"En Plein Air" Kid Painting- a.k.a. Free Paint Time!

"En Plein Air" is French, meaning to "paint outdoors", but to me in my world, it is to create art "without rules" or any "preconceptions." I always have a project in mind when I give my kids or students art materials. My own kids sometimes just ask "Mom, can we just make an art project without having you tell us what the theme is?" Oh yeah, that would be nice right? Why didn't I think of that? 

So... one "to do" we wrote for our 

Family Summer BUCKET LIST:

• Buy blank white canvas!
• Paint whatever you want!
• No Rules!

I didn't exactly make time in the Summer for this type of painting. Turns out it is a great idea for when the older kids are in school! I loved watching the facial expressions of my 3 1/2 year-old -choosing colors, brushes and paint and whatever entertained her cute little mind...

A therapeutic painting exercise for all ages... even adults.

FISH JUMPING OVER THE RAINBOW WATER... AND A BIG SHARK... AND A BIG RED WHALE 

Didn't ya know?

Making Our CLAY SNOWMAN Family

This was so much fun for the fam! 
Making snowmen out of clay... 

Not that we really wanted to have the snow come as early as it did, but we did enjoy sculpting our snowman family! Each of us in our family made a snowman to represent ourself: my hubby, myself, our daughter (8 years), our son (6), and I made our baby girl's (18 mos). My hubby and I are in the rear admiring the view...ahhh...

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Simple Snowmen Illustrations 

by Kids 

(ages 3-6 years)

 Acrylic on blue paper (age 3) Amazing circles!

 Oil pastels on black paper (age 6) Long nose...

Oil Pastels on blue paper (age 6) Lots of buttons!

**Fun snow time!**

...................................

More Simple Clay SNOWMEN 

(made and painted by 6 year-olds)

Paint and glitter!

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Snowman Window Painting

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Sneak Peak: 3rd Grade Abstract Painting!

As you can see, this is such a colorful painting! Each of the kids painted 2 small shapes. There were 140 pieces! I will reveal the details and finished artwork next week!

 

What do you think so far?


To see it finished go HERE!

{tutorial} Make a PAINTED or DECOUPAGED bird feeder from recycled cartons

Our Colorful Bird Feeders!

Alright, so my kids begged me to buy bird feeders all Summer and I kept saying we'll make them! ...Well, we made these about 3 weeks ago, the end of Summer! Too bad it snowed today, we had to take them down :( Poor kids!

Initially I found simple instructions to make a bird feeder @ allfreecrafts.com

Easy materials needed for a DIY Bird Feeder:

-milk carton (we used granola cartons)

- white paint

-knife

-skewer sticks

-acrylic paint, or to decoupage you need strips of fabric (I repurposed material)

-Mod Podge

-brush

-hole punch

-string/wire

My kids painted with window paint, Crayola Window Crayons, & oil pastels...

Easy photo DIY *tutorial*below:

1- Paint the carton white -creating a blank canvas. (We had three to paint- I love Sweet Home Granola- Yum! They make excellent bird feeders too.)

2- Draw the door in a house-like shape 1"+ from bottom of carton.

3- Cut out door with a knife and keep the cut out shape for a roof.

4- Cut a slit in the top of the roof shape and fold in three places (shown in the photo).

5- Decorate the bird feeder carton and roof shape.

6- Use a brush to apply a coat of Mod Podge to protect drawings. I used Mod Podge to adhere repurposed material (my friend A gave it to me) to my bird feeder.

7- Glue the roof shape to carton. 

8- Make holes for 2-3 skewers, evenly on the front and back of carton and push skewers through front and back.

9- Make a hole with a hole punch to hang with string or wire.

VOILA!

 

I hope you will make one too!

(It was another week before I went to the store to buy bird feed!)

Oh Happy Birdies!

Circles & Flowers with Oil Pastels - Summer Art Class

Repeating Patterns: CIRCLES and FLOWERS

Our Summer Art Class is over, but I still have a few photos to share...

(7 - 8 years old)

One of their favorite mediums... OIL PASTELS!

The WINNERS of the ArTsY - CrAfTy GIVEAWAY are...

I was thrilled to see all of your creative entries via Linky or emailed to me! They are so cool! THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING EVERYONE! I wish I could give each person a gift for every giveaway! 

The Winners for the 

ArTsY-CrAfTy Challenge GIVEAWAY are...

I put all the names in a bowl with all of the extra entries, and one by one (I did have to close my eyes because the names are showing!),  here they are... 

There isn't a drum roll sound... 

just me...

#1 Christy's with her "Upcycling Journal"

#2 Honey Mommy with her "Paint Splatter Party"

and #3 Amber with her "Crafty Paper People"

CONGRATULATIONS!

Don't forget I will be posting their 3 projects each week!

CrAfTy - ArTsY CHALLENGE & GIVEAWAY (Closed)

Alright, some of you might have read that I mentioned I wanted to do a CrAfTy-ArTsy CHALLENGE with GIVEAWAYS attached. Yaya, you have to earn this giveaway! 

Now, first off I want you to know that anything will work for my challenge-anything that you (you don't have to have kids to enter either!) or your kids have created that is. MAKE IT SIMPLE, and if you already have one to share/enter, perfect. If not, sweet, make one for the challenge. 

*Please read this so you have an idea of what goes...
You can enter  KID or ADULT crafts or art projects, DIY projects, crafty or artsy tutorials, educational projects, Summer outings with projects, or thrifty, recycled, repurposed, upchucked projects, a tutorial on using an art/craft medium/material with intentions... (sorry, except headbands or barrettes- things like that) Basically, you get my point, right? 

The GIVEAWAY items are 3 of my Art print greeting cards (8 pk) to 
3 lucky people who take on the challenge. 
Names will be drawn on Thursday, Aug. 25th, 2011.

Great let's get started! ... I am elated for any and every entry, so don't be shy!

Challenge & Giveaway Details:


*Share your link to your project at the bottom of this post on Linky
*If you can't post your project on Linky, please email me @ candiceashment@gmail.com with photo/s and details of how you made it and leave a comment on this post.


Extra Entries:


1 extra *Follow my blog (already here- but you need to be a "follower" ;) 
1 extra *Be a Candice Ashment Art Face Book fan here
1 extra *Share this Giveaway post on your blog
1 extra *Share this Giveaway post on your Face Book 
3 extra *Share and have a friend/s enter challenge/giveaway and tell me your name so I can give you extra entry points!

Remember E-A-S-Y and F-U-N, because I'm going to share them at the end of the month here on the blog! Yippee

simple... simple... simple... simple... simple... you can do it!

TO SEE THE WINNERS GO HERE

Enter here on the bright blue Linky:

MY "Summer Sanity" BIKE TRAIN!

"Caboose," "bike train," "kid-pulling machine"... it's been called many things...

Just in case you were wondering how I stay a sliver of a fraction sane... 

Many of you have seen me on this contraption around town or on trails. This is my "SUMMER SANITY" all in one. Gets my kids out of the house (3 kids to be exact! -one being a year old -every momma knows my pain and joy all at the same time with that age), me out of the house, beautiful views, kids are quiet (because they have to concentrate on getting up the hills), fun times, and good hard exercise ALL IN ONE!

My son questioned me the other day while riding up a hill, "Mom, why doesn't Adael (my 8 year-old daughter) have to push you up the mountain?" She rides her own bike, he rides the tag-along behind me. I replied, "So you think you're pushing me up this hill? Well, it's because you are so strong!" Couldn't believe my ears. Sometimes I can actually watch him just sitting and looking around, as if it were a Sunday stroll...

Enough said... I LOVE MY BIKE TRAIN!