Recently, Mon Cœur (MC) has been on a creating streak. She loves to make art, and it’s so great to see not only the end product, but the approach she takes to making her art. We’ve been inspired by many different bloggers and craft books, and have had fun experimenting with different ways to make art…below are four of our favorites.
Water marker art
This was a fantastic idea I found from a crafting book, Preschool Art by Mary Ann Kohl. We took some watercolor paper and some markers and started drawing. After we made our designs, MC wanted un escargot (a snail), she grabbed the spray bottle and sprayed the paper. The colors ran a bit, blended some, and the end product was reminiscent of a watercolor.
She loves this craft, I think mostly because she is able to use a spray bottle. I love it because we are free to make any sort of design or picture, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. When we spray the art, it’s interesting to see the art changing.
Cotton ball painting
This awesome idea came from a friend who knows how much MC loves art. I am so glad she found this idea, because I never in a million years would have dreamed up this way to make art. The idea came from The Cinnamon Mom, and she has so many different fun variations on this craft.
We tried painting with the cotton balls and clothespins along with the leftover shapes from our stained glass craft (below). MC had a much easier time manipulating the cotton ball “paintbrushes” due to their shorter length.
I love that the clean up is much quicker and easier than when we use paintbrushes – I toss the cotton balls and let the clothespins dry, and this is a great way to recycle all of our egg cartons as paint palettes
Stained glass tissue paper art
These stained glass crafts remind me of childhood – they were a tried and true activity and it was always rewarding to hang it on the window and see the sun shine through it. For these Easter themed stained glass, I free handed sketches based off of templates from the blog Everyday Dishes. She had cute templates for an egg, a chick, and a bunny.
We didn’t have contact paper, so we just used wax paper and a glue stick. I also didn’t have a “supply” of tissue paper, but I did have a collection of gift bags and tissue paper from baby and wedding showers past, so I dug into those.
MC’s favorite part? Using the glue stick and choosing the color paper to use. She often applied the glue and directed me to add a certain color tissue paper to a certain part of her egg.
Chick and bunny finger print art
I found the cutest idea for Easter cards over at Sarahndipitie’s blog. I’ve always been big on sending cards – more so now with MC. I’m especially aware of how much a simple card or letter can really make you smile when you see it in the mailbox. So we try to pay it forward. We did this just a few weeks ago with quirky little April Fool’s Cards.
For Easter, I sent about the same amount of cards as I would for Christmas – I think everyone could use a little cheer right now. Since I didn’t have enough stamps, I took a picture of the front and back of one card and I took a picture to text to friends.
MC had a lot of fun making the finger prints. I told her they would be chicks and bunnies, but she didn’t really see it and understand until she woke up from her nap and saw the sharpie additions I had made. My favorite chick was the one where she was trying to finger paint – we turned it into a flying chick.
I cheated because we ended up sending 30 plus cards in the mail – I made one sheet of four cards on card stock and one sheet of four greetings on card stock and then copied them. It was a time saver and also provided about 20 minutes of entertainment as MC watched the copies come out of the printer.
We are looking forward to a gorgeous day today, some egg dyeing, egg hunting, and family time. I hope that you have an amazing day. I’ll leave you with the quote I shared in our Easter card:
Strength grows in the moments when you think you can’t go on but you keep going anyway.
Karen Salmansohn
Stay strong and happy Easter.
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