Pine Needle Brushes

I saw the idea to paint with pine branches on The Artful Parent, and I thought it was a great toddler sensory paint project, and especially appropriate for the holiday.

Certainly, the idea of painting with evergreens is not necessarily seasonal, but painting with Christmas tree branches is! Can't tell you how happy it makes me to create art with our Christmas tree!

I put the paint on a paper plate pallet and suggested that Ethan dip the branches and then paint them on the paper. For children under a year old, I would suggest placing small blobs of paint on the paper first, and instead showing them to smear the paint around with the branch.

As he was painting, we talked about how the branches were painting lots of little colored lines and dots on his paper. He really enjoyed himself, and I liked watching him explore. When we were all done, he had a really cool looking painting too! I love the feeling of motion and chaos that those fine smeary lines give it!

(Have I mentioned that painting with your young child is a great way to work on learning colors?!!)

Enjoy your holiday, and let me know if you're doing any crafting or art projects using your Christmas tree!!

Christmas on the Farm

If the farm is going to be the centerpiece in our living room, it might as well be festive!!!

He really wanted to tree to be IN the farm...

Favorite is the wreath on the barn door and around the cow's neck!

Happy Holidays from our family to yours!!

Oh (handprint) Christmas Tree

I found this idea on The Other White House via Pinterest and had to adapt it for Ethan this year! 

We used a paint on a pallet, putting a glob of green paint on a paper plate and smearing it around with Ethan's little hand before we "smack smack smacked" it down on the paper. (Saying "smack smack smack" makes it quite fun for your little person!) Since making the snowman handprint ornament, I've found the paper plate is really effective if you need to make a number of handprints!

After we got the tree shape done, we used different colored paint on his fingertips to create the lights and then I helped him smear paint into a tree trunk.

When we were all done, Ethan asked for more paper and to my surprise, he made a second tree by himself (it's one of those modern upside down types)! When he was done, he pulled the page off of his tray and pointed for me to hang it up to dry next to the tree we had done together. "Is that a Christmas Tree?" "Christmas Tree- uh huh!" Great look through the eyes of a toddler! Well done little dude. :)

Snowman Handprint Ornament

These really cute snowman ornaments aren't an original idea. I got the idea from Full of Great Ideas last year, and I've been waiting to try it ever since.

I'll admit, I was a bit unsure how well this would go with a young toddler (Ethan is 16 months old), but I thought I could give it a go. I got the ornaments at the dollar store. 7 for $1!!

Tips:

• I really liked the idea to dip Ethan's hand on the pallet of paint instead of painting it with a brush. It was much quicker to reapply paint when making multiple ornaments. 
• He's too young to want to grip his fingers around the ball, so I pressed down one finger at a time. We counted as I pressed, which he found very amusing!
• With little hands, you can do a double print with fingers on each side.
• Resign yourself to the fact that they aren't going to be perfect! One of my favorite "mistakes" turned into a snowman peeking out from behind another snowman. It's delightful :)

Ethan could have painted another whole box he was having so much fun! 

Fun fact: I had a hard time finding the "free time" to paint on the finishing details of the ornaments for Ethan. I ended up bringing my black Sharpie, my fine tipped paint brush, and my paints to work and painting them in my cube on my lunch break! The photos were taken during another lunch break using my work's Christmas tree. Ah, to be a working mom during the holidays!!

Can You Help Tom Turkey Find His Feathers?!

I was inspired by Parenting Magazine to do a feather hunt (a la Easter egg hunt) for my little person on Thanksgiving morning. They suggested using the collected feathers to create a headdress. Good idea, but not something that my little guy would really understand.

What he does understand is "turkey."

I made a little turkey out of two styrofoam balls, some paint, googly eyes, construction paper, and cardboard. It didn't take very long to make an assemble, or making him would have never fit into my schedule! A few tips: Make sure the feet are large enough to keep the turkey from falling forward. Also, use a toothpick (or piece of a toothpick) between the two balls to ensure that they stay together! An alternate craft would be to draw a turkey and glue the feathers on!

So tomorrow Ethan will be hunting for hidden feathers. As he finds them, we'll put them back on Tom Turkey. I'm not quite sure how it will go, but sure sounds fun enough to me :)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Collecting and Saving Leaves Together

On a recent unseasonably warm day, we took a family hike. Ethan really enjoys collecting things, so collecting pretty colored leaves as we walked was right up his alley. His daddy and I were commenting about how pretty this collection of leaves was, especially since it hasn't been a very good year for pretty leaves. Then I remembered seeing leaves preserved with Mod Podge online. Literally, all you do is let the leaves dry out and brush it on (It's a good idea to dry them between newspaper under a heavy weight, but I just left them dry on the table--admittedly losing a few due to over-curling). Then "ta-da!" the leaves are shiny, the color is magically intensified and the leaves are considerably more flexible.

This isn't so much a craft for a young toddler to help other than the leaf collection portion and enjoying the finished product. (Of course, there's always the benefit of that precious time spent having fun together!) Although Mod Podge is non-toxic, it has glue-like properties and so it's not quite suitable for a little person (especially one who frequently puts paint in his mouth). I did have Ethan painting leaves while I Mod Podged, but he was more interested in finger painting--and that's ok too!!!

The results were great, and so quick and easy!

Do you have a favorite way to preserve fall leaves?

Fall Leaf Relief Print Painting (and Turkeys!)

Ethan and I had a lot of fun with our most recent Fall Leaf Relief Print painting project!

First step is to collect a few fall leaves. They don't need to be pretty leaves, they just need to be in good shape, and not too dry.

We then used our brushes to paint the underside of the leaves. It's very important to paint the undersides because they have so much more texture than the tops. Ethan definitely needed help filling in the leaves. He did ok to start, and he was enthusiastic, but to fill them in completely he needed Mommy's help. We used a pallet of red, orange, and yellow paint, but go crazy and use any colors you'd like!

After we painted the undersides of all the leaves, we placed the painted side down on a clean sheet of paper. Ethan helped me "SMACK SMACK" the leaves against the paper. We left the leaves stuck to the paper while he painted around them. When he was all done, I peeled up the edges and he helped remove the leaves. I think he was a bit surprised by the bright colored leaf prints that were left behind.

My favorite part is the pretty yellow, orange and red hand smear on the left edge of the page!

When we're done painting, we always tape the painting to the side of one of my cabinets to dry. While I was hanging the leaf prints, I looked at them and said "Oh WOW Ethan, this painting is really good!" He replied "Oh WOW!" Now every time we look at that painting (now framed in his room) and I ask him, "What does Mommy say about that painting?" he replies "Oh WOW!" Love.

And of course, what's a Thanksgiving holiday without making some hand turkeys!