The Ohana Mama, parenting dispatches from paradise

Where they sit until I frame them

We had plans to do a little screen printing on some shirts today but we didn’t get started on a craft until late in the afternoon, so we went with this easy, fun and really cool painting project.

Here’s what you’ll need…

• a canvas – we went with small square ones but this is going to be so cool when I do a BIG one for our wall.
• acrylic paints
• repositionable stick on letters (push them down hard for no bleeding…although ours bled and I think it looks cool)
• paint brushes (one to use with paint and another for dry brushing after you’ve painted

The how-to

let them loose...

1. Choose a word or saying, depending on how big your canvas is
2. Apply the letters to the canvas to create your saying. You can have them go straight or be random, just have fun. My 7-year-old applied his own letters. I applied my daughter’s, although she wanted to. Next time…
3. Make sure the edges of the letters are down pretty good
4. Then get to painting. This where you can let your little one go wild. There’s no wrong or right and they can have fun making messy art.
5. Once they’ve covered the canvas with paint, including over the stick on letters, go over it in sweeping motions with the dry paint brush. This gives it that surreal feeling.
6. Clean up and let it dry.
7. Once dry, pull up the stuck on letters and you should have a cool typography painting that any Mom would be more than proud to hang! {seriously, I’m in love with them!}

Viola!

Sure, the paint bled a little…we could go over it in white paint if I was a perfectionist (I’m not), and one of my daughter’s “I”s went cooky and crooked, but I love them just the same and I can’t wait to do more!

I plan on putting these in white frames…they’re going to look so good in our little beach shack.

Things I love

• Easy to do. If you are short on time, this is a fun fast craft with cool results
• Teaches letters, color combos and patience
• Little clean up (we did it outside with ripped open brown paper bags as a drop cloth)
• Great for gifts and holidays

Have fun! Let me know what you think and feel free to pin away!

*I got this idea from the magazine, “Create With Me, Artistic Adventures with Children.” The tutorial was by fashion blogger and mama Brandy at thebabyblackbird.com 

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