Autumn Owl Art Project

Gail Bartel, artist and creator of the blog That Artist Woman, shares a brilliant fall owl craft that your students will love creating and is sure to provide smashing decoration for an autumn-themed bulletin board.

Supplies You'll Need
- Craft paint in assorted colors (including white, black, yellow, red, orange, brown)
- Kids paint brushes
- Craft paper
- School glue
- Kids scissors
- Craft feathers
- Low-temp glue gun
- Recycled paper bag
- Recycled newspaper
- Recycled cardboard egg carton
- Stick

Egg Carton Face

From the cardboard egg carton, use scissors fashion the eyes and beak. It works best to cut the features out as one piece and Bartel recommends including a small triangle above each eye for a more "owl-ish" look. Paint the back of the eyes and the small triangles at the top of the eyes brown, the beak orange, and use black and white to paint the egg cup 'eyes'. These should be set aside to dry. Custom Paper

  • Owl Body. Spread out a recycled paper bag. Use brown, orange, and yellow paint to create a watercolor/tie dye effect.
  • Owl Body Feathers. Spread out two sheets of recycled newspaper. Paint one white (this doesn't need to be fully covered - be sure to check out Bartel's pictures) and the other a 'marbled' brown. After the paint has dried, splatter paint the white newspaper with brown paint and brown newspaper with white paint. When dry, use scissors to create feather cutouts.
  • Owl Accent Feathers. Tie dye white watercolor paper with reds, oranges, and yellows to create accent feathers. When dry, use scissors to create feather cutouts.

Assembling the Owl

  1. Using the egg carton face as a guide, draw and cut out an owl body from your customized brown paper bag.
  2. Glue the body cutout onto a sheet of black construction paper, attaching the eyes to the body.
  3. Glue the pre-made body feathers to the owl's body, then add some pre-made accent feathers around the neck and randomly on the body.
  4. Glue white (or brown) craft feathers to the side of the body for wings.
  5. Use the low temp glue gun to adhere the stick to the construction paper, creating the illusion that the owl is sitting on a tree branch.

Keep these beautiful crafts to use as autumn classroom decoration or send them home for the students' families to enjoy!

that artist woman: How to make an Owl - Art Project