Glue-Resist Easter Egg Painting

Glue-Resist Painting is something we've enjoyed doing before because it takes minimal materials and is easy to create. So when we were looking for something fun to do to get us in the mood for Easter, we definitely got inspired for trying some glue-resist painting with an Easter theme.

What's great about these eggs is they are colorful and done with watercolor, so even little hands can help create them. 

Salt and Watercolor Thank You Cards

For quite a while I've loved using this watercolor technique with kids, but we've never used it as a way to create thank you cards before. It's such a great strategy to use with a wide age range of kids as it is both easy and colorful. 

Little Brother especially got into this project, and in the end they are so colorful and pretty I was glad we wound up with a few spares for other times we need thank you cards. 

Stick Painting

We've done this project a few times this summer and I just love how they turn out every time, even though they are always a little different. Originally I had imagined they would look like trees as the kids painted them, but instead they always turn out a little more abstract.

But I also love how they are art created using found objects in nature which adds to their simplistic appeal. The materials are simple enough for many different age levels to explore!

Painting Shiny Fall Leaves

This has been one of the best foliage years I can remember, colors just popped all around us. So while the trees were showing their beautiful colors, we were inspired to create our own fall leaves at home.

To create colorful and shiny fall leaves, we used an unusual painting material I've enjoyed using with students before: corn syrup. 

Spider Web Glue-Relief Painting

Now that Big Brother is in full day kindergarten most of our activities are ones we can do after school or on the weekend. I was inspired by this Fall Leaf Watercolor Resist Art from Fun at Home with Kids to create a different fall art idea: Spider Web Glue-Relief Painting.

We spread the art process over two after school days, this worked well for the type of glue we were using. It also worked well with our new after school routines. 

A Color of His Own: Chameleon Watercolor Project

We love connecting projects to books, and we're always inspired by the amazing group of bloggers who participate in the Virtual Book Club for Kids (you can also check the club out on Facebook) as the group comes up with some great extension activities each month. This month's author was Leo Lionni. We chose to read and do a project using a book we've really been enjoying lately, A Color of His Own. 

This is the sweet tale of a little chameleon who is looking for one color to stay all the time, but keeps running into that challenge that chameleons change color. In the end, he winds up finding a friend to always be with so they can at least always be the same color together. 

Watercolor in the Rain

Even though we like to mostly think about the better weather ahead of us, we've still had several rainy days these past few weeks. Now that the summer weather is here at least those rainy days can be warm.

After several rainy days last week, the boys were feeling a little cooped up and in need of something different. This lead us to watercoloring in the rain!

Snowflake Rubbing Paintings

Sometimes we create art for the product and sometimes we create art for the process. This was definitely a process based project that turned out very pretty in the end.

To create our artwork we used some basic materials we had around the house, including some plastic snowflake decorations we've used in our windows before. Quite a while ago I thought about trying to use them as rubbings. We finally had an afternoon to play with them a few weeks ago. 

Magic Words Thank You Cards

So although the holidays are over, we're definitely still working on creating our thank you cards and getting them out in the mail. And while this trick may seem magic to kids, I love how simple it was to create these cards.

Magic Words Thank You Cards

Our kiddos were really blessed to receive a lot of wonderful gifts from friends and family over the holidays, and I want to try an instill in them the idea that we send thank you cards in appreciation. Last year we created our Potato Print Snowmen Cards. This year I was looking to create something both boys could help with, despite their age differences. This watercolor idea was simple enough for both a toddler and a preschooler to work on.