There's More Than One Way to...

Sometimes you don't have paintbrushes lying around your house. Or, more accurately in my house, you know they are there somewhere but don't want to venture into the scary abyss otherwise known as "the garage" to find them. Or, also true in my house, you don't want the kidlets touching your precious paintbrushes because you know they are going to smash them into the paper and bend the bristles ridiculously.
Still, you can allow your kids to paint with a variety of other methods. There is of course the fingerpainting, which really is a misnomer as most kids use their entire hand, elbow, feet, and other assorted body parts to "paint." Check in your bathroom cabinets for painting materials (not make-up brushes!) such as q-tips and cotton balls. These are particularly fabulous for decorating newspaper advertisements and articles (and also helps cut down on paper waste - that stuff ain't cheap!)
We visited the kitchen and the play room for our painting materials. First we experimented with drinking straws.


Basically you put a few small puddles of slightly-watered-down paint on your paper and blow on it with your straw. Different straw angles produce different results. For those with limited lung capacity, such as our Spud, cut the straw down to a smaller and much more manageable size. Amazingly, when we tried this, no child of mine attempted to drink the paint up the straw. When you are satisfied with your swirly puddle of color, take another sheet of white paper and carefully place it on top of your paint puddle. Press it down without sliding it around. Carefully lift it back up, and presto!


You will have a beautiful marble effect on both sheets of paper that mirror each other, much like an ink blot test. Lay these out to dry. Once completely dry, they can be cut into a variety of shapes - we made butterflies with ours.


We raided the playroom for some Hot Wheels for our next painting project. Again, just put some small puddles of different colored paint on your paper, and then drive your cars through the paint in circles, figure eights, hearts, swirls, whatever your heart desires. Don't let the kids get too carried away or you'll be left with a brownish swirly design - not pretty.


Don't worry about the cars; when you finish, you can just rinse the wheels with hot water and the paint will come right off.


And that's it! Perfect for a rainy/snowy/the-silly-weather-can't-make-up-its-mind day.

What's that? You don't have paint either? Well, here's just a few recipes for making your own:
Egg Paint - Mix one egg yolk with a little water to get a paint consistency. Add a few pinches of Kool-Aid and stir until you get the color you want.
Jello Paint - Mix one TBS Jell-O powder and 3 TBS boiling water and let cool for about thirty minutes. Use before the gelatin sets.
Ketchup and Mustard - Just use as is!
Milk Paint - Mix 1 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk and 1/2 cup water. Add food coloring to the desired shade. If too thin, add more dry milk; if too thick, add more water.

Happy Mess-Making!

Art Project #5 - Thankful Turkeys

This week's project is in preparation for Thanksgiving coming up next week. You should already have all the materials on hand, and the steps are super easy!

Project Title: Thankful Turkeys

Materials Needed: white paper, crayons, scissors, glue stick, pencil or pen

Purpose: To practice coloring and cutting skills as well as express the things one is thankful for.

Aren't these just the cutest turkeys?

First, you will need to trace your child's hands and one foot on the white paper. (The photos show a turkey made from an adult's hand and footprints; of course a child's prints will be smaller.) Have your child color the foot shape brown for the turkey body and the hand shapes in multiple colors for the turkey feathers. Assist them in cutting out the three shapes.

Make the other shapes needed to complete the turkey. Three triangles colored yellow will serve as a beak and feet. Two skinny yellow rectangles will be the legs, and don't forget to cut out two little eyes and a wattle. (Googly eyes would be cute too if you have them on hand).

Using the glue stick, have your child glue the two hand shapes together as shown. Cut off the thumbs - they won't be necessary for the project.

Then, help your child glue the rest of the turkey together. The foot shape comes next as the turkey body, glued on top of the hand shapes. Next, glue the facial features to the turkey's head. Finally, glue the legs to the back of the turkey body and glue the feet on the ends of the legs.

If your child is old enough to write, have them write down eight things they are thankful for. Cut out the words and glue to the turkey feathers. Write "(Name) is thankful for" on a small circle of white paper and glue to the turkey's tummy.

Then of course, don't forget to display the resulting cute turkeys for your Thanksgiving celebration! Save them afterwards, as they will be permanent reminders of the size of your little one's hands and feet at this age. :)

Art Project #4 - String Pumpkins and Gourds

One of my earliest school memories is doing a project in which we wrapped string dipped in glue around a balloon in various patterns. When the glue dried, we popped the balloon and had a hollow string sculpture to display. While exploring Pinterest the other day, I was reminded of this simple project and thought it would be the perfect platform to make some pumpkin and gourd decorations for our home.

Project Title: Pumpkin and Gourd String Art

Materials Needed: orange and yellow cotton yarn or string, school glue, a shallow pan such as a cake pan or pie pan, several balloons, and glitter (optional). For finishing, you may want some green ribbon and decorative silk leaves.

Purpose: To work with the basic premises of sculpture and 3D art; to understand importance of structure to a 3D work of art.

First, gather your supplies. Blow up your balloons until they are a nice round or slightly oval shape, being careful not to make them too big. (If you want ornament-sized pumpkins and gourds, use water balloons.) Blow up a few extra balloons to entertain the 3-year-old.

Next, cut your string. Measure around your balloon with the string, leaving a little extra for overlap and cut. Use that string to cut many more pieces of the same size in both yellow and orange. Then make your glue mixture. The recipe I used called for one part glue to two parts water. I think it certainly could have used more glue - I would do one part glue to one part water next time. If you are a glitter lover like myself, whisk in some sparkly glitter into the mixture. This is a good opportunity for everyone to get a chance to "help."

After covering your work surface abundantly with newspaper or an old tablecloth, begin covering your balloon with string. Dip one string into the glue mixture until the entire string is completely soaked. Wrap the wet string around your balloon, making sure that the ends overlap a little. Continue wrapping soaked strings around the balloon, making sure to cover large spaces so there will be no big holes in the sculpture. I found that my young ones, including my kindergartener, struggled with this. They all wanted to bunch up the yarn or toss it haphazardly across the balloon. This is a good time to explain why it needs to be tightly wrapped and spaced out in order for the structure to survive. It is also a good time to help so that frustration doesn't last. Art is supposed to be fun!

Keep wrapping your balloon until you are satisfied with the coverage. If you are not sure, "overdo" it!

Here is a good example of what your balloon should look like, although I would have covered some of those holes even more. Leave the balloons on the newspaper to dry. When the strings on the top of the balloon feel dry, turn the balloon over so that the underside strings have a chance to dry also. We did ours on a Friday afternoon, and they were completely dry by Saturday morning. Next, carefully pop the balloons and remove the broken balloon from inside your string sculpture. Three of our sculptures didn't make it - they collapsed into a stiff pile of string due to inadequate coverage or too much bunching. Also, I think the glue mixture was a little weak, as I mentioned before.

Tie another piece of string to the top of your gourd or pumpkin sculpture for hanging. We then used a short piece of green ribbon and a decorative silk leaf tied to the top to make them truly look like pumpkins and gourds. I think they would be just as cute with just the green ribbon or perhaps some green felt leaves glued on.

And then be sure to hang up your creations! We are definitely going to revisit this project again at Easter time and make pastel eggs to decorate our home. By the way, if you insert a small wrapped candy or prize inside the balloon before you blow it up, your sculpture will have a fun surprise center!