Friday, February 10, 2012

Valentine’s paint & prints

Luke and Eleanor have both been busy little cherubs, painting and printing V-Day art galore.

Luke’s project: WHALE YOU BE MY VALENTINE? {from here}

I made this whale stencil by drawing a whale shape, taping over the page to make it more Luke-proof, and then cutting out the whale. I also cut a few notches on the sides to make it easier to tape the stencil down. Here are some of our supplies:

Then we just taped the stencil on Luke’s page and let him paint! I love these watercolors that color beautifully with minimal mess. I bought ours at Michael’s about a year ago but I’ve had trouble finding them in stores since then. I hope Crayola isn’t phasing out this product. But anyway, after Luke finished painting I outlined the whale, removed the stencil, added a few embellishments, and ta-da!

By the end of the afternoon, Luke had experimented with stripes, dots, and colors and made a lovely little whale pod.

Eleanor’s art: THUMB-BODY LOVES YOU! {from here}

I love how this project is suitable for Valentine crafters of all ages, from newborn to adult.

I just taped together some decorative paper circles, but you could do this on a card of any shape or size. Then I printed the little princess thumb on the page and drew on the rest with a pen. We’re planning to make these in Luke’s Sunday School class this week, and I’m curious to see how it scales up to a roomful of two-year-olds!

We also tried a footprint variant. I printed Ella-belle’s toes on the page and then wrote: “Eleanor loves you from the tips of her toes!” But our girlie wasn’t very patient with the toe-printing so we mostly stuck with her thumb.

Then, we let both kiddos get their thumbs dirty for a sibling printing variant. I expected a cute little Ella thumb and a bigger Luke one, but this is what we got. Somehow Ella’s print outsizes Luke’s!

Happy Valentine’s Day from two terrific little thumb-kins!

1 comment :

  1. You're so crafty! I just take a cute pic & have Walgreens make a card.

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