Toddler/Kid Art

Remember when I made this piece of crayon art? It was so fun and easy to do, but I bought the canvas in a 3-pack, so I've had 2 pieces sitting around staring me in the face for a long time now. I knew what I wanted to do with them, but hadn't gotten around to doing it . . . Partly because I was a little intimidated and nervous. It involves painting. With kids. Enough said.

I wanted to tape the boys' names on the canvas, then have them finger-paint all over it. Once it dried, I could remove the tape and their names would show up white against the colored finger-painting! Such a cute idea. And, I saw a recipe for homemade finger=paints on Pinterest which made the idea even more appealing.

I had the idea in my head that I would make four colors, and the boys would each get to use 2 colors: red/yellow or green/blue. Well, it didn't work quite as planned because Aiden's basically ended up orange, and Asher's is kind of teal-ish. Both cute, but I mistakenly thought there would be some separation of colors. Silly me. :) As my husband said, it just makes it look more like kids did it - which was the point, right? Right.

So when Dusty was at work this week I stripped the boys down to their diapers (actually Asher was naked because we're working on potty training hard core . . . more on that later) and let them have at it. Needless to say, it was a mess; but it was also really fun for all of us. Another great part was that even when some of the paint (inevitably) got on the table, it wiped up really easily. And the boys were plopped straight into the bathtub when they were done! Asher and Aiden (and Mommy!) were pretty excited to show Daddy what they did that day, and now we have some more fun art to put in their room or play area!

Supplies
canvas
tape
finger paints
1. Tape onto the canvas the word or name you'd like to use. Make sure to press out any bubbles and stick it on tight.
2. Finger paint all over canvas.
3. Allow to dry completely and delicately peel off tape.
4. Ta-da!
*You could also outline the letters with black marker before peeling them off, but I chose not to.

Homemade Finger Paints (original can be found here)
3 Tbls. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. cornstarch
2 c. cold water
food coloring of your choice
1. Place all ingredients except food coloring in a saucepan and warm over med.-low heat until mixture thickens. Whisk while you're doing this to avoid lumps. (Mine took 5-7 minutes.)
2. Allow to cool and color as desired. (I ended up using about 20 drops for each color, but next time I might use even more to make the colors more vibrant.)

Pausing for a pic - Aiden is all over that canvas!

Look at that concentration!

Total mess!

Me: "Okay, that's enough-time for baths!"

Aiden's finished product

Asher's finished product