Painted Heart Doily - Valentine Window Decorations

Painting doilies with watercolors is such a simple art activity for kids, yet the process is fun and the results are beautiful. We used them as window decorations or suncatchers!!

We love making Valentine's Day decorations, be it wall art like the Tree of Hearts or sewing a colorful heart felt garland - just anything to get us into the festive mood. We had painted heart doilies with dot markers last year, which we had strung together into a bunting. This time, we used watercolors. It is simple both for parents to set up and for kids to do—Give it a try!

MATERIALS

• white heart doilies 
• Easel Paper Roll
• watercolor paints
• Paint brush
• Water to clean brush between colors
• Double sided tape
• Yarn or embroidery floss, if you want to make bunting

I just rolled out a large piece of easel paper roll and taped the edges over the table. And then Putti got into painting the doilies by holding the doily in place over the paper roll (you can tape it lightly if you like for smaller kids). Avoid using doilies that have a shiny coating, as they will not absorb/hold the paint well. 

Paint as many doilies as you fancy. Allow them to dry well.

Because Putti had used loads of paint to almost soak the doilies and also due to the thin paper roll used, we did not get nice resist artwork unlike when we had used dot markers.  

We used double sided tape to put them on the windows. You could use these painted doily hearts to create a Valentine's Day bunting. 

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Painting with Yarn !!

This is one activity that I remember doing it as a kid. These are so much fun to make and you never know what will come out of it, no two will be the same !!

You will need : 

• White paper
• Any paint (we used crayola washable paint) in a small container
• Pieces of wool/yarn (around 15-20" for each color of paint)
• clothes pins
• Newspaper to cover your workspace

Fold the paper in half, then open it back up and lay it flat. Next tie one end of the wool/ yarn to a clothes pin. Have the child take the piece of yarn/wool and dip it in the paint leaving the end tied to clothes pin free of paint to hold on to. You don't need a lot of paint, just to make the yarn stained.

Next lay the paint covered yarn/wool on one side of the folded paper in any pattern, leaving the clean end of the yarn out so you can hold on to it.

Then fold the paper back together and put your hand on the paper, hold down with little pressure so you can feel the wool through the paper and begin pulling the yarn out of the paper. You may want to hold the paper down for little kids while they pull the wool. (Ignore the prints on the paper, we use a lot of one side printed paper for artwork)

Open up the paper and oooooh laaaa a beautiful creation!

You need not dip the yarn in paint each time, the second and third prints look beautiful too !!

 To make a larger one, put the paint dipped  yarn on paper and then cover it with another paper and repeat the process..

 Each one so unique and beautiful !!

Next we tried another method, where in after laying the paint dipped yarn/wool on paper and folding it back, we rubbed the paper from top to bottom. (NO PULLING the wool here)

And opened the paper to revel our work of art...

But putti loved the pull method very much and did not want to make this. Guess I should have let her try this method first and then the pull method. Maybe we will do that next time.

And be ready to make lots!! Putti made loads of these...

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Spring has sprung..

Spring has definetly sprung into putti's art/mind. In the past she has drawn/painted a flower, a tree or a butterfly too lately. But never made them all together in one picture. But all through this week she has made lots n lots of spring pictures with grass, trees, colorful flowers, butterflies. Dont know if they are doing similar activities at her preschool. (She goes to preschool 2 half days). She is making similar spring pictures with crayons, markers, paint, chalk... Sharing a couple of her spring pictures today.
After she saw me making this blow paint picture.

 She wanted to try making it too, but I guess she was tired of blowing that day(see the straw is still there) so she just asked for brush and made this.

Later on she painted some with flowers...

 These are with crayons...

 

This is on her chalk board.

 

I had read a lot about Alex creamy crayons and bought them recently. I gave them to putti yesterday and guess what she made, yes a spring picture again :-) These crayons are so soft, lucious and bright. But the tips are not pointed are broad, so putti found it difficult to draw with. But once i showed her to hold it at angle (slanted), she got the idea!! I really love the golden sun...

 

The Melissa & Doug Rainbow Color Stamp Pad is a new addition to our art supply. And she is loving it (more about it in next post). Love this finger print garden... She is looking into Ed Emberley's fingerprint book for ideas. Love the little blue bird she has made here:)

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Kids get crafty 
For kids friday
Fun for kids Friday
High Paw
Play academy
Monkey doodles
Its Play Time
Creative Juice thursday 

Art showcase

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Leaf Banner for Yugadi...

Yugadi is on April 4th this year. The word yugadi is from yuga + aadi, yuga means era, aadi means start...the start of an era. It is the New Year for Kannada and telugu speaking people and it ushers in the spring season. The day begins with an elaborate oil bath called as 'abhyanjana'. Rangolis are drawn in front of homes and doors are decorated with a 'thorana' -  mango and neem leaves strung together as seen here.
After prayers there is eating of Bevu-Bella, a mixture of neem leaves/ flowers and jaggery (unrefined whole cane sugar) symbolizes the fact that life is a mixture of sadness and happiness, which should be accepted together and with equanimity.

The telugu people prepare and eat 'ugadi pachadi' which is a special mixture consisting of:

• Neem leaves/Flowers for its bitterness, signifying Sadness
• Jaggery and ripe banana pieces for sweetness, signifying Happiness
• Green Chilli/Pepper for its hot taste, signifying Anger
• Salt for saltiness, signifying Fear
• Tamarind Juice for its sourness, signifying Disgust
• Raw Mango for its tang, signifying Surprise

The family sits together to enjoy an elaborate lunch served on banana leaves.

In the evenings, people gather for the panchanga shravana – reading out from the new hindu calendar about the astrological significance of the new year and predictions of all zodiac signs for the coming year!

I have been talking to putti about all these to putti for the past couple of days. She does recognise the plastic mango leaves thoran which adorns our home door here in US. And for an added activity we tried to make a  festive banner/ bunting. Well since yugadi co-incides with spring.. wanted to make something leafy!

First cut the paper into triangles (big ones so thats easy for putti to paint). Used a fancy scissors to get a nice edge. Then drew the veins onto them with white/ green crayons. Later putti painted on them with foodcolors.

  

 

Allowed them to dry...

After they dried, putti wrote the letters on them as i dictated ..

and then we punched holes and strung them together!

 

Happy Yugadi :)) 

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Colorful banner for Holi the festival of colors

This is the colorful banner putti painted for Holi the festival of colors. I had got these paper as packaging material sometime ago. I asked putti to fill with colors as she loves and she was soo happy to do it. She had a wonderful time. These days she insists there should not be gaps on the paper without paint, so she carefully touches up the gap:) After the paint was dry, she wrote the greetings letters as i told her. She asked me to write it in kannada. And this time she wanted to cut the alphabets herself and she did a great job and I am so proud of her cuttings skills:)) Finally we glued the letters onto our banner.

  

  

 

Wishing you all a colorful Holi !!!

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Paper tube sugarcane

This is another simple craft we did for sankranti. Used the empty gift wrapping paper tube and asked putti to paint it entirely. Could use the kitchen paper napkin or aluminium foil tube too. Once the paint dried cut the tube into into 2 and then painted circles with white and black to mark the sections on the sugarcane. Later glued lilly leaves to one end.

 

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Happy Makara Sankranti !!!

Its so easy for kids growing in India to learn about our festivals. They dont need any special books or clases to teach them that. A quick tour to the local grocery stores during the festival will enlighten us about the significance of any festival.
But for my putti is growing far away from all these, we need to put in our efforts to teach her. The schools here read books/ do art and craft and sing songs about the particular celebration that whole month. I too decided to take the same path to teach putti.

For sankranti, i wanted to make a powerpoint slideshow, but due to the cold n cough that has been running in the family for over a mnth now.. i wasnt able to do any of that. But did show a couple of pics on google images and talked to her about sankranti.
We have made a banner for it though. Putti loves to paint on coffee filter paper, as the colors spread so well and blend easily too. We have played with it previously too. I just folded the paper and trimmed the edges to make them look like sun. Gave putti yellow, orange and red to paint. She enjoyed painting them. Later stick the printed kannada letters on them.

Wishing you all a very happy Makara Sankranti !!!

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Paint on stretched canvas

For the art theme birthday party, the main activity i chose was paint on canvas. That will make a wonderful keep sake return gift too. I gave each of the kid one canvas with their names and date written on the back. The big girls Aneesa and Sarah had questions like "what is this? why not paint on paper like we do in school?" etc. And when i told them that most professional asrtists paint on these canvases they were thrilled!! Also told them when its done, its ready to be displayed on wall, no need for framing, they were more excited.

And when i gave them aprons to wear "its like the ones in our schools " they shouted with joy. And were happier when i said they can take it home after they are done with painting!!
Later i showed a couple of examples what we were planning to paint that day like here and here. And then we went on to put tape on canvases. Since it is difficult for putti and other little ones to pull and cut their tape. I offered to help all kids to cut tape for them in the length they asked for. Aneesa made an 'A', while her little sister made some parallel lines with the tape. Abhi akka took mom's help to make a little house, a flower (looked like a windmill) and an 'A' too. Shakti went on making windows for each of her family member with mom's help. But putti made some random patterns.

And once all were done with tape, i gave them little containers with crayola washable paint and a sponge brush. I did not want kids to mix up their colors and end up in muddy brown so to keep colors and brush clean, I asked the kids to pass on their paint containers along with the brush in them to the next person. This made sure all the kids got all the colors and also the brushes stayed clean ! They all enjoyed painting.

 

Watching these kids having so much fun, the littlest kid almost 2yr shishir come wanted to join too. And he enjoyed his time with paint for  awhile. I had plans of making foot and hand prints of him on canvas, as he had never been exposed to paint/ crayon earlier. But he decided to pitch in with the other kids:)

And when all were done, we left them to dry and carried on with other activities and snacking. When it was time to leave, gave the kids their canvases and they peeled off the tapes. 

 

They were all excited to take them home.
 

I had been wanting to try paint on canvas with putti for a long time and now want to do more....

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