watercolors and funky pants cards
June 8th, 2008
We got the watercolor paints out again the other day. I LOVE watercolors. We haven’t been painting with them as much ever since I introduced the wonder of acrylic paint to Baby Bug. She thinks watercolors are for sissies now. Who wants to paint with the wimpy watercolors when there are messier, goopier, gooier paints to be had?!! So I had to hide the acrylics for a while.
Thankfully, if I seem to be having fun with the wimpy paints, Baby Bug is likely to join in the fun. So fun we did have! We blew the paint around the paper with straws and made funny many-limbed monsters like this green monster:
We painted marbles and rolled them around on the paper. That was a lot of fun. I read about doing this in an old issue of Wondertime Magazine. They have great photos that instantly sucked me in. I never even really read the directions but got the gist of what to do by just looking at the photos.
Then we painted some leaves from our neighbor’s Japanese maple tree. It was a little tricky for Baby Bug’s little hands to hold the leaf still but that didn’t really matter. She’s more about the process than the end result anyway and anything that combines her love of paint AND leaves was a win-win situation for her. I think she would have painted every leaf on the tree if I would have let her.
When we were done, we had quite a gallery of paintings to hang up on my make-shift drying line—that is actually the party lights we have strung from the rafters of our patio roof. I’ve been eye-balling the art gallery clotheslines (can’t find a link right now but I’m sure there is one somewhere) that many artistic mom-bloggers have been writing about lately but I’m a little short on wall space so the party lights will have to do. I actually liked the dangling art decorating our patio so I left it up for a couple of days.
June 8th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Sometimes going out of your usual style turns out to be really fun. :-)
June 8th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
That looks like a lot of fun time with Baby Bug! I miss playing with watercolors and acrylics, I just couldn’t look for a place around here where I think I can actually play with it without spoiling the wooden planks.
Still, I’d like to try this. When my son grows bigger, I would. Or maybe I should find paints that are non-toxic–that’ll do the trick.
Thanks for sharing this entry. This made me smile today.
June 8th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Very cool! I’m going to have to try that with Erik. His attention span for painting isn’t too high though.
June 8th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
super cool and crafty- love it.
June 8th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I so proud of you for letting her use the scissors. You would not believe all the kindergartener who have never used scissors. A great skill to master early in life.
Keep her away from curtains….I was told by a certain kid at that age that he didn’t think they would actually cut my new drapes.
June 8th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I like how you set the timer and went back to work and BB smiled for the camera.
June 8th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Those are beautiful cards! I love the way you have made some fun memories plus had craft time for yourself!
June 8th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Wonderful cards and a fitting tribute to Toby’s Aunt.
June 8th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Oh, and by the way, I was totally expecting cards with little cut-outs of pants on them!
June 8th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Adorable. My little guy is too young for this quite yet but I must remember your idea. We always re-purpose the newprint scribblings as wrapping paper. A card like this would be a great accompaniment.
June 8th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Please pass my condolences to Toby regarding the passing of his aunt. Aunt’s are important, especially aunties who are sparky and wear funky clothes.
I love the photo of BB while she is welding the glue stick, such a gleam of happiness in her eye.
June 8th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
I love the cards, and I think I am going to have to steal your idea! What a great way to reuse some artwork that I would be sneaking into the garbage can.
June 8th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Great job SAJ. I think the cards are wonderful.
June 8th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
What a fun idea. My condolences to your family.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Can I come and play at your house? ;-)
June 9th, 2008 at 2:49 am
Gorgeous cards! That’s a wonderful idea. Now I know how to keep my nephew busy on a rainy day this summer.
June 9th, 2008 at 9:15 am
The cards are beautiful!!!
You are so brave to bring out marbles AND straws during your painting session… gulp.
I have to get over my “mess” phobia and get painting!
June 9th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I love how you repurpose art projects. We made our first valentine cards that way and now I’m motivated to bust out the watercolors again. My baby hates finger painting, eats crayons but goes crazy for paint brushes… Go figure.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
My mom wears funky pants to weddings. Yay!
June 9th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Wonderful idea! We’ve done the painted ball rolling project before. The outcome is really gorgeous!
The only funky pants we had at our wedding was my uncle’s shorts. It was a a semi-formal affair and he stood out, to say the least :-)
June 9th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
You’ve got your own little art slave! Brilliant!
June 9th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Beautiful and inspiring.
If you do find that link could you let me know?
Thanks!
June 9th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
my gosh, these cards are FANTASTIC!
I found your blog from Jessica’s blog (my five little monkeys) and I LOVE it!!!
June 9th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Ha! Sarah’s comment made me laugh out loud. :-)
June 10th, 2008 at 9:50 am
What beautiful cards…and it looks like you both had fun!
June 10th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Those cards are fantastic! Really.
I may steal that idea for a home made Father’s Day card to my husband from our 7 month old. I don’t know how well she’ll do with the paints.
June 11th, 2008 at 7:49 am
I absolutely loved all the ideas in this post.
What an excellent tribute to Toby’s aunt as well.
June 11th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Awesome cards.
See, now I love watercolors, but when I was a kid, I remember only liking acrylic paint. Nice and thick and opaque. :)
June 16th, 2008 at 10:56 am
i love everything about this post!
June 27th, 2008 at 4:45 am
This is so lovely! The experience…the cards…all of it! Can you please share what kind of paper you used? In the close up, it looks like water color paper, but I’ve never seen it come in rolls before!
Thanks for sharing,
Beth
June 28th, 2008 at 11:29 am
What kind of paper do you use? It looks like a giant pad but thick! Lovely, can’t wait to do this with my daughter who is obsessed with her watercolors. Also, what brand are your watercolors??