This is a good art project for tweens because it gives them an opportunity to put their design skills to good use. The end result will be a one-of-a-kind pair of designer blue jeans. All that is needed for this project is a pair of cotton denim blue jeans and a small plastic squeeze top bottle filled with bleach. Plastic gloves should be worn to protect the hands. The squeeze bottle should have a small opening. In order to do this project, the tween should first lay the jeans out on a table. She should then draw designs on the jeans with the bleach. The denim will fade to white wherever they are touched by the bleach. Some people like to draw their designs all over the jeans, or even write words on them while others prefer to make designs only around the cuffs.
Artist trading cards, or ATC's, are small works of art that are exactly the same size as baseball cards. They are traded by artists all over the world, usually without any money changing hands. There are really no rules about how to design an ATC, except that the size must always be 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. This project involves a lot of imagination, and numerous types of art supplies. First, cut out blank cards, using card stock. Next, you should set out your art supplies. These could include paints, rubber stamps and ink pads, paintbrushes, crayons, glue, magazines to cut out collage images and words, glue sticks, scissors, felt pens, oil pastels and any other art materials that you may wish to use. The tweens make as many ATCs as they wish in the allotted time. After they have finished, if they want to, they can trade them with each other.
Tie-dyed t-shirts are fun to make and to wear. The first thing you need is hot water dye in yellow and red. You also need a white cotton t-shirt for each tween, a large metal pot such as the kind used for canning food, tongs, rubber bands and a large metal spoon. Once you have gathered all of the materials, fill the pot approximately two-thirds full of water and put it on the stove to boil. While you wait for the water to boil, the tweens should prepare their t-shirts for the first dye bath. To do this they must gather sections of the t-shirts tightly with rubber bands. The dye will not penetrate the parts of the shirts that are covered by the bands. When the water is boiling and the t-shirts are tied, turn off the burner of the stove and add the yellow dye in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. Next, carefully place one t-shirt into the pot of water. Stir it around with the spoon until you can see that it has changed color. Remove it from the pot with the tongs and add the next shirt. Do this until all of the t-shirts have been dyed yellow. Run the shirts under a tap of cold water until the extra dye runs out. Do not squeeze them. Place the tied shirts in a warm, sunny place until they dry. Keeping them tied up, add more rubber bands. Then repeat the dying process, using the red dye. Rinse and dry the shirts again, then take off the rubber bands. The tweens will have one-of-a-kind tie-dyed t-shirts in white, yellow, orange and red.
The animated serpent is a snake made of card stock that will twist and writhe. To make it, the tween takes a piece of card stock and draws upon it the form of a coiled-up snake. Then he carefully cuts it out. Both sides of the serpent should be painted and decorated. Glitter works well for this project. After the painting is complete, the tween fastens a thread through the tail and suspends it from the ceiling. The serpent will move as though it is alive.