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!

Make Sugar Skull Sun Catchers and Crystallized Sugar Skull Ornaments

Alright everyone... the countdown is on.  It's just a couple of days till Halloween.  Are you excited?  Or, are you over all the orange and black?

I'm in the first group and still SUPER excited for Halloween.  I just finished Chuck's costume this past weekend, so he's ready to go.  I'm not sure if he'll appreciate the idea of trick-or-treating (plus his allergies prevent him from eating a lot of the candy out there), but I think he'll enjoy seeing other kids in costumes and all the spooky decorations.

I'll upload some photos of his costume later on this week... but today I just wanted to share the last of my sugar skull crafts.

So, we already made DIY sugar skull candle holders and DIY sugar skull luminaries and Allison shared her lovely tutorial for DIY sugar skull shoes.  Today's sugar skull crafts were designed with kids in mind.  They're easy to make and the resulting products look great.

1.  Sugar Skull Window Clings

Colorful and fun, these two skulls will float happily on your window.

Materials:

• Contact Paper (Buy the cheap stuff from the Dollar Store)
• Black paint pen (You could also use a Sharpie marker, but the lines won't be as dark.)
• Scissors
• Cellophane 
• Tape

DIY Tulle Mask

Looking for a simple, cheap, and fun way to make masks for Halloween this year?  

Why not try making some out of tulle and fabric paint?  Inspired by these masquerade masks from Sprinkles in Springs, I created my own Day of the Dead Mask for Handmade Charlotte.  Check out the tutorial  here!

DIY Sugar Skull (Day of the Dead) Milk Jug Luminaries

Currently my college friend Kim is visiting us for the week.  It's been really nice having someone else here while hubby is away.  Time just passes by much quicker when you're having fun with a friend.

And just how have we been having fun?  Well, we've been playing with Chuck... and eating... and watching tv... and crafting... a lot... a whole lot...  Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos are right around the corner, so all of our crafts have been centered around those two holidays. 

I'm currently on a sugar skull kick.  I just love the way they look.  So when I was staring at an old milk jug the other day, an idea dawned on me.  Ding!  Why not use them to make some sugar skull luminaries?  So tada, here's what I came up with:

I'd seen tons of posts for ghost milk jug luminaries for awhile, so I figured this was a nice twist on that craft.  It uses skulls and colorful lights instead of ghost faces and white lights.   I just love how this little guy turned out.  He's so cute and smiley... and gosh darn it, I've just got a big ol' soft soft for any craft that involves twinkly, colorful lights.

Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire

And finally, our trip to Lancaster was made fully complete with a visit to the nearby Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire.    

That's right... I finally got a chance to wear my flower crown!

All hail the Queen!

The amazing Gandolf the White

This little guy was locked up in pirate's prison.  The crime?  Being too darn cute.

Two little kids (in full protective gear), trying to pop the balloons attached to the other

Headless knight

Not sure why, but Chuck was infatuated with this giant Pumpkin man

Here he is standing at the foot of the giant pumpkin statue

 Happy Tuesday!