Painting with Little Children

One of my biggest problems when painting with my children is the paints either spilling or getting mixed up.

We recently started using egg cartons to divide the paints up and it has been quite effective. I put a squirt of each colour in to the bottom of the cups and then the kids can use the paints. I make sure that there is a container of water. So far we have avoided mixing the colours up, and this is after the children had been painting for almost 40 minutes uninterrupted.

Hand Print Art

Time to make another set of canvas art. This time, since I found 4 small canvases in my cupboard, it is going to be 4 hand prints. One for each child.

We painted the canvases in 4 different colours and then used hands to put a print in the middle of it. All that is left is to sign a name down the bottom of each canvas and put a date on it. Maybe one day my children will look back at these prints and be able to compare how much they have changed/grown.

Magnetic Peg Planes

In our house our fridge is our noticeboard. We stick notes, invitations and artwork up on the fridge because this is the central location here. We all congregate around the kitchen while I am cooking. We come and go through the kitchen multiple times a day, so it is really the ideal place to display information. I finally decided to re-make our tacky magnets from our local MP.

We made some peg planes to stick on magnets and use to hold our artwork up in style. I did discover that my boys don't know what bi-planes are. We did have to go and visit the War Memorial to confirm that there really are planes with two main wings, one on top of the other.

Stained Glass Window Paints

I have had a packet of window paints in the cupboard for a while. It seems like it is something that is too hard for the children to manage on their own without extensive assistance from me. I had a little more time than usual this week so thought I would give it a go. I traced the design from the book with the black paints and let it completely dry. Once it was dry then I let the children loose with the paints. My only stipulation was they could only use one paint at a time and needed to let it dry before moving on. Well, it is a good thing the paint dried very quickly or the first photo would have been as far as the picture developed.

Cardboard Roll Advent Calendar

I love counting down to Christmas, and now I have children it makes it even more exciting. I am not so keen on chocolate filled calendars since it really doesn't have all that much to do with the  meaning of Christmas - not that I need an excuse to make our own advent calendar. 

We cut 24 cardboard rolls to the same size and painted them green. Then we set them out in the shape of a Christmas tree and glued them together. I found that we needed to hold them together with pegs until the glue dried. When the glue was completely set we removed the pegs and glued the cardboard tree to a big piece of stiff card. The children used stencils to paint the word 'Advent' onto the cardboard backing. On standing back to admire our tree, we were dismayed to realise that the tree looked maroon, not green. We poked green tissue paper into each little hole and solved that problem.

Now the hard part is done, all that is left is to work out what we are going to put in each hole. I think we will write a nice thing we can do for someone else for each day and put it in the little holes.

Plaster Ornaments

First we had a slow afternoon where the children were bored. Then we had these ornaments that had been sitting on the kitchen bench since we made them. Combine the two and we have a busy house with the children painting the ornaments and when they ran out of ornaments we had a big pile of paper they could use.

Here we have my 2 year old painting a little heart. She does quite well with one colour at a time

And here we have the finished collection. The ones with ribbons have been put on cupboard handles in the kitchen to liven up the whiteness of it all. The ones without ribbons have had magnets glued to the back and are on the magnet board in the bedroom.

Using up the paint to make an abstract card :-)

Paper Plate Macaw

This Macaw was painted in parts and then assembled. 

Paper Christmas Trees

We were playing with shapes today when Imogen decided that this one was a tree. This tree then needed to be decorated.

So I found some small tubes of puffy paint. It dries in a 3D blob, so would stand out from the card. I also found an odd assortment of sequins, beads and buttons to use.

Here is a little forest of trees

We decided to stick them to the cards with sticky dots (removable, reusable stickers) so that the tree can be detached from the card and placed on a mantle or shelf as a decoration.

Brighton Beach Houses

The one thing I really miss is living near the beach. It is not just a place for swimming - I love walking along the beach in all seasons with all the sights, smells and sounds. I try to go and visit the beach at every opportunity, usually when I visit family in Melbourne, so that my children can experience a little of the beach life I took for granted growing up.

On a recent trip to Melbourne we went to look at the Brighton Beach houses. I quite like the colourful row of tiny little houses on the beach, especially on a wet and windy day like this one. We decided to see if we could make one of our own to go with the interesting collection of shells and rocks we found.

We folded 2 A4 pieces of cardboard in half (folding the short side in half). Then we glued paddle pop sticks on as the weather boards. Once the glue was dry we then used masking tape to stick the two pieces of cardboard together to form the 4 walls.

The roof is made from a long piece of corrugated cardboard and two triangles. Once all the building was complete the children were free to decorate their houses. James wanted lots of windows on his one.

Stick Christmas Tree Card

We're getting started on card making early. I think that now I have one child at school we need to have A LOT of cards. This one is very easy if you have paddle pop sticks. Simply paint some green and some brown and leave them to dry.

When the paddle pop sticks are dry we used one brown one and 3 green ones per tree.

Put 5 dots of glue on the brown stick and attach cut pieces of the green stick in order of size. The bottom green stick only has the ends trimmed. Once again we left it to dry before attaching it to a card. I like my trees plain, but the boys wanted to glue decorations on their ones.

Rainbows

Did anyone see the rainbow earlier in the week? Just before the thunder storm hit we saw a beautiful rainbow.

So when we came home, we painted our own rainbow with water colour paints.

I quite like our version of the rainbow. This is Imogen's one. We have a peculiar water colour set that we used big sponges with to create the rainbow in one big sweeping stroke, so it is especially good for small hands! Next time I will remember not to use shiny paper as it makes the colours slide a little on the paper.

This is the water colour set we have for the children to use. (I need to remember to hold my camera strap out of the way!!)

Under the Sea Painting

I have a drawer full of paintings like this. Today I decided that we needed to do something with them. When I asked the children what they thought we could make with the picture, they told me it looked like water. Further discussion concluded that there are fish, jellyfish, rocks and seaweed in the water.

I found some material for rocks, glitter for seaweed  and a bottle top for a jellyfish body. We printed out some pictures to colour in and stick on. Now we have refurbished the painting and have to find somewhere to hang it up.

Painting Gnomes

Floriade has a gnome knoll and every year I buy a gnome for the children to decorate. Just a warning - this is something I haven't done with the kids yet

This year Majura Womens Group decided to have a gnome painting session. I wasn't sure if I wanted to paint a gnome, but in the end joined in so I could spend the morning chatting to friends over paint and coffee (I had to keep reminding myself that my coffee was not the water for washing paintbrushes). The morning flew by and having such creative people around me inspired me to a more ambitious gnome - well, more ambitious than a plain coloured dress.

Did you know that this flesh colour on my gnome is pink and yellow? Thanks Kristen. I had to write it down so that I don't forget for when the boys make their ones.

I like to call this one my chameleon gnome. Okay, she does stand out a little on bare rocks, but put her near some flowers and grass, and she will disappear! She came out of a discussion on fashions through the ages. I thought that the early 2000s was iconic for the transparent dresses worn on the catwalk. Not everyone agreed with me, and perhaps it would be a little too risqué, so the chameleon gnome is the see-through G rated version of this.

Painting with Marbles

 I think the photos say it all. This is so much fun with toddlers and not quite as messy as letting them loose with paint brushes.

We need marbles to paint with. Now which ones should we choose?

We prepared the paper in a tray so that the marbles would be contained

We put a few squirts of paint on the paper and then added a few marbles

Imogen shook the tray to move the marbles through the paint and make her picture.

We thought the painting was a little wet so thought we would try making a mirror image

                                                  Now we have two paintings to show Dad when he comes home

Aboriginal Inspired Painting

Christopher had a session at school earlier this year where they discussed Aboriginal Art and the teacher explained the meaning behind the different symbols. When Christopher came home he sketched out a painting he would like to do. I thought it sounded like a great idea and this is the finished painting.

Well, as finishes as we have been able to get. We ran out of yellow paint so I need to buy some more next time I am at the shops to make the final pathway. Each circle is a camp fire representing a member of our family and we are all connected by the yellow paths. The two circles in the middle are Mum and Dad. The little green horseshoes are people sitting around the camp fire. The animal tracks are kangaroo tracks.

The Rainbow Fish

Christopher's lovely artwork from school. The background is a crayon drawing covered with a blue paint wash. The fish is a colouring in picture that he has cut out and glued colourful scales onto it.

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister is a classic story about sharing, and a favourite book in our house. I quite like the glittering scale down the bottom. 

I must try this with the younger children and see what they make with it.

Colouring In Canvas

I have noticed in the craft shops that there are canvases with pictures already outlined on them. This seemed to me to be a brilliant idea. The picture is there, all I have to do is provide the artists, paint and art smocks. Simple.

This is Christopher's lion. Once the paint was applied the outline was lost so he re-drew the lion when it was finished. This would work well with colouring in sheets too.

Getting Ready for Spring

I can't wait until the warmer weather comes. With the coming of the warmer weather are the flowers. Just what I need after a long and bleak Canberra Winter.

Even though spring is still a few days away I thought we'd start to decorate the house with spring flowers. Cue the paint and art smocks.

Here we have the canvas on the kitchen bench with a child either side. I thought if I gave each one a colour then there would be no arguments over the paints. So out of necessity we have a sky and grass.

Where would spring be if we didn't have any flowers? James cut various sized circles out of material and we put them together in groups of 3. Then Imogen went through my button collection to find some pretty buttons to decorate the flowers with. Some glue to stick it all together and then we have our flowers made, ready to attach.

Here is the final painting. James dotted the stalks on in a slightly darker green, the clouds were also dotted on with sponges. The sun is glue and an entire packet of glitter. We probably didn't need quite so much glitter, but I wasn't watching when the children tipped it on to the glue! Pity my vacuum cleaner is being repaired as now we have to try and sweep the glitter up.

Car Trundle

As anyone with children will know, it feels like toys multiply whenever you're not looking and suddenly you are tripping over toys every time you turn around.

My biggest problem has always been finding a home for cars and trains. They are so small that it is easy to miss one or two when packing up. I seem to be standing on them all the time. Given that I like walking around the house in bare feet (or my sock slippers), it was only a matter of time before I had to find a solution. After stepping on a car for the 3rd time in a morning, I took myself to the shed to try to see if I had any containers that the boys would find easy to open and therefore find it easier to put the cars away. I didn't have any containers but the big piece of wood that fell on me as I opened the shed door did attract my attention. When my gaze wandered over 4 wheels the idea of a car table came to me. Wouldn't it be so much easier if I made a trundle to store the cars on, and we could just push it out of the way under the bed when the boys finished playing with it?

I dragged the wood out, screwed the wheels onto it and flipped it over to see if it worked. By this time Christopher joined me and wanted to know what I was doing. When I said I was making a car table, he pointed out the obvious fact that there was nothing to stop the cars rolling off the trundle. Hmmmm...I needed sides on it. Back to rummaging around the shed and I found some long pieces of wood that I could nail  on and form a shallow box.

My part was done. I undertook to keep everyone away while Christopher painted the whole table blue. When the first coat dried we drew the road on to the table and painted it black. Christopher then found a sponge and sponged green paint everywhere else. The final touches were applied the next day when I put the white markings on the roads and we moved the table into the house.

Just need to put all the cars on it and we
can push it under the bed until the boys
want to play with it.

This is currently the longest lasting of all the toys that the children play with in our house. I wonder how many more years it will keep them entertained quietly for...

Canvas Art in two colours

Who loves painting?

I do, but only when little children aren't involved.

My first encounter with a painting disaster happened to be when I was painting the walls in my hallway. I had put the children in their bedroom with plenty to entertain them as well as food and drink and explained to them that I was painting the hall and not to come out. I finished painting and was feeling rather proud of myself.

As always, this moment of satisfaction was then followed by a mini disaster - James heard me packing up and came down the hall to help. My shriek of 'Don't touch the walls - the paint is wet' resulted in the inevitable sight of James plastered flat against the wall. To my shame, I was more concerned with trying to get the paint out of his jumper than I was getting it out of his hair. Luckily for James white paint is not very obvious in blond hair.

So after asking the kids what they really wanted to do, I was rather flattened to hear that they wanted to paint. Not something I will be very good at coping with while over-tired and already grumpy. The solution ended up being a compromise. We would get out a canvas each and paint it a solid colour. This is something we have done a few times over the years as presents for grandparents and I enjoy it almost as much as a non-painting kids activity.

While waiting for it to dry we would pick out a silhouette picture that we liked and cut it out of contact. Once the paint had dried, the contact picture would be stuck on to the canvas and we would paint over it with a contrasting colour.

Again, we waited for the paint to dry (a good time to stop for lunch) before peeling the contact away to show our simple painting.

Christopher decided to try 3 colours.
Now to peel the contact off to see if it worked.

Phew. We don't have to do it again!!!

And this is James's painting. He had help with cutting out the contact but he stuck it onto the canvas and did all the painting and peeling.

Hopefully I will think of something as stress free the next time I am faced with the painting request!