The Art Box - March 8, 2010

In the Art Box last week: aluminum foil and large window markers; muffin tin with stickers, pom poms, pipecleaners, foam stickers, some sparkly gel pens and some “spiky balls”; a variety of papers, watercolors, scissors, oil pastels, markers, glue.

We tried, once again, crayon resist watercolor painting… this time I had M use the white oil pastel crayon and the results were much easier to see than the last time we tried. I made some designs and he made some and then he painted over them with his watercolor paints. I discovered that giving him a paper towel to wipe his brush on after he dips it in the water helps keep the colors more vibrant for him, which makes them more fun of course.

I put some foam stickers on a cardboard tube for him (sorry this isn’t pictured in the box above… I must’ve snuck it in sometime during the week). (side one)(side two)

He rolled it in paint and then made this:

He worked on painting a passenger car for the train he’s (slowly) been putting together:

He colored on the foil with some giant window markers he received for Christmas:

And he made yet another Valentine (evidently he just can’t stop himself), this one’s for Grandpa: Note the “M” at the bottom. :) I love how he’s more into “writing” now instead of just drawing. You can also see some “spiky ball” prints on this. He used the spiky balls (I found them 6 for a dollar at Walmart in the party favors area) by dipping them in water then into his watercolor paints, then dabbing them around on the paper.

The hit of the week was using pipettes to drip liquid watercolors onto papertowels:There’s a snake in there, a caterpillar, a hamster at the bottom of the ocean, a duck, and a seahorse. :) Also, a mommy and daddy birdie holding a baby bird in their nest. :)

I made the liquid watercolors with regular tempera paints mixed with liquid starch. You could use water too, but the starch keeps the papertowels from becoming totally soaked, while still spreading out quite a bit.

Link up below to share your little masterpieces and some good ideas! Please remember to link back here in your posts. :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – Mar. 1, 2010

This was our art box for the past two weeks with an occasional sneaking in of something extra.  We started off with a muffin tin filled with collage items (I got this wonderful idea from A Mom Learning More Everyday in this post) – pom poms, tissue paper scraps, foam stickers, googley eyes, and a tiny amount of left over red glitter.  Also, in the box, various papers, a styrofoam tray, tempera paint, watercolor paints, craft sticks, stencils, glue, and oil pastels.

M started off with, what else, the stencils.  Sigh.  Stencils do not seem open-ended-artsy to me for a 3 year old, although neither does a paint with water book, and goodness knows I’ve let him do plenty of those in return for a half hour of peace.  M really loves stencils and lately it’s the first thing he goes for or asks for if there aren’t any in the box.  Several of you brilliant mommies out there reminded me that he is probably so interested in them because he wants to master the technique and he’s learning how it all works.  Thank you for that; it never occurred to me, and now I see it in a completely different light and I’m ok with stenciled trucks and animals papering our walls.  For now.

Here is the art work M has produced in the past couple of weeks, (minus an awesome textured painting that daddy stole and took to work before I was able to take a picture of it)…

 

A late valentine especially for me. :)  Apparently once red glitter is used for making valentines it isn’t possible to think of anything else to make with it.

 

This is M’s take on crayon resist painting.  Draw a line all around your paper then carefully paint right over it.  He said he was making mazes. :)

 

He was really interested in the craft sticks this time and I actually had to get more for him.  He started off by deciding to make a square, and then when he saw that two together make a longer line, he decided to make a rectangle (you can’t imagine how proud I was at this moment).  Then he decorated it:

Then he painted some and made a house:

 

Here’s a rainbow made with watercolors.  There is a stream in there too and some little animals. :)

 

We bought a giant coloring book with simple farm animal pictures in it.  To our great surprise there was a page of giant stickers in the front of the book.  So we taped up a giant piece of paper (2’ x 3’!) and he made a farm animal sticker collage:

        

Link up your kids’ fun art projects below…

and have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – Feb. 22, 2010

 

I am not really here.  I’m still on break, but here’s the MckLinky for all of your little artists out there! 

The Art Box – Feb. 15, 2010

Somehow I never got around to putting a new art box together for M last week.  I had hopes that he would make more valentines, but I guess he only had one week’s worth of valentines in him.  :) 

He asked for stencils and paint and did, oh, maybe a hundred paintings just like these:

He has this super-ability to fixate on one thing and do it over and over and over again.  And then… again, one more time.  I’m not sure if this is normal;  it may just be he’s picked up a bit of his mom’s craziness.  ;)

I cured him of his stenciling spree by buying him another paint-with-water book.  He did it, the entire book, that afternoon.   So, we didn’t have the artsy-est  week ever, but he really did enjoy himself and I enjoyed the fact that an 89 cent book gave me a half hour of quiet.   

Link up your Art Box posts below!  Remember to link back here in your post so your readers can find art box ideas from other great linker-uppers. :) 

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – Valentine Style

In the Art Box last week: some patterned paper hearts that M cut early in the week, foam and silver heart stickers, foam heart beads, valentine colored pom-poms and buttons, sparkly heart sprinkles, paint, doilies, construction paper, glue, stamps, stamps, and more stamps, and red glitter.

M was very excited about this particular art box. This was the first year I didn’t have a single Valentine craft idea in place, and I was ready to enjoy seeing what he would come up with on his own. We went over the list of people we’ll send Valentines to, and I was so happy to see him excited about making something for the specific purpose of gifting it to someone.

He started off taking a look at all the stamps and had fun with some new roller stamps I found at Target.

Before long he was gluing and sticking and stamping all over the place. This was so much fun! I loved that he thought it was completely appropriate to include firetruck and helicopter stamps too. :) I had fun hearing about who was getting which Valentine, and all he wanted to do on each one. Here’s a sampling of what he did:

He still has a few more to make, and I’m wondering if he’ll agree to folding these so they are more like cards (with extra decorations on the front). I love each one and I hinted to him that I sure would love to get one too. I may have to hint this to Daddy as well. ;)

I know these are not the cutesy crafty Valentines that we all love, but they were truly made with love and something M was able to do completely on his own. I love that they really look “kid made”. :) I hope everyone who gets one knows how special they are!

Link your Art Box posts up below! A warm thanks to all of you who participate – I love visiting your blogs and seeing your posts!

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – February 1, 2010

M was sick all of last week, and I was barely hanging on, and well… no art.  There was a lot of this going on: and not much of anything else.

However, I would LOVE to see any and all art your kids’ made!!  MckLinky is below. :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – January 25, 2010

Several recent posts from Adventures in Mommydom inspired me to put our old playdough in M’s Art Box this week.  (By “old”, I mean it was made a couple of months ago and has been mixed with enough other colors of playdough that it’s starting to look not-so-pretty.  Besides, I’m itching to cook up some Valentine playdough sometime soon!)  With it I included a little divided container with googley eyes, buttons, sea shells, beads, and glass mosaic pieces.   I also included some pipecleaners. 

M was extremely excited about this!Here’s what he made:

Aren’t they cute, especially the last one??  He had a ton of fun with this.  So now I know exactly what to do with the playdough when it’s time to make a new batch!   This will definitely be a somewhat regular addition to M’s box.

He’s also been itching to paint craft sticks ever since this.  So… he painted craft sticks.  I was hoping he had some crafty plan for them, but nope.  Just painted them all orange. :)

I also put a roll of electrical tape in the art box.  M saw it and knew exactly what it was for.  We’ve only done this once before (here), but it’s been hanging on the wall ever since and from time to time he has asked to do the “tape painting” again, so I knew he’d be interested.  I let him cut the pieces of tape himself and he put them wherever he wanted, then began painting (first with do-a-dots, then with tempera). I love how it turned out:He said it was a “deep, dark forest” and then “sunshine”.  We had recently read We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.  I think this may be where he got the deep, dark forest idea.  He loved taking the tape off!!

He also painted this pretty little picture, which alas, came with no cute story.  I still like it. ;)

Join in and link up your kid-art below!  It’s so much fun to see what they do on their own!

Have a beautiful day! :)