Making Contemporary Art with Children of All Ages

My daughter loves to do art projects and I love to do art projects with her so I’m always looking for ways to help her make art that can be easily displayed and add to the eclectic charm of our home. We’ve been doing a lot of painting lately and she just loves making hand prints, which is where I got the inspiration for this sophisticated, Contemporary Black, White and Red hand print painting and the best thing about it is it’s a wonderful project for all ages!

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Weekend Reading: Rainbow Crayons and Money Saving Moms

This week I’ve been trying to save some money (Honestly I’m always trying to save some money) and I came across this great site called Money Saving Mom. It’s a wonderful blog that posts daily about coupon deals, free product promotions, and various ways to save money for your family! I love it and I follow them on Facebook which keeps me absolutely up to date.

I’ve always been drawn to crayola crayons. (hahahahahha drawn *face palm) When I was younger I just loved them. I’d arrange all my crayola sets on my bedroom shelf displaying them artfully to the world and letting everyone know how proud I was of their sharp unused tips. Fast forward 10 years to adulthood and recently I unpacked a box full of unused crayons and had absolutely no idea what to do with them until…   I found this great post over at 52 Kitchen Adventures that I just can not wait to try! All you need is crayons, a blow dryer, canvas/cardboard (some sort of artistic surface), and glue! When I finally get around to giving it a shot I shall share it with you all.

I hope everyone has a completely wonderful weekend!

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How To: Toddler Crayons

My daughter is just starting to hit the age where she is able to imitate some of the things I do with my hands and being a big believer in Arts and Crafts I really wanted to start early with fun things like drawing and painting. She had her first finger painting session at about 6 months and it went really well. We both had lots of fun smearing the paint around and she didn’t even put any of it in her mouth, but paints are messy and I was looking for a quick easy project with little to no clean up.

I started out with a box of crayons, but with her little fingers and lack of quardination there was no way my 8 month old baby girl was going to be able to hold a crayon, so I got creative and made these SUPER EASY Pumpkin Toddler Crayons!

You will need:

A Box of Crayons

Tin Foil

2 Cookie Sheets

Scissors

Small Ice or Chocolate Mold

A Small Jar/Cup

To start you’ll want to dump out the crayons and sort them into groups by similar colors. They don’t need to be exactly the same shade because the colors will mix together when you melt them. Preheat the oven to 300 ° (Fahrenheit)

After sorting your crayons you’ll need to peel the paper off of each one. There’s no need for the papers so be a rough* and messy as necessary.

* You’ll break all your crayons later so if you break one now don’t worry about it

Place the jar or cup opening down on the table.

Tear off a piece of tin foil large enough to cover the bottom and sides of the jar.

Mold the tin foil around the jar.

Lift the tin foil off the jar and place opening up on the table.

With your scissors cut around the opening leaving about a 1/4″ lip on the edge. Be careful not to squish your tin foil cup

Fold the lip against the outside of your cup and use your finger to make a little pour spout on the side. You will need to make a cup for each color grouping of crayons.

Break up the crayons in each color grouping and place them in the cup.

Place the crayon filled cups on a cookie sheet lined with tin foil and bake for 7 minutes.

While the crayons are in the over prepare your second cookie sheet with a piece of tin foil and place your mold in the middle of it.

After the crayons have melted remove them from the oven.

Pick up each cup by the side opposite the pour spout and slowly fill each mold with melted crayon.

Warning: Be careful not to touch the bottom of the cup it is very HOT

Allow your Toddler Crayons to cool for 2-3 hours before gently popping them out of their molds

Note: To cool the crayons more quickly place the mold tray in the freezer for 30 minutes

Now you’re all set! Grab your little one and start Coloring!

Thank you for reading and please feel free to comment!

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