Veronika has loved working with a big canvas for art lately, so today I wanted to find a novel way to let her fill a big sheet from the craft paper roll. Instead of paintbrushes, we crumpled up newspaper from the morning’s news!

I put a few fingerpaints onto paper plates, then crumpled up the newspaper. I showed her how to dip one end in the paint and press onto the paper.

She certainly thought it was funny but she seemed a little hesitant to try herself. More fun was turning the plates upside down to see if the newspaper would stick!

I realized that the wads of newspaper were much too big for her little hands. Making smaller crumples was the solution.

We ended up with neat dots all over the paper and set it aside to dry. This looks like it would make beautiful homemade wrapping paper, so we’re setting it aside for upcoming birthdays!

Veronika has been making big works of art lately, with full sheets of craft paper from our giant roll laid down on the floor. Unfortunately I have no place to store such big masterpieces, so usually I just crumple up the paper when the fun is done. Today we came up with this way to “recycle” the art as decoration instead.

First up was making art, and Veronika loved painting all over a big piece of paper just before bed. We used a mix of watercolors, regular tempera paint, and sponge brushes with shapes on them.

“Lots of black stars!” she said proudly as she worked.

I left it to dry overnight. The next morning, we covered a second sheet of craft paper with lots marker scribbles and drawings.

Now, I simply cut each masterpiece into long strips. If you’re doing this activity with a preschooler, consider drawing lines for your child to cut along and practice their cutting skills. For Veronika, I simply handed her a pair of safety scissors so she could “cut” alongside me.

My original plan was to hang these like streamers from an archway in our home, thinking it would be a blast for the kids to run under them and through them.

I quickly realized this wouldn’t work because the streamers needed to be much longer. I held Veronika in my arms for her to feel the streamers, which made her giggle, but it wouldn’t make for solo play.

Thinking quickly, I taped the streamers all around the kids’ craft table. Now it was a secret fort and hideout for her!

She loved to crawl inside.

And play peek-a-boo through the streamers with me.

And then find her way out again.

These streamers would also look really pretty over a window as makeshift “curtains” in a kids bedroom.

 

 

This art project is messy, so you’re going to want to take it outside. But I can happily report that it’s worth the effort!

I placed a long sheet of craft paper on our back patio, securing the corners with heavy rocks so it wouldn’t blow away. (As an alternative, you could clip craft paper to a fence or other outdoor surface that is upright).

Then I set out a tray with several different colors of metallic craft paint. You’ll need a nice puddle of paint for this project to work well, so don’t worry if the colors mix together.

I dipped our fly swatter in the paint, making sure to coat it evenly, then showed Veronika how to say “Whap!” and slap it down hard on the craft paper.

Well of course now “Whap!” was the most fun thing in the world to say.

Dip and whap, dip and whap, dip and whsp.

She loved every bit of this project, both dipping the fly swatter in paint, and seeing the marks she made.

She wanted to whack the fly swatter against the rocks, too!

Her little feet paraded all around the craft paper, making sure she covered her big canvas.

As a bonus, our fly swatter happens to be flower-shaped, so it made beautiful prints!

This project likely won’t get you a lasting work of art. But Veronika sure loved the process!

Veronika and I have played around with several ways to make dot paints recently and since I had a few corks left over, I figured we’d test out how they worked.

I set out a craft tray with several different colors of metallic craft paint, construction paper for Veronika to dot onto, and the corks.

It turned out the corks were the perfect size for little toddler hands to hold!

She loved to dip in the paint…

…and dot on the paper.

She tested out all the different colors in this way.

Then she tried dotting two of the corks together, with a look of very serious concentration on her face.

This didn’t keep her busy for that long, but it was a cute alternative to a paintbrush, and we always like testing new tools around here.

All jokes aside, no we don’t drink the Kool-Aid around here. But sometimes for coloring craft projects, it’s the best option to achieve bold, bright colors. I knew Veronika would probably end up eating some of the “paint” for this craft, therefore, but a little doesn’t hurt!

To set up, spoon non-dairy yogurt onto plates or cups (I didn’t measure exactly, but would guess I used about 1/2 cup yogurt per color). Add a packet of Kool-Aid mix to each portion, and stir to combine.

I then dolloped smaller portions of the paint onto parchment paper in front of Veronika as her artist’s palette. I only made three colors, but you could easily set up a full rainbow!

I encouraged her to swish fingers through the paint and smear it over the craft paper I laid out. We turned the blobs into fun shapes like a yellow sun or a red flower.

Of course she did also very quickly discover that the paint was delicious. Which means we had some of this…

…but an equal amount of this.

Well, snack time and craft time were both taken care of!