Altered Artwork!

Here’s a fun project to do for your next art adventure.  Alter some artwork!  Twisted Sifter posted the altered thrift store masterpieces by artists Chris McMahon and Thryza Segal, and the results are so fun! 

You can generally pick up oil and acrylic paintings at thrift stores for next to nothing, and then assign the kids the task of adding in a magical creature or two. 

     

My late father was an artist and he often bought thrift store paintings and just painted over them completely since it was much cheaper than buying new canvases.  I’ve planned for a long time to take some paintings and have the kids just add on to them, but I like this idea even better.  We recently bought a bucketload of framed art and pictures for Victoria’s photography, and now I think we need to go back and get another stash for this project. 

Fun!

 

A Little Online Art Fun

Have you tried Brushster with your kids yet?  This free painting program from the National Gallery of Art lets kids paint with a variety of “brushes” online, or they can click a button to watch the program create art on its own.

NGA has tons of other cool art programs too.  Check out the list here!

Happy Tuesday!

A Little Picture and Poem by Victoria

Presents have boxes
Presents have bows
You won’t get a present
If you bite my toes

 

Happy Thursday!

Make Some Homemade Do-a-Dot Markers!

I love this idea for homemade do-a-dot markers from Counting Coconuts!

I think I’ve seen it before but my brain is a bit like a collander these days and things are constantly new to me again. 

These work a little differently than the store-bought kind, but I’m guessing that kids will have at least as much fun if not more with this design.

What a fun craft to do on a lazy winter day!

A Little Holiday Art Request

Would your kids be interested in making some art for a little boy who could use some smiles?  Friends of seven year-old Joey are trying to get lots of cards and pictures for his hospital room.

Note:  The following letter is from the family organizing this card drive.  While I do not know Joey’s family, I have known the mother who wrote this letter for many years through an online homeschooling group.  You can follow Joey’s progress online here.

Attached is a picture of Joey pre-diagnosis and then after his surgery.  He is 7 years old.  Three weeks ago he was able to fully participate in an one hour gym class.  He started experiencing some vomiting and a couple of other symptoms.  His mom and dad took him to the doctor, they thought it was a virus going around.  He didn’t get better, then he couldn’t walk.  Fast forward three weeks, and they found out he has a brain tumor on his brain stem and going down his spine.  The cancer he has is so aggressive it can double in size in 24 hours.  He has emergency surgery.  The doctors are able to remove 98% from his brain stem, but the masses going down his spine are inoperable.  He is scheduled for radiation for 5x a week for the next 6 weeks, with chemo.  Joey is fighting for his life.  He has a long road ahead of him.  His family’s only request has been prayers for Joey.

My children are friends of Joey.  They are wanting to do something that will help Joey through this time.  That is where TEAM JOEY has come from.  Together we can let Joey and his parents know that Joey is NOT ALONE, that there are people everyday praying for Joey, that people are thinking about Joey and that Joey has a TEAM of people supporting him and his recovery.

So here is the request.  Will you please consider sending a card or a quick note to Joey with get well wishes?  Do you have children who enjoy drawing?  Will you have them make Joey a card.  Will you ask your family, friends, neighbors, churches, etc and collect the cards to mail for Joey?  If you would like please include a 4 x 6 photo of yourself, family, and/or children.  We will be putting together a scrapbook for Joey so that he can look at the pictures of all the people are thinking and praying for him.  On the back of your cards, please put your city and state.  If your children are drawing pictures please put your children’s names and ages too.

Please consider this request, it would mean alot to my children, but it would mean the world to Joey and his family.  Please mail your cards, notes, postcards, drawings, pictures, etc to:

TEAM JOEY

11715 Fox Road, STE 400-124

Indianapolis, IN. 46236

Coloring Fun (Even for the Big People!)

I happened upon this delightful free coloring page (art really!) at Beauty that Moves and instantly fell in love with it.  Isn’t it wonderful?  Head over for your free download to do one with your kiddos (or yourself!).

Happy Wednesday!

Colored Salt Paintings!

Here’s a simple, fun and nearly free craft that’s really fun for kiddos of all ages.

Colored Salt Paintings!

You need:

• Sturdy cardboard (cut up cereal boxes and cardboard boxes are ideal)
• Salt
• Small bowls
• Food coloring
• Glue
• Paintbrushes
• Pen or pencil (optional)
• Small spoons or scoops (baby spoons or souvenir spoons work well)

Directions:

1. In the small bowls, pour several spoonfuls of salt and add a few drops of food coloring to each.  Stir well and add more to get desired color.  We used paste food coloring, which is very intense and requires very little.  If your salt ends up too wet from the coloring, you can microwave it very briefly or put it in a hot oven for a few minutes.
2. Meanwhile, give the kids each a piece of cardboard (blank side up, or vice versa if they want to do the art over a pattern) and ask them to draw a simple design on it.  It should be big, without tiny areas.  Flowers, fish, designs and patterns work well.  Little ones can skip this step.
   
3. Have the kids paint sections of their designs with the glue, and then scoop the colored salt onto the sections.  They can then pour the extra salt back into the bowl.
4. They can then paint the next section with glue and sprinkle a new color, repeating until the picture is finished.
5. Allow to dry.

Our kids all loved doing these, from 3 year-old Alex to 12 year-old Victoria.

Be sure to take pictures, as they can be a bit delicate! 

Happy Saturday!

New Uses for Old Markers

What do you do with a dried out marker?  I’ve been listening to the boys’ Pirate CD for too long, because I’m hearing that phrase in my head to the tune of “What do you do with a drunken sailor?”. 

In any case, there are plenty of ways to get more use out of them once they seem to be all dried up.

In our family, we like to use them to color on packed snow.  The water brings them back to life and it’s cheap, easy fun on wintery days.

We also like to wet coffee filters and then press them all over to make bright designs.

But this site has lots of ideas that I never dreamed of.  From coloring homemade concoctions to soaking them in water to color the water, there’s oodles of fun ways to use the markers one (or more!) last time.

What do you do with dried out markers?

Easy Craft: Make Paint With Water Pages!

(Art by Victoria)

Here’s a super simple craft that’s fun for all ages.  Make paint with water pages!

Here’s how:

1. Draw a picture with a permanent pen or dark crayon.  If you like, you can draw it in pencil first and then go over it with a dark permanent marker.
2. Fill in sections of the picture with dots, lines, cross hatches or other designs with watercolor pencils.  Alternately, draw a line inside the marker lines with watercolor crayons (watercolor crayons are bolder and don’t require as much of a pattern to spread the color).  You don’t need to color the entire sections in — just a pattern or lines are fine.
3. Paint each section with a wet paintbrush to reveal the color.

Note:  This is an example of “you get what you pay for.”  Cheap watercolor pencils are rather pitiful for this so if you get a chance to pay a couple of extra dollars for nicer ones then I’d recommend it!

You can tell in the art above which sections were drawn with the cheaper pencils and didn’t blend as well (like the stems and leaves), as opposed to the ones that turned into vivid paint (like the flower center and the pink petals).  All of the sections were basically colored in the same with just cross hatches, and good pencils will blend and disperse so the pattern virtually disappears.

You can find watercolor pencils and watercolor crayons (which are great fun!) at craft stores like Michael’s (look for 40% off coupons online to help cut the cost).

For younger kids, do the art up for them (write their names in big block letters, make flowers, etc.) and then do the patterns for them or have them color inside to make the patterns.  Then give them the paintbrushes and water so they can magically paint while you’re cooking supper or otherwise otherwise occupied nearby.

Happy Friday!

Certifiable

When my girls were little, I sometimes came up with creative ways to occupy them when I was sick.  Between problem pregnancies and long-term illnesses, I spent a lot of time on the couch with little girls who were not the type to sit still and watch Sesame Street.

One of the ways I used to occupy them was to let them draw on the bottoms of my feet.  I’d give Victoria washable markers and she’d doodle halfway up my leg while I got to rest and not fall down or throw up for a little while.

(I still remember how idiotic I felt at the prenatal appointment when I stripped down and then realized I was decorated up to my knees in toddler art and had forgotten to wash it off!)

I still use the busywork trick.

Tuesday night, I really wanted to watch a television show.  My boys were bored so I sat Alex at the top of the couch with me and 25 Matchbox cars and Jack at the end of the couch with washable markers.

For a good twenty minutes, I lined up fire trucks and convertibles with one little boy while another enthusiastically decorated me.

On my right foot was a series of… well, I have no idea, but upside down they look a bit like a weird smiley face.  And on the left… I was orange.  Jack decided he wanted to make me an alien.

It worked.  I watched my show, the boys played and were happy (before moving on to the next busywork — even doing graffiti on Mom only works so long), and I’m pretty sure most of it was non-toxic.

And then today… I kept meaning to take a bath or jump in the shower but one thing after another happened.  And so I took a walk around the neighborhood with two little boys and decorated feet.  I drove to the lawnmower repair shop and rode along to the car repair shop to see about air conditioning.  I gardened and chased the kids outside.  I said “hi” to the passing teenagers.

All with these feet.

(Blue toenails courtesy of Annalee, who offered me a free spa treatment and pedicure the same night.)

My left foot kept scaring me throughout the day.  I’d forget about it all and then catch sight of that and think I’d missed some sort of terrible accident.

Even after I finally got that bath, my left foot is still pale orange.  And the brown heart appears to be permanent.  I’m surprisingly unconcerned, though.  It kind of makes me smile.

I can’t imagine what our townspeople must think of me.