4.16.2013

toddler art tuesdays

(Did you catch last week's fabulous fun with fingerpaint feature?!)

I've really started to look forward to Tuesdays -- Toddler Art Tuesdays, that is. I love exploring great new art techniques and projects with Ethan and I just love seeing what fabulous ideas the Twodaloo gang have come up with each week! Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of this new little series of ours.

This week's theme had me dabbling a bit in unfamiliar territory so it was a true learning experience for both Ethan and I. (That, unfortunately, didn't come without mishaps -- totally my fault, I admit it! Don't blame the toddler!) I wanted to make sure to include our mishaps along with the successes just because it's an accurate portrayal of life. There are always those times when whatever we're working on just doesn't pan out -- and that's okay!

The theme this week?

Ethan and I have never really done too much with suncatchers before but I had quite a few ideas that I wanted to experiment with. Wouldn't you know that it's summer in Florida and that means our days have gone from 90 degrees and not a cloud in the sky to torrential downpours with lightning, thunder -- the works! -- just a few short minutes later. We aren't the type to let some pesky weather get in the way of some fun art projects so we dove right into the world of suncatchers -- even if they never really had the chance to catch much sun.

WATERED DOWN WATERCOLOR SUNCATCHERS ON MUFFIN LINERS

Ethan and I made these at my mom's house once I discovered a package of Crayola watercolors sitting on her outside table. I popped a few of the colors out of the tray -- colors of Ethan's choosing, of course -- and placed them in the wells of an empty egg carton. I filled the wells with some water and agitated the watercolor paint ovals with a toothpick to get the color to really mix with the water. This only takes a few minutes and then you're free to pop the watercolor paint back into it's original tray for regular use next time. It's a great (and mess free!) way to dye water if you happen to have watercolors on hand.

The main point of this was supposed to be to paint on paper coffee filters but my mom only had the eco-friendly ones which were brown and not very dye-friendly. Instead, I picked up a few white paper muffin tin liners and flattened them.

I gave Ethan a paint brush and let him go nuts painting the flattened paper liners. He got a kick out of "painting with water."

The paint dried quickly, within a minute or two, and we hung them up in my mom's breakfast area on a window facing the patio.

They actually turned out really pretty!

COLORS & ICE SUNCATCHER

This was one of those "by the time it was ready, it was storming outside" projects -- but that didn't take our fun away. If anything, I think this was Ethan's absolute favorite art project in some time! He loves to play with ice, the fun of the water and bright colors just made it a lot of fun to create. I prepped this by freezing some water and food coloring in an old Baby Bullet baby food silicone tray the night before. This way, the ice was ready to go when Ethan woke up the next morning.

We went outside to put together our suncatcher. I filled a cake tin with water and made sure to include a small prep dish (also filled with water) so that the suncatcher froze with a hole on the top for stringing.

Ethan got to put the colored ice into the water-filled pan (okay, with some time to play with and explore the colored ice!) and then we stuck the pan in the freezer. Ethan spent a little too much time playing with the ice so some of the color did start to run off into the water, but that's okay.

By the time it froze, we were in the middle of a horrible rainstorm. Still, we sat on the (covered) doorstep to see how beautiful our suncatcher came out -- even if it was only able to catch minimal sun at the time. Ethan loved it! I braved the rain to hang it up on a piece of our fence and we had fun admiring it until the thunder and lightning started rolling in again!

DRY-CLEAR GLUE SUNCATCHERS

Oh. This suncatcher. I had such high hopes for this one and then you know what I did? Clumsily tried to peel them up when they weren't dry yet and potentially destroyed them. I'm still waiting on the final verdict, or for Ethan to forget about them because mommy is the bad guy in this.

The first step for this one is to brush a pan (or cookie sheet!) with some olive oil to prevent stickiness.

Ethan chose two cookie cutters. We placed them both on the greased pan and then filled them with a layer of glue. Ethan decided he wanted to add some glitter and color, so we sucked up some paint with a nasal aspirator and splattered it into the glue.

The final product? Yeah. About that. I'll get back to you provided I didn't clumsily sabotage the entire thing.

TISSUE PAPER SUNCATCHERS

The night before we made this one, I cut out some shapes (square, rectangle, circle and a heart) from laminating paper. I also shredded some tissue paper that I had on hand. When Ethan woke up, we peeled the backing off the laminating sheets and Ethan went to work sticking on the tissue paper.

Sticking the pieces on wasn't his favorite task ever. He took matters into his own hand by dumping the cups of tissue paper shreds and completing that step quickly!

Once the tissue paper shreds were applied, I trimmed the edges so they fit onto the desired shape correctly. I told Ethan we had to go through his drawers in our Tot School room to find some string and he selected some pipecleaners, so I made those work. He was so excited about the final product!

FAVORITE SUNCATCHER POSTS

I thought I'd share some of my favorite suncatcher posts! These are all absolutely gorgeous (and super fun!) suncatcher projects -- and after my own suncatcher mishaps today, I'm even more in awe of all of them! (Just click the pictures to be directed to the posts!)

Don't forget to pop on over to Twodaloo and check out what Stephanie and her twins have come up with this week!

4 comments:

  1. Such cute ideas! I can't wait to try these soon!

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  2. Thanks for all the great ideas! I love the tissue paper suncatchers. I'll be trying these soon!

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  3. Wow! I am so in awe of the projects you and your little guy get up to in the week. I love how you have tried them and report back about them, I'd love to try some of these myself now. Love the muffin case idea, I think I'll start with that one! We can't get coffee filters here so I had written off doing these activities. Thanks for featuring our Gelatin Suncstcher :)

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  4. these projects are adorable! great job with the creativity! :)

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