Watercolor Weavings

This is a fun twist on an elementary art staple. 

Step 1: Drawing fun with oil pastels.  I used strong watercolor paper for this part so that there would be less ripping when the paper weaving started.  I gave vague drawing directions:  "draw two circles" "make an alien" "make 3 geometric shapes" "draw 3 fruits" but wouldn't get any more specific than that.   It was very fun for the kids to see many interpretations there were of one simple direction.  This went on until the papers were pretty full.

Step 2: Wet tissue bleed.  Students paint the whole paper with water and stick various sizes of colored tissue on the paper.  Make sure the tissue is 100% wet and pull it away. Now you've got stained fingers and a very cool watercolor.  Kids LOVE doing this.

Step 3: After its dry, fold the paper in half and cut 2 inch strips, taking care not to cut all the way to the end.  I draw the lines on the back for younger kids and have them cut theirs in small groups with me.

Step 4: Give the kids pre-cut construction paper strips and have them decorate them with oil pastels.  Line designs running the length of the paper work well.

Step 5: Weave away...