Gingerbread Party - A Mixed Media Holiday Art Project
This is a fun project with lots of bright happy colors and festive decorated Gingerbread Cookies.
I'm going to have some gingerbread cookies on hand as a treat while we wait for them to dry!
You will need:
Watercolor paper
Watercolors (I use liquid watercolors)
Oil Pastels
White Acrylic paint
Glue sticks
First paint your cookies brown with watercolor paint.
I cut my cookies out of watercolor paper using a Cricut, but you can have cookie cutters on hand for them to trace and cut out also.
While those are drying we'll work on the background and come back to them later.
Next add your cookie sprinkles to the background using oil pastels. Ask your students to do them nice and dark so they will resist the watercolor paint.
I thought it would be fun to have a festive background for the cookies, like a messy countertop with sprinkles.
Next the students will paint their background.
I'm going to give them the choice of yellow, red/pink, green or blue.
They'll do a watercolor wash over the sprinkles.
Now these can be set aside to dry while we "Ice" the cookies.
I used white acrylic paint and a small brush. For the dots I used a bamboo skewer dipped in paint and dotted onto the cookie. Both sides are great, one for bigger dots and one for smaller dots.
Next we'll add the shadow around to cookie to give their art a little depth. Help them choose a darker color oil pastel that compliments their colors but is also darker than the background. They just trace around one side. Whichever side they pick they need to do all the cookies the same.
For the yellow I used purple, complimentary colors, 
for the pink/red I used green,
but for the blue I used dark blue instead of orange because I wanted a darker color than orange.You could add other colors of icing to the gingerbread but I really like the contrast of the brown and white against the bright background, it really makes the POP!
After I teach this I'll post some photos of young artist creations!
