Glue-Resist Spiderweb

The inspiration for today's project came from this gorgeous watercolor by Kirsten Bailey. She used a masking liquid and watercolors for her spiderweb art. I used completely different materials. Can you guess what they are?

Materials #1 and 2 are watercolor paper and white glue. Use the glue to draw a freehand spiderweb pattern on the paper. Let the glue dry overnight.

 

Use a cotton ball to apply chalk over the dried glue. I used two blues and a purple.

Cut a spider silhouette from black cardstock and glue it on the web. That's all there is to it!

Spider Napkin Ring and a Fair Wrap-Up

Yesterday I shared the spider-themed tablesetting that Trevor entered at the county fair.  His napkin ring was my favorite part.  I had absolutely nothing to do with making it, other than cutting the cardboard tube, then plugging in the glue gun and monitoring its use.  The design and implementation is 100% Trevor.

Materials: empty cardboard tube, black paint, 2 brown pipe cleaners, black pom pom, brown pom pom, 2 black seed beads, scissors, hot glue gun, and craft glue.

Begin by cutting about 2 inches off of a cardboard tube.  Paint it black and let it dry. Meanwhile, bend one pipe cleaner into something that looks approximately like this:

Bend the other one in mirror image.  Heat up the glue gun.  Line up the two pom poms and two pipe cleaners like in the photo and glue them together, then glue the whole thing to the napkin ring.  Use craft glue to attach the seed beads.  Done!

We did a lot more than just Trevor's tablesetting contest while we were at the fair.  Top priority though was seeing how his other entries did.  Here's his entry in the poster contest.  First place!

The Pinewood Derby cars aren't judged in the 5-8 year old category.  They just receive a participation ribbon.... unless they are selected as Judge's Favorite!

You can see a much better photo of Trevor's "Toothless" car here.

Trevor was thrilled with his Judge's Favorite, first, and third places.  A very fine showing, indeed!  He's entered the bulk of his art and craft projects in our local county fair, which isn't until August.  So expect another fair wrap-up in about 7 weeks!

Pipe Cleaner Spiders

Many years ago, I used to do a really cute pipe cleaner spider craft with my fifth graders. I love seeing my sample each year when I unbox the Halloween decorations.

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Pipe Cleaner Spider

Materials: 

• 4-hole black button
• four pipe cleaners
• two googly eyes
• craft glue

Steps:  

Bend each pipe cleaner in half and force the bent end through one of the holes of the button. It should protrude about 1/2 inch or so, depending on the size of your button. This step is either easy or very difficult depending on the size of the buttonholes. If it is a very tight fit, try rotating the pipe cleaner as you push it through. Repeat with the other three pipe cleaners.

Bend the ends of the pipe cleaners down to cover the button.

Bend the legs to form the shape of the spider.

Glue on eyes.

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It's been at least a decade since I've made one of these, so I'd forgotten that a few of the steps are a little tricky. Trevor wasn't able to thread the bent pipe cleaners through the buttonholes, so we adapted the project to match a kindergartener's dexterity. 

Start with the same supplies, but instead of bending the pipe cleaners, leave them straight. Thread each of the four pipe cleaners through a buttonhole.

Working with one pipe cleaner at a time, twist the two ends around each other to secure them to the button. Bend the pipe cleaners to form the spider legs.

(For this picture, I removed the other three pipe cleaners to make it easier to see what to do.)

Continue to twist and then bend all eight legs.

Add eyes and you're done!