Easter Crafts: Painting with PomPoms

A week or so ago I saw a post where someone use a cotton ball and a clothespin to paint and thought, "Brilliant!" So yesterday while we were exploring our Easter sensory bin, I suddenly had the idea to paint with pompoms. We could use clothespins to hold the pompoms and create sweet little Easter creatures - chicks, ducks and bunnies!

After demonstrating how to use the clothespin/pompom paint brush (Sweet P kept accidentally squeezing the clothespin so the pompom would pop off), she set to work. Her first page was just exploring the paint with a pompom and then she moved on to another sheet of paper to create little Easter friends.

Simple clip the pompom to the clothespin, choose your colors and add faces with a black marker. The beaks of the ducks and chicks are orange construction paper she dipped in paint and stuck on (worked like glue!). The ears of the bunnies and feet for the ducks/chicks were done with a small paint brush. After the paint dried, she drew on eyes and faces.

I just love the way they turned out and how simple this craft was to set up! We may end up making more to send as Easter cards to friends and family. I also love how springy it looks, especially when it's only 23 degrees!

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Egg Carton Shamrocks

Sweet P's a wee bit obsessed with St. Patrick's Day. We checked out a book from the library last week and we've read it every day this week. At least 4 times. Not kidding. The other night we read it before dinner and when she was picking out books to read after dinner she said, "How 'bout this one again?" She LOVES it! All that to say that she's been loving shamrock activities as well.

We created this simple activity out of an egg carton. I did the cutting and Sweet P did the painting.

I don't have any pictures of the painting process, but the end result speaks for itself (right?). They sat to dry for, oh, 4 days, before we got around to finishing them! I hot glued felt on bottoms for the stems, and glued a loop of pipe cleaner to the top as a hanger.

Sweet P chose glittery green St. Patrick's Day scatter to put on each one. I put the glue on (we used hot glue) and then she placed it where she wanted it.

I ran a bit of yarn through the loop and hung them up in our living room. I love how the glittery parts shimmer in the sun!

A super simple shamrock craft for St. Patrick's Day! And I bet you have everything you need around the house! Don't have felt? Use paper. Don't have pipe cleaners? Just poke a hole in the top and string the yarn through. Don't have yarn? Use string! The options are endless.

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Guest Post at Growing a Jeweled Rose

I'm guest posting today at Growing a Jeweled Rose! Pop over and check out our Painting with Shoes post! Sweet P had a BLAST with it!

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Exploring Ice: Painting a T-Shirt

I've had these ice cubes in my freezer for Ohh, a month now and really wanted to set up an activity for Sweet P. I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do because I used food coloring to color them before realizing it was going to stain like crazy (because working with it when I took it out of the ice trays left my hands blue).

We decided to use them in the bath and she had a blast throwing the ice cubes in the water. They did NOT stain (phew!) and left the water an awesome color of purple (and for some reason my photo of that disappeared). I made poor Sweet P wear baggies on her hands because I was afraid it would stain her hands for days. In retrospect, it probably would've been fine and I was just being a clean freak. She tried catching ice cubes with a wooden spoon and loved stirring the water. The colored tails on the ice were pretty neat to watch, too.

With the leftovers, I thought it'd be fun to paint a t-shirt. My brain thought that the shapes of the ice would transfer to the t-shirt, but silly me! Once the ice started melting...no more shape. It still came out really cool if you ask me!

I'm so excited for her to wear it! The Farmer likes the back the best and all I did was toss a few melting ice cubes underneath the shirt. The patterning turned out really cool, but it dried differently than it looks in these pictures. 

the back:

Sweet P lost interest in the activity pretty quickly and spend the rest of the time running through the sprinkler in her jammies.

The Sunday Showcase: Playing with Paint

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Welcome back to another week of The Sunday Showcase! Are you gearing up for 4th of July festivities (for those in the US anyway!)? We are! 

What a great list of activities we had last week! We've been looking for new ways to paint so this week I'll be featuring ideas for playing with paint! I'll also be sharing a patriotic snack as well! 

Edible Painting with condensed milk shared by Wendy: Who woulda known?! Such a great idea and I ALWAYS have leftovers when I use canned milk!  Keep in mind that it does take a bit longer to dry.

Painting with Marshmallows shared by Tippytoe Crafts: How cute is this?! What a fun way to stamp and create using something as simple as marshmallows! I love the small and large ones create completely different shapes!

Guitar Painting shared by From Chalkboards to Strollers: This is a WAY cool way to mix art and music. Liz and her daughter created a guitar out of a shoe box lid and rubber bands! Love the recycling aspect and simplicity of this idea!

Blueberry Painting shared by Off the Shelf: Inspired by Blueberries for Sal, they made paint out of blueberries and water! Such a simple way to paint and the color is awesome! Who needs paints when you have nature?

What we've been up to:

Gammie and my cousin Blair (12) visited this week and we were BUSY! We did find some time to make this amazing patriotic snack/dessert! It's super simple and delish! A quick dessert for any 4th of July BBQ!

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Shaving Cream Cross Garland

We shaving cream painted (sounds crazy huh?) a few weeks ago and I am FINALLY getting around to posting about it. It was so much fun and we have done so much with our paintings. It's like the craft that keeps on giving.

I found the idea at Little Wonders Days and knew Sweet P would LOVE this! The kid loves shaving cream and paint so this was the perfect craft for her!

We turned our finished product into a cross garland for our window and sent the extras as Easter ornaments to RoRo, TK, Nana and Gammie. Then, we used the scraps from cutting the paper into crosses to make an egg collage AND we still have some scraps leftover! We loved this project and it'll be so fun to do for other holidays in the future!

Here's a quick overview of how it went:

Spray shaving cream into a baking sheet or other container and mix around until the container is covered.

Drizzle paint over the top of the shaving cream and swirl with a paintbrush, toothpick, straw, etc.

Press your paper onto the shaving cream/paint mixture OR grab handfuls and spread it all over the paper.

Allow to sit for a few minutes (ours sat for several minutes while Sweet P took a quick bath).
Use a squeegee (or towel) to wipe off the shaving cream (the paint will remain!) and set out to dry.

Cut into the shape of your choice or hang to admire!

For the cross garland, I cut each piece of paper into 5 crosses.

I laminated the crosses so we could use the garland next year.

Sweet P lined them all up and helped me punch holes in them.

Punch a hole in each cross, then thread through a piece of yarn or string. Hang and admire!

Cut scraps into small squares or other shapes, cut a large egg shape out of cardstock or construction paper and glue scraps to egg to form a decorative Easter egg!

Whew! What else can we do with our scraps?!

Guest Post: 5 Alternative Painting Methods for Toddlers

I am super excited about this guest post by Crystal who blogs about her sweet girls at Growing a Jeweled Rose. These painting ideas are awesome and I'm so glad she is sharing with you today! Check out her blog for some really great sensory play ideas and inspiration for fun-filled playdates!

Hello everyone!  I am so excited to be guest posting today!  My name is Crystal and I am the author of the play based blog, Growing A Jeweled Rose.  Growing A Jeweled Rose is centered around my little girls, Jewel and Rosie.  We share lots of messy play ideas and some not so messy ones too!  Since painting is one of Rosie's favorite activities, I thought I would share some of our alternative painting methods with you today!

 Rosie asks to paint several times a day, so we are always coming up with new ways to explore with paint.  

Rosie had a blast painting with large cars

She loved the squishy gooey textures when painting with water beads 

 

Pine cone painting was a lot of fun!

 

Painting with Rosie's favorite toy was pure toddler bliss!

Rosie always has so much fun when we paint with left over pasta..  This is a great way to put that leftover pasta to use, or you could always make a little extra on purpose ;)

 

These are just a few of the ways Rosie has explored with paint.  We find new ways everyday!  I hope you like these painting ideas.  Painting is such a fun activity, and there really are endless ways to explore this simple art material!

I would love for you to drop by Growing A Jeweled Rose and check out some of our other fun play ideas!

Lastly, I would just like to thank The Iowa Farmer's Wife for providing me the opportunity to guest post here.  I just love this site, and this has been a true honor :) 

Party Favor Painting

We brought home some party favor horns from our outing on New Year's Eve and Gammie asked if I wanted them before she tossed them. I said, "We'll find something to do with them." And I'm so excited I did!

It took me awhile to come up with something, but then I realized these would be AWESOME paint brushes! And they were! Sweet P also used them in snow play dough after she painted with them.

I mixed up some paint based on the color of the horns and then placed the corresponding horn in its color of paint. She had a lot of fun, but the strands did tend to stick together. She used each color, then said she was done so we hung it up to admire it. I love the way it turned out! 

Looks a lot like fireworks, doncha think? 

What random items have YOU painted with? Leave a link in the comments!