Posts Tagged ‘Art Projects For Kids’
I get emails often asking for ideas based on materials so today I compiled some of our crafts that use clothespins. Our favorite is the Clothespin Dinosaur Craft above but over the years we have used clothespins for a whole bunch of learning.
My son loves creating with glue, and lately color mixing has become a popular request for art time so yesterday I decided to mix the two with a super simple activity that focuses on process not product. I have colored glue before but never in the bottles, as you will see it minimizes the mess for the project but it didn’t minimize it for the prep. I have a few tips for prep so you can skip the multi colored hands I am sporting today. This is also the perfect time of year for a project
- Gather your materials. You will need some white glue, food color and paper. My son chose black paper which depending on your child will be super cool or horribly disappointing. When the glue is dry you will see almost no color if you use black. We were focusing on the process so black was fine. I included a version made on orange paper below to see the results on lighter paper.
- Start by protecting your table, colored glue can be a bug to get off. I made a simple mat from a brown paper grocery bag, and attached it to the table top with painters tape.
- Make your colored glue. Starting with glue bottles that are not full. I thought this was enough space but when I do this again I am going to use half full bottles.
- Add your food color. Here is where I messed up. I treated the glue like water expecting the food color to incorporate easily but of course it just sits on top. You need to mix it, add more, mix than add more. If you don’t when you turn them upside down ( tip – do not turn it upside down until well mixed) the food color will dribble out and make a huge mess.
- And while panic mounts and you clean up your hands will end up like this.
- Instead use only half a bottle of glue and a chopstick(or kabob skewer) to mix. Adding a small amount at a time until it’s the color you want.
- Time to invite the small ones to explore. No instructions, just have fun.
- He mixed colors.
- Loved the vibrant colors, my blue stained hands were totally worth it.
- Dry .As you can imagine it doesn’t show up well on black. My son exclaimed “It’s spy glue!” It also takes a long time to dry- so find a good place for it to sit for a full day.
- This is a quick design I made on orange paper and let dry, the glossy colors are so fun!
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This is about as low mess you can get and still end up with a fun sparkly craft. Contact paper takes the place of glue and even though we used felt and buttons for differing textures you could add just about anything you have on hand .
- Gather your materials. You will need some contact paper, a sheet of construction paper, crayon, scissors, felt, buttons, and googly eyes.
- Start by drawing the outline of a fish on the construction paper.
- Cut the fish out so you are left with a frame.
- Cut a piece of contact almost as large as the full sheet of construction paper , peel the backing off and stick on .
- Cut your felt into small pieces.
- Invite your child to the table .
If you were me yesterday go into long negotiations with your Batman costumed child over doing or not doing a craft with gloves that belong to his grandmother on… which then turned into ” You always boss me around, I hate fish, I won’t do your baby craft.” Inspired by techniques discussed in our Parenting Book Club Book “Playful Parenting” I resisted the urge to give a lecture about talking back and instead pretended to call Batman himself for help and listened to “Batman’s” suggestions. So we added some gems from our art closet , he took one glove off and we had a fun time together which is the whole point . - Add your eyes and collage materials.
- Hang up in your window – no need to wait for anything to dry.
Today I really wondered for a few minutes if maybe my wee man was actually done with craft time. If he is I will be sad because I love our time creating but only when he loves it too. His play is almost entirely pretend play and he loves making anything that goes with his favorite theme du jour so we’ll see… either way I think I better start saving for his law school, this kid can negotiate!
Book
Barry the Fish with Fingers
I love Easter. Here are our best Easter egg crafts for kids of years past. We have a few fun new ones planned for this year too so sit tight, but until then check out these old faves.
We do 90% of our art projects in the kitchen and sometimes we like to use kitchen tools for art even using food as a supply from time to time. Here are some of our favorite kitchen art projects.
Cookie Cutter Printing
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