Messy Masterpiece

On Monday I mentioned that Charlotte and I took some time this past weekend to make an art piece for her room. I'm back to show you the fruits of our her labor.

Way back in March I linked up to loads of wonderful stuff I found on Etsy (I'd still be happy to receive any of those items if you feel so inclined - hehehe) and our art project was inspired by a piece on that list. "If it's not messy it's not fun" seemed like the perfect saying for a kid's room and my sister-in-law, Johanna, quickly pointed out that we could easily DIY a version that fit better with Charlotte's space and would allow her to take part in a creative project. This is what we came up with:


I love everything about it - the phrase, the colors, the fact that Charlotte made it, everything!! If you want to make something similar yourself, here's a quick how to.

You'll need very few supplies, just a canvas, stickers and some acrylic paint. I'd initially planned to lay down black stickers, figuring it'd be easier for me to get things lined up right, but I misplaced them and had to use white. I think this was a happy accident since Charlotte didn't realize the stickers were there and so didn't mess with them. Just place those stickers on the canvas in whatever phrase or design works for you! (How cute would it be to do this with the whole alphabet?!)


Then, with a single color at a time, let your kid go to town. We chose to use three colors - a light and dark shade of blue and a green. If you stick with analogous colors (close on the color wheel) like we did you don't need to wait long between coats. We actually didn't wait at all (you try to keep a 2 year old from continuing to paint!). If you choose complementary colors (opposite on the color wheel) you'll need to let the canvas dry completely between coats, otherwise you'll end up with a muddy brown mess.


Give the canvas just a bit of time to dry (I found that the 5 or so minutes it took to clean up Charlotte and the space was plenty) and then carefully peel off your stickers. The paint will likely have bled underneath some, but I think that's perfectly fine given the quote we used. If you aren't a fan of the messy lines you could always go back with white paint and a brush and neaten things up.


Then just marvel at your little virtuoso's work.


Delightful right?!