Art Adventure: Bubble Painting

This is a pretty common art project for kids, but it's good fun, so I thought I'd include it in case you haven't tried it before. I have tested different methods of making the colors and you can mix tempera with water or even use watercolors, but I have found food coloring works best.

Bubble Painting

Supplies:

• food coloring, various colors
• water
• dish soap
• containers
• straws
• paper

Mix water, about 10 drops of food coloring and a small squirt of dish soap together. I prefer to do this in a relatively shallow container, so I don't need as much effort to get it bubbled past the rim (which I'll explain momentarily).

Once you have your colors ready, put a straw in each container.

Have your child blow through the straw to make bubbles. You want the bubbles to push up past the rim of the container.

Once you have bubbles, pull the straw out and lay a piece of paper on the bubbles. Lift up and you have a print of the bubbles.

Repeat as often as you like.

You can keep layering the colors to your heart's content. Malachi just really like blowing the bubbles; sometimes I had to remind him to make a print. :)

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Art Adventure: Magic Painting

It's a gloomy day, and a little magic is in order. Went into the archives for this one. Enjoy and go make some magic. :)
 
Don't you just love how kids see magic in something that as adults is obvious?

Magic Painting

Supplies:

• white crayons
• watercolor paint
• white paper
• brushes

First, have your child draw with the white crayon. This can be a bit complicated for kids because it can be hard to remember exactly where you drew before. It's completely acceptable to scribble.

Then use watercolor paints to go all over the drawing. 

As you paint, you will see the paint resist or pull away from the white crayon revealing the drawing - like magic. :)

Incidentally, you can use the same technique when dying eggs. Draw on the egg with white crayon before dipping in the dye and the drawing with appear.

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Art Adventure: Sidewalk Chalk Paint...again

This is an oldie, but a goodie! Sidewalk Chalk Paint is easy and fun to make and use. I hope you are having spring weather to enjoy this type of project.

Are you able to get outdoors? We are finally having some beautiful weather, so I thought an outdoor project was in order.

Super simple. Make your own sidewalk chalk paint.

Sidewalk Chalk is fun, but there is just something awesome about painting on your driveway. :)


Supplies:

• old bits of sidewalk chalk (or any chalk)
• ziploc-type bags
• hammer or mallet
• bowls or storage containers
• water
• large paintbrush

We always wind up with bits of sidewalk chalk that are too stubby for anyone to want to use, but there is still enough left that I hate to throw them away. So gather those up and separate by color, one color in each bag. (It doesn't have to be perfect matches.)

Zip the top closed and mash it up as finely as you can with a hammer or mallet.

Pour the powdered chalk into your bowls or containers.

Add water, just a tablespoon or so at a time, stirring after each addition, until you reach the desired consistency.

Once you have mixed up all the colors you want, let your little one have some fun painting a masterpiece on your sidewalk or driveway.

It will wash away eventually like all other sidewalk chalk.

If you use a storage container, pop the lid on any leftovers. The next time you want to use it, just add a bit more water if it's dried out and paint again.

Option 2 ('cause I'm all about options!):

If you don't have any bit of sidewalk chalk to use, you can make some paint from scratch.

You need:

• cornstarch
• food coloring
• water
• bowls or storage containers

Put about 1/4 cup of cornstarch in a bowl or container, no real need to measure. 

Add water a couple tablespoons at a time, stirring after each addition, until you reach desired consistency.

Add a few drops of food coloring and stir.

You can paint with this on the sidewalk and it will wash away just like sidewalk chalk. 

I will tell you that this works, especially if you don't have chalk to use up. But a word of caution: it is very hard to get the consistency right and to stay right. This is because cornstarch suspensions are non-Newtonian fluids. Sometimes the mix will seem really runny and then it sits for a minute and gets harder or almost rubbery. (Thank you Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman for teaching me and my kids these things.) So, if you go the cornstarch route, you may find yourself needing to correct the mixture more than once as you use it.

The other reason I like using option one better is that it's just fun to smash things. :)

Art Adventure: Blind Contour Drawing

This project is for kids who are a bit older. Everyone has a hard time doing their first blind contour. Not looking at what you are drawing, well, giving up control is hard!

Two reasons to do it: 1. the results are fun and you produce something really unique; 2. often when people draw they don't really look at what they are trying to draw. This forces you to really look at the person or object and draw what details you really see.

Great exercise for people of all ages and art skill level.

Blind Contour Drawings

Supplies:

• paper
• cardstock
• pencil
• chalk pastels

Start by poking a pencil through the center of a piece of cardstock. This will create a guard so your little artist cannot cheat and look at their picture.

Once the pencil is all fixed up, have your child start to draw anything they want, but something with details. We used faces.

Two rules: do NOT look at your paper (just keep your eyes on what you are drawing) and do NOT pick up your pencil.

The drawing is one continuous line.

Yes, things will look wonky. That's fine! The wonkier the better really.

The next part is to use the chalk pastels to add color. Use the lines as guides and just add color however you wish. Use fingers to blend the colors.

Gabe wailed about the injustices of not looking and not picking up his pencil at first, but once he finally just did it, he really enjoyed it.

Malachi, being four, didn't get it at all, but he loved the pastels.

However it comes out, it's a fun process to try.

 

Switcheroo

Our room layout wasn't working for us. Matt and I are both clutter-y people and a bit lazy. But I can't stand messes, so I'm always trying to come up with new organizational tricks that help out while just working with who we actually are.

Remember when there were all those organizing shows on TV awhile back? Yeah, I love organizing, but no matter how great a system is, if you have to completely change, it's never going to last.

 We needed  hooks for clothes, and the old layout didn't allow for it, so clothes were left wherever, just looking messy. The truth, when I wear a pair of pants to church for a couple hours, or when I wear a pair of jeans, I'm not going to wash them right away (it's really hard on your clothes), but I'm too lazy to put them away too. So, many years ago I realized hooks were the way to go.

So all that over-sharing was leading up to switching the bedroom around. We were worried that furniture might only fit well the way it was, so here's a little trick if you want to move furniture without moving it.

Make a scale drawing of the room and cut out scaled paper models for the furniture. Then you can rearrange the room to your heart's content without any heavy lifting.

Occasionally I think an arrangement works on paper and then I don't like it in real life, but overall it's a nice little helper. Plus the kids will be entertained for quite awhile too. :)

In this case, it worked out really well.

We actually like it better. We have our hooks now.

The spacing is a little tight between the dresser and the bed, but it's not bad at all. The drawers can still open fully and I can walk normally through the space.

(Tight spaces don't cause much fuss for us. In Boston, we had an apartment with a long, skinny bathroom and you had to turn sideways and shuffle past the tub to get to the toilet.)

I keep debating about whether to make an upholstered headboard or a wood-slat headboard. One day I'll decide and get 'er done. I know exactly what I want for new bedding...I saw it two years ago...and of course I can't find it now! So, I'm just waiting to find something I love.

(Please note how messy Matt's dresser is. Yeah, there is no hope. I've been trying for 11+ years now. Really, I've given up and just come to terms with it. It's who he is.) :)

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