do-a-dot artwork

Yesterday we were all out of it... sick and feverish and completely lifeless... well, at least my husband and I. Matthew, on the other hand, was sick and feverish, yet somehow still managed to have a little energy for fun. It must be nice to be 2 years old.

He asked to do art first thing in the morning. My initial reaction was to say no because I just didn't feel like taking the time to set something up for him and then clean up (especially this) after him.

However, a little later I had an idea, and it turned out to be a good one too. Funny how that actually works out sometimes. He does not paint with his Do-A-Dot painters very often, as he prefers the messier tempera paints that he can run his little cars through. But he also likes to spray water out of my misting bottle. So... here's what we did:

I put a couple of layers of newsprint down then some papertowels on top (I left 2 paper towels attached to each other). Matthew made dots all over and then sprayed them with the water bottle. He had a great time doing this. It did make a little mess as he apparently decided to spray the whole table and the walls at some point, but dotting and spraying kept him busy for a good half hour if not more. And that was a blessing for all of us.

It actually turned out quite beautiful. The papertowels absorbed the water and caused the paints to bleed. You could do this with coffee filters or tissue paper too, I think. I'm not sure what we'll do with these; I'm thinking about laminating them with contact paper and turning them into placemats.

All in all, it turned out to be a fun and pretty spur-of-the-moment art project.

Have a beautiful day! ;)

Summer Sunshine

We were gone all weekend for the 4th of July and we came home sick, every one of us. Urgh. I have a list of things I want to blog about, but I'm afraid they just aren't going to happen until we are better and settled back into our normal routine.


But the post about the handprint fireworks reminded me of this cute craft we did back when it felt like spring would never come to Minnesota:





A handprint sun! This was so fun to make and it's been hanging on our kitchen wall since Febraury. It would be a great craft to do now that it's summertime. In fact, every child between 2 and 5 that has seen this has begged to do one like it.
What you need:
Yellow construction paper
Paper plate
Yellow paint mixed with gold glitter (do this beforehand on a small saucer)
Another color of paint - let your child choose, but try to keep it in the orange, red, pink family if possible (pink rays look a little more sunshiney than say, green rays)
glue
scissors
pencil for tracing
paintbrush
2 googly eyes
1 pompom
1 mouth cut from your choice of material - the one pictured here was cut from felt. It added a little texture lesson to the craft.
I let Matthew choose the color of paint for the sun rays, the pompom and the mouth.
First trace your child's hand several times onto yellow construction paper and let him/her paint them the color of his/her choice; when dry cut them out.
Next, have your child paint the back of the paper plate with the yellow paint and gold glitter mixture. If you trust the child with the glue bottle let them put two dots of glue on and stick on the eyes. I helped Matthew by holding the glue bottle with him and letting him squeeze, then quick pulling it away before we had an enormous pool of glue.
Next, stick on the pompom and the mouth in the same manner.
Finally, when everything is dry, glue the hands to the front of the paper plate. Turn it over and you have your cute handprint sunshine guy. :) Enjoy!
Have a beautiful day! ;)