Summer Art Camp 2012 ends

What a summer! 30 days, 12 countries, hundreds and hundreds of children, many wonderful staff, incredible volunteers, a room full of art materials and just about as many ideas as anyone could ever imagine. Today was the big clean up (will the teachers know we've even been there?) and again, I couldn't be more grateful to the people around me in this amazing job. Until half term, thank you all!

Shadow art

Shadow art is a fantastic way to get kids thinking about shapes and silhouettes as well as using storytelling in their art. In groups, the Dali group invented a story based on 4 themes: love, luck, peace and happiness. Taking the best part of a day, they created characters, scenes and scripts and in the afternoon they performed the pieces to the other group using a sheet of grease-proof and the sun as a stage. It's almost impossible to catch this on camera but they were absolutely beautiful.

Paper plate peacocks by Picassos

Two paper plates, an assortment of cardboard and collage material, a split pin and some imagination and you too could create a fine colourful peacock! These examples were made by art camp's Picasso group yesterday:

Stripey man!

Chinese lanterns art camp style

White paper, coloured acetate, scissors and tape- that's all you need to create these lovely Chinese lanterns. Cut the paper snowflake style, trying to be even more creative and curvy with your cutting then place the piece over your acetate. Curve into shape, tape and add wool or thread to hang up. Use internal light with caution or hang in the window or summer house. Easy, clean and very effective! This was our end of the day activity today at art camp.

Coaches in the picture!

What happens when it's the last week of summer activities and art camp run the lunchtime games? This! Sorry guys, but you all looked gorgeous in the 'oil paintings'.

Lucky Chinese wall hangings

Using old CDs threaded together we created lucky Chinese-style wall hangings today at art camp, Dali group. Learning the Chinese characters for love, peace, luck and happiness we listened to beautiful Chinese music for inspiration. Adding watercolours, tassels, beads and wire these looked rather authentic by the time we'd finished!

India week- RANGOLI at art camp

The Picasso group at art camp today took the art-form Rangoli for their inspiration as their 'India week' began. Using coloured and clear acetate and a mosaic technique they created these beautiful window displays.

China week- DRAGON DAY at art camp

Dragon Day- starting the week with a big challenge- dragons are difficult to draw, with their combination of reptilian body and fire-breathing mouth, wings, claws and colour combinations- but this fantastic group created a batch of astounding and rather huge dragons. Ending the day with a moving display of individual dragon creations, everyone was so impressed by the Dali group's artwork.

Finger knitting fun at Art Camp!

I only learned to finger knit last week at Boscaps thanks to another workshop, so I was excited to try this with my own group. Because it was Jamaica week, I told them they were knitting their own dreadlocks! They were so brilliant at it, they all took wool home to carry on! I could never describe how to do it here, but Google it or ask around as it's well worth knowing. It's certainly one way you could knit on a plane!