Finger Painting Fun!

Grab some newspaper to cover your table and a smock or old shirt to cover the kids and let’s have some fun finger painting! I have fond memories of finger painting when I was little . 😉 I found this inexpensive set of finger paints at Walmart for $4.34.

Yep, they are washable!

There are 6 colors in the set.

I also found some white construction paper for $1.47. (Why do packs of construction paper never have white in them?!)

Don’t forget your most important utensil – damp paper towels for cleaning up! LOL

Newspaper, smock or old clothes, paint and paper…looks like we’re ready to go!

Select your first color…I decided to start with green. There is another kind of plastic lid inside the first lid.

Flower stems and leaves are the beginning of my painting. Just trying something super simple that kids can do. 😉 You need a very small amount of paint on your finger at a time!

Now for some flower petals…

Let’s add a yellow dot to the center of the flowers, a sun in the top corner and some blue streaks in the sky.

Of course, you and the kids can paint anything you want! No brushes needed! You can put a small amount of each color on a styrofoam plate that the kids can dip their finger onto while they are painting. You never know, this might be the beginning work of a future great artist! Have fun!

Inexpensive Suncatcher Fun

It’s Monday Funday and I have a nice inexpensive craft to tell you about today. I found a cute unicorn suncatcher at Walmart the other day…only $0.97!! (My guess is that some other craft stores likely have them too.) That is the regular price, not a sale price. 🙂

One thing to note is the picture shows 4 colors on the unicorn while there are actually only 3 paints. But it looks cute anyways, so I didn’t find that to be a problem. I suggest laying out some newspaper or paper towels before letting the kiddos start painting. The paint is fairly thin but I think that is because this is a suncatcher and you want the light to be able to shine through.

There weren’t any instructions but here’s what I did: the suncatcher is smooth on one side and has ridges on the other. I painted on the side with ridges. I stirred each paint with a toothpick when I was ready to use it. I also used the toothpick to paint the really small areas. I started with the blue/teal paint.

You can paint the unicorn any way you like. I’m just showing you how I chose to do it. Next I painted with the purple paint.

And finally I used the pink paint.

Here it is against a better background.

And here it is with the light behind it.

I thought it was a rather fun project for kids for only $0.97! And there was some paint leftover. I’m pretty sure you can also buy the unpainted suncatchers at Walmart (not in a kit). So you might be able to make 2 suncatchers for $0.97! 😉

Painting Pine Cones Fun

Did you say “Whaaaat? Painting pine cones?!” Yea, it sounds a bit odd, doesn’t it? Well, if the cold weather and the long wait for Spring are getting you down, let’s paint some pine cones to look like gorgeous flowers to cheer you up! It will look like Spring has arrived inside your house! 🙂 Let’s gather the needed supplies…bright colored paints (You need yellow for sure), cheap paint brushes, newspaper or something to keep the table clean, small cups or dishes to hold the paint and pine cones, of course. The pine cones that work for this project are the shorter round ones shown in the picture below.

For little containers to hold the paint, I used disposable plastic cups and cut them down to a shorter size. I made enough of them to hold the paint but also to rest the pine cones in while the paint dried after I painted them. Pick out your first color and completely paint the pine cone, making sure to cover both sides of each scale.

Here’s my first painted pine cone starting the drying process.

I chose pink, blue, red and white for my pine cone/flower colors.

It’s rather hard on the paint brushes since you are painting in between the scales. That’s why I said CHEAP paint brushes. 😉 You can throw them away when your project is done.

Here are my 4 painted pine cones…one of each color…drying in the little cups.

Now watch the magic happen!! Get your yellow paint and paint just the center of the BOTTOM of each pine cone…and PRESTO! They now look like flowers!!

Very cool, isn’t it?! Place them in a little container and look how pretty they are! Doesn’t that brighten up the room?

I hope you found this project fun and surprising! The more you make the better they look together! 🙂