Ok so for the first art project we did, it was more of a test to see if the idea would really work. I'm sure I saw the idea originally when I would surf pinterest for hours while pregnant, but more recently found the idea over at Paint and Prozac which you can access here. I have now used the process of putting paint and paper in a large Ziploc bag many times.
Couple of tips:
If you are going to do more than one picture you can reuse the paint that is still remaining in the bag but may want to add a titch more depending on the paper you are using. I have used plain card stock for all of our projects and it has worked pretty well, except when it stays wet for a long period of time. So if you are going to use "water colors" make sure you use water color paper or switch to a new sheet after you notice it is starting to look very wet. I also only happen to have painters acrylic paint at the moment (you know the super thick stuff) and am waiting to run out before I buy more paint. I'm sure when I bought it many years ago, the years before children were even a concept, it wasn't cheap so I would definitely NOT recommend using it. It also tends to make the paper stick to the bag which I am not a fan of.
So now on to our first project. I decided to cut out a snowflake and snowman out of the card stock before putting it in the bag. I have now done both ways of cutting before and after and it really depends on how large you are making something, for instance our second project was leaves so I just gave him the whole sheet and cut after.
So all I did was put a couple of globs of paint on the snowflake, stuck it in the bag and let L go to town. He loves that he can crumple and squish the bag. I love the fact that I can give it to him and (under supervision) he can chew on the bag and I don't have to worry about him eating paint. I always double check the bag before and after he is done with it and if he's really chomping on the bag take it away and check for holes then he can have it back. I have used the bag we currently have roughly five times by washing it after each use and will probably switch to a new bag after about two more uses.
Here is L enjoying his first time "painting":
Our second project was much of the same, only difference being I cut out the shapes after L was done painting and it was dry. I only have a picture of the final product after I cut out the leaves and made a wreath.
So on to the next project, I ditched the bag for the day and attempted to do some hand and footprint pictures. Notice I said attempted. I have no idea how his former daycare got such pristine prints, unless they drugged him or managed to not wake him the way only a mother can. I did manage a few good ones, so I cheated and cut them out and rearranged them to make them look like a turkey. As seen here:
So if you are as unskilled as I am at getting your child to make a great hand print, you can always cheat like I did. So on our first go I tried to make the cute hand print feathers and foot print body of a turkey, there is no longer any evidence of that disaster. Instead I took the hand prints that turned out relatively well, cut them out and placed them next to the footprints as you see above. I love his little turkey and that we were able to have it actually look like a turkey. I will say he had an awesome time smearing paint on the paper while I was trying to get his hand print, but oh what a mess.
Now you may be thinking (or not) as my mother did, why not just let him finger paint. Well for one I live in Minnesota and it got fairly cold earlier this year so we are not able to paint outside (although I am super excited for next summer to be able to have him do this) and I refuse to let my 8 month old fling paint around the house. My second reason is really sad, unlike my son I have always hated squishy wet things on or in between my fingers. As a young child I refused to finger paint and as an adult I have to wear gloves while doing dishes since if I don't and wet squishy food touches my hand I start to gag. First world problems I know.
Anyway back to the art, for our third project I really wanted to try Paint and Prozac's "water color" idea with the ice. To top it off I also found this idea over at a faithful attempt. Basically to sum it up she has her students "draw" pumpkins with glue and then use water colors in between the lines, definitely check it out cause personally I think they look awesome and would totally hang something like that in my house. The great thing is if you have older kids or teach you could have them do it exactly.
Well as you already have figured out my little one is not able to actually paint in between lines or free hand. So I decided to try the idea of doing the glue outline of leaves (we were kind of on a leaf kick that week) and then freezing water and food coloring to have him paint with water colors. So the night before I planned on doing the project after L was asleep I drew the leaves with glue on the card stock and let them dry overnight, realistically if you use plain Elmer's glue it would probably be dry enough in an hour or so. The only glue I could find in the mess that is the craft room was craft tacky glue so I didn't want to risk it. The next day I put the paper in our handy dandy plastic bag and threw in four different colored ice cubes. I wasn't sure how L would like the cold, but he loved it and kept chasing it around the bag then throwing the bag on the floor maybe he didn't love it as much as I think he did.
Here is the finished product:
After he was done painting I let it dry for a couple hours since the paper was quite wet. Once it was dry I took a black gel pen and traced the out and inside of each leaf. I'm not sure if it was the food coloring or the glue I used, but I had read that the paint wasn't supposed to stick to where you glued obviously that's not what happened here but I actually really like the fact that it stuck to it.
Now to our final project so far. I found this super cute picture, where else, on pinterest (I should have forewarned you that I'm a bit obsessed). Another version is linked on Fun Handprint Art blog, she links to a lot of other great non-turkey hand print art ideas for November and oh my lanta are some of them the cutest. I so wish L would cooperate so we could try all of them, well try try again and again and again.
Now, I'm not sure if it's because I didn't draw the husks as in the picture or what it is about it but this isn't really one of my favorites. So I had L put his footprint on the paper first then drew and cut out the husks and glued them on top of the "corn". Here is our corn:
So for now those are all of the art projects we have done together, stay tuned for more art, fun and shenanigans.
