Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Make Tortilla Art!

The other day I was staring at some leftover tortillas and a thought suddenly dawned on me.  These lovely flat circles would make great canvases.  So Chuck and I pulled out a couple of items from our kitchen and began painting some colorful edible art!    

Edible Art:  Let's Paint Tortillas!

make tortilla artwork


Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Corn Husk Paint Brushes

Last week my sister brought over a bunch of corn.  I roasted them in the oven with their husks on and they were yummy.   But as I cleaned up, I kept wondering if there was anything I could do with the discarded husks.  Last summer I used my husks to make a corn husk doll.  This time I tried my hand at making some corn husk paint brushes, since Chuck has been so keen on painting lately.

Corn Husk Paint Brushes

how to make corn husk paint brushes
(Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  Thanks so much for your support!)

Last time he really enjoyed making abstract art with cardboard.  This time he found it funny to paint with brushes make from food.  Now if you're eating a lot of corn too, your kids might like trying out this activity too! 


Friday, May 23, 2014

Make Homemade Body Paint

A couple of days ago my sister came over to visit.  Chuck and I were super excited for her to come.  She also enjoys making things so I wanted to try Paging Fun Mom's homemade body paint with her.  I ended up not following their recipe and just winging it.  It still came out and we had lots of fun painting homemade body paint on ourselves.

Make Homemade Body Paint

how to make homemade body paint

 (Note: This post contains affiliate links.  Thanks for your support!)

You just need three ingredients to make this creamy (and very moisturizing) body paint.  Just FYI- it has a completely different consistency then real body paint and it's not meant to stay on.  But that was ok with us.  We ended up painting our pictures, wiping off our artwork, and then painting something else.  Interested?  Let's get making!


Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Create Abstract Art with Kids

Chuck and I enjoy painting... well... just about anything.  Give this kid a brush and paint and he's good to go.  I love making art with the little guy and that's why I'm always on the look out for new ways to paint.  That's why this easy abstract painting tutorial on the awesome blog Create Art with Mel really appealed to me.  You simply use a common household item to create interesting abstract art.  Care to guess what the item is?   

create abstract art with toddlers
(This post contains affiliate links.)


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Corn Syrup Paint

Are you looking for a paint that's super pigmented and remains glossy looking when it's dry?  Well then this corn syrup paint is for you.  Chuck and I whipped up a batch of this glossy paint the other day in our kitchen.  Then we had loads of fun trying it out.  The paint is edible (although you probably don't want to eat it), has a consistency  thicker than regular paint, and looks like shiny enamel when it dries.  Intrigued?  Check out the results!

Make Glossy Corn Syrup Paint


how to make glossy corn syrup paint
(This post contains affiliate links. )

Oooooh.  Pretty.  So far we've made homemade sidewalk paint, homemade watercolor paints, and cornstarch toddler paint ... but none of those stand up to the gorgeous results of this homemade corn syrup paint.  The bright colors and gloss are fabulous.   (Yes.  I used the f-word.)  And ready for the best thing?  You could probably whip up a batch of this stuff tonight with ingredients and materials already found at home.  Let's get painting!


Thursday, May 8, 2014

6 Fun Flower Activities for Kids

I've had flowers on my mind lately.  But can you blame me?  Spring is here and the world is bursting with color!  Plus, Mother's day is coming up and I imagine mothers all over receiving flowers as gifts.  So that's why I put together this list of 6 fun flower activities that you can do with your kids.   You can turn flowers into works of art, use them to decorate stationary, or place them in a sensory bin!  Let's get started!

6 Fun Flower Activities 




Monday, May 5, 2014

Brooklyn Flea Adventure

This weekend my sister took me out to city to celebrate my birthday.  We passed the time thrifting, eating, walking, and chatting.  It was a really perfect day.  I loved hanging out with my sister and I felt so inspired seeing all the colorful street art and lovely handmade items.

Here are some photos from our adventures in Brooklyn...
The colors and smiling children made me so happy
To see more photos, keep on reading!

Friday, April 4, 2014

Kid Made Stenciled Artwork

Greetings from Australia!  Sorry for the lack of posts this week.  We're currently visiting family in Brisbane, so posting will be sporadic till we get back.  Since I had a couple of free moments today, I thought I'd share these handmade gifts that Chuck and I made for this trip.  Chuck currently enjoys painting, so we created some lovely pieces of contact paper stenciled artwork.  We gave them as gifts and I think they're extra special because they were handmade by Chuck.

Kids' Contact Paper Stenciled Artwork

kid made gift stenciled artwork

Keep reading to see how we made them!

Friday, March 14, 2014

DIY Melted Crayon Artwork

Have you ever seen those cool examples of melted crayon artwork?  You know, the ones where people glue crayons to canvases and then melt them with hair dryers?  Well, I thought they were really neat, but wondered if there was another way to do it.  After some experimenting, I found out that you can directly melt crayons with a hair dryer as you draw on canvas. Pretty neat, right? The melted crayon just glides over the canvas, giving your artwork a different look and feel.  Now instead of making drippy crayon artwork, you can draw any image you like!

I chose to make some spring inspired artwork (because once again, I'm feeling optimistic that warmer weather is coming!)

Melted Crayon Artwork



To see how I made this neat artwork, check out my DIY Melted Crayon Wall Art Tutorial at Handmade Charlotte!  Have a great weekend.

Pi Day Activity- Make Pi Art!

Happy Pi Day everyone!  I remember thinking this holiday was really cool when I was younger.  We let out our inner nerds, drank soda, and ate a pizza pie in class.  Earlier this week I whetted your mathy appetite when I shared how I turned Pi into wearable art.  My super easy and colorful Pi Day Bracelets were made by stringing different colored beads according to the digits in Pi.  Today I'm celebrating Pi Day with two colorful and geometric pieces of Pi Day Inspired Artwork.

 "Easy As Pi" Artwork!

Turn Pi into lovely math artwork

And if you have younger preschool aged children, check out my 5 easy ways to celebrate Pi Day with Preschoolers!


Now let's celebrate your inner nerd and create some fun artwork to brighten up your wall.  Let's get started!

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Jasper Johns Inspired Wall Art

When I saw this lovely artwork that an elementary student made in the style of Jasper Johns, I was utterly entranced.  I loved how the letters seemed to swirl in colors.  So armed with my trusty craft paints, I painted my own Jasper Johns inspired wall art. But, instead of writing out a series of letters or a random assortment of words, I included four words that had special meaning to me.  Here's what I came up with: 


If you'd like to see how I painted this artwork, keep reading!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Cherry Blossom Tissue Paper Flower Craft (Tree printable included!)

I know, it's a little early for cherry blossoms crafts.  But this mama is seriously over winter.  Buh-bye!  With yet another snow storm scheduled to come tomorrow, this tissue paper cherry blossom tree craft is my attempt to kick winter in the face.  Hiyah! 


Ahh, cherry blossoms... so beautiful... so springy...

Cherry blossom Tissue paper tree craft

Like the tree?  You can use it for your kids' crafts too!  I turned my painting into a pdf so you can just download it and print it out....

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

DIY Splatter Painted Pants

Everything outside is grey, grey, grey.  Bah.  I've been longing for some color in my life.  So that's why I took a pair of pants and went crazy.  Yurrrp.  I splatter painted the whole thing bright happy colors.

DIY splatter painted pants

They look pretty crazy... and pretty cool.  (They were also inspired by by this awesome splatter pant tutorial from PS-I Made This.) So far I've worn these pants around the apartment but I have yet to wear them outside.  (What's the correction occasion for such colorful pants?  Hrmm...)Now if you'd like some color in your life too, keep reading!


Sunday, February 2, 2014

DIY Inkblot Shirt

We received a bunch of hand-me-downs awhile back and one of the items was a plain black shirt.  I saw it and immediately knew that I wanted to try painting something on it.  But I wasn't sure what...   Now that I've been sick for the past couple of weeks, Chuck and I have pretty much stayed at home.... the whole time.

Now,  I love Chuck, but being locked indoors for long periods of time totally drives both of us CRAZY....   So that's what inspired me to make this DIY Inkblot shirt.

What do you see when you look at the design?
DIY Inkblot shirt for kids
Keep on reading to find out how I made this bad boy!

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Light Painting with a Flashlight

Hubby and I love seeing things glow in the dark. We've taken photos with glow sticks (and then cut them up to see what was inside- muah ha ha), made our Christmas lights look like different shapes, and even made glow-in-the dark chalk.

This past Christmas our uncle gave us his old tripod (Thanks Tito Ric!), so hubby wanted to try light painting.  We basically just waved around a flashlight in the air to make lovely "drawings" in the dark.

How to do light painting with kids- Easy and unique way to make art at night!



Thursday, December 19, 2013

Finding beauty in the everyday

Heart shaped candy canes 

(bent using this tutorial)
Bend a candycane to look like a heart

Our current car collection

toy cars arranged in a nice way

Christmas tree toys 

plastic animals arranged like a christmas tree

Red and white rice krispy treats

make red and white rice krispy treats

White play dough on our black table

white play dough winter scene

Happy Thursday friends!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Star Painting (using Contact Paper)

Lately the cooler temperatures and shortened daylight hours have me looking at the sky to find stars.  However, since we live in a well-lit, urban environment, star gazing isn't really a viable option.

So once again I felt the urge to make some star-inspired artwork.  If I can't see stars in the sky, then I'll just have to make my own to enjoy.  Now, if you've been following this blog for some time, you'll recall that this isn't the first time I felt drawn towards the stars.  Last year I placed a galaxy of cardboard stars on our living room wall.  Then earlier this year I painted the inside of an umbrella to look like a galaxy.  This time I took a simpler approach and made myself some star artwork using contact paper.


Materials:
  • Canvas
  • Contact Paper
  • Pen
  • Scissors
  • Paint
  • Sponge brushes (or paint brushes)

Directions:

  1. Sketch out your stars onto the back of your contact paper.  Cut the stars out.
  2. Place the stars on your canvas.  Play around with their arrangement until you're satisfied.  Once you have a pleasing design, pull the backing off and stick the stars onto your canvas. (Make sure that they are stuck on well so that you get nice crisp lines.)
  3. Dab paint over your canvas.
  4. Once the paint dries, carefully peel off your contact paper stars.  You should see a bunch of white stars where your contact paper blocked the paint.

Quick and easy, right? Just remember to make sure that your contact paper stars are completely stuck on tight.  Eeek!  See that leftmost star below?  The paint bled through because the contact paper wasn't sticking to the canvas properly.

 Happy star crafting!

Monday, October 28, 2013

Make your own "Paint with water" pages

While perusing the craft store for costume materials the other day, I saw some "paint with water" books.  As a kid I loved those things.  You pay a buck or two and then you got sheets and sheets of coloring pages with "paint pans" printed on the bottom of the page. It always blew my mind that I just needed a wet Q-tip to paint!  

So of course, that's when a light bulb went off in my mind.  Ding!  Sure, I could pay a could pay a couple of bucks, buy a book, and then relive some childhood memories.  But I figured I'd have even more fun putting on my DIY hat and making my own "paint with water" pages.

So, tada!  Here are my DIY "paint with water" pages.  Not going to lie, the store bought ones are certainly cheaper.  But, these ones are pretty groovy because they're customizable and sure to delight both the maker and the user.


Ready to make your own?  Let's get started!

Materials:
  • Watercolor paper
  • Scissors
  • Sharpie marker
  • Watercolor pencils
  • Pencil sharpener
  • Watercolor tubes

Directions: 

1.  Cut your watercolor paper into quarters.  Use your Sharpie marker to draw four rectangles on the bottom of your sheet.  These will hold your "paint" colors.  Then, use your Sharpie marker to doodle your images onto the paper.  (Or, you could leave the page blank too.) 

2.  Pull out your watercolor pencils.  Color the rectangles in with different colors.  For the best results, press hard and choose darker colors.

And that's it!  You now have blank canvases for artwork, coloring sheets, or fun activity sheets. (Come on, who doesn't love adding makeup to doodled faces?)


Or, you could turn the pages into fun cards or postcards.  Who wouldn't love receiving a super cute card that doubles as an outlet for creativity?   


To color in your pages, simply take a Q-tip (or paint brush), dip it in water, and then dip it into your "paint pans."  Voila.  Instant watercolor paint!



Don't have watercolor pencils?  No sweat.  You could also do the same thing with watercolor tubes.  (This idea was inspired by Creative With Kids.)  For these "paint with water" pages:
  1. Cut your watercolor pages in half instead of quarters to give yourself more room to paint
  2. Place tiny drops of paint on one side of your watercolor sheet
  3. Let the paint dry for a couple of hours
  4. Doodle a design with Sharpie if desired
Once again, you've got your very own portable palette of paint!  (These pages are a bit fancier than the previous ones because they hold more paint.)

Once again, all you need now is a paintbrush (or in my case, a Q-tip) to make instant artwork.

Happy crafting!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Make Borax Crystal Flowers

Why make borax crystal flowers?  Well, do you love the look of freshly cut flowers sitting in a vase?  I do.  But I never buy them because of my cursed black thumb.  While most people's cut flowers last for weeks, mine always start turning brown and wilting within a day or two.

Boo, black thumb!   

Last week our craft store had a sale on fake flowers.  I was so tempted to buy them, but they looked kinda cheesy and screamed, "I'm fake and I attract dust."

But I ended up getting the flowers anyway, because I wanted to make something pretty with them.  Here's what I came up with:  Crystal Flowers 

Make Crystal Flowers!


DIY Crystal borax flowers
Yes.  My fake flowers are covered with real crystals... that I grew from Borax.  Lovely, aren't they?

Would you like to make your own frosted-looking flowers?  Read on!
  
This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Make Homemade Sidewalk Chalk

I'd been meaning to try my hand at making homemade sidewalk chalk out of plaster of paris for awhile now.  But I never got up the nerve to try it out until this past weekend.   As I stared at my craft cabinet filled with dozens of empty toilet paper rolls, I felt the crafting itch take over.

Armed with my Michaels coupons, I took the plunge and bought myself some plaster of paris.  Then, a day later, Chuck and I made these:

Like the two colors?  Me too.  Now we get both pink and blue all in one piece of chalk.  Whoa.  Mind blowing.