Rainy Day, Art Day (Part 1)

Well! That was a short lived burst of warmth and sunshine! Looking at the weather prediction, seems we're up for another week or rain.

Luckily, the postie arrived with some craft goodies yesterday so we've got that to look forward to and explore.

I think Bella's at a good age to start getting into arts and crafts. The curiosity is there, even though the motor skills quite isn't but I'm sure that will get better the more we do these kind of activities.

This isn't her first time painting. Her first time was actually last year for Father's Day. It was a splatter painting made easy thanks my stash of paint pouring supplies, which came out surprisingly well ~ but that's for another blog.

Today was all about practice and exploration.

MATERIALS USED

• Crayola Neon Washable Paint ~ Key word here is WASHABLE.
• Paint Brushes
• Scrapbook Paper ~ I used scrapbook paper as it was the thickest paper I had figured it could withstand a fair amount of paint before it broke down (and it did).
• PVA Glue
• Coloured Origami Paper ~ Cut up in random shapes
• Gems and Rhinestones

First she tried using paint brushes, which she colour coded, using the green brush with the green paint and the blue brush with the blue paint... 😁

Then she realised she had better control using her fingers and that's when the real fun began.

We had to take little break to blow dry the page so we could move on to the next step which was to glue the cut up origami paper on.

I showed her how to do it a couple of times and after that she was keen to do it on her own.

The addition of the gems and rhinestones was her idea. One minute she's happily glueing away, arranging the pieces where she wanted, then next thing I know she's rummaging through her craft box and pulls the gems out.

TODAY'S TAKE AWAY

We achieved quite a lot today even though we didn't get to finish the art work.

• Motor Skills ~ Painting and glueing.
• Sensory ~ Feeling the paint on her fingers and spreading it in the paper.
• Learning about process and how things can come together.
• Creativity ~ Putting things together, layering different materials, her use of space.

She actually surprised me with her creativity and ability to think outside the box when she glued gems on top of each other.

My personal take away from today was to let go of control and just let her do what she wants. By all means, be there to assist with the opening of bottles, squeezing the glue etc, but let her compose her image the way she wants, no matter how messy it's shaping up to be, just let her make her art her way.

Stay tuned for part 2! Which should be the rest of the steps and the final reveal.

Any thoughts on what we're trying to make?