Mess Free Painting ~ Stormy Rain Clouds

It has been raining so much here lately that we decided to make some Storm Clouds.

This is one of our (my) favourite activities. I love that the kids get all the enjoyment of paint and I don't have any cleaning up to do!!!

Put two big dollops of paint (blue and white to make them stormy) and then a small amount of Glitter Paint (optional but a hint of sparkle is nice) into zip lock bags. Squeeze out as much air as possible and let the fun begin. 

What we started with, blue and white paint, large zip lock bags, cardboard I had precut into cloud shapes and some silver glitter paint. 

Paint added ready to explore.

It is a really great way to have the sensory fun of finger painting but without the mess!

Some of the finished masterpieces. I love the way the colours have blended making so many more shades and adding much more depth to the painting. 

Easter Fun ~ Print Making

I have been hanging on to some Styrofoam meat trays for ages waiting for the right activity to pop into my head. Finally it did and today we made some Easter Egg Prints using the meat trays.

Here is what you need

Meat trays (or any clean stryofoam tray)
Skewers
Scissors
Paint
Paintbrushes or Rollers
Paper or Card to print onto

First trim the edges off the tray so you have a flat surface to work with. I then drew some egg shapes and cut them out with scissors, I had large trays and could fit two eggs per tray.

Using a skewer draw your design.

The harder you press the deeper the lines and better the print. (Be sure not to press too hard though, as you will end up with a broken tray!)

Once we were happy with the design we painted over the egg shape using thick paint brushes.

Flipped our egg over and pressed it down on to the cardboard. Making sure to press all over the egg to leave the best print.

We found that less paint left clearer prints, more just went a bit messy.

Master E, working on his print collection.

Some of the finished prints.


We were really happy with how these worked and were super easy. We are planning on cutting them out and turning them into Easter Cards soon!

Printing with Leaves and some simple Colour Mixing

We had a visit to our local community farm this week where we came across some amazing leaves. I love crafting with natural items and things that don't cost too much (especially when you are crafting every other day!). So today we did some leaf printing, it is super easy and very effective.

Here is what we started with, large leaves (I have no idea what type they are, but they had predominant veins which were great for printing), paint brushes, A3 paper (we just used copy paper) and poster paint in primary colours.

We painted the leaves vein side up using paint brushes and primary coloured paints.

Turned the leaves over and pressed them down onto the paper like a stamp to create the prints. 

Miss M making her first print.

Miss L covering her leaf with plenty of paint ready to print.

Master J very meticulous with the covering of his leaf.

Miss A being sure to press her leaf down firmly.

Miss L sneaky a peak at her print.

Miss A creating a great print.

Sticking to the primary colours made for lots of talk about colour mixing, we ended up with some purple, green and orange all made by experimenting!

Loving Master J's concentrating tongue. While he mixes up some green.

Master E working on some colour mixing and working out the red and yellow make orange.

Miss G working out that blue and yellow make green.

Miss O mixing up some purple.

One of our very clear prints.

A gorgeous example of some overlapping leaf printing, using yellow and blue to create green.



These prints turned out really well and look great. It was very simple and relatively mess free considering it was paint! We had lots of great discussions about colour mixing and the kids very proud of their works of art.
I think we will be on the hunt for some more leaves to try soon.

Straw Printing

Straw Printing is a great way to paint with minimal mess. Although I don't mind mess, sometimes it is nice to keep it contained!
This was really simple, I cut the end of the straws to make four or five individual sections and then spread them out ready to dip into the paint and print away.

What we started with straws, card to print on and thick paint (we used crayola finger paint).

The straws were really easy for the children to grip and held the paint well.

Master J being very meticulous with his printing.

Miss G experimenting with spreading the paint using the straw.

Master E decided that hitting the straw down onto the page made a great effect.

Miss L busy printing.

One of the finished Masterpieces, I love the way it resembles fireworks!

Tape Resist Initial Canvases

I brought some dot painters awhile ago and have been looking for a good way to try them out when I came across a gorgeous post on Resist Painting on Happy Whimsical Hearts which had me thinking. I loved the idea of creating canvases for the Toddler Timers to put up in their rooms and using the Tape Resist Technique.
So here is our attempt at something very similar.

We used canvases that I grabbed from The Reject Shop, they had a four pack for $5 which I thought was a bargain.

I used some low tack masking tape to tape off a M for Miss M and an E for Master E.

Then I let them loose with the dot painters. These were fabulous as there was a controlled amount of paint coming out and no spills or real mess of any kind.

We quickly covered the canvases with dots and were keen to do some more painting so I left Master E and Miss M to freely cover the 2 spare canvases in any way they wished.

Once the canvases had dried I carefully removed the tape to reveal their initials. The results look amazing and Master E and Miss M are keen to have them up in their rooms.

Egg Carton Christmas Trees

I am such a sucker for Christmas and Christmas Crafts. So be warned there will be lots of new posts to come. This is such a simple little activity that is very cost effective. 

We started with Egg Cartons that I had cut into individual domes. I then pierced a hole in the top.

We then painted each dome, (the children had four each)  Christmas Tree Green!

Rolled them in some glitter while they were still wet to add a tinsel effect.

We then threaded the domes onto a pipe cleaner and made a loop at the top all ready to hang on the Christmas Tree.

This was so very simple and held most of the children's attention for some time. Some of them were very meticulous when it came to making sure their domes were painted. These look so cute all finished and will look great hanging on our Christmas Tree come the 1st of December!