Painting Miniature Pumpkins

When we were waiting for our tall painted pumpkins to dry the other day, Meg set her sights on a little white pumpkin we'd also picked up from the store. She told me it was Baby James' pumpkin, and she needed to paint it for him too.

I set up a palette of fluorescent tempera paint for her, and she used brushes to add some color to that blank pumpkin canvas.

Here it is nearly finished:

She went on to paint the bottom and add a layer of diamond dust to the whole pumpkin.

"Tall Painting" with Pumpkins

We first heard about "tall painting" from Teacher Tom's blog here. Go ahead and check it out, I'll wait.

I've been wanting to try this for some time, and when we picked up some Halloween pumpkins the other day, I decided they'd be a great medium for the process. My daughter (3) wasn't interested in waiting for me to fill cups with acrylic paint (I chose acrylic over tempera as it's thicker), and she dove right in, squirting the paint right on top of the pumpkin, one color at a time. We used some old craft paint I had on hand, and she was welcome to use as much as she liked, because it was becoming too gummy for me to use.

When she was done painting, she applied a liberal coat of blue and green glitter.

Didn't it turn out beautifully? It took about a day and a half to dry completely, and it sure does brighten up our front porch!

Handmade Peek-a-boo Toy Storage Bags

I store most of my kids' toys on open bookshelves in their playroom and playroom closet. Many of the toys don't come in containers that are functional for storage after purchase, and I'm a big believer in visible open storage to encourage kids to choose and help themselves to their own toys. I use a lot of baskets and plastic buckets from Dollar Tree, but there are some toys that don't fit perfectly in them. So when I came home a few weeks ago with yet another stack of cute flannel yardages after a trip to JoAnn's, I actually had in mind a practical use for it, rather than just filing it away on my overflowing fabric shelves.

I used the darling flannel to make up a number of sacks in different sizes for toy storage.

They all have a vinyl window on the front and back to make it easier for the kids to find their toys. I simply cut out rectangles from the fabric with pinking shears before sewing up the bags and sewed a piece of vinyl to the wrong side of the opening. I didn't bother being perfectly neat. Just got the job done.

The larger bags have ribbon drawstrings, and the smallest bags close with Velcro.

These bags currently hold Peek-a-Blocks, plastic ball pit balls, Color Wonder materials, musical instruments, puzzle pieces, dead pens and popsicle sticks (my 11 month old's current favorite toy), and painted wooden cut-outs. It's so easy to rotate out toys to maintain freshness or as their ages/interests change. With Christmas coming up, I guess I'm going to need to make up a whole new batch. Oh, darn. ;)

Giant Autumn Tree - Child-Directed Wall Art

The other day we were having a lazy morning at home. It's been so busy around here lately with family and school commitments. I ran across this blog post on The Artful Parent that had a picture of a giant paper tree on the wall. I showed it to Meg and we both agreed we needed one of these on our wall. The one on the linked blog looks to be made of brown paper. We didn't have any on hand, so I gave Meg a few options. We could run to Home Depot to get some, we could use the plain white butcher paper we have in the studio and just have a white tree (wouldn't that be pretty for winter?), or we could paint our butcher paper brown. My girl heard paint, and all other discussion was set aside! :D

Meg told me which colors to squirt into the empty pie tin each time we filled it (yellow-brown-green, orange-brown-black, and brown-red-white), and she used sponges to paint a looooooong stretch of paper.

After it dried, we brought it inside, and Meg cut it into a trunk and branches (with a little guidance from me). We pieced everything on the family room floor as we went, then taped all the pieces together with Scotch tape.

I then taped the whole thing to the wall, again with Scotch tape, because it's what we had handy. That part was a little intimidating, but not too tricky once I got the trunk secured. Our walls aren't heavily textured, so the Scotch tape is holding fine. If you have more texture on your walls, you might try masking tape, push pins, blue tack, or staples.

We used faux leaves from Dollar Tree (50/$1) to decorate the branches. I also had some fake maple leaves with letters glued on spelling out Meg's name left over from last year's Little Bear party, so we taped those up too.

Overall, the tree may not be as pretty as our inspiration piece, but it's Meg's art from start to finish, and we think that's beautiful!

Painting Puddles

Monsoon season has brought with it some delightfully drizzly days to our desert home. Meg has been having a blast sailing leaves down the gutter, splashing around, and using her umbrella for its intended purpose. We've also been able to have some fun art experiences perfectly suited to this weather.

I offered her some cups of liquid watercolor and brushes, and she went to town painting on the rain-soaked concrete.

Meg loved using such an enormous canvas, and by the end of the day, the rain had washed everything away for us, making Mommy cleanup completely unnecessary.