! After making it, you'd better believe that I ate some popcorn!

SIX: The Musical

Have you seen SIX: The Musical? It tells the story of Henry VIII's six wives (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived) with a decidedly modern Girl Power vibe. The music and the costumes are fantastic and it's such a fun show! Missouri Street Theatre did the Teen Edition of SIX in December and it was spectacular. 

SIX: The Musical (affiliate link)

MST had a neat idea for a fundraiser - donate any amount and take a picture with the cast. I wish the teens were in the front and we were in the back so that you could see their incredible costumes, but it's still a really fun picture. The layout came together really quickly. I used the playbill for my title, then added journaling, a strip of glittery washi tape, and the crown to finish it off.

Crayon-Resist Swallowtail Butterfly

I liked the results of my wax-resist Colorado hairstreak butterfly so much that I used the same technique to make a different butterfly. This time, I chose the Eastern tiger swallowtail. It is the state insect of Virginia, the state butterfly of Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and both the state butterfly and mascot of Alabama. Affiliate links below. 

Wax-Resist Swallowtail Butterfly

Materials: 

• watercolor paper
• crayons
• black paint
• microtip scissors
• colored pencil

Steps: 

Because I wanted my Eastern tiger swallowtail to be accurate, I printed out a picture first at the size I wanted my finished project to be. Then I used the window to trace the butterfly onto watercolor paper. 

Next, I used yellow, orange, black, blue, and white crayons to color in the butterfly. Since this is a wax-resist project, press hard and leave a thick layer of wax where you want the paint to resist; color lightly in the areas where you want black to cover most of your crayon marks. 

Create a wash by mixing a few drops of black acrylic paint into some water. Brush the wash over the butterfly. The paint will resist the areas with crayon. When the paint is dry, cut out the butterfly. 

The wash dried a little lighter than I wanted, but it was an easy fix. I used a black colored pencil to darken the areas that needed to pop. Here you can see the difference between the right side that I've colored and the left side that has just the wash. 

Here is is with both sides colored. 

The Eastern tiger swallowtail is such a pretty butterfly! I'm really happy with how my project turned out. 

Tomato and Strawberry Easter Eggs

Today's Easter eggs based on state symbols are so easy to make that you get two-for-one. First up is a tomato, the state fruit of Arkansas, Ohio, and Tennessee. Second is the strawberry, the state fruit of Delaware, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. Affiliate links below. 

 

Tomato Easter Egg

Materials:

• egg (raw, hardboiled, or empty)
• acrylic paint (red)
• felt (green)
• scissors
• craft glue

Steps: 

Paint the egg red. While it is drying, cut out a multi-pointed star shape from felt for the tomato's leaves. Cut a thin strip for the stem. When the paint is dry, glue the leaves to the side of the egg and the stem on top of the leaves. 

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Strawberry Easter Egg

Materials:

• egg (raw, hardboiled, or empty)
• acrylic paint (red, yellow)
• felt (green)
• scissors
• plastic fork
• craft glue

Steps: 

Paint the egg red. While the paint is drying, cut out a multi-pointed star shape from felt for the strawberry's leaves. Cut a thin strip for the stem. 

When the red paint is dry, use a plastic fork to apply yellow dots to the egg to mimic the strawberry's seeds. 

When the yellow paint is dry, glue the leaves to the rounded end of the egg. Glue the stem onto the leaves. 

Deer Easter Egg

For my next state symbol Easter egg, I chose a deer. The white-tailed deer is the state animal of Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, the state game animal of Oklahoma, and the wildlife symbol of Wisconsin. Affiliate links below.

  

Deer Easter Egg

Materials:

• egg (raw, hardboiled, or empty)
• acrylic paint (brown)
• brown cardstock
• scissors
• colored pencil (white)
• black paint pen
• craft glue

Steps: 

Paint the brown. While the paint is drying, cut out a pair of antlers, a pair of ears, and a tail. Make each a little longer than needed; fold back a small tab at the base. (This is where you'll be putting glue.) Use a white colored pencil to color the inside of the deer's ears. Color the edges and the underside of the tail white. 

Use the paint pen to add a nose to the pointed end of the egg. Add eyes and a mouth. Glue the ears,  antlers, and tail in place.