February 28, 2013

Kid Art- Dr. Seuss inspired Acrylic Glue Batik Painting

My son drew with pencil on this scrap of canvas almost a year ago (6 yrs. old). As some of you know I've been "nesting" (for a year, or maybe just always) for our 4th baby (due Mar. 10th, eek!) and trying to get "things" out of the way. I've been having problems with our internet, so it's been hard posting lately too.

We finally got around to finishing this batik painting (Go to my Simple Glue Batiking on Canvas {tutorial}). He said it reminded him of Dr. Seuss' books. I would agree! I think Dr. Seuss has more influence with his wonderful nonsense drawings and ideas more than we all realize! So we saved it for Dr. Seuss week. 


Isn't this whimsy?
This is after the glue has been washed off. Now I need to figure out how to frame it... hmmm...



This is before the glue has been washed off. Obviously it's a lot brighter in color but there isn't a lot of detail from his drawing underneath. That's why I love using the glue batiking method! 

Simple!
Yo Yo Yo Dr.Seuss!



February 22, 2013

Celebrating Dr. Seuss

Next week we will be celebrating Dr. Seuss throughout the week at our school and nationwide. They have really fun activities at our school for the kids.

In December for all the 1st grade, the teachers put on a super fun Whoville Christmas! It was so cute! They asked me to paint a backdrop for the 80+ kids, teachers, and principal. I would love to post the teachers' photos, but I didn't ask them. So here are my kids...




My little 1st-grader!



She's not old enough to be in 1st grade, but she wanted a picture like her big brother!





The teachers chose a page from How the Grinch Stole Christmas! for me to paint.  Of course I  love the story that it teaches children and adults about the Christmas spirit and life.

We'll see what we come up with next week!


February 19, 2013

Sneak Peek: Acrylic on Tissue

My family had a very fun weekend visit with a very cool family... and of course we had to make an art project with the kiddos!

With this art project, they used white tissue paper, pencils, permanent markers and paint. The kids picked their own theme.  Let's see what they came up with... later next week!


Beavers, owls, deers, trees... Oh my!




Tune in later next week...



February 08, 2013

Circles, Circles, Circles... My glue batik "Designer" Pillow

I thought I would share one last post for this week that didn't have to do with Valentine's. I'm trying to get a few little and big art projects (maybe house-related projects, backed up photo albums... you know) complete before I have our 4th baby in March. Yikes... 

This glue batik took me a lot longer than I had planned, but I now I have a "designer" pillow, right? Wa wa. 

(For tutorial, go to Simple Glue Batik on Canvas post). 





I think this pillow adds a nice flare to our "rather sad couch" (as my husband states too often)! The yellow pillow on the left was sewn from a Japanese kimono I knew I would never wear.




Letting the water soak out the washable glue... My 2 1/2 year-old daughter threw her rubber duck in for a bath. 



 

BEFORE washing the glue & AFTER washing the glue off.




Ahhh... A little color to my "sad" couch. 




February 07, 2013

Felt "I Love You" Hand Sign Valentines

Obviously this is super easy, and very kid-friendly. I let the kids do this almost entirely by themselves, except cutting with my sharp material scissors. 

Last year, for our Valentine's breakfast, the night before, my husband and I made these "I LOVE YOU" felt hands and put them on their plates. They loved them! This year the kids wanted to make their own and decorate the table. They are great for coasters too :) We are using them for our table runner at the moment, which gets rearranged every 5 minutes by our 2 1/2 year-old.  Right after I took these photos, the table of hands turned into piles of floppy blobs.

I  L O V E  Y O U !




So Ridiculously Easy You Don't Need a {TUTORIAL}:

  • felt material
  • permanent marker or something to write on material
  • scissors
  • hands!
  • thread and needle (if you want to sew the fingers down- our 2 1/2 year-old just pulls them apart anyway)




My kids traced each others' hands... cute little chubby hands...

They might look kind of sloppy... 

Hey, these are not my hands...

Press fingers down to make the hand sign "I Love You" with thread or the material sticks together...

They can add their names and date on the back or front...

Each year we will make more until it takes over our table... 



Didn't I tell you super easy? You probably already made these years ago...


SHOW YOUR LOVE ... ALWAYS.



February 06, 2013

Recycled Glitter Hearty-Heart Ornaments {tutorial}

I made these hearts last year because my kids are always begging to decorate for every season- just like our friendly retail stores. They cut out a bunch of hearty paper things too. I'm not into hearts or red, but I'm all about my kids... so here's to sparkly heart ornaments!

All three kids have been sick this week and stayed home from school. So when I dug out our Valentine decor (finally!), it put smiles on their faces...




 All You Need for Materials {sort of tutorial}


  • cardboard (I used an empty cereal box)
  • red or other colors of glitter (you can see in the photo below that I ran out)
  • hot glue gun
  • Mod Podge
  • ribbon or string for hanging
  • hole punch 
  • scissors, of course

We're going to make some HEAVY HEARTS!



  • Cut out as many hearts as you like, punch the hole first where it's going to hang.
  • Apply hot glue to an area on your card board heart, press hot glue area into a "pile" of glitter. I did not hot glue the entire heart at once on one side unless it was small because I didn't want my glue to get cold and glitter to fall off. 
  • Finish adding hot glue and glitter to one side, cool, and then add to the other side. (You can adhere with Mod Podge, but the hearts will not be as heavy as these babies.)
  • After all the hearts were cool, I applied a layer of Mod Podge to seal on the glitter. (Who likes glitter all over? Not me.)
  • Make sure you don't cover the hole for hanging.




Here's where we decided to hang our "Heavy Hearts" this year! 

Make Valentine's memorable for those you LoVe.


"Make our homes a safe place where each family member feels love and a sense of belonging. Realize that each child has varying gifts and abilities; each is an individual requiring special love and care." 
-Elder Robert D. Hales