Open-Ended Art – Autumn Colors

It’s been a long time since we participated in the open-ended art mcklinky at Growing by Leaps and Bounds. We are happy to be back in our *art groove* this week! :) This week the theme is fall colors – orange, yellow, red, and brown. We added green in because we were working on another fall project at the same time and I felt like green added a little something (and there IS green in fall too!). :)

After creating his autumn tree masterpiece, M just wanted to paint and do his own thing on a blank sheet of paper. I love this, and we’ve gotten away from doing this on a regular basis, so I was happy he asked.

First he did this: “I’m covering all the white spots, Mommy!” Yep, I can see that. :) He is really into this painting-the-entire-paper thing lately. It’s his art, he can do whatever he wants!

Next, more paper, and he did this: It’s always a good time when the trucks get involved!! He must’ve kept himself occupied for at least an hour with all his painting that day. In my opinion, the cleanup is totally worth it!

Here’s his finished artwork:

Go here to check out more fun open-ended artwork!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Art & Craft time! Arm Print Autumn Tree (and stamping!)

I’m working at having an art, craft or sensory-type activity for M on a daily basis.  Today we made a pretty fall tree.
You will need:

• Paint in fall colors – we used orange, yellow, green, and red
• Brown paint for the tree trunk and branches
• paintbrush
• paper – we used cardstock
• leaf stamp
• pieces of felt
• something flat to use for a stamp pad.  We used saucers… more on this below.

First to make temporary stamp pads, begin by putting the leaf colors on the saucers.  We put two colors on each saucer. Next, place one small square of felt on top of each paint glob. Gently pat the felt down until the paint soaks entirely through. Optionally, you could use a sponge and let paint soak into it, but I have found sponges do not give as clear a print with stamps as does the felt.  To keep from wasting paint, you really don’t need to use as much paint as I did.  You could also use something like a cd jewel case to do this, then shut it (possibly wrap it with plastic too) to keep your “stamp pads” usable for future projects.
Now, the fun part! 
Paint your child’s inside forearm and the palm of their hand with the brown paint.  You may want to warn them that you are going to do this, apparently it can be a bit ticklish. :)  We talked about how the paint felt slick and cool on his skin.  Here’s M showing you his brown arm.  He really did love this although you would not know it by looking at his face.
Next, print the arm onto the paper for your tree:
Start stamping leaves onto the tree branches and some on the ground, or falling in the air: See how crisp the stamp is using the felt?  M wiggled the stamp some after he set it down sometimes, creating a bit more of a blurry leaf, but the felt worked really well as a stamp pad.
I let him put the stamp in different colors without wiping it off first, which turned out to be ok, because some leaves have a couple of different colors in them, just like real ones!
Here’s his finished tree:
The felt washed up nicely and so did the boy. :)
Have a beautiful day! :)