Valentine's Day Paint Skin Tiles Craft

I was inspired by a post on Facebook. I 'like' some great Facebook pages through my own Facebook account. I love to share what I find and this time I decided to try to copy one from Inner Child Fun. Her Kid Made Paint Skin Tiles looked so tile like and pretty. It looked easy enough and I have some acrylic paints. I also had 2 large quarts of interior house paint that I never used for another project. A project I envisioned more than 5 years ago. I bought it when I was delusional enough to think that I would paint something artsy in our entry way.  I thought maybe the house paint would make a nice base. Plus, the only other acrylic paints I have are small bottles for much smaller painting projects. I was skeptical about what the results would be when I figured out that the quarts were interior satin enamel paint. I thought, "acrylic or enamel, kinda the same, right?"

Swirling acrylic paint into the base enamel paint.

I gathered the supplies and the children and hoped for the best. I am always apprehensive when it comes to permanent paint. My dining room chairs still hold the evidence of previous adventures.

Supplies for creating the paint skin tiles.

I attempted to tape down the pieces of parchment paper on cookie sheets. The tape not wanting to stay put wasn't an issue once we poured the base paint out. I wasn't real sure how thick to go with the base. I didn't want it to never dry, but wanted it to be thick enough to be tile like. One thing I didn't expect was the parchment paper getting all wrinkled. I was concerned the paint would saturate and go through the paper. It didn't. My cookie sheets are old so I thought maybe it would be a good excuse for new ones if this craft didn't work out. No new cookie sheets for me. :(

We spooned and poured out enough of the base (deep purple) paint to cover the paper, using enough so that when we swirled the paint with the toothpick it wouldn't scrape the paper. Does that make sense? If I had to guess I would guess 1/8 inch thick. I let the kids add the other acrylic paints and swirl away. They absolutely loved playing in the paint and said, "this is the best craft ever!" 

Mass mess of acrylic paint swirled into enamel base paint to set out to dry into paint skin tiles.

When they found out they would have to wait at least 2 days before finishing the whole project they were less thrilled. Even though we live in the dry air of Arizona, it took the full two days to dry. They got excited again when they felt the dried paint and I told them they could peel it off the paper and make their Valentine creations. For my sensory seeking girls this was a good thing. The paint was sort of rubbery.

Peeling the dried paint (paint skins) away from the parchment paper. 

Instead of just creating square tiles, my girls wanted to create hearts. They wanted to use the heart cookie cutters for the shapes. The cookie cutters did not cut the paint skin. We had to use scissors. I did convince them to cut some squares for a mosaic tile effect too.

Using cookie cutters to create shapes out of the paint skin.

Once we figure out how to make the paint skins look pretty, we used regular school glue to attach them to the paper.

Heart made out of the paint skin for a Valentine's Day Card.

Valentine's Day Card with paint skin X and Os.

The Hugs -n- Kisses card on the inside says "...always. Happy Valentine's Day."

Paint skin  tiles used to create a mosaic like heart with a piece missing.

My girls only finished three pieces for this project. They spent more time playing with the paint skin tiles than they did creating anything else with them. Although we may not have perfect results, the process was far more valuable than the actual product.

I am linking up to these craft parties!

Glass Jar Turkey Decoration

Using the same glass jars we used for our pumpkins we created turkeys for Thanksgiving. We removed the orange and green paper, the black noses and mouths. We then created tail feathers using scrapbook paper. I solved the glue problem by using Beacon's 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue that I got at Michaels. The kids call it snot glue. It is thick, but gooey and stringy. It does stick to everything so far.  

Thanksgiving Turkeys

Before they become turkeys. They looked scared!

Supplies, including the Snot Glue.

Using the scrap paper was Hey's idea. Personally I thought using the traditional red, yellow, and orange tail feathers would look great. The girls wanted them to look like real feathers and thought the patterns on the scrapbook paper was the best choice. Little did I know that meant lots of different paper.  We used the orange and green paper from the pumpkins to guide the size of the brown paper for inside the jars.

Using the paper from the Pumpkin to size the paper for the inside of the Turkey Jar. 

The tracing of feathers from the template to be cut out. 

I took a chance and did one feather template free hand. I must have done 10 of them before we came up with a general consensus on the one we liked. We then used it to trace others onto the scrap paper. I think the feathers came out okay.

Tracing the hard way.

I had to tell Hey it was easier to trace it on the white side of the paper. Myrrh wanted all peacock feathers despite my discouragement. It doesn't look like a turkey to me. It looks like a peacock! Oh well, it is one of my areas of growth. Letting go and allowing my children to direct what they see as art. They are cute no matter what they may or may not look like.

Using the snot glue to attach the feathers to the jar.

I will claim credit for the yellow foam feet since that was my idea. The top hat and red scarf were again Hey's idea. She thinks that makes it a decorative turkey. The top hat was a challenge. Hey stapled the circle of the hat. Then she taped the top from the inside. It doesn't look good from the inside, but it works all the same from the outside.

Taping the top of the hat.

Finished hat. See you barely can see the mess.

The beaks and red gobble neck on one of the turkeys were cut from vinyl type shape stickers that we had.

Completed set of Thanksgiving Turkey Jars.

Turkey with a gobble.

The snot glue was very helpful this time keeping the tail feathers attached to the jar and the red scarf. Just think if we had discovered how good the snot glue was to begin with, we may never have gotten the pumpkin jars that we are able to transition for every holiday. Wait until you see the Christmas jars!  Until then, happy crafting. I am linking up to these craft parties!

Glass Jar Pumpkin Decorations

This is truly a kid created craft. My girls wanted to turn some empty jars we had into pumpkins. They wanted to paint the glass jars orange and the lids brown or green. We didn't have any paint that would stay on glass. Myrrh and Hey started to brainstorm ideas. They decided they wanted to glue or tape paper to the outside of the jar. There was a suggestion that they cut jack o'lantern patterns in the paper then use a candle on the inside to illuminate it. I thought that sounded cool, jack o'lanterns with tea lights inside the glass.

Glass Jar Jack O'Lanterns

Then the paper didn't want to stay on the jars with glue. I don't know how it all happened, but the paper ended up on the inside. When I told them they couldn't put candles on the inside with the paper they decided they would put faces on the outside of the jar. Stickers worked where the glue had failed. I haven't seen anyone else use paper inside of a jar as a decoration. It isn't the best looking thing, but creative. My little artists never cease to amaze me.

Supplies:

Glass Jars without labels

Colored construction or cardstock paper

Ruler

Scissors

Stapler

Foam Stickers

Googly Eye stickers

1. Soak the jars in warm soapy water to remove the labels.

Soaking labels off bottles

2. Dry the jars out. 

Myrrh drying out the inside of the jars.

 3. Cut the paper to the proper size to fit the size of the jar. They used a Cricut paper cutter to get a straight edge.

Cutting paper down to size.

4. Roll the paper to fit into the jar. Measure the height of the jar to determine how short the paper roll needs to be inside the jar.

Measuring the jar to cut the paper to the right size.

 5. Cut the paper to the proper size to fit as close to the inside wall of the jar as possible.  

The orange paper cut to fit the bottom section of the jar.

6. For the top piece, green stem of the pumpkin, you will need to measure and cut again. Roll it to the proper size. Staple it into a roll so it stays uniform in size.

Added the green paper for the pumpkin stem.

7. Choose your decorations for the outside. My girls decided to use foam stickers to create the nose and mouth.

 

Foam stickers that got slaughtered for the girls idea of a face.

 

8. They decided the $1 store stickers were to big for the jars, so they cut out their own faces. 

 

Glass jars decorated as pumpkins. 

 

They don't look like jack o'lanterns to me (more like ghosts), but the girls loved them just the same. They were very proud of their creation and displayed them in our front window for all the neighbors to see.

Sure they could have filled them with candy corn, or some other clever thing, but these are their unique creations. The beauty of them being paper and stickers is that we can recycle the jars for the next project. I have plans for the next holiday for these, just wait and see.

  I am linking up to these craft parties!

Chef or Artist Beret or Genie Costume Hats for Fun!

This project originated from Myrrh's teacher.  A really cute chef hat. They played a math game at school called, Order Up. It sounded fun. Her favorite part was the hat of course. The band was made of only 1 piece of paper, probably poster board. We only had regular 8 1/2 X 11 card stock paper. Have you ever wondered why that is the standard size? I didn't want to have that much stapled paper around their heads. Plus, there would be to many seams. 



Order Up Hat from School

Since I didn't have a strip of paper long enough to go around the circumference of the girls' heads we had to improvise. Hey suggested we use ribbon. It was actually an interesting idea, but I don't have ribbon that wide or did I? I remember we had some Christmas ribbon that we used for making bows on presents. I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it. The girls thought it was awesome since it sparkled.

You use gift wrap tissue paper for the top puffy part of the hat. We had white, but the girls decided they wanted colored paper.



Supplies along with the sample to follow.

We started by measuring out the length of ribbon needed for the band of the hat.

Head band of hat.

Next you take the tissue paper and tape two of the corners to the inside of the band. Tape one corner and then the other on the opposite side of the headband. Then you gather or wrinkle up little sections and tape them to the inside of the hat band. We tried to use Scotch tape. As I suspected would happen, it didn't stick well. We switched to packing tape. It is the kind you don't have to use with scissors.

Attach tissue paper to inside of head band

Hey in her beret artist hat.

Chef/Baker hat flattened makes a cool artist beret.

  

With the hat, it is a complete chef/baker costume.

The girls really enjoyed making something they could wear. You could see the pride in their eyes. It would be nice if they would decide what they are actually going to wear for costumes. They seem to change their minds on a daily basis.

  I am linking up to these craft parties!

4th of July Fireworks Craft

After another craft fail, I needed to do something fast using all the supplies we already had out with the paint.  My girls were not going to move on from the craft fail unless we did something else right away. I found a nice easy Patriotic painting craft courtesy of Crafts~N~Things for Children blog. Google is my friend. A nice red, white and blue American craft.

These are nice since we may not see 'real' fireworks on the 4th of July. We live in the desert and sometimes due to extreme fire dangers they have to cancel them.

Fireworks!

Fairly simple since we only needed the three Ps:

• Paper
• Paint
• Pipe Cleaners
• Scissors

Pipe Cleaners. They can be any color.

1. Cut the pipe cleaners to create what the girls first thought looked like a flower. Once they had it twisted and laid out the way they wanted them, they accepted they were fireworks.

A Firework with a handle.

2. Dip the firework into the paint. Place more paint on with a brush if you want a fuller look.

Adding paint to the firework.

3. Stamp the paint coated piper cleaner onto the paper.

Painted firework print on paper.

4. Repeat # 2 & #3 for each color.

When stamping down the pipe cleaner firework my girls wanted it thicker so they pressed with their fingers. You can see finger smudge and smear marks on the paper. If you want to avoid that, use a stick instead.

Fireworks stamp painted for the holiday.

Stamp painted firework on black background.

Once they were done with the pipe cleaner fireworks, they moved onto painting all kinds of things red, white and blue. There were the small boxes, small cardboard left over from the boxes, and the paper plates themselves.

Red, white and blue everywhere!

After the paint stamped fireworks were dry, the girls decided they needed to add glitter glue. Where would fireworks be without glitter glue? After that, they declared they were done.

Fireworks with the glitter glue touch.

Have a wonderful Day of Independence celebrating the 4th of July!

Another Craft Failure

Sometimes I wonder where is my common sense. I wanted to do a fun holiday craft with my girls. I saw this neat banner on Country Living and thought, "Oh, we could do a variation of that for our craft."

Banner craft from Country Living website.

For a very novice craft person (yes, I said it) little warnings should have gone off when I thought 'variation'. 

Rosettes for the banner from County Living.

Here was my erroneous thinking. We would dip newspaper into paint to create a red, white and blue type fan flower. See, if you are a 'crafter' you already know where this is going.

What made me think that water based paint would work on paper? Now that I think about it, wet newspaper is a disaster unless you are making paper mache. I clearly hadn't thought it through.

All the paint did was make wet newspaper.

I put them out in the hot sun to dry. I was still delusional enough to think maybe when they dried it would look better.

It just turned out to be a mess as I tried to create the 'fan'.  Another craft fail. I have got to stick with what I know. If I am going to try to be original then I need to try it out before I sit down with the kids to do it. My girls were not impressed. They wanted to paint and they wanted to paint now. I was able to find them something quickly. It saved the day. See my next post for the 4th of July craft that succeeded. Until next time, may all your crafts work out better than mine.