40 ideas - Number 2 - Messy Fun Art

 Welcome to my lofty dream of providing you with 40!!! fun activities you can do with your kids!  Many at the drop of a hat!  I bet for many of these you will have the materials you need on hand or can find them at the dollar store or on the cheap at the local craft store!  This list will contain simple, cheap and FUN crafts or activities that ANYONE can do!  And better yet, they will be kid tested and approved!

If you would like to be a guest blogger in this series email me at ricracandpompoms @ gmail . com! 

Today's activity comes from Katie at Explanation Required!    I LOVE this and will be doing it with my boys once we find the perfect quote!

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Summer is usually filled with kids constantly whining that they're bored and have nothing to do. It can sometimes be hard to come up with ideas to keep them occupied, which is why Crystal's series is so awesome! A few years ago my then toddler daughter and I spent an afternoon making a messy masterpiece together and I thought others might want to make some with their little (or big) kids too. Etsy is full of great pieces that can either purchased if you're not feeling particularly painterly, or can used as inspiration for a piece of your own. This "If it's not messy it's not fun" print seemed like the perfect saying for a kid's room and I decided to DIY a version that fit better in my daughter'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, 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. Or you could take an extra step before painting and brush a thin layer of white paint over your stickers and then add the color - that way the only color that could possibly bleed underneath would be white. Then just marvel at your little virtuoso's work. Delightful right?!

Thanks Katie!! I can't wait to make one!!  And be sure to go visit Katie at Explanation Required!

When you're done making art...be sure to whip up some Rainbow Pudding Pops, too! :)