Supplies and Directions:

Supplies:

All you need is three long strips of fleece and scissors.

Directions:

  1. Trim your pieces of fleece so you have three pieces that are each 2 in. wide by 2 ft. long.
  2. Take your three pieces of fleece and tie them together at one end.
  3. Braid the three pieces together.
  4. Tie them together in a knot at the other end.

Do you have some leftover art pieces sitting around? Make new art by cutting past art into pieces and creating new art.

Supplies and Directions:

  • Past art that can be cut into pieces (get permission first)
  • Cereal box cut into pieces or index cards
  • Glue
  1. Cut art and glue onto index card or piece of cereal box cardboard. (Watercolor paper is strong enough to stand on its own). Let glued pieces dry.
  2. Using one art piece as the base of your sculpture, plan how you'd like to arrange the other pieces sitting on top of the base art piece.
  3. With an adult's help, if needed, cut slits into the art pieces and arrange into a sculpture. You may have to glue some corners and sides for strength, it's up to you.
  4. Get creative and show off your new leftover art sculpture!

Take and Makes for this project will be available at area PPLD libraries, beginning Friday, March 11, 2022.

Materials and Directions

Materials we provide:

  • Colored Paper
  • Stickers
  • Ribbon or yarn

Materials you provide:

  • Tape or stapler
  • Crayons or markers

Directions:

  1. Color one side of your paper if desired. Apply stickers to the same side.
  2. Roll the paper into a tube with your decorations facing the outside.
  3. Use tape or a stapler to fasten the short edges of your tube together.
  4. One end of the tube has multiple holes punched in it. Tie ribbons or yarn through each of the holes.
  5. The other end of the tube has just 2 holes. Tie one ribbon through those holes to allow it to hang.

Try this easy experiment with the help of an adult.

Supplies and Directions:

Supplies:

  • Bowl
  • Large glass jar
  • Plate
  • 12 ice cubes
  • Water
  • Microwave

Directions:

  1. Fill the bowl with water and heat it up in the microwave for about 3 minutes. It doesn’t have to boil. CAREFUL – the bowl will be hot.
  2. Pour the water into the large glass jar and cover it with a dinner plate.
  3. Let the plate-covered jar sit about a minute, then put 12 ice cubes onto the plate.
  4. Watch what happens. It will rain inside the jar!

Watch this project from a year ago at https://youtu.be/nNIaTK7sFgA?list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5SmuE8zkwQFmu

Supplies and Directions:

Supplies:

  • A bendy pencil or a straight one will do
  • Feathers
  • A Mad Lib (there is a Mad Lib example seen on the video link above, or make up your own)
  • Glue (preferably a liquid glue like Elmer's)
  • Pencil sharpener

Directions:

  1. Glue your feathers to the erasure side of the pencil.
  2. Add a little pressure to the feathers around the pencil. This will help keep them in place.
  3. Wait for the glue to dry
  4. Use your Truffula Tree pencil to create a silly story using the Mad Lib! Try not to read the story until you've filled out all the blank spaces. You might need help from a grownup with this.

Take and Makes for this project, for ages 5-12, will be available beginning Friday, Feb. 11, 2022. Learn about air pressure with this simple experiment! You can also find more step-by-step pictures in the pdf link provided below.

Supplies and Directions:

Materials we provide:

  • 2 large straws
  • 1 skinny straw

Materials you provide:

  • Scissors
  • Tape

Directions:

  1. Use the scissors to cut 2 diamond shaped holes in your skinny straw. Do this by folding the straw in 2 separate places and cutting a triangle. The holes should be in a line on the straw.
  2. Tape one end of the skinny straw closed so that no air will escape when you blow into it.
  3. Bend one of the large straws in half and cut a diagonal hole on each side of the straw.
  4. Squeeze this straw flat and tape the ends closed. The hole should line up with your work surface. If you hold your straw up to look through the holes, the taped ends should be up and down.
  5. Cut notches in the ends of the large straw. The cut should be at the top of one end and at the bottom of the other.
  6. Slide your skinny straw through the holes in the large straw. You might want to place a piece of tape to keep the straw in place over a hole in the skinny straw while still allowing it to rotate freely.
  7. Repeat the process with the other large straw.
  8. Blow into the open end of the skinny straw and watch things twirl. If your straws don’t twirl freely, you might need to adjust the size of the holes.

Supplies:

  • Half a cardboard egg carton
  • Scrap pieces of newspaper or other paper
  • Tape: masking tape, or painter's tape, or scotch tape
  • 7 rubber bands
  • Plastic spoon
  • Pompoms or cotton balls or mini marshmallows
  • Various clean containers

Directions:

  1. Stuff each section of the egg carton with balled up newspaper.
  2. Close the lid and secure with 2 rubber bands, placed around the body of the carton.
  3. Wrap 2 more rubber bands horizontally around the carton, just below where the lid closes.
  4. Tape a rubber band to the handle of the spoon by attaching a long piece of tape to one side of the handle and inserting a rubber band before attaching the tape to the back of the spoon.
  5. Tuck the handle of the spoon under the rubber bands that were attached horizontally around the carton. The scoop part of the spoon should be facing away from the egg carton.
  6. Stretch the rubber band that's attached to the spoon up and over the spoon and around the back of the carton.
  7. Wrap 2 more rubber bands around the body of the carton so there are 4 rubber bands around the carton helping to keep it closed.
  8. Place a cotton ball in the spoon and shoot!. Place clean containers where you can aim your cotton ball.

To watch the project, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4o4eC5E_Qs

Supplies and Directions

  • 1 cup flour
  • 2-4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • Water
  • Food coloring
  • Ziploc bags
  1. Mix 1 cup flour, 3-4 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and enough water to make a dough the consistency of pancake batter.
  2. Divide your dough into ziploc bags. (Snack sized ones are ideal!)
  3. Add food coloring to each bag and squish to make the color you like. Squish carefully as to not pop the bag. The mixing could take several minutes.
  4. Snip a tiny piece of the corner and squeeze the paint out the bag through the hole to paint on a piece of paper.
  5. After painting, pop the paper in the microwave for 30-45 seconds. The paints will set and become more solid.

Watch this project at: https://youtu.be/r6SIFnnWVrU

Supplies and Directions:

  • potato masher
  • funnel
  • 2 small ripe bananas
  • 1 plain biscuit
  • 2 empty bowls
  • 30 ml or 2 T. orange juice
  • 30 ml or 2 T. water
  • red and green food coloring (optional)
  • Ziploc bag
  • one leg from a pair of old tights
  • tray or plate
  • scissors
  1. Place a biscuit and banana into an empty bowl and gently crush with a potato masher. (This represents food being chewed).
  2. Pour the crushed biscuit and banana into an empty Ziploc bag. Add 2 tablespoons of water. (The water represents saliva).
  3. Pour 2 tablespoons of orange juice (stomach acid) into the bag and tightly seal it, making sure there is no air left inside.
  4. Squeeze the bag for about a minute, further crushing up the biscuit and banana. (This represents the stomach breaking down the food).
  5. After about a minute of squeezing, the contents of the bag should feel like a thick liquid. CAREFULLY, cut a small a small hole in the corner of the bag and squeeze the contents into the open leg of the tights. (The tights represent the small intestines).
  6. Add one or two drops of red and green food coloring into the tights. (The red food coloring represents dead red blood cells and the green represents bile that is released by the liver.).
  7. Carefully holding the tights over a tray or bowl, gently squeeze out the liquid. (The liquid is the nutrients that your body absorbs and uses!)
  8. What is left behind… is Poop!

Photo by Sam Moqadam on Unsplash

Take and Makes for this project will be available at area PPLD libraries starting Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. Watch this project (a favorite from last winter) at: https://youtu.be/1spsamOSMtg?list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5SmuE8zkwQFmu/

Supplies:

  • Plastic cups in 2 sizes
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Pompoms and other doodads or baubles or other items of your choice
  • Battery operated tea light candle
  • Tape
  • Water
  • Freezer
  • Paper towel
  • Additional baubles or doodads
  • Weights, like rocks

Directions:

This is an engineering challenge! For more step-by-step pictures of project, open pdf link below.

  1. Twist your pipe cleaners up the inside of the larger cup.
  2. Slide the smaller cup inside with the pipe cleaners in between the large and small cups.
  3. Carefully push pompoms and/or other baubles or doodads between the 2 cups also.
  4. With the tops of the cups even, crisscross two pieces of tape across the top of the cups.
  5. Placing cups on a paper towel, gently fill the larger cup with water until it’s about 1 inch from the top. You do not want water to go into the smaller cup. You may need to add something to weigh down the smaller cup.
  6. Place in the freezer until it’s frozen solid. This could take about 5 hours.
  7. Observe your creation! You may notice that the smaller cup is higher as is the water/ice level. This is a great illustration of how water expands as it changes states from a liquid to a solid.
  8. Remove from freezer and let sit about 10 mins., carefully remove the smaller cup (and tape). Then remove the larger cup. You may need to cut the cups off.
  9. Turn on the battery operated candle and place it in the center of your lantern. Put your lantern outside to admire!

Based on https://www.steampoweredfamily.com/activities/engineering-ice-lantern-s…

Create a catapult using things from around the house. This project is only limited by your imagination and the things you find around the house!
Supplies:

  • Cylindrical object (sturdy cardboard tube, soup or other can, sturdy plastic bottle, rolling pin)
  • Stretchy hair elastic or rubber band
  • Spoon (wooden, metal, or combination)
  • Something to propel (ball, marshmallow, pompom, wad of paper, etc.)

Directions:

  1. Wrap the hair elastic or rubber band around your cylindrical object twice.
  2. Slide your spoon under the elastic where it meets in an X. It should be perpendicular to the cylindrical object.
  3. Load a projectile in the bowl of the spoon. Apply force to the opposite end of the spoon and watch it fly.
  4. Experiment with a variety of objects. What combination propels your object the farthest?

Take and Makes for this project will be available at area PPLD libraries beginning Friday, Dec. 17, 2021.

Supplies & Directions:

Step 1
Gather your supplies.
Provided in your bag: 2 blank sheets of paper to make 2 envelopes, stickers
From home: colored pencils/crayons/markers


Step 2
Cut your blank sheet of paper into a square (just fold over and trim part of the bottom off; you
might need a grownup’s help with this).


Step 3
Fold your square of paper into an envelope following the steps seen in the pdf link below.


Step 4
After your envelope is folded, decorate your envelope with stickers and whatever else you like! And send it to someone
special!

Take and Makes for this project will be available at area PPLD libraries beginning Friday, Dec. 10, 2021

Supplies and Directions:

Supplies in Take and Make:

  • Cup
  • Toothpick
  • Sticker
  • Flashlight
  • Big Dipper template

Supplies you provide:

  • Scissors
  • Blank paper and crayons or markers, optional

Directions:

  1. Cut your Big Dipper template out on the dotted line.
  2. Turn your cup upside down and use the sticker to attach the template to the bottom of the cup.
  3. Use the toothpick to poke a hole in each “star”.
  4. Get your flashlight. Turn off the room lights and cover the windows.
  5. Shine the light through the cup and onto the table or flat surface. Experiment to find the spot where you see the Big Dipper.

Think about it:
What could you do if you had a second flashlight? Could you make the Big Dipper disappear without turning off your flashlight?
Try this with a friend:
Get a flashlight for each of you. Have one of you be the Starmaker and one the Sunshine.
The Starmaker should project the Big Dipper onto your surface.
While the Starmaker has the Big Dipper projected, the Sunshine should use their flashlight to mimic the rising sun. What do you see?
What about when the Sunshine mimics the setting sun?
Think about it:
Why do stars only come out at night?
Is the sun the only light source that keeps us from seeing stars?
Is it harder to see stars in the city or country?
Follow up:
Can you make other constellations?
Can you find the Big Dipper outside in the night sky? Why or why not?
Can you draw a backdrop on which to project your constellation?
Based on https://mysteryscience.com/sky/mystery-5/stars-daily-patterns/128

Take and Makes for this project, for ages 9-12, will be available at area PPLD libraries beginning Friday, Dec 3, 2021. Watch this project at: https://youtu.be/7UU9Yarq59Y?list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFebLULGu2RriY_RSSZgaH-X

Supplies & Directions:

Supplies provided in kit: cord, beads, keychain ring
Supplies from home: scissors

  1. Write down the initials of your name and decode them using the binary code key provided. (Or see pdf below for the code key.)
  2. Use blue and green beads to represent 0 and 1 - one color will represent the number zero, and the other color will represent the number one.
  3. Tie a double knot at the end of your cord.
  4. Put the beads for your first initial on the cord.
  5. Tie another double knot to separate the initials.
  6. Put the beads for your second initial on the cord.
  7. Tie a double knot.
  8. Use the remaining cord to either tie the beads around your wrist as a bracelet, or affix the cord to the keychain ring. Cut off any access cord. Enjoy your binary bracelet or keychain!

*This project was created in honor of Hour of Code. Learn more about Hour of Code at code.org!

Take and Makes for this project (ages 7 and up) are currently available at PPLD area libraries.

Watch the Giving Thanks video tutorial on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6oRb42V4l-E?list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5SmuE8zkwQFmu

Supplies and Directions:

Supplies Included: Gratitude Journal (cover and pages—pages are already in the correct order); stickers for decorating; ribbon for securing pages and decoration

Supplies from Home: Crayons, markers, and/or pens; stapler or hole punch; scissors; glue stick or Elmer’s glue; old magazines or photos to cut for a collage. (A collage is a visual art form that uses photographs or paper/fabric images that are glued onto a backing.)
You can find all the instructions with explanatory photos in the video!

Step 1: Prepare Your Gratitude Journal

  1. The pages of your Gratitude Journal should already be in order. Make sure the Rainbow Journal page is on top. (This page is a full spread, so it needs to be in the middle of your journal.) The cardstock Cover should be on the bottom of the stack (it will form a front and back cover after folding in half).
  2. Carefully arrange your pages and cover making sure that all edges are even. Fold the cover and pages in half with a sharp crease using your thumb or the side of a pen.
  3. Stapler Method: Secure pages to the Cover using a stapler. Staple as close to the center crease as you can (without stapling over the crease). Staple the top and bottom of your journal.
  4. Hole Puncher Method: Hole punch on the crease at the top and the bottom. Use the ribbon included or any yarn, string, or twine you like to thread through the holes. Secure ribbon with a knot or bow on the cover (outside) of your journal.

Step 2: Be Creative (or Not) in Designing the Cover

  1. Write your name on the line provided. Be creative: use a fancy pen or marker; use a fancy writing style.
  2. Add stickers to decorate
  3. OR draw or collage to decorate
  4. OR just leave it as is. It’s up to you!

Step 3: Find a Comfortable Place, Choose a Page, and Begin Journaling
There are many ways to journal. You can free write on the topic of gratitude and thankfulness. Also, you can use various art forms. Try our acrostic poem page. Or create collage pages with copies of photos or old magazine images. Drawing is another way to express yourself in your journal. Most of all, make your Gratitude Journal meaningful to you.

Why a Gratitude Journal?
Studies show that practicing gratitude makes us happier. Focusing on people and things that you are thankful for can help you feel joyful.
When we express appreciation, it is good for friendships. When we tell people thank you and what you like about them, it helps us focus on the positive things about a person, and then we feel better about our friendships. Telling someone what you like about them or acknowledging a person’s kindness helps them to feel good, too.

Take and Makes for this project will be available at area PPLD libraries beginning Friday, Nov. 12, 2021.

Supplies and Directions:

Step 1
Gather your supplies.
Provided in your bag: cardstock, clay, moss, dinosaur
From home: colored pencils/crayons/markers, scissors, tape
Step 2
Cut your cardstock strip so that you have a strip to make the ground of your dinosaur habitat and a strip to make a background (you might need a grownup’s help with this).
Step 3
Decorate both strips of cardstock with your markers. Maybe there are a bunch of leafy plants in the background or a big sun; maybe the ground has a river running through it.
Step 4
Secure your strips with tape so the background stands up.
Step 5
Now add the 3D things! Use the clay to mold rocks, mountains, dino eggs - whatever you like!
Add the moss to give your habitat some extra plant life. Finally, name your dino and put them in
their new home!

Take and Makes for this project will be available at area PPLD libraries beginning Friday, Nov. 5, 2021.

Supplies and Directions:

Materials we provide: Dry Erase Marker
Materials you provide: Glass or ceramic surface (Pyrex pans, plates, bathtubs, etc.), Water

  1. Draw a picture on your smooth glass/ceramic surface with a dry erase marker.
  2. Cover the drawing with some water (the warmer the better).
  3. Watch while your drawing lifts off the surface and floats around on the water!
  4. You can push the drawing around to your heart’s content.
  5. After you have watched your drawings come to life in the water, stick your hand into the swirling color and it will stick to your skin like a tattoo!

TIPS:

  • You will be more successful if you draw a solid picture (e.g. a solid shape).
  • When the drawing lifts off the surface, it will not maintain its shape.
  • The skin tattoo will wash off very easily.

This works because dry erase markers are mostly made up of alcohol and a release agent made of silicon oils. When you write on the plate or Pyrex dish, the alcohol evaporates and just leaves behind the ink and release agent. We all know that oil and water don’t mix, so the ink with the oils in the release agent just float to the top!

Take and Makes for this project for ages 9-12 will be available at area PPLD libraries beginning Friday, Oct 29, 2021.

Supplies and Directions:

Supplies Included: Mini glass bottle, jump ring, metal eye hook, keyring, mini recipe card
Supplies Needed (from home): scissors, pliers, clear glue.

  1. Cut out the DIY mini recipe card (there’s an extra just in case). Remove the tape from the cork and discard. Take the cork out of the bottle and remove the metal eye hook and the jump ring. Place the recipe card in the bottle.
  2. Screw the metal eye hook into the center of the top of the cork by hand.
  3. Take the jump ring and loop it through the metal eye hook and the end of the key ring to connect the cork to the keyring.
  4. Use pliers to close the jump ring.
  5. Apply glue to the edges of the cork, and place in the bottle. Put the cork back in the bottle, pressing down to help seal the glue. Be careful since the bottle is made of glass!

Materials Needed:

  • Biodegradable Packing Peanuts
  • Black Permanent Marker
  • Small Bowl
  • Water

Directions:

  1. Use a black permanent marker to draw a ghost face on each packing peanut. Remember, they MUST be biodegradable packing peanuts. (That means they are made of starch, not polystyrene.)
  2. Fill a small bowl with room temperature water.
  3. Place one ghost on top of the water and watch what happens.

You will start to see small bubbles appearing on the sides of the packing peanut ghost. And then the ghost will disappear right before your eyes! Your results may depend on the type of Biodegradable Packing Peanuts you use. (about 5 – 10 min.)
If the melting packing peanuts are taking too long to disappear, try using hot water to help speed up the process.

 

Why Do Biodegradable Packing Peanuts Melt?
These new packing peanuts are made out of biodegradable corn starch, which means they break down easily instead of just sitting in the garbage dump for years and years like the older style ones. The water helps break them down even faster whether water temperature will affect the speed they dissolve.

  • How fast do the ghosts dissolve in different temperatures of water? Get a stopwatch and time it.
  • Make a chart to record your results.

TAKE AND MAKES for this homeschool project (Ages 7 Up) will be available at area PPLD libraries beginning Friday, Oct. 22, 2021.
Watch the Cerealism: Out-of-the-Box-Art video tutorial on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kHjyAqjtMUst

Supplies Included in Take and Make and Needed from Home

In Take and Make:

  • Cereal box or other consumer brand box (if your Take and Make does not include one, you can use one from home)
  • Book jacket / scrapbooking paper
  • Examples of Cerealism Collage sheet

From Home:

  • Scissors
  • Clear Elmer’s glue

Directions: You can find all the instructions with explanatory photos in the video and pdf link below.

Step 1: Prepare Your Box

  1. Open your cereal (or other consumer brand) box at both ends.
  2. Open the cereal box along the glued side seam so that it lays flat.
  3. Cut the front cover away from the back, along the side panel connected to the back.
  4. Cut off all top and bottom flaps. *Save the flaps
  5. Cut away the side panel from the front cover.
  6. Cut away the narrow strip from the outside of the back cover.

The front box cover will be your collage material. The back cover with side panel will serve as the foundation/background for gluing your collage to.


Step 2: Decide How You Will Cut Your Front Cover into Collage Pieces
Choose one of these four ways to cut your box cover (but wait until Step 4 to cut).

  1. Cut down the long side of your box front, making strips about ¼ inch wide. Cut each strip into 3 to 5 pieces. Arrange them “boardwalk” style, placing the pieces out of order.
  2. OR cut your box front horizontally, into 4 thick strips. Cut each strip into 3 squares. Cut each square into smaller squares and rectangles.
  3. OR cut your box front in half horizontally. Cut each half into 4 squares. Cut each square into random angles (e.g., triangles and trapezoids).
  4. OR you can combine all cutting techniques … strips, squares and rectangles, and random angles. (*WARNING: This choice is very challenging to collage!)

Step 3: Decide How You Will Sign Your Artwork (just like Michael Albert, Cerealism Artist)
Three ways to find/make your initials for “signing” your collage:

  1. Using the flaps from your box, look for the first letter of both your first and last name. If you find letters that are the size and style you like, cut around them in a square or rectangle and save them to add to your collage later.
  2. OR make your initials in block letters on the back of one of the box flaps and cut out around the shape of the letters. When you turn them over, they’ll look just like the cereal box and will be very tricky to find in your collage.
  3. OR you can search for your initials on the book jacket in your Take and Make, cut out around them in a square or rectangle, and place them in your collage later on.

Step 4: Create Your Cerealism Masterpiece
*TIP: Work from bottom to top OR top to bottom.

  1. It helps to cut about an inch wide strip off the top of your box front.
  2. Next, cut your box into sections using one of the cutting techniques above (Step 2).
  3. Each time you cut up a smaller section, practice arranging the pieces on your background. NO GLUE YET!
  4. As you arrange, decide on how much space you’ll leave between pieces.
  5. Cut larger pieces into smaller pieces when you need to. You’ll need all sizes to fit your spaces. You can also cut small pieces from your leftover box flaps and panels.
  6. When you’re ready to glue a section down, do it one piece at a time. Place a small dot of glue on the back of your piece, smooth it over the back surface, place your piece, and press firmly.
  7. When you have glued the first section down, continue to cut, arrange and glue one section at a time.
  8. Remember to add your initials into your collage somewhere in a bottom section!
  9. When your collage is complete, you can frame it by cutting the book jacket and/or the decorative paper into mosaic-like pieces, gluing them down to make an interesting border OR … you can just trim the background to fit the finished collage!
  10. Challenge your masterpiece admirers to find your “signature”!

Take and Makes for this Make project will be available at area PPLD libraries beginning Friday, Oct. 15, 2021.

Supplies and Directions:

Step 1.
Gather your supplies.
Provided in your bag: cardstock leaves to color and cut out, pipe cleaners
From home: colored pencils/crayons/markers, scissors, tape or glue
Step 2.
Color in your leaves (or find some real leaves outside!). Try mixing colors to get your perfect fall leaf. Using a marker or pen, draw faces on your leaves.
Step 3.
Cut out each leaf carefully (you might need a grownup’s help with this).
Step 4.
For each leaf: cut a pipe cleaner in half. Tape or glue both halves to the back for the arms and legs. Bend them however you like to make your leaf unique!
Step 5.
Have fun with your little leaf sprite friends!

Take and Makes for this project are available starting today, Oct. 8, 2021, at area PPLD libraries.

Supplies and Directions:

Materials Provided: White Tissue Paper, Balloon
Materials you Provide: Scissors, Head of Hair, Marker, Spooky Music (optional), tape (optional)

Directions:
Cut several ghosts out of your tissue paper. Each ghost should be about 1.5 inches long. Draw eyes on each ghost with your marker.
Place your ghosts on a flat surface.
Blow up your balloon and tie the end. Rub it through your hair really fast for about 10 seconds to add a static charge.
Move the balloon near your ghosts. They should begin to rise toward the balloon. See if you can get them to rise, move, and dance around. You should be able to get the ghost to move from several inches away.
If you want the ghost to rise without sticking to the balloon, try taping just the tip to your surface.

The Science behind it:
As you rub the balloon through your hair, you are building up negatively charged electrons on the surface of the balloon. They are then able to pull light positively charged items toward them.

Take and Makes for this project for ages 9-12 will be available at area PPLD libraries beginning Friday, Oct 1, 2021.

 

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by making papel picado, “punched” or “perforated” paper. This traditional folk art is often made by drawing an intricate design and using a chisel to cut several layers of tissue paper. Because this art form is created using materials that disintegrate in the elements, not many historical pieces remain. Often elaborate, these festive banners are used at many celebrations in Mexico and areas with Hispanic roots and heritage. Use scissors to cut out your own version of this traditional art form.

Supplies and Directions:

Tissue paper, scissors, template (find online or draw), tape (washi or masking)

  1. Find or draw a symmetrical design to use as a template. Check out one of the links below for ideas. Fold the template in half.
  2. Stack two to three pieces of tissue paper in a pile and fold it in half.
  3. Slip the tissue paper inside the folded template so the folded edges are on one side.
  4. Cut out the outside of the template, cutting through the tissue paper inside.
  5. Cut out the inside shapes in the template, folding the template around to gain better access to the different shapes to cut out.
  6. Once the template is entirely cut out, remove the tissue paper pieces and unfold them.
  7. Repeat steps 1-6 with more templates and tissue paper.
  8. Using a long, flat surface, such as a table, unroll a long strip of washi or masking tape, leaving it attached to the roll.
  9. Starting at the end, attach the top of each papel picado (tissue paper design) to the washi or masking tape. Unroll more tape as needed, tearing it off the roll once all papel picado have been attached to the banner.
  10. Fold over any tape hanging over across the top of the banner.
  11. Hang your banner up and enjoy!

Adapted from https://happythought.co.uk/how-to-make-papel-picado/

 

More information about papel picado can be found at https://www.internationalfolkart.org/learn/lesson-plans/papel-picado-(d…

 

The homeschool team takes us on a tour of several creative spaces at Pikes Peak Library District, including: Library 21c Studio, MAC - loom and jewelry rooms, and the Library 21c Makerspace. Plus, an interview with a expert quilter plus a sewing lesson for beginners. Check out the booklist link below and the directions for the sewing project.

Check out this video: https://youtu.be/HuqP8-VqK1U?list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5SmuE8zkwQFmu

PPLD is excited to announce that patrons will be able to use a certain number of supplies for free when they visit a Library
makerspace. Whether you want to engrave a family photo on the laser cutter, 3D print a replacement part for your vacuum cleaner, or just learn how to use an embroidery machine, there will be materials available for you to use to test out your designs and explore the space.


In every session, you will have access to:

  • $1 worth (20 grams) of 3D printing.*
  • 1 piece of wood for the laser cutter (6”x12”).
  • 5 buttons for the button maker.
  • 1 piece of wood for the CNC.
  • 2 sheets of embroidery backing for the embroidery machine.
  • 1 sheet of vinyl for the Silhouette Cameo or Curio die cutters.

*This amount is calculated from the standard $0.05 per gram rate for printing. Anything over that amount will be charged at the usual $0.05 per gram rate.

PPLD’s makerspaces can be found at:

We hope to see you soon!