Make-It Monday
Watercolor and Fabric Garden Collage
It was early on a bright summer morning. My two-year old granddaughter and I were in the vegetable garden, picking the produce for the day. The small basket at the end of the row sparkled in the sunlight with rosy-colored radishes, the purples and greens of spring mix, and ginger-colored nasturtiums.
“Just let me weed this row of carrots, and then all we have left is the spinach to pick,” I said, kneeling between the carrot rows. “Can you take these and throw them on the weed pile we started?” I held out the weeds, without looking up, hoping she knew the difference between weeds and lettuce. But no hands grabbed the bunch from me.
Where did she go? I thought. Standing, I looked toward the other end of the garden. There, in the middle of the rows of spinach, she stood, holding a handful of emerald-colored spinach leaves with one hand, the other hand stuffing leaves into her mouth. She chewed, bright green juice dribbling out of her mouth and running down the front of her light-yellow shirt which barely covered her chubby belly.
“More,” she said, as she grabbed another handful. It was the perfect visual for the value of gardening with children.
Today’s Make-It Monday is about capturing the beauty of the colors in a garden by using watercolor and fabric.
What materials will I need?
- Watercolor paints
- Brushes
- Water
- Watercolor paper
- Various fabric scraps
- Pens, markers, crayons, or other writing utensils
- Glue or glue stick
- Scissors
What are the steps to this project?
- Cut out shapes from the fabric scraps that you would like to use to represent flowers or plants in your image about a garden.
- Wet a brush and load it with a color of your choice. Load means you want your brush to be full of water and paint.
- You can choose where you want your “watercolor flowers” to be or you can be more random, putting color wherever you feel it should be.
- Using your index finger, flick the paint off the brush onto the paper. Add as many colors and sizes as you would like.
- Glue your fabric shapes into place.
- Use watercolors, or other drawing utensils, to complete your garden drawing. Don’t forget to sign your art work and date it.
Be creative and have fun!!
Hope you enjoyed today’s activity! Send me an image of what you create. I’d love to see it!
Peace,
Nature Mamaw
Kathryn Randall 