Crayon Canvas Art

Finally did it!

As seen on every blog everywhere...

Pretty boring.

I admit it. I have been slacking lately on the exciting project front. Between neighborhood garage sales and weird "working" hours and birthdays we have been basically just hanging out. The most exciting things lately have been 50 cent sand art (garage sale find!), giant Cars puzzle (birthday present!) and discussing Titanic! Oh! I also bought him a canvas bag he could decorate so he could hold some of our many library books. Yes, he drew the Titanic and an Iceberg on it.

He turned 5 years old a week or so ago. 5! I have been watching him since he was a little over 6 months old or so. It's crazy. He starts kindergarten next school year. :(

Next week I am going to start some hardcore project making and exciting activity having because once summer comes and Big Brother is home all the time it will be harder to get him to concentrate on me. :)

Random Pictures:

Puffy Paint

We did this awhile ago when we did Corn Syrup painting the first time so I decided to introduce this again. The Artful Parent calls it Puffy Paint. He loved it! I didn't mix it very well because chunks of flour or something kept getting stuck in the nozzles. (another thrift store find!) I saved it over the weekend in the refrigerator and he painted again with it today. We just stirred it back up and it was as good as new.

To make you'll need:

• 2/3 cup of flour
• 2/3 cup of salt
• 2/3 cup of water
• 2 squeeze containers from craft store
  
• 1 Tablespoon tempera paint –at least 2 colors

It takes DAYS to fully dry.
Full instructions at The Artful Parent.

The finished dried artwork. You can't tell how much it sparkles!

Today we made an Easter Egg with the Puffy Paint.

Going In Circles

Ok, this is really starting to get on my nerves. I see a project somewhere. I save it either by Starring it in Google Reader or bookmarking or even clipping it using evernote. Now I can't find out where I first saw this project! I've looked everywhere. Oh well. Here is goes anyways...

Easy and fun! I used a left over Styrofoam cup. I cut the bottom off to use as a stamp and then we also used the top as a stamp. They worked great and they were really easy for him to hold.

Idea from here.

Corn Syrup Painting AKA Shiny Paint

Original instructions came from Kinderart. This is the second time we made this type of painting but the first time we did it was over a year ago and he had forgotten all about it.

I put some corn syrup into a cup and had him spread it on the paper with a big paintbrush. This stuff is sticky!

Then I put a few drops of yellow food coloring and a few drops of blue food coloring to start. I gave him two Q-tips and had him mix the colors in the corn syrup to make green. I told him he could use his fingers if he wanted, but he decided not to. Smart boy. Then I put some more colors around for him to mix into new colors. After a few days the painting dried really shiny.

Cherry Blossoms

This idea came from Perpetual Preschool. That is one of the first websites I found when searching for art activities for kids a long time ago.

We changed things from what they listed. I used watered down brown paint instead of food coloring.
I used a dropper to drop some of the paint in the bottom corner and had him use a straw to blow OUT and push the paint up and to the left and right to form branches. (Where did all my pictures of him using the straw go??? Oh, well. )
Then he dotted glue along the branch.
He took small squares of dark and light pink tissue paper and balled them up and stuck them on the glue.

I thought his came out so pretty and spring-like that I made one too. :)

Check out more projects for kids at We made It, Showcase Saturday!





More projects at:

Shamrock Collage

This is a classic activity that can altered for any holiday/season just by changing the colors and shapes.

First you cut out two squares of clear contact paper the same size.
You peel the back off one and lay it face up on the table and let the kids go at it using tissue paper and glitter.
When they are done you peel the back off the second sheet of contact paper and stick on the first one and rub them together.
Then you cut out into the desired shape. I can not free hand draw as you can see with this messed up shamrock.
We did the same thing with Christmas trees around Christmas time and hearts on valentines day.

More Shamrock Shenanigans

I am really losing my mind because I know I JUST saw this project somewhere and I can not remember where...again! Sorry, it's a great, cute, EASY idea!

I took a sponge and cut it into a Heart Shape and one piece into a skinny rectangle.
I set out green, green-yellow, and light green paint and had "Indy" dip the heart in and stamp in three times on the paper in a clover shamrock pattern and then used the rectangle for the stem. You could just draw the stem. That's it. So simple and cute!

How many, many feet you meet.

Why didn't I warn him to STAY ON THE PAPER OR WOOD FLOOR??! I turned my back for one minute and he had ran around the room onto the carpet. It was my own fault. I didn't tell him not to.


What am I talking about? THIS!

I rolled out two looong pieces of paper. (I found a roll at the thrift store for like a dollar) And I taped the ends down.
I put paint on a cookie sheet.

Then he went wild walking up and down the paper. It worked better when I actually painted his feet. Plus it tickled.

That was yesterday. Today:

We used some text from The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss and wrote them on the banner/mural. I had him write FEET and FOOT whenever it came up.





Close Ups of the finished product.




I got the words from here. I can not believe we didn't have an actual copy of the book!

St. Patrick's Day Spirit

Yes, even my font is green. Today we started our St. Patrick's Day activities.
I can not remember where I got this idea...Someone lined their shamrocks with buttons. If you are out there let me know so I can credit you! EDIT: I got this idea from ScottChristieCoriCassieCali! Thanks so much!

Anyways, here's our version of it.

I traced 4 hearts onto green construction paper. I put that and a gold pipe cleaner in one basket. I put the tools he would need in the other basket. Glue, Scissors, Glitter and Tape.

He cut the four hearts out. He is so good at cutting! I am so proud of him. He takes his time and follows the line very closely.
Then he arranged them in the Shamrock shape, glued them together, added the stem with tape on the back.

I helped him line it with glue and then he sprinkled green glitter on the outline!




The Finished Product.

A little Late, But We Can Still Celebrate!

Awesome rhyming title because we celebrated Dr. Seuss' Birthday today! (Even though it was yesterday!)

We read a bunch of Dr. Seuss books.

Watched and ate "Green Eggs and Ham". Didn't have any ham so I used Bologna and meatless sausage patty shaped into the letters H-A-M! Sometimes you gotta get creative.

And we made a Cat In The Hat Hat!

These are the awesome sites I got these ideas from:

No Time For Flash Cards- Again!
The Crafty Crow
Story Time and More
VickiBlackwell.com

Classics - Foot Ghost

He loves anything to do with paint. Especially when he is supposed to paint a body part!

Easy and cute!