Angular Art Project

It feels like it's been forever since the kids sat down and did an art project together. But they both spent the good part of an hour working on this simple watercolor and permanent marker activity. Sometimes it's the simple things that work out the best! Head over to Honest to Nod to see how we made these pretty paintings.

Balloon Stamp Painting

At this point in the summer, the kids are sort of over trying new things. They are over each other. They are frankly over me (how dare they!). But they both donned immediate huge smiles, laughed, and had a total blast when I broke out this balloon stamp painting project last week. I honestly can't remember where I spotted this project first—somewhere in the depths of Pinterest, probably. It's not an original idea, but it's a truly fabulous outdoor paint project. I highly recommend giving it a try to get you through these dog days of summer!

DIY Mirror Painting

I have been carting around a set of mirrors for several years with the goal of using them in a painting project. And we finally made it happen! Head over to Honest to Nod to see how we used them to paint the sky!

Blow Painting

Blow painting certainly isn't an original art project—I've seen it all over the interwebs and art books. And there are absolutely more involved projects based on the simple premise (we've got some in the works!). But we finally got around to trying blow painting and so loved the process and results of the basic project that I had to share.

DIY Scratch Art

The kids have been totally obsessed with scratch art lately. But a few days into being homebound by Jonas, they'd scratched their way through all 50 postcards in our stash. So we decided to make our own. I've seen several different tutorials, but we used what we had on hand (fortunately for our snowed-in selves, we always have a lot of arts and craft materials on hand!).

Marble Monoprints

We've been making slow but steady progress on our Fall Bucket List and Cam was so excited to try out a new kind of paint printing. Inspired by the balloons at Kane's 7th birthday party, we set out to make a set of swirly marble prints. LOVE! Head over to Honest to Nod to see what's what with the what.

Weekend Makes

It's fall storm season and we're in prep mode on the East Coast in anticipation of Hurricane Joaquin (love, love the name!). While some in our household are most concerned about the possibility of Sunday's Eagles game being canceled, I'm slightly more focused on how we're going to spend an entire weekend indoors (which I'm also secretly excited about because we've been so busy lately!). Here's what I'm thinking ....

1 / rain sticks with washi tape! 2 / shaving cream rain clouds -- love the idea to use all the colors 3 / our "hurricane" printing technique 4 / we love spin art! (and this one's particularly seasonal) 5 / hurricane in a jar 

DIY Craft Stick Puzzles

Looking for a simple and fun art project for these cold days indoors? Check out our DIY Craft Stick Puzzles that were over at Honest to Nod last Friday. Part art, part puzzle, part sneaky basic math, and lots and lots of fun.

Marble Painting

Have you ever tried marble painting? There are tons of different techniques, and we've only tried a few. But every time we do it, the kids (and me) get kind of obsessed with it and make stacks and stacks of marbled paper. It's the perfect paper to save for card making, wrapping paper, collage material, or backgrounds for a story. I will say that even though the shaving cream is popular for kiddos (you can see our stint here), I find the smell so bothersome that we haven't done a whole lot of it. But I've included five other ideas below! I think nail polish marbling is next up for us -- seems like a good way to use all that polish Cam insists I buy and we never use (because I CANNOT paint nails).

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 

Artworks: Dia de los Muertos Monoprints

Mom is obsessed with Dia de los Muertos, which falls on November 1st and 2nd, and we were quite happy to jump on board this year given the stronghold we have on Halloween decorations and our interest in all things involving skulls. There are tons of really cool Dia de los Muertos crafts out there, but mom had been wanting to try making monoprints for a while and was trying to think of a way to do both things. Then she remembered No Monsters in My Bed's q-tip printing post from a while back and figured we'd give that a go by making sugar skull prints. We all LOVED it. Mom printed out these coloring sheets for us to reference and sat down with us and made some herself as well. We tried colored paint on white paper and mom also tried black paint on colored paper. Both came out awesome. I'm guessing these will be made into a flag garland soon .... There also may be gems involved.

Here's the DIAlio. You'll need:
- paint
- an old pan or baking sheet
- q-tips
- paper (we used both heavy watercolor and lighter weight paper and each turned out well. the light weight paper will probably look cool strung up into a paper garland because it will move with the air better)
- a brayer or sponge paint brush

Once you've got your supplies:
1. Spread a thin layer of paint onto the back of a pan or baking sheet using the brayer or sponge paint brush. Try to spread the paint until it's translucent -- a thicker paint layer does not print as well.

2. Use the q-tip to draw a sugar skull (or have a parent draw the outline and the kiddos add detail).

3. Press a piece of paper carefully on the design and smooth with your hand.

4. Lift to see your print!

We varied our prints by changing up the type and color of paper and mixing in glitter paint to some of them. Fabulous.

Artworks: Rain Painting

It appears that we've somehow moved to Seattle without actually moving. It's like spring around here this year, just way more humid. So we've had lots of chances to come up with new ways to entertain ourselves in the rain, including to get out in it. Enter rain painting. Nothing too complicated, just a good way to get out and do some art in the rain. 

To start, we ground up some old tempera paint cakes -- we tried to roll them in a plastic baggie at first, but ended up placing them between two layers of wax paper and chopping them up with a cheese cutter (also therapeutic for moms who have been stuck inside with two kids during this "Summer of Rain"). If you have powdered tempera paint, that would work even better. Then we sprinkled the newly-powdered paints onto heavy watercolor paper and set them out in the rain. It was fun to experiment with placement and we grew more patient as we watched the rain work its magic. 

Turns out that the designs kind of look like fireworks, so it might be a good rainy July 4th project to do as well. We are taking a few days blog break to hang, but we'll be back next week to report on our bucket list progress. Happy 4th! 

Artworks: Design Your Own Fancy Masks

Mom was making her kid art idea rounds and came across this fantastic FREE printable set of "design your own masks" from the picklebums (via The Crafty Crow) and knew we had to make them immediately. These great masks combine a lot of our current faves -- superheroes, princesses, animals, magicians ... too good to be true.

Mom printed the templates out on heavy cardstock (110 lb. weight) and we all took our watercolors to them. Once they dried, mom cut them out and we picked out the pieces for our creations. Then you know we added some bling. Mom taped them together (but will probably go back at them with glue once we take them off and likely reinforce the eye holes with packing tape on the back) and pierced holes in the side with scissors. The picklebums used yarn to hold their masks on, but we had some extra clear elastic left from my superhero party masks and we used that.

As of press time, we are working on incorporating our masks into a play where I am "King Spider King" and Cami is a "mermaid ballerina princess" (on a scooter). We've turned the corner of our living room into the "dressing and costume change area" and the couch is going to be our stage. We have a ton left and can't wait to mix and match some more. Such a smart idea for a rainy day or any type of birthday party!

Artworks: Mini Framed Permanent Marker and Watercolor Works

We've been spending a lot of time with our IKEA MALA watercolors this winter and mom has been on the lookout for new, interesting art projects for them. As part of daddy's Valentine's Day present from us, we decided to combine two different ideas we've seen (mini framed paintings and painted permanent marker drawings -- neither of which mom can now located online). Mom had purchased a mini magnetic chalkboard for dad's office, which had space for two 3X3 photos. Instead of giving daddy another set of our mugs, mom thought we could each make a little mini painting.

Mom masking taped down a small square of watercolor paper, creating a frame of white space on the paper. We then used a black permanent marker to create a drawing. We were antsy with this part -- we wanted at the paints. It took us a few tries (after which mom gave up on trying to tape down the paper -- she couldn't do it fast enough) and watching mom work on a few to get the idea. I tried to use different colors (always including green, of course) to paint in my drawing. Cam stuck with purple. Only purple. Well, eventually she looped in some green. But then painted over that with purple.

We also wanted mom to do some drawings for us to paint. She obliged, but stuck with our own drawings for daddy's present. The framed paintings came out really cool -- we have to think of a better way to do this so mom can keep up with our flow and get enough small paintings taped down first (maybe the floor?). Although mom didn't exactly measure them first, so you couldn't see the frames once we put them in the chalkboard. Go figure.

In Home Entertainment: 3D Abstract Painting

Thanks goodness mom placed an order with Discount School Supplies before this cold snap hit because we've been inside A LOT. We needed just a few things to supplement our art supplies and make some projects we've been planning since our visit to the Children's Museum of the Arts in NYC. On our HOURS LONG visit there a few weeks ago, we spied some really neat 3D art made with paint and what appeared to be toilet paper rolls and other concentric cardboard pieces. We thought we'd try something similar with wood and paint. And glue. The glue turned out to be key -- we don't ever really use it much at home and, when we do, it's usually a glue stick. But both Cam and I liked using the glue with a brush offered at the museum.

To begin, mom gave us real stretched canvas to paint with our new IKEA MALA paints (IKEA recently revamped their art supplies and, while they kept our favorites, they also made some new great additions).  Unlike our beloved Biocolor paints, the IKEA paints mix together and so mom was curious to see if we'd both end up with brown canvases. We didn't!

When we finished painting the canvases, we set those aside to dry and started painting several pieces of wood bits (we bought these from DSS because there really is no one "woodworking" in our sphere, but you could use any lightweight wood leftovers). Once everything was dry, which was actually rather soon, we glued the wood bits onto our canvases. We were very liberal with the glue, so the finished product took a bit longer to dry than expected. And mom had anticipated a final round of painting, but we wanted to hang them up just as they were. We think they turned out pretty cool -- especially hung up on the wall where they cast all kinds of neat shadows.

Yo: we haven't posted an links in a while, but we are still Discount School Supply affiliates and the links below to DSS are affiliate links. If you click on any of these links (or the general DSS link on the right hand side of our blog) and make a purchase, we will receive a small percentage of the sale from DSS. So do us a solid and help support our arts and crafts habit -- if you are going to purchase something from DSS, do it through Not-So-SAHM! Scroll down for links to purchase the supplies we used in our 3D Abstract Painting project.

Box of Wood Bits - 5 lbs. A wonderful assortment of wood spools planks disks and more! Pieces can be painted laced or glued. Assorted shapes and sizes measuring 2 - 4. Lacing holes also vary from 1/16 - 1/8.

Real Stretched Canvas - Set of 6 Professional grade authentic stretched canvasses are primed with gesso - they're 100% cotton canvas! Canvas accepts all Colorations paints. Ideal for enhancing fine motor and creative skills in young children. Real canvas encourages self-esteem and adds value to creations. Perfect for gifts. 9L x 12W x 3/4H.

Glue Jar with Brush - Set of 12 No more smearing glue with your fingers! You'll keep your hands and your work area clean with these convenient glue jars! The application brushes are attached to the inside of their red caps making gluing a breeze. And you won't have to guess what's in the jars because they're clear. Reusable jars are sold empty in a set of 12 and hold 2.7 oz. each. Jars measure 2 5/8H x 2Dia; cap is 1 1/4W x 2 1/2L.

In Home Entertainment: A Mitzvah Story

Over winter break, my school sent home directions and supplies to make a "Mitzvah Story" book. In Judaism, the term mitzvah means an act of human kindness -- a good deed. Mom unpacked it all, noted what a nice idea it was, and then put it on our kitchen counter where it sat for two weeks. Upon returning to school after the holidays, we realized we forgot to put my story together! So we sat down together to find photographs illustrating the various mitzvahs highlighted in the directions (helping family, helping friends, helping the neighborhood, and taking care of nature). I was all for that part and even helped stretch our imaginations a bit. Then mom asked me to help fill in the blanks for the question prompts and I decided I didn't want to do it. I "didn't like helping people" and I "felt nothing" when doing mitzvahs. I have a knack for being a real PITA when I decide I don't want to do something. So mom said fine and put it away.

A few days later I asked for an art project and mom asked whether I'd like to make the cover for my mitzvah book. I was into that and wanted to do a collage with bleeding art tissue paper. Fortunately the board book cover of my mitzvah story was pretty sturdy and I modpodged on, peeled off, and reglued a whole bunch of tissue paper. Only then was I excited to bring it in to school and share it. Mom said (paraphrasing here) something about "you gotta look like you don't need it and then they give it to you for free." Whatever that means.

I think she really just thought the book was a concrete way for us to realize all the nice things I do for people even if I don't think of them that way and how I could think about continuing those acts. And I did. For the next week I came up with good deeds, large and small and that generally somehow also benefited me, and kept asking "that's a good mitzvah, right?" And, as it turns out, yes, sometimes cupcakes for everyone are definitely a mitzvah.

In Home Entertainment: "Snow" Painting

We've seen a little bit of cold weather so far this year, but NO snow (save the snow mom ran on in NYC recently, which jacked up her knee, natch). And although it's entirely possible we'll get our fair share of February and March snowmageddons, just in case, mom bought us some fake snow to mix up. We could have approached this as a science experiment, and we did a little in the beginning, but we're not quite up to polymers just yet (although I think there is some of this in our new science kit). Instead, we decided to have fun watching it erupt (it literally grows up over itself once you add water) and then make some snow paintings.

Mom gave each of us liquid watercolors and eyedroppers with which to paint. It took us a little bit to get the coordination down, but then we went to town. And we actually painted for quite a while before one of us, I'm pretty sure it was Kane, decided to start painting by just pouring the watercolors on to the snow. And then a science experiment kicked in spontaneously -- we took turns balancing the mixture of liquid and polymer and changing the material back and forth between more of a slushy mess (we decided this was ice) and a fluffy snow (by adding more polymer).

I played for a while and liked making a rainbow of colors, but Kane was mesmerized for almost two hours.  He made igloos, forts and waged war between the "blue ice" and the "green snow." When I gave up and headed for the bathtub, he took over some of my purple ice and had a sneak attack on the blue ice. It only takes a little to make a lot, but we loved the colors we made so much, we insisted on saving them in airtight containers. And mom swears it wasn't as difficult to clean up as it looks -- it's basically the same stuff inside of diapers, though, and if you've ever put a diaper through the washing machine, you know how much fun that is. So she suggests making sure to rinse it off of your clothes first!

So take that, lame D.C. weather.