Thursday, July 1, 2010

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?!

35 comments:

marie said...

Absolutely delightful!

Jo said...

It looks awesome. I like this waaay better than the original. Great job, Charlotte(and Katie)! It's a masterpiece!

Michie said...

I love this. I think it is beautiful, and I love the saying too!

Tiina said...

fantastic! I love this idea!

wholarmor said...

Adorable! I'm going to have to do this!

MommyTopics.com said...

Oh my GOODNESS!!! I love, love, love this! I found you through One Pretty Thing where your crayon bag was featured. I love your site, and I love this project!

I have a weekly link up on Tuesdays that this, and many of your posts would be AWESOME for. It's all about inspiring families with ideas for fun.

Come on by and check it out and please consider linking up this post or another one this Tuesday. I've bookmarked your site... I just love it!

http://www.mommytopics.com/category/summer-family-fun-tuesdays

Blessings
Rachymommy - MommyTopics.com

Anonymous said...

So cute!!! I love this idea!

bri said...

this is such a sweet idea. Where did you get the letters? Did you make them on a cricket?

Katie said...

bri - The stickers are made my Making Memories and I picked them up at Michael's.

Robyn said...

What a wonderful idea!

RLR said...

I've got several canvases, and have been looking for a paint project for my kids. This one is great!

golonghorns said...

Hello, we finished some art inpired by this post today and I posted our handiwork with a link back here to you. Thanks for posting this fun idea, we loved it. Found you via One Pretty Thing and have enjoyed your delightful blog. Cheers, Jennifer

Anonymous said...

love this!! i'm not a little kid, but i can't wait to try this myself! Lol!!

Steph @ This Organized Mess said...

I LOVE this !! I found you thru Frugal Life Project where she featured this. This was such a lucky coincidence for me !! I just bought paint and canvases this week and have been trying to figure out exactly what to have my boys paint. This is easy for them, doesn't require perfection (they are 7 and 4) and goes with their room theme so well !!!!

Foundinthe-ALI said...

This is so cute! I love it. The perfect amount of messy.


If you are going for something neater you can paint white paint (or something clear like modge podge) over the letters before you start. It will keep the paint from bleeding under the letters.

http://foundintheali.blogspot.com/

Cynnie said...

Love this....toooo much fun!!!

Eveline said...

Super delightful.
Eveline.

Unknown said...

I love it! I have a Charlotte, too, (shes 21 mos) and Im sure she'd love to do something like this!! :)

Unknown said...

i love love love it! I can't believe I didn't think of this when I was puzzling over what to get my daughter to do for artwork in the baby room that was still long-term art we could both love... I just got her to do something very similar to this with fabric paint and a onesie!
Thanks! Now I have a project for her for tomorrow! :D

Emaleth said...

I love it! My son and I made our own this morning... but the little stinker wouldn't finger paint. Ah well, it looks great though :)

Anonymous said...

Beautiful!

Anonymous said...

I have never seen better than this site.

Budget Beautiful Bungalow said...

GREAT idea! I've taught preschool and made similar projects with students, but I never thought about canvas in this way...I might have to do this!

Sarah B said...

Thank you so much for posting this! I found this post via Pinterest and I marked as something to do later. I ended up doing this project with my son this morning and it wasn't until I came back to your post that I realized how much I copied (I even bought different paint at the store but ended up choosing from my stash).
http://idbeesley.blogspot.com/2011/09/paint.html

the 2 muses said...

Beautiful! Found this link on Tip Junkie and turned this project into a Halloween theme for my very first blog post.

G&D said...

LOVE IT! What a fun little project and the perfect quote to go along with it. Thanks for sharing!

Heidi said...

Wonderful! I'd love to try this with my grandkids! Thanks for sharing! ~Heidi

Lise said...

Fabulous! I can't wait to make one! Thanks for sharing it.

bethanndodd said...

ADORABLE!!!
Thanks for sharing! Smiles~Beth

Anonymous said...

I just posted this to my pinterest board! I think this is such a sweet project! Can't wait to do this!
Jessica

Anonymous said...

I am absolutely in LOVE with this idea. Do you mind if I borrow it (will give you full credit) for my blog www.thnxpinterest.com? I'd love to do it with my little guy!

Thnx in advance!

Anonymous said...

This looks like a great activity to do with the kids!

Ashley T said...

Where did you find the alphabet stickers you used? I'm having trouble finding thick letters like this!

EmilyEdmonds said...

Just made this as Christmas presents for parents of my toddler class. Wish I could post the picture - they turned out awesome an all different just like the kids! We used washable fingerprint rather than acrylic and it worked fine - hope it holds up.

Yasmin said...

I just found this and can't wait to do this with my 2.5-year-old son. Which acrylic paint did you use?

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