Dinosaur tar pits

When I was working at the Ann Arbor Art Center, each week of Art Camp had a different theme.  Some of them really made me stretch my ideas, and often led us down really fun paths.  For example, dinosaur tar pits!

The idea started with making tar GAK and grew from there.  First, we made our own salt dough and made little circles of stones on pieces of cardboard we colored to look like the ground, like this:

by the end of camp I think my kids had the recipe for salt dough memorized!

Next, we made gak (recipe here) and added black paint to it to look like tar.  We put little paper cups (paint cups, though the bottom of a cut paper cup would work fine) in the middle of the circle of stones, as we were worried the stones wouldn't hold the gak in enough.  Then we added gak and as a surprise, when the kids weren't looking, we added dinosaurs to each tar pit.

Perspective shots helped :)

We also added little blobs of salt dough and bits of raffia to make bushes.

I love the bubbles in the tar!

After a few days, the tar dried to a nice sheen.  It stays pliable if put in a plastic baggie though.

Fun!