Ice Painting

This was completely a time-filler last-minute art activity. Last week we were busy doing art and STEM projects at a local class that we almost didn't have one at home. But one afternoon it was hot, and O didn't take a nap, and I needed something for him to do.

MATERIALS:
- ice (cubes, chunks, whatever - the bigger they are the longer they will stay before melting)
- pan watercolor paints
- paint brushes
- small cup of water for washing brush
- tray, baking sheet, plate, etc. to hold ice

INSTRUCTIONS:
- Put ice on tray
- Paint!

I have seen similar ideas on Pinterest, but I just poured a bunch of our ice on a baking sheet, pulled out the pan water colors and took everything outside. DONE! In our case, O had more fun playing with the ice than painting, but he did put a bit of color on it too.

ALTERNATIVES:
For a creative sparker project or something that ends up on paper, you could use the same idea of ice and paint but follow these instructions:
- Line a tray/baking sheet with watercolor paper
- Put a few pieces of ice on top of the paper
- Add color on top of the ice
- You can leave it to melt for a completely nature/science created piece or you can play with the ice on the paper letting it melt as you go.
- Sprinkle on some large grain salt (rock salt, kosher salt, etc.) while the paper is still wet for a completely different effect. This works best on top of more intense or darker colors.

I also did something similar with O when he was younger, but we used food coloring and ice on his highchair tray. (Totally food safe!) I put a couple of ice cubes, about a teaspoon of water and a drop of food coloring on the tray and let him move it around with his fingers. When he was finished playing, I pressed a piece of watercolor paper on top to preserve his "art."

Salad Spinner Painitng

Another quick and not-so-dirty art project using one of O-man's favorite toys - the SALAD SPINNER! He likes to fill it with cars, spin it, and listen to them rattle around.

This is a good project to experiment with color mixing, and the final product is a great jumping off point for many other projects.

The best thing about this is that the mess is contained WITHIN the salad spinner. YES!

MATERIALS:
-Salad spinner
-Coffee filters (or any paper that will fit in your salad spinner)
-Paint (We used liquid watercolors again.)
-Table covering (for drying area)
-Arm muscles!

INSTRUCTIONS:
Place a coffee filter in the basket of the salad spinner.

Add drops/squirts of paint on top. We used 2-4 colors. The liquid watercolors soak into the coffee filter pretty quickly, so you want to drop them in and start spinning. The more paint you add, the more liquid, the longer it takes to soak in, the more it will spin out - you get the idea.

And SPIN! With my little guy, I would often give it a good first spin to get the paint moving and then let him spin it as long as he wanted to.

Open it up and see your creation.

For this project, you definitely want a protected place for the coffee filters to dry since the paint will soak completely through. We put newspaper down on the dining table for a drying area.

ALTERNATIVES:
I love the vibrancy of the liquid watercolors for this project. But you could use tempera or other paints - just make sure they are thinned out enough to move with the centrifugal force of the salad spinner. You can also use typing paper or card stock cut down to fit in the salad spinner (circles or squares).  With thicker paint and thicker paper, you might see more of the spinner effect because the paint will sit up on top of the paper. You could also try adding glitter glue if you are into sparkles.

AFTER CREATION:
Again this is simple a beautiful process art project, but if you want to do something with it:
-use it for collage or art journaling
-scrunch it in the middle and use pipe cleaners or a clothes pin to create a butterfly and/or a flower
-add a few cotton balls in the middle, fold over and tie it with string (ghost style). Let your little one practice cutting the edges of the coffee filter into strips (from the edge to the string) to create a jellyfish or an octopus.
-cover with contact paper or laminate sheet, punch hole and hang it in the window as a sun catcher.

Bubble Painting

It has been a while since I posted anything - keeping up with a two year old is exhausting!

Anyway, hopefully I will get to post some new work of my own soon, but in the mean time I am going to do a series on quick, easy, not-so messy art projects to do with kids - but adults will have fun too, and it just might spark your creativity.

And since I have said two year old, keep in mind that sometimes the set-up takes longer than the project since I am working with a 10-15 minute attention span.

I had seen some pins and blog entries on bubble painting a while back and wanted to give it a try. I figured O-man would enjoy the bubbles even if the art didn't work. And he did. HOWEVER, even though O-man drinks from straws all the time, he couldn't quite figure out the coordination to blow out on the straw and breathe in WITHOUT sucking up soapy paint water. (Yep, a couple of sputtering tries later, I took over the blowing of the bubbles.)

This one CAN get a bit messy - the bubbles are holding paint, so wherever the bubbles go, so does your paint. But, since there is soap mixed into the paint, the clean-up isn't too bad.

So here is the project:

MATERIALS:
-Paint (We used liquid watercolors since that is what I had. Finger paint didn't work very well - I think because it was too heavy to get picked up by the bubbles.)
-Dish soap
-Bowls (One for each color you want to use. Plastic disposable bowls work great. I didn't have any, so I used some glass ones from the cabinet.)
-Straws
-Paper (We used card stock - it is a bit thicker so it is stiffer and hold up to toddler hands and water.)
-Table covering (Optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:
In each bowl, fill about half full of water and add a few drops of paint. The more paint you add, the darker your colors will be. It also depends on what kind of paint you are using.

Add a couple of drops of dish soap to each bowl and stir to mix.

Now comes the FUN! Use a straw to blow bubbles into each bowl of water. The bubbles last a while, so no need to rush. In fact, we lined up our four bowls down the center of the table, blew into each one and then moved on to the next step.

Gently lay your paper on top of the bubbles. You can turn and roll your paper to collect more bubbles. As the bubbles pop and dry, they will leave a print on the paper. You can layer colors to create different patterns and cover the whole paper.

As the bubbles disappear, use the straw to blow more bubbles, and repeat.

AFTER CREATION:
So of course, this can just be a fun experiment for exploring a new way to create art. It is also a great way to create a background for a future drawing or painting, start a journal page, create collage paper, or anything else you can think of.