For the past 3 months or so my children have been inspired by the author and illustrator, Steve Jenkins. (pictured on right)  We first discovered Jenkins' books a few years ago and my son instantly took an interest to them since they are about nature and God's creatures.  My son and daughters love nature and animals so they love looking at Jenkins' great illustrations and reading all the fascinating facts in his books.




Here are my children with some of Jenkins' books that we checked out of the library, but we checked out several others too!  My son wanted to check out ALL the Jenkins' books that were in our local library and then he asked if we could buy them all!  Maybe one day we'll have our own Jenkins' library.   This past summer, my cupcakes, especially my son, age 10,  wanted to make paper art like Jenkins.  So in front of them is the collection of art pieces they worked HOURS on over many weeks. 

 

Here is some of their art work beside the illustration in the book.   Can you tell which tang fish my son made using various colors of cardstock?  :) 

My 12 year old daughter loved making this gorilla hand like the one on the cover of Actual Size.  My son helped her make the lemur that rests on the thumb. 

Here's the collection my children made using Jenkins' books as their guide and inspiration.
Land Animals....  

Sea Creatures....

Our family agreed that these beautiful art pieces were made with great care and creativity as I watched scrap paper scatter on our tables and floors and scissors were vigorously cutting out tiny pieces to make 6 layers for one eye, thin tails and fins, beaks, feet, claws and scales for land and sea animals.

So with 2 large canvases and 3 small canvases and these supplies below (Mod Podge, sponge brushes and colored tissue paper) my cupcakes and I were on a mission this afternoon to display these creatures and complete this art project that began this past summer. 

Working with Mod Podge is easy as we brushed on a layer on the canvas, then placed tissue paper on top of the wet canvas.  Then we brushed more Mod Podge on top of the tissue paper.  We used 2 colors of tissue paper to make the background multi-colored.  After placing each art piece on top of the tissue paper, more Mod Podge was brushed on top of the piece.  Then we let it dry.
 
Working hard to decide how to display each animal on the canvas....

 Sneak peek....

They were so proud of their finished product after working all afternoon today to complete it..
Close-up of ocean creatures....