Jan 05 2010
Fingerpaint Art
As it is quite cold here right now, I have been searching for toddler friendly activities and crafts that will keep us from going stir crazy, until we thaw out from this frigid winter! I decided (most likely against better judgment) to let my little dude go crazy and finger paint. Now I have used finger painting in the past, but it has been mostly in a confined since…carefully patting his hands in the paint while he was strapped in a booster seat. Really what is the fun in that when you are little? So, I decided to just cover the floor of our kitchen with a cheap plastic table cloth (left over from his birthday party), and let him go wild. I figured in the meantime I might as well get something memorable out of this rare occasion, so I stuck a canvas on the floor for him to “paint” on. In case you too need an outlet during these winter months, here are the instructions to make the completed canvas that I have pictured below.
What you will need:
Finger paint (I suggest Crayola’s washable finger paint…it’s a bit more of a gel than a paint, but it washes off really well. It does not dry quickly on paper, but dries in about an hour on a canvas)
A 9 x 12 flat canvas (You can use a box canvas…one with sides, but I worried that it might get broken as my child stepped on the canvas several times)
Different painting items (I gave my child an old bottle brush, some paper towels, and a paint brush to make different textures, plus his hands and feet worked well…haha)
A large plastic bag to lay down (or old tablecloth)
Puffy sticker letters (I used two different types both purchased in the scrapebook section of Hobby Lobby)
What you do:
Lay down the plastic tablecloth. Put the canvas on the table cloth. Put small amounts of the paint on the canvas (whichever paint you want, I used only blue and green and a little yellow, so it wouldn’t turn brown) and let your child get creative! After the canvas dries, sticker the letters on the canvas, if you need to add a bit of fabric glue to make sure the letters stick.
Tips: I figured out where I wanted the letters before I began to make sure it would work on the canvas size I found. I also immediately gave my child a bath after the finger painting to make sure he didn’t stay blue…although blue is really in right now, isn’t it?
Here is how it looks!
The phrase matches his bedroom theme.
Swirling some paint
Look at that footprint!
The completed picture
