Making Washi Hearts with Kids

Last month, we were invited by the Architectural Students' Association of the Philippines - UP Chapter to join their Artreach at the Philippine Children's Medical Center in Quezon City.

Although it was hot that day, the children were still the little balls of energy and enthusiasm. With the big-hearted students from UP working side by side with them, everything worked out quite well :)

The first craft activity was name tag making. We taught the kids how to use different craft materials like hand-carved stamps, coloring pencils, washi tapes, and paint to write their names. All the participants were excited and creative.

This one kid in particular (picture below) even came up with own alphabet...what a very unique name she has! :p

 

Aicelle wanted to be a photographer so she borrowed our camera and took some photos during our snack break. Here we are goofing around:

After eating, we proceed with the next craft activity for the day which was tote bag decorating. This time, aside from our hand-carved rubber stamps, they also used foam stamps which the students had prepared beforehand.

Some were really playful and did some finger print painting:

The kids enjoyed the first two activities but everyone's favorite project was more of a group activity - the washi heart buntings. With sheets of colored paper handed out, we first showed them how to make the hearts origami style, then afterwards everyone took turns hanging them onto the string with some washi tape.

It was crafty, messy, and happy chaos when everyone started to hand the hearts on the twines. It was a happy feeling seeing that they enjoyed sharing their individual work to the rest of the community through bunting making.

That day helped reaffirmed how arts and crafts change the way we life. It makes us more hopeful and believing.

We hope that in this simple way, we were able to inspire the kids as much as they inspired us. We hope for them to take with them the things they learned that afternoon, to make art for, or with, the self, and others as well.

 

Looking forward to more projects like this. :)