Making Hot Crayon Rocks

Since our weekly book is about rocks, I decided that making hot crayon rocks would be a good art project (after seeing them on The Artful Parent). O was SUPER excited and waited in her Kitchen Helper the entire time the rocks were in the oven.
We got off to a good start, but I eventually took O's gloves off (I had her wear gloves so she wouldn't burn herself) since it was hard for her to color with them on. Mistake! She accidentally touched a rock and burned her finger. I think it scared her more than anything since it didn't even leave a mark, but I felt awful. She didn't want to participate in the activity after that, but she didn't mind giving me directions on finishing the rest of the rocks :) She was ready to color more rocks after they had cooled off, and she was disappointed when it didn't work.
This is not a project I would recommend for 2 year olds! But we did have fun despite O's injury :)

To make the hot crayon rocks, heat your rocks on a foil lined cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. We then placed them on a cutting board, and colored them with crayons (with the papers peeled off). Oh, and don't let your kids remove their gloves or oven mitts!

Painting with Magnets

Painting with O's magnetic "rocks" was another fun extension of our book of the week, Let's Go Rock Collecting. To do this activity, she dropped a magnetic rock in a cup of paint and then dropped the magnet onto a sheet of cardstock that was on a tray. I held the tray while she moved another magnet underneath the tray to make art. This was a lot of fun, and it was a great way to combine art and science!
We quickly found that it worked better to just squeeze a blob of paint onto the paper and drag the magnet through it. O had fun mixing the colors of paint on her paper. Also, make sure your tray is not magnetic. We tried this activity with a cookie sheet, and it didn't work very well since the cookie sheet was magnetic and therefore held the rock still :)

Stepping Stones for Father's Day

We made stepping stones for O's Daddy, Grandaddies, and Grandpa. This was an easy and fun project. To make the stepping stones, Elliott mixed mortar mix according to the instructions on the bag. He then put the mix into old cake tins that I had sprayed liberally with cooking oil. After smoothing the mix and letting it sit for a couple of minutes, O made either footprints or a handprint in the midddle of the mix. She then decorated around the footprints or handprints with stones, and I wrote the year with a pencil. We let the stepping stones dry for 24 hours before taking them out of the cake tins. They are a little crumbly around the edges, but hopefully they will harden completely within a few days.

O was very proud of her creations, and I am SO happy with how they turned out!

Personalized Color Blocks

I think this is my favorite handmade gift yet! The blocks took forever to make, but I really enjoyed it :) Here's how to do it...

1) buy your blocks :) I ordered mine from Casey's Wood Products
2) sand the edges and corners of the blocks
3) paint the edges and corners of the blocks white
4) cut scrapbook paper, pictures, printed letters and numbers, etc. to fit the blocks
5) paint the blocks with a layer of mod podge and place a picture on the mod podge
6) wait a day or so until they are dry and paint a layer of mod podge over the top of the pictures

This was fun and easy, and I hope I can streamline the process so it doesn't take quite so long next time. I have a new appreciation as to why handmade gifts are often so expensive! Here are a few more pics :)

Washable Markers & Water Art

O colored with washable markers on a piece of cardstock and then misted it with the water hose to create a masterpiece. What a simple and fun way to make art!

Making Butterfly Prints

The idea for this activity came from A Bit of This and That.

To make the butterfly prints, O squeezed paint on the paper, folded it in half, smooshed it, and opened it to see the butterfly. O LOVED this activity! I loved hearing her explain exactly how she did it to Elliott when he got home from work :)




Here is her favorite butterfly.




We used double sided tape to attach it to a toilet paper roll to make a butterfly that could fly around the room :)


 

Monoprinting

This fun and easy painting activity came from The Artful Parent.

First we used a mini roller to paint an acrylic frame. O enjoyed rolling the paint on at first, but eventually I was the paint roller for all of the artwork :)




Then she drew her design with a q tip. When she was finished drawing, we placed a piece of white cardstock over the design, pressed evenly, and then took the paper off the frame to admire her art :)




She decided to mix things up a little and dip the q tip into the paint to paint on the frame.




Surprisingly, blue was the last color she chose. You can see a few of her finished masterpieces in the background of this picture.




Here's one of her finished masterpieces. I'm not sure why the yellow turned out so splotchy. Maybe we should have used more paint on the frame...

Independent Artwork

O spends A LOT of time at her art shelf! She loves it, and I love that she is getting more and more creative everyday. She recently (within the last 2 weeks) started drawing faces. She calls them "a people." Here are a few of her recent creations :)

She said this is the bald headed man that she saw at the grocery store. He can't hear (he doesn't have any ears), he ate too much candy so he has lots of cavities and fillings, and he's a little grumpy :)




She made this collage while my mom and I were organizing. She said 2 girls are playing in the grass, 2 girls are swimming in the lake, and 3 girls are playing in the sand.





She glued the whole sheet of stickers to this collage. I asked if she wanted to take them off and place them on the paper, but she was not interested. I guess I should know not to question an artist's creative spirit :)


 




Another collage...she loves cutting pictures out of magazines, especially Pottery Barn Kids catalogs.




I was not very happy when I saw that she had cut up the suction cup thingy. She looked at like I was crazy when I questioned her about it and said "but mama I needed it for the man's eyes." Well, what was I thinking! She agreed to only cut things after asking. It's partly my fault since I told her she could take the suction cup thing to her art shelf. I just had no idea she'd use it in her art. I should've know better...


 

A Fun Butterfly Craft

My friend Jennifer bought O this butterfly craft kit from the dollar section at Target. O was SO excited, and we had a fun time making the butterfly.



She pretended the butterfly was fluttering around the room.