It's Fall, Y'all!

Okay, so it's almost winter, but whatever. I've decided I need to get back into doing arts and crafts projects with the kiddos, so I started with a fun hand print (technically it's a forearm and hand print) tree scene. They had a great time with this and hearing the excitement in Brooke's voice and seeing her face light up as she jumped for joy when I told her we were going to do an art project was priceless.

I just LOVE how seriously they take there art projects!! I have NO idea where they get this from...

Here is Brooke's sweet tree!

Here is Benjamin's creation. It seems as though he was going for the "tree in a tornado" scene! :)

I'm going to have to get Benjamin to add grass to his picture. The floating tree thing bothers me! 

I couldn't leave Miss Bailey out of the art project action.. but getting the hand of a 2 1/2 month old to open up for a good print is darn near impossible, so I improvised and went with the next logical body part: the foot. There was also no way I could hold her little finger and make the leaves, so I used her toes! :) 

Big sister helped get Bailey full (i.e. happy!) before we started. She was a trooper and didn't protest me man-handling her foot and toes at all! (Brooke is shirt-less because she didn't want to get her jams dirty when doing her art project. I appreciate a kid that wants to keep her clothes clean!). 

LOVE her little toesies!

Happy handprints (and footprints)!

I have to first say that I LOVE that my children LOVE doing arts and crafts as much as I do!! Thank goodness, because my heart would be sad if they didn't! Today, for example, we colored a little, played with the window markers (great things, until your 17month old decides to eat them...), finished up the melted crayon canvas art in the oven, then did a bunch of handprint art, and just as soon as we finished Brooke asked if she could color! Whew!

Both Brooke and Benjamin love hand print and foot print art, and I do as well, so today I wanted to try MY hand (har, har) at replicating some of the super cute ideas I have seen online lately!

First up: BUTTERFLY!

Okay so to make the butterfly you need a footprint from each foot. I thought I'd have her stand on the counter and lift her foot while I painted it, then have her hold on to the cabinet (or my head...) and I'd put her foot down on the paper... Would have been easier on the floor, but since I'm popping a baby out in less than a month I'm not *quite* as flexible at the moment! Brooke loved standing on the counter anyway! Okay, so it worked, but was awkward and one of her prints was wonky, so I went to plan "B".

I had her sit on the counter, put the paper on a clipboard, propped it up against my belly,  and pulled her foot towards it, pressed and then pulled it off. MUCH. better. idea.

Luckily Benjamin was perfectly content playing in the kitchen and laying on the floor (???).... while I worked with Brooke.

Up next: LOBSTER!!

The lobster requires one footprint and one of each hand. I did Brooke's first and then did Benjamin's. He was so super cooperative (yay!).

Love his cute, squishy foot! 

I'm telling you, I have the BEST helper!!

So, this is NOT how you need it to look. the footprint here should be pointed the other way (toes down). Oops! I did Brooke's correctly and did hers first, but um... brain fart on this one?

I didn't throw it away. Nope. I cut them out and glued them onto a new piece of paper, the right way! :)

Final one: PEACOCK!

For the peacock, you need a LOT of handprints, all around the middle (do the handprints first). Then, the body of the bird is supposed to be ONE footprint, toes pointed down. In doing these things with footprints, I quickly realized that my my little lady has a very high arch! Our first attempt on the "body" was horrible. There was too much wet paint and her foot slipped, so it looked crappy. I tried to fix it by doing a print of her other foot next to it (there's fat people, so why not fat peacocks?). See that white shape in the middle? That is b/c of her arch.. so it still looked lame. I set it aside to dry and my final attempt at fixing it was to use one white footprint for the body.

Here are the final masterpieces! I just LOVE them!! 

Lovely lobsters!

Beautiful Butterflies!

And um...... Pathetic peacock?!... 

(I think he is cute!)

If you are going to make a mess, MAKE a mess!

I'm all about the "go big, or go home" mentality and that sure was exemplified in today's project with the kiddos! A little backstory- a year ago.. last summer, I made some handprints with Brooke and since Benjamin was only about 5 months old, I did some footprints with him (uber challenging, let me just say). Here is the link to the original post from last summer. Looking back at it, I now realize that I've lost some of the footprints! Must find those!! I had planned on purchasing wooden squares and making a wall hanging with them, but I never found them on sale (sale enough, anyway) and well, life got in the way! A few weeks ago I found the prints and was reminded that I needed to finish this project in some way. Then, when I was in the garage a couple of days ago, I spotted a scrap piece of lumber leftover from my patio furniture re-deaux that was the perfect size to use for a wall-hanging of these little suckers! Best of all, it was going to be free. So, instead of doing what most sane people would do (get out a roller, paint the board, and let it dry), I decided that since it is going to be a display of handprints OF the kids, that it should be painted BY them as well.

Ok, so the artsy person in me knows that the best paint to use would be some leftover wall paint. The logicial side knows that it would be easier to use the cute little craft bottles of paint. The friends of mine who don't do crazy painty stuff would probably have used a kid's paint. I scrounged around in the garage and found all of the random, funky colors I could find and set them all out, put down a drop cloth, found some brushes, and got out the paint trays. Let the insanity commence...

Here's all of the pretty colors I chose! Fun!

Before the excitement..

Starting to get warmed up... Benjamin HAD to sit on the board. The whole time. Seriously.

Brooke did a great job of painting and of not getting completely covered in paint. She also was very patient with me telling her "not to muddy up the paint", "to stop rubbing it all together because it was turning brown" (to which she replied, "but, I like brown, Mommy!", and covering up the missed spots.

 

Benjamin totally loved this and was very adept at getting himself completely covered!

 

 

 

Please notice Benjamin's backside. This is what happens when you are sitting on a board that you have painted all around you and you try to stand up and walk away. You slip and fall on your butt....

Watching them work together and "talk" (Brooke talked to Benjamin, he responded with gibberish and pointing) is truly priceless. They are best friends, except when they aren't. 

The finished masterpiece! It is PERFECT!!!

Benjamin was watching me hammer the lids down and begin stacking them up to put them away. It was SO cute that i got out my phone to video tape it.. 

For some reason, the INSTANT I started taping him, he decided that throwing the cans was a better, more fun, idea. Not so, not so! Please enjoy the events as they unfold..

Even with the two cans of spilled paint and my heart attack at the mess that caused, I managed to get everything all cleaned up.. including the kiddos! What a fun and special afternoon! We ended it with a little water table play time, popsicles, and shaving cream fun in the tub before baths! I love my kids!

 

Cooped up in the house = cool crafty time!

Benjamin's fever finally went down after more than 36 hours of being over 101! He woke up smiling, so I knew today was going to be a much better day! I also knew that we wouldn't be able to go on our super fun play date with some of Brooke's besties from her daycare class. We not only missed out on friends, but we missed out on little swimmy pools, a bounce house, and COOKIES! Blargh! This meant that I had to do something uber fun for Brooke. Well.. the kid likes to craft. I have NO clue where she gets this from. Anywho, one of her favorite things to do is make handprints, so handprint craft it IS! I pulled out a large pad of art paper (it is 18'x34", I believe).

I used my handy dandy cutting mat, rotary cutter, and quilting ruler to cut the paper into 5"x5" squares. I took a few of those and cut them in half to use for Benjamin's foot prints. I'm making a masterpiece here, so both kids had to get in on the fun!

Then I got Brooke down to her diaper and got out my craft paint (not washable). The easiest way to get her hands prepped was to just squirt some paint on her palm and then rub it in with my finger.

This was a VERY baby-wipe intense project, if you were wondering!

After we were done with Brooke's hands, I did Ben's feet. I figured out the best way was to have him in the bouncy, clip a piece of paper to a clipboard, paint his feet, and then press. Let me just say these are very imperfect as it is far from easy to do this!

This left us all a little painted up, but it was well worth it.

Here's our scattering of little prints!

And here they are, all organized. I will change up the final layout and I have yet to decide how I will ultimately display these. I just LOVE how it turned out though!

If you make this project with your little one (or ones), I'd love for you to email me pics!