Kids Travel Art Kit

I love everything that Elizabeth Kartchner does, so when I saw her diy: art kit I knew I wanted to create one for our upcoming beach trip.  

I pretty much just went through my stash of paints, stickers, buttons, markers, crayons and glue sticks and put together this super easy, but super fun travel art kit.

Prior to going on our trip I cut up some construction paper, watercolor paper and papers from our watercolor matching activity to make a little book to paint in, doodle in and capture our memories.

I tucked all the art supplies into a pencil pouch and put it all in our travel bag.

The first day of our mini vacation was beautiful, but then the storms came in and we had a some cloudy and rainy afternoons.  Since my 21 month old still takes good afternoon naps, Anna, Dada and I lounged inside and painted and doodled.  

Once we got back home I printed out the pictures from our trip (and the ones from our Instax camera) and put them in our book and made a little mini vacation album (which I'll share more of later).  

It was so fun having the art supplies with us and it was a great mid-afternoon break for Anna, who no longer naps, but really should....if you get my drift.  Painting and coloring is quite relaxing....even for adults!!

Be sure to grab your art supplies and make a little art kit for your next trip!  I'll be sure to make one for all of our trips!

Making Faces

If you've been following along, you know that most of our house is in disarray with packing, packing and more packing.  Which means that this crafty momma has had to think out of the box for our arts and crafts activities.

This is another one of those activities that requires very little supplies, but is fun for everyone.

Using one of the rolls from our bubble wrap package, Anna dipped the tube in paint and then stamped circles all over her paper.

Once the circles were dry she decided she wanted to make some faces in the circles, so I said...why not???

She is at that stage where she loves to draw her self portrait so these are all pictures of her.  I love that she is starting to add ears, hair, eyebrows and chins...

A simple activity using common household objects!  Easy enough for this momma!!

Face Painting Fun

Want to have an hour to yourself???

Sounds amazing, right?

I have the answer!!  Face painting!!

I picked up a face painting kit at the craft store a while back and totally forgot about it!  Anna wanted to "do something fun" so I pulled it out and she went nuts!  

First she asked for a rainbow on her cheek...

Then she decided to paint a rainbow on her arm...

And then she started to get a little crazy...

And even crazier!!!

Even the poor baby got painted!

So...go pick up some face paint, grab your coffee and a book and let your kiddo have some fun!!  I highly recommend face painting for preschoolers!!

Marshmallow Sculptures

I set this fun little activity out for the kids the other day and not only was it fun, it was tasty!  My kids never pass up a yummy marshmallow, so this was definitely a hit to them!

Basically I just cut up a few straws and put some marshmallows into a bowl.

And they got right to work!

Anna want to make some letters so we tried out a couple!

It's a fun (and tasty) way to play and learn!

Summer Fun - Table Top Tin Foil Painting

This is another fun little art activity from our Summer Fun List.  

I decided to change things up a little for the tin foil painting and covered my daughter's little table with tin foil.  I used painters tape so it was easy to remove and it worked really well.  We've done something similar in the past but we covered the table with a variety of different papers.

I also read somewhere to mix the paint with a little bit of dish soap, so we did.  I'm not sure it made much of a difference.

My daughter, Anna, really enjoyed painting "on the table".  It was something fun and new for her!

Simple Watercolor Activity

This is a super simple watercolor activity that I did with my daughter (3) and son (1 1/2) the other day.  My son just liked playing with the watercolors and jar of water, but my daughter really enjoyed and requested to do more and more.

I saw the idea over at Hello Bee.

I printed off my daughter and son's names using this free font.  The font is an outlined font so my daughter (and son) were able to use the watercolor paints to color in their name.

I also spelled out the word rainbow using the colors of the rainbow and had my daughter match the paint color and the font color.  She reeeeealy enjoyed doing this one!  Rainbows are all the rage at our house right now.  The hubby and I were actually lucky enough to see an entire rainbow over our house the other night.  It was the first time I've ever seen the whole entire thing and it was quite breathtaking!

Download your font and get your watercolor paints ready!

This is a fun one!!

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Painting in the Rain

It seems like most days lately have been rainy and dreary.  And since we could go play on the playground, we decided to take our arts and crafts outside.

This is a simple and fun little activity...and it involves rain boots and an umbrella.  What kid doesn't like that??

Here are the supplies we used:

Watercolor crayons

Watercolor paper

Food coloring

Paint brushes (if you want)

Start by drawing all over your watercolor paper with your crayons.

Then grab your rain boots and umbrella and head outside.

Set your pictures out in the rain.

(I put mine on a cookie sheet just so we could pick them up when we were done.)

Watch and wait....

Eventually you will see your colors start to blend together.  It took ours a little while....basically it almost stopped raining by the time we got outside.

And if you want....you can add a few drops of food coloring to another piece of watercolor paper and watch the colors spread and mix as they get wet.

Don't forget your paint brushes.  I guarantee your little one will ask to paint it!

Nothing too fabulous, but definitely something to do on a rainy day!