White PVA is not called 'craft glue' for nothing! You can do much more with it than simply sticking paper. Try mixing it with paint and glitter, brushing it over models to make a glaze or drizzling it to create sunburst patterns and relief designs.
PVA relief pictures
Lines and dots of PVA glue will hold their shape as they dry, enabling you to create an attractive relief effect picture or pattern.
You will need:
Stiff card; pencil; PVA glue in bottles with nozzles; gold paint
What to do:
1 Make a simple pencil drawing on the card
2 Squeeze PVA glue over the pencil lines and leave to dry
3 Paint over the card with gold paint. The gold brings out the raised lines of glue to create a relief effect.
Use for: this technique gives a professional-looking finish that works well for decorating the lids of caskets and treasure chests or making medallions, pendants and shields. Decorate cardboard picture frames with lines, zig zags and dots or make sumptuous borders for a special calendar or greetings card.
Water features
You will need:
A card base; blue, green and brown acrylic paint; brown, green or sand coloured Plasticene; PVA glue
What to do:
1 Using blue, green and a few dabs of brown, paint a lake or river on to your card base.
2 Mould a water-tight edge of Plasticene around the shape of the water feature and pour a thick layer of PVA glue inside the Plasticene.
3 Allow the glue to dry. It will give the painted water feature a clear, glassy surface.
Tip: although you can use this technique with ready-mixed or powder paint, acrylics are less likely to 'bleed' into the wet PVA.
Use for: duck ponds for model farmyards; rivers, streams and pools for small play fantasy settings; ornamental lakes for miniature gardens; moats for model castles and forts.
Two-tone effects
PVA glue mixed with powder paint gives rich, glowing colours. Because of the viscous quality of the PVA, you can brush one colour over another without the colours blending.
You will need:
PVA glue; powder paint; containers for each colour; thick brushes; teaspoons; stiff card (preferably white)
What to do:
1 Mix the PVA with paint to create a syrupy consistency.
2 Brush a layer of PVA paint on to card and then brush lightly with a contrasting colour - the underlying colour will show through the brush strokes.
Tip: always start off with the stronger colour - blue before red, red before yellow, purple before lime green.
Use for: boxes; greeting cards
Drip and drizzle patterns
You will need:
PVA glue; powder paint; containers for each colour; thick brushes; teaspoons; stiff card; cocktail sticks (supervised)
What to do:
1 Brush a thick layer of PVA paint on to stiff card.
2 Using contrasting colours, drop blobs of PVA paint and drizzle thin lines on to the first colour - the lines and blobs will gradually blend to create an attractive pattern.
Leave the children to make their own patterns, or suggest techniques:
* Drag patterns: cover the card with PVA paint (not too thick a layer or the second colour will drown). Using a contrasting colour, drip vertical lines of PVA paint across the layer. Pull the point of a cocktail stick horizontally across the lines of paint.
* Sunbursts: draw a large circle and fill it in with a layer of orange PVA paint. Drip a blob of yellow paint on to the centre of the orange circle.
Using a cocktail stick, drag lines from the centre of the yellow blob. The lines will reveal the orange paint underneath and blend the orange and yellow paint around the edges of the blob to create a 'sunburst' effect.
Tip: This takes a long time to dry, so make well in advance of need.
Use for: different patterns can form a collage; use sunbursts as the centrepiece for greeting cards; use drag patterns for borders and frames.
PVA engravings
You will need:
PVA glue; powder paint; containers for each colour; thick brushes; teaspoons; scrap card; stiff card, scissors
What to do:
1 Cut notches into strips of scrap card and brush a layer of PVA paint across the card.
1 Scrape the notched card across the PVA paint to make patterns. Experiment with straight lines, wavy lines, zig-zags and criss-crosses. Use the tip of a paintbrush handle to draw geometric shapes, line stars and spirals.
Experiment with different colours of card and paint - try yellow on black, or fluorescent green on bright pink.
Tip: keep the layer of PVA paint thin - if you brush it on too thickly, the glue will seep into the engraving and the pattern will not be very sharp.
Use for: decorating book covers and mounts for art work; decorating folders; making wallpaper for doll houses or miniature theatre sets.
Textured PVA
Just about any substance can be mixed with PVA for textured collage and craft projects. Use sandy PVA for seaside pictures, PVA mixed with lentils and seeds to add interest to townscapes and PVA mixed with sawdust or oatmeal for farmyard pictures.
Glazing with PVA
Glazing with PVA gives a gentle sheen to models, such as clay or wood, and pictures. Brush it directly on to the model or mix it with water (approximately one part water to one part glue). Don't worry about covering a precious model with a thick white layer of PVA - it will dry clear! NW Tip: some brands of PVA will shrink or spread a little as they dry. You may need to cut the nozzles to make the lines of glue thicker, or encourage the children to keep their lines as thin as possible?
