Lesson video

Welcome to Lesson 4 on Creative Crafts, my name is Liz, and I will be guiding you through this lesson.

Previously, you looked examples of arts and craft works and learnt about the artists and craftspeople who made them.

You also experimented with decoupage.

In this lesson, you'll be using decoupage technique again, and we'll begin to create your own piece of craftwork.

So if you're ready to begin, let's make a start.

Before the lesson begins, you will need to gather your equipment.

You will need your sketchbook, a pair of scissors, a pencil and some PVA glue, plus a paste brush or glue spreader.

You'll also need a sturdy cardboard box with a lid.

Any shape will do, but shoe box is a good example of the type of box that you can use.

You'll also need a selection of different papers such as tissue paper, wrapping paper, newspaper or pages from a catalogue, comic or magazine.

These are to use for your decoupage work and you may decide to get these later in the lesson, when you thought through your ideas.

For some activities in this lesson, you will need an adult to help or supervise you.

In this lesson, you will recap on your previous learning, use your own ideas to inform your craft making, select materials and techniques to use in your work, use decoupage technique to begin to make your craft work and evaluate your work.

Look out for the following key words in the lesson they will be in a bold coloured font on the screen, and the first key word is decoupage, a technique that involves glueing paper cutouts onto an object.

And the second key word is medium, this is refers to the type of art or materials used in art and craft making.

So before the lesson begins, let's start off with a quick recap on your previous learning.

Decoupage is a type of embroidery.

Do you think the answer is true or do you think the answer is false? Yes, it is false, decoupage is a craft technique that involves glueing paper cutouts onto an object.

Can you remember the names of the artists and craftspeople you learnt about in the last lesson? Now there's some pictures on the screen to give you a clue.

Now don't worry if you can't remember the names of the artists, we'll recap on them in the next part of the lesson.

But before we do, I want you to look at the pictures on the screen again can you remember how the artists and craftspeople made their work and what materials did they use to make them? Okay let's see what you've remembered, the first artist was Mary Delaney and this piece of work was made using the decoupage technique and the material she used were thin pieces of paper very much like tissue paper glued onto a background, which has been painted in black ink.

The second work was made by Michael Brennand-Wood, he uses a mixed media process in his particular piece of work, and he's combined art and craft techniques, including woodwork and computerised machine embroidered flowers.

He's also applied acrylic paint to this particular piece of work.

The third piece is a piece of installation art and was made by the artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman, and she has covered a tuk tuk in lots of different materials and objects, including paper flowers, Christmas decorations, bindis, stickers, there's an umbrella on the top, and right at the front of the tuk tuk a pair of plastic eyelashes.

In the next part of the lesson, you'll be using ideas from your previous learning to inform your craft making.

You'll be covering your box using the decoupage technique and decoupage if you remember is a technique that involves glueing paper and paper cutouts onto an object in this case, a box.

So on the screen are two different types of boxes that I've sourced.

And I've decided that I'm going to decoupage the cylindrical box on the left of the screen.

So have a look at the box that you've chosen and I'd like you to just take a moment to think about whether you use your box to hold anything or not.

So I've decided that my box is going to be functional and it's going to hold some equipment that I use for sewing.

So in thinking about my ideas for decorating my box I could use pictures of sewing equipment such as cotton thread and pins and needles and I could source these from the magazines, catalogues, I could even have a go at drawing some myself and cutting those out.

But I've decided that I'm going to use different images and I'm going to use ideas from my sketchbook to inspire me.

So I had a go at doing some decoupage inspired by Mary Delaney's work, and also I've been drawing and some different flowers in my sketchbook as well.

So also my folding fan, the flowers that I drew on there have inspired me and also Michael Brennand-Wood's embroider flowers.

So I know that I'm going to be sourcing pictures of different flowers to cover my box.

So is there anything in your sketchbook that inspires you or do you maybe have a different idea? So remember our themes from previous learning, maybe you could decoupage your box using different shades of your favourite colour, or you could choose a subject theme based on something you're interested in such as sport, animals, comic book characters or maybe you decide that you're going to use pictures of whatever's going to be contained inside your box.

So I talked about using possibly images of sewing equipment, that maybe if your box is going to hold your art equipment, you'll use pictures of art materials that you source from the catalogue.

So take your time to think about your ideas, look around for inspiration in your sketchbook or from other sources and then write or draw your ideas in your sketchbook first if you like, or maybe you just want to spend time thinking about it.

And when you're ready, restart the video.

So, we're almost ready to get started with the decoupage, but before we do, let's have a look at some top tips.

So this short video has got a few tips to just guide you before you start your decoupage work.

So lets just take a look.

So if you cutting out pictures, which have an uneven shape, you might find that when you position them next to each other on your box, that you can see gaps in between them in the box, the cardboard boxes poking through.

So you can see I've photocopied the painted flowers I used for my fan, and I've repurposed them for decoupage.

And that's something that you might like to do as well.

Now, as there are gaps in between them, I have decided to decoupage a layer of colour tissue paper first onto the box, and I've chosen yellow tissue paper, because it adds a good contrast to the reds and the oranges that I've used in my flowers.

Now, when you're applying your PVA glue make sure that you've added some water to it first, so it brushes easily over the card and tissue paper.

And apply the glue to the box first and then add your paper.

Now the yellow tissue paper that I'm using is quite thin, so I'm going to need to build up layers of tissue paper on top of each other until I get the shade that I would like.

I've also used different sizes of tissue paper because some of the areas that I am adding tissue paper to they're quite small gaps, so I've had to cut the tissue paper down to size so that they can fit in those gaps.

So once your first layer is dry you can then paste your cutout on top.

So I'm applying some more PVA glue again, positioning my cutout where I want it to go, and then adding some more PVA glue on top just to seal it down, and then I'll use my finger just to give it a final smooth over, make sure it's nice and securely attached.

Now, if you've chosen a subject theme, cutout with your pictures first and then position them first of all, before you attach them onto your box and make sure that they all match the theme.

So in video, you can see that I've used pictures of different animals and cut those out from the magazine, and I'm just having a look at the size of them and seeing how I can overlap them and position them together.

So I really did like the giraffe but it really doesn't fit in with the Arctic animals so I'm going to save that for a different piece of work.

I have some gaps left where my giraffe was, so I'm just going to use some plain blue white paper from the magazine to add in the background, and I make sure that I stick those down first.

Now if the pictures you're using are an even shape and fit easily next to each other you can decoupage them straight away onto your box.

So this wrapping paper that I used at comic book characters are all in square boxes because I want to put them in a different order I've cutout the squares, and I'm sticking, going to stick those straight down onto my box.

I'm just positioning them first before I glue them to see how they fit.

And I've also cut some of the images in half, so they fit neatly around the edges.

So for the following activities, you will need an adult to help or supervise you.

So, first of all, you're going to need to cut out all the paper you will need to cover the inside of your box.

And if you're creating a background colour, you'll need to do this first.

So a good tip is to put your cut pieces of paper in a container or a bag so they're ready for you to use.

Check you have enough paper cutouts first and if you're sticking images straight onto your box position them first to see if they're fit.

So it's a bit like putting a jigsaw together.

Add a small amount of water to your PVA glue, mix that together, and so you've got a nice runny consistency a bit like ready mixed paint.

Brush a layer of glue on a section of your box, and then stick down pictures or paper and repeat for each section of your box.

And for difficult areas such as corners, cut the paper a little bit smaller.

Now because my box was cylindrical, I did the walls around the edges first and then I covered the bottom of the box and I've covered mine in different types of tissue papers.

So as you're working, it's really important to stop and look at how your work is progressing from time to time and to evaluate what you've done.

And the beauty of decoupage is that you can glue over any mistakes before you move on to the next stage.

So I had a look at the inside of my box and I decided that I wanted to add some cutouts of flowers to the base because I wanted some more detail and I thought that the red tissue paper on its own is a bit too plain.

So once everything is stuck down on the inside walls of your box, just add another layer of PVA glue and water just brush all over it to make sure that everything is nicely sealed.

So the next step is to decoupage the outside of your box and you may decide to do the same as the inside design or you may decide to do something different.

So again, cutout all of the paper and pictures that you will need first, and then ensure an adult is helping or supervising you for this activity.

And then as before, decide where you're going to place your paper and picture cutouts, and whether you're going to need a background colour first, and if you do, you need to stick that all down first of all.

Or are you just going to stick your pictures and paper directly onto the box? So I've stuck on yellow tissue paper first and then once that was dry I glue the cutout flowers on top.

And again, the cutout flowers that I've used have come from some tissue paper that I sourced.

So time to evaluate your work again, have a look and see if there are any sections where you might need more glue or more pieces of paper, where there maybe some gaps that you need to fill in and make any changes that are needed.

When you're happy with the positioning of your paper and paper cutouts, and you're happy that you filled in all the gaps, then add another layer of PVA glue mixed with water onto the top just to make sure that you've sealed everything down.

So whilst your work is drying, show it to someone else and explain to them how you made it and why you made the choices you made.

Now, if you can take a photograph, of you work, print it out and stick it in your sketchbook and then answer the evaluation questions that are on the screen.

Now if you cannot print out a photograph of your work you could just write your evaluation in your sketchbook by answering the questions.

So what has worked well, and is there anything that you could do to make it even better? In the next lesson, you're going to be covering the lid of your box, and you might decide that you're going to use decoupage again or use different techniques such as weaving or paper cutting or combine those with decoupage as well.

You may also decide to use different mediums such as paints or pastels or colour pencils or pens.

And do you remember how Chila Kumari Singh Burman created her mixed media artwork and how she used different materials attached to her tuk tuk.

Well, you're going to be doing the same by adding some finishing touches to your box.

You could use buttons or sequins or glitter or maybe you've got some stickers or some ribbon, decide what you'd like to use and collect them ready for the next stage of your making.

Well done for all of the fantastic work you've done in this lesson.

If you're able to, take a photograph of your work please ask your parent or carer to share it with Oak National on Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

See you in the next lesson.