The first activity in the Library Bag kit is to paint a tote bag the children can use to carry books or other learning materials that don't fit in their backpack. The fabric pens can be used to paint on any fabric material permanently, so after painting the library bag, the entire family can keep using Life of Colour fabric pens to embellish shoes, aprons, bibs, t-shirts, denim jackets, backpacks and more!
As an extra activity with the watercolour brush pens, the kids will learn to make a watercolour rainbow card. Both the watercolour pens and stencils can be used again and again for school work, fun weekend activities, card making, colouring and more!
Activity 1: Mermaid Library Bag
Materials
- Tote bag (included in the kit)
- Life of colour Fabric pens (included in the kit)
- Life of Colour Stencil pack (included in the kit)
- Lead Pencil and white eraser
Standing out from the crowd at Library time is easy when you design your own library bag using the Tote bag and fabric pens that we provide for you in this kit.
We have a few different ideas to share with you about how to create colourful rainbow patterned bags.
Mermaid Tail Library Bag
Step one
Get your lead pencil and draw a mermaid tail coming out of some waves. If you make a mistake use your white eraser to rub out the pencil lines and start again.
Step two
Choose a dark colour to go over the top of the lead pencil - we used a purple for the mermaid tail, magenta for the heart and blue for the water and water splashes.
Step three
Use the rainbow stencil and lead pencil to help you draw the layered mermaid scales. Start at the top of the tail and work your way down until finished. Trace over the top of the lead pencil using the fabric pens.
Step four
It’s time to start adding colour to the library bag! The waves are coloured in with dark blue at the top then sky blue at the bottom. Use the lighter blue to colour in the water splashes and add a little bit of dark blue around the edges.
Step five
Colour in the mermaid's tail and scales with your fabric pens and wait for it to dry. Once the rainbow colours are dry use your black fabric pen to go over all of the edges!
Different types of mermaid tails
To get more ideas about how to design your mermaid tail have a look on the internet below we have provided a couple of different tails for you to copy. One has smaller scales and the other has rainbows coloured onto each of the larger scales.
Happy Rainbow Unicorn Library Bag
Using the Life of Colour stencils to make fun designs on your library bag is another easy option.
We are going to show you how to make a cheerful and happy unicorn picture on your tote bag!
Step one
Use your lead pencil to draw a rainbow shape onto the centre of the Tote bag.
On one end of the rainbow use the stencil with clouds to draw a cloud, flip the stencil over to draw a cloud at the other end. Trace around the word happy underneath the rainbow and put a unicorn next to each cloud.
Step two
Colour in the rainbow and the word “happy” using yellow, green, blue, pink and purple. Each cloud is lightly coloured in blue with the edges coloured a bit darker.
Step three
Give the unicorns a colour each- we chose green and purple for ours. To finish off the bag go around the outside of all of the edges with the black fabric pen.
Activity 2: Watercolour Rainbow Card
Materials
- Life of Colour Watercolour brush pens (included in the kit)
- Waterbrush (included in the kit)
- Life of Colour Stencil set (included in the kit)
- Black and grey metallic paint pen (optional)
- Cardstock or cardboard
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Glue
Why are handmade greeting cards special?
A greeting card lets everyone share their feelings, emotions, joy, thanks, sympathy, humour and love.
Sending handmade cards shows people that you care about them and it doesn’t need to just for birthdays or celebrations- you can simply show them love.
Step one
Choose a coloured piece of cardstock that you want to use and cut it into a rectangle. Fold the coloured paper in half to make a card.
Step two
Use a ruler to mark straight lines out onto a piece of white cardstock smaller than the front of your coloured cardstock.
Step three
Select the following colours from your Life of colour watercolour brush pens: purple, pink, sky blue, apple green and yellow. You can use any other colour palette you desire, but these are the suggested colours for making basic pastel coloured rainbows.
Unscrew the top portion of your reusable water brush and load it with water. You'll be using this handy tool for blending the colours.
Step four
Now let’s start your rainbow pattern, place the sheet with the rainbow stencil at the bottom centre of your white piece of paper and grab your first colour. In this example we used purple, you can use any colour you choose!
The bristles of the watercolour brush pens work exactly like a regular brush.
Step five
Repeat the top stripe of the rainbow across the paper so you know how much space you have for adding the rest of the colours.
Step six
Fill in the white spaces making the rainbow stripes, one colour at a time. Use your water brush to blend the colours or add fun watercolour effects.
Wait for the watercolour to dry.
Step seven
Place glue on the back of the fantastic rainbow patterned paper you just made.
Place it onto the coloured cardstock and press down to make sure the edges and corners stick.
If you are using school glue, add a tiny dot on each corner to avoid getting your paper too wet.
Step eight
Pick an image from your stencils to copy onto the centre of the card. We chose a unicorn to trace onto the card.
A darker colour will stand out well so we coloured our unicorn in with a grey Metallic Life of Colour paint pen, leaving the shape of a heart in the middle of the unicorn uncoloured. You can use any contrasting watercolour brush pen to colour the icon you choose.
You will find Aussie animals, dinosaurs, cupcakes, mermaids and more fun ideas in the Stencil set.
Final step
Open the card and start writing a message that you would like to share with someone special!
