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.

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.

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: "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.

In Home Entertainment: Saran Wrap Painting (and salt painting, too)

This one has been on our arts & crafts list for a while, but because it requires some restraint, mom wasn't sure we were ready for it yet. But, she finally figured restraint, schmestraint. It's super simple, but does require adherence to a few rules to get it to turn out correctly (although, we're always up for bucking the rules, so if you do, and it turns out cool, let us know!). You'll need watercolors (or watered down tempera paint -- either will do, we tried both), thick watercolor paper (this one's necessary), and some saran wrap.

First, run the watercolor paper under water until it's nice and wet. Then, paint on it liberally with watercolors. When you get a good deal of paint on there, stretch a piece of saran wrap across the top and bunch it up with your fingers. You can make patterns or go random. Resist the urge to rip the saran wrap off. Instead, let it sit overnight or until the paper is mostly dry (another necessary step for this art project). Once it's dry, peel off the saran wrap and admire the picture underneath -- the plastic sort of bunches up the paint, making neat lines and glossy surfaces. Super cool.

We also took this as an opportunity to try once and for all to get salt painting to work out for us, which it hasn't in the past. I think the key to doing it, as with the saran wrap project, is good, thick paper sufficiently wet and a large amount of paint on the page. You basically do the same steps outlined above, but instead of covering it with saran wrap, sprinkle coarse salt over the painting. Then also let that dry overnight. Trippy.

(the pics of the finished paintings are not great, but it would seem that there is no freakin' daylight to take good photos this winter)

Salt of the Earth: Painting with Salt

We've seen so many beautiful watercolor-salt painting projects on the web, but have had very little luck ourselves.  We're starting to think the pictures are fake (because it certainly couldn't be our technique).  We had some success recently by first wetting the watercolor paper with water, then using very watered down watercolors liberally, and then applying the salt.  As usual Kane just wanted to pour and scrub mountains of salt on his paper (we're thinking of setting him up with a little homemade salt scrub).  I had better luck, but didn't want to stick with it for very long because it didn't show immediate results (once they dried, the salt sort of soaks up the color and makes pretty marks on the paper).  We tried to be patient, but I think this is one we'll stick on the shelf until we are older.