Summer Projects

Any of you who know me know I'm not a naturally crafty person. I enjoy it on occassion, but if I were to choose an activity as a creative outlet, it would NOT be arts or crafts. That said, the kids and I have been trying to incorporate more arts and crafts this summer and here are two of our most fun projects:

Bean Bags

The kids loved picking out material from my scraps and helping me sew and fill them so much that I promised to take them to an actual fabric store so they can pick out their own fabric for another one.

Since completing this project I've been "killed" by bean bag guns and cannons more times than I care to admit.




Glossy Painting

This project took forever to dry, and had to be closely supervised, but turned out really beautiful. You just mix food coloring with corn syrup and have at it. I drew a picture with a wax crayon on photo paper, and put a paint brush into each of the four colors I made, and the kids did the rest. As is typical, Erilyn didn't really want to do it at first, but after watching Anthon and two friends paint for a while, she finally decided to participate. Anthon whipped out six paintings (two I didn't even try to hang up considering how much goo, I mean, "glossy paint" was on the paper and would surely drip off onto the floor), while Erilyn did her one flower pot. But they both ended up feeling really proud of their work, so that's what counts, right?! And all the other kids (we had friends over) praised Erilyn on their own for her flower pot painting. They thought hers was really pretty, which made her smile and me glad.

You can see Anthon's rainbow painting starting to slide downward already. I ended up having to take them down because even though they were basicly "dry," they'd still kind of drip.

They were really pretty though. The colors were very vivid and shiny.

Overall, I consider it a success because Erilyn painted. The end.