New from the Old

I have been reading lots of ideas about decorating stained clothing and I finally tackled one of Edith's shirts. I like how it turned out. I just stamped with acrylic paint and let dry. It was amazing how easy it is. I have another shirt in mind of Addie's that I think will get a different treatment.

Making Adelaides

Yesterday Addie informed me of her plan for the day. It included making cookies. She wanted to make chocolate chip of course. As I looked for the recipe I noticed one for Adelaides. I thought that would be fun to make Adelaide cookies, so we just substituted the chocolate chips for the dates and walnuts. They are delicious.

Fall Mosaics

Since we are in the process of moving I have been keeping messy art projects to a minimum. I decided that making mosaics would not drive me too crazy with mess. I drew a leaf and showed the girls how to glue down tiny pieces of cardstock inside the shape. I drew a leaf for Edith and then as requested a garbage can for Addie. We busily worked on our mosaics. Addie ended up requesting a second leaf one to "do right" because she basically just dumped the pieces onto her garbage can instead of placing them down. All in all a good project for all three of us. Edith really enjoys art projects and is pretty good at following instructions for them considering she is just shy of two. It is nice that she can participate in the same project as Addie.

Paper Bag Pumpkin

We got an art book out of the library. Addie chose to make a paper bag pumpkin. We stuffed some old newspapers inside a grocery bag and then let the girls paint. After it dried I drew some shapes on black paper and Addie cut them out and pasted them on to her pumpkin. I think it came out pretty well.

glue, paint, and yarn

I gave each of the girls some glue colored with watercolors. Then we painted and added yarn. Addie was skeptical but Edith thought it was fabulous. The top one is Edith's and the bottom, Addie's.

A Huge Mess avoided....Paste Painting

I found a neat idea for paste painting in Family Fun magazine. I managed to avoid any disasters even though this involved acrylic paint (not washable) and I did not let Edith do this project. Edith did her own painting project at the same time. Supervising two different painting projects did nearly drive me insane, but we got some good results. I also did this project in a cardboard box lid on a old table cloth.

Step 1: Boil 3.75 cups of water with 0.5 cups of flour and then simmer for 8 minutes. Let cool.

Step 2: Pour paste into several bowls (that you don't care about) and add dollops of acrylic paint. I found a little went a long way. We had tons of paste left over at the end. This could make at least 20 projects.

Step 3: Using a foam brush spread a thick layer of paste over the entire piece of paper. It is important to use heavy paper. I used some scrapbooking cardstock and a cut up cheerio box.

Step 4: Scrap the paste off with various scrapers. I used the sides and top of the cheerio box and made notches in them for the scrapers. The magazine also recommended using old credit cards with notches cut.

Step 5: Wait forever for projects to dry.

Gold on purple on green paper.

Addie did really well, but had to be encouraged to keep working spreading the paste. I had to teach her to use a light touch. On her final piece she suggested using two colors. It was hard getting the second color on top of the first so she said, "I will just glop it on." That method worked well. I also would grab the project out of the box to dry before she had a chance to completely scrape off all the paste. Addie loves to get her fingers dirty so on the last project she could not resist the urge to just smear the paste all over.

I think this would be fun on a really big piece of poster board. That way more experimentation could be done with the scraping.

This one is mine. I quickly made one before cleaning up. This is red and orange on white paper. Lots of fun.

Lazy Art Projects

Addie and Edith LOVE to paint. It does not matter what kind of paints, paper, brushes, etc. All painting is wonderful. Sometimes I am not in the mood to bring out paints, but I feel bad that the kids haven't painted in a while. What do I do. Water painting! This is a mess free way to let the kids paint. I just give the kids a brush and a bowl of water and send them outside to paint the porch. This way everyone is happy. They get to paint and I don't have to clean. I don't even mind when Edith paints herself instead of the porch.

Painting on Acetate

I have a whole bunch of page protectors lying around and thought I would utilize them for a painting project. Painting definitely tops the girls' list of art projects. )I just got some no spill paint cups with matching brushes and was eager to try them out.) For Addie I cut open a page protector leaving it connected on one side. I opened it up and had her paint. Then when she was done I just closed it for easy drying. I thought these might look nice on the window and might later use my die cutter to create some nice window ornaments. For Edith I completely cut the page protector in two and then put it back together when she was done. Both girls enjoyed painting on the slick surface. Addie said she was painting a jungle. Edith just enjoyed the motion of painting.

These trays came from a gift we got when Addie was born. It was a little plastic suitcase filled with baby medicine and nail clippers. Addie had used it for a while as a play suitcase until the hinges broke. Now each side makes a great painting tray. A piece of paper fits inside perfectly and the one inch edges are perfect for keeping the paint off the table. Note: paint still ends up on the children. The trays clean easily and I am quite proud of my reuse of an item that many would have thrown away as soon as the original contents had been emptied.

Welcome

We usually do an art project almost every single day. Even though I try to be careful and cautious using trays and washable materials our table is getting stained. I thought I would create a second blog showing off some of the girls' works. I have a bunch of pictures from recent projects so I will start by catching up with those.

One morning while Edith was still asleep Addie and I made some tissue paper creations with bleeding tissue paper.

Step 1: Cut tissue paper into small pieces.

Step 2: Arrange the tissue pieces on a sheet of white paper.
Step 3: Gently brush water on your paper. Not too dry and not too wet please. Note: bleeding tissue paper does stain tables!

Step 4: Carefully pull the tissue bits off your paper. Addie had a little bit of trouble with this part and made a hole in her white sheet. You really need to be gentle if your paper is wet.

Here are our projects. Usually I don't actually do a project myself, but I was excited about this one so Addie's is the one on top and mine is the bottom one. I was inspired by this blog to make this project. I think they used this method to dye Easter eggs.