Fun With Your Own Stencils

Today we’re looking at a way to make your own stencils AND make a really cool looking picture with them! I tried this 4 different ways, so I will first show you the way that I think worked the best. But if you don’t have those supplies on hand, there are some other fun things you can try that still come out looking pretty great. 🙂 Here’s a sneak peek!

You will need 2 sheets of white paper. I used a sturdy type of construction paper. (I am showing you how to do this project 4 ways, but if you’d rather you can use just one piece of paper and still make 2 pictures.) 🙂

Cut or fold and tear each sheet into 4 equal pieces.

Take 4 of the smaller pieces and fold each one of them in half. Leave 4 smaller pieces of paper flat.

On the folded edge, draw half of a shape. For example, draw half of a heart, triangle, circle, square, etc. Leave some space on both the top and bottom edges.

While keeping the paper folded, cut out the shape. Cut through both pieces of the folded paper at the same time.

Now open up the folded paper and you should have the complete shape cut out of the middle of the paper.

You might want to lay down some old newspaper or paper towels to put your project on. Pick one stencil and lay it on the newspaper.

For the first example, I used water color crayons. They gave the best color to the finished picture.

Pick out 3-5 colors that you want to use. Begin by coloring dots on the edge of your stencil. I like using colors in the same order all around the edge of the stencil. It’s great practice for the kids to help learn about making a pattern.

Make colored dots all around the edge of your shape.

Next lay your stencil on top of one of the flat pieces of paper. Make sure that the 2 pieces of paper stay together all the time for the next step. Use one end of a Q-tip to brush from the colored dot onto the paper laying underneath the stencil. Use the same Q-tip to do all of one color.

Then switch to a new Q-tip end for each color.

Doesn’t it look amazing?! 🙂 Remove the stencil and look at the beautiful design you’ve made underneath.

For my second design I tried using sidewalk chalk. It worked too, but the colors came out very light and rather hard to see, especially in a picture.

I used colored pencils for another try, but this time I didn’t use the Q-tips. I simply colored little patches both on the stencil and the paper underneath. I think the circle and heart shape worked better than the triangle shape did.

And then with the stencil removed. Still made a neat picture!

For my last attempt, I used regular crayons and colored circles or ovals on the stencil and the paper underneath. I think it would look better if I had colored bigger circles, but it still is pretty.

Without the stencil…looks rather like a picture frame. 😉

You can, of course, simply use a pencil to trace inside the stencils and then color the shapes without having the stencil there.

It was a fun experiment! I definitely liked using the water color crayons the best as they gave the best results. I hope you’ll give this project a try! 🙂

Crayola Confetti Crayons

Have you tried the Crayola Confetti Crayons yet? They really are quite fun! I found them at a Walmart store. I would say they are an inexpensive box of fun!

As you can see from the writing on the box, there are 24 crayons included. The box also says “Bursting bits of color! Each Crayola Confetti Crayon has specks of color inside for surprising streaks and a party in every crayon!”

The crayons have some pretty awesome names too! Like party fish…

Or meteor shower or new year’s eve or rain drops… It’s fun just reading the name on each crayon!

Take a look at all the crayons that look mostly white.

Buuuut….surprise!! Look what it looks like when you start coloring with them!

Pretty cool, right?! Coloring is so much fun because you don’t know when a streak will show up or what color the streak might be! 🙂 Can you see the colorful streaks in this picture?

Let’s look a little closer…look at the colors in this bird.

You can see the streaks in the girl’s skate and in the green bush and the colorful flowers.

The colors look much better in person, of course! 😉 Crayola Confetti Crayons are a lot of fun in one small box! 🙂

New Crayola Crayons Collections

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to receive was a new box of crayons! I felt that excited sensation again the other day when I came across some new collections of Crayola crayons! I found these at the Dollar Tree store and some of them I haven’t seen any place else so far.

Let’s take a minute and look at what is inside each box. 🙂 Each box contains 8 crayons.

#1.) Glitter Crayons. Colors included in this box are: berry blast, crimson clash, campfire flicker, sun shower, gritty green, blue blazes, poppin’ purple and black gold. The crayons are sparkly.

#2.) Pastel Crayons. The colors included in this box are: carnation pink, canary, spring green, sea green, apricot, sky blue, periwinkle and purple mountains’ majesty.

#3.) Pearl Crayons. The crayons in this box have some cool names too: hot cocoa, orange peel, apple orchard, shooting star, caribbean sea, cloudy sky, lavender silk and black pearl. Just listening to the color names makes me want to start coloring! 😉

#4.) Uni-crayons. These must be for coloring unicorns? Here are the colors in this box: maroon, red-orange, yellow, pine green, blue, carnation pink, silver and gold. Gotta have silver and gold for unicorn horns, right?

#5.) Cosmic Crayons. This kind I did see at Walmart in a box of 24 crayons. Colors in this box include: wild strawberry, yellow orange, yellow, jungle green, sky blue, pacific blue, hot magenta and orchid.

These crayons are so much fun! They would make a great addition to a craft bag for traveling or a goodie bag after a birthday party. Or maybe send some to those grandkids that live far away. Whatever you do with them, I hope they will bring lots of fun to someone! 🙂

Happy Coloring Book Day!

Yes, my calendar says it’s Coloring Book Day. So get out your favorite coloring books and crayons or markers or colored pencils and have some fun coloring. 🙂

What is your favorite kind of coloring book? I’ll share some of the coloring books we have to give you some ideas of what you might like.

How about a book that’s just for coloring?

Or maybe one that has activities to do and also has stickers to use?

There are some coloring books that teach you about the colors.

Oh and coloring books with dot-to-dots to follow first! Isn’t it fun to be surprised when you see what the picture is after you follow the dots in the right order?

There are also books that are color by number where they tell you what color to use for each numbered space. I’ve always liked these!

And for older kids and even adults there are coloring books they can enjoy! Here’s one that looks like a stained glass window when you color it.

And one of my favorite coloring books that I own is a color by number but for adults because it’s too hard for little kids. You really can’t tell what these pictures are until you color them.

And one more really cute coloring book for big people. 😉

Whatever kind of coloring book you enjoy, I hope you will take some time to relax and do some coloring today to celebrate Coloring Book Day! 🙂

Great Coloring App

From time to time I’ll be sharing some apps with you that I think are fun for kids or ones that my grandchildren enjoy. Today let’s talk about a fun coloring app – Pixel Art!

Pixel Art is a great app for coloring without the mess of carrying along crayons or colored pencils, a coloring book, something solid for under the book, etc. It’s something nice and calming to do on your tablet or phone that doesn’t involve shooting anything. 😉 I enjoy using this app as much as my grand kids. Our granddaughter has been playing it since she was 4 years old. Our grandsons play it too and a couple of them are teenagers. It’s great for all ages! Once you download the app, the first thing you’ll do is select a picture you would like to color. There are a lot of pictures to choose from! Just scroll down to see them.

For this example, I went with the cute little owl. Just click on him.

You can zoom in so you can make the boxes as big as you like so they are easier to tap on. There is a button toward the top that zooms in some, but you can place 2 fingers on the screen and spread your fingers apart to make the squares bigger.

See the colored and numbered squares at the bottom? Those are the colors available for this picture. We’ll click on number 7…

Now the colored 7 at the bottom is highlighted and all the 7’s in your picture have turned a gray color. Start coloring by tapping on all the 7’s.

As you tap on each box, it changes to the color for that number. Notice the big check mark now in the box where the 7 was? That means you have completed all the 7’s. You can scroll all around the picture and select which part you want to work on. Continue selecting a color and tapping the matching numbers.

Did you accidentally tap a wrong number? No problem! The box will turn to a light shade of gray but all you need to do is tap that number, tap the box and it’s colored in too. You really can’t mess it up! 🙂 Keep going until all the numbers have been filled in.

Ta dah! Our little owl is complete! There are really easy pictures…ones that don’t take a long time…and then there are more complicated pictures, but they are all done the same way. Some have less squares and some have a larger number of squares. The more squares there are, the clearer the picture is.

There are cartoon-type characters, flowers, animals, holidays, etc. New pictures are added every day. There are even 3D pictures…which are popular with our grand kids! You turn the picture around to reach all the squares.

And there are silly fun ones to color.

Pixel Art is easy enough for really young kids to do with a little help but also entertaining enough for any age. It gives you a sense of accomplishment when you finish a picture. If you can’t finish it all at once, it’s ok to quit before you are done. It will be there waiting for you in your library when you come back. 🙂 You can even use one of your own pictures to color! Have fun with Pixel Art! Let me know what you think!

Wednesday Giveaway!

Good morning, y’all! Hope your Wednesday is starting off awesome! Today I will be giving away 2 prizes – one for a boy and one for a girl! Today’s blog is about coloring and so today’s prize will be a coloring book and a box of crayons. The question of the day has 2 parts – do YOU still enjoy coloring? And if you win today, would you like the set for a boy or a girl or either one? Remember to put your response in the comments here but also hop on over to my Facebook page and add another entry there!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1150831384977940/

Coloring fun for everyone!

When I was little, one of my most prized possessions was a big box of crayons. I remember how I longed for a BIG box with all those extra special colors! I loved my little boxes of crayons, but the BIG box was just sooo amazing! All those wonderful sounding colors to use…salmon, outrageous orange, wild strawberry. I was sure my picture would be awesome if I was using red violet or periwinkle.

And it came with a CRAYON SHARPENER on the back of the box!!

(Save your old crayons and any crayon shavings for another special project! But that’s for another day! Stay tuned!)

In some ways, I think coloring is not as popular as it once was but in other ways it seems more popular than ever! We spend a lot of time on “screen time” these days, but even many adults have gone back to coloring as a way of relaxing. Coloring is so good for us! One reason is that its time AWAY from the screen which we all need! Motor skills can be improved for children through coloring and it also can slow the loss of motor skills in adults. It’s a creative outlet, helps us to relax, is inexpensive and provides us with good self-esteem and a sense of accomplishment. Not bad for a box of crayons and a coloring book, eh?

There are SO many types of coloring books, for both children and adults! Just walk into any book store and you’ll be amazed at what you see! Books of every size and almost any theme you can imagine are available. I really enjoy the color by number books myself. Some for kids…

And some for adults.

Here’s one I’m currently working on. I like that I can’t tell what the picture is before I start on it. 🙂

You can color on mugs, bags, books, clothing…the list goes on! I even found a book of postcards to color and mail to that special someone you’re thinking of.

And, as I’m sure you know, there are many, many products you can color WITH such as crayons, markers, gel pens, colored pencils, twistables, etc.

Coloring is still great for kids AND for adults so if you haven’t colored anything lately, give it a whirl! You’ll be glad you did! 🙂