Sandra and Bryson came to visit us for about a week over the summer. With their mother also being military, they don't live close enough to us, anymore. Which means that we don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like to these days.
When they come, we always try to make the best out of every trip. We take short trips to theme parks, we go to the pool, go to the zoo, to the park, movies, whatever. We just try to have as much fun as we can in those few short days with them. The Sophster is always elated to have them here and then on the flip side, she is always devastated to see them have to go back to their mother's house.
We wanted to do something memorable for all of the kids while they were here this summer. Something that they could take home with them and something that The Sophster would have here. A reminder of the closeness of our family, even when we are far apart.
We decided on painting some canvas together. I saw this idea on Pinterest a long time ago. I think I even pinned it with something like "Will have to do this when the older kids are here", or something.
I showed it to The Mister, and of course, he decided that we could do it better.
So we did.
I ran out to the store to grab some canvas, which turned out to be on MAJOR sale! I scored two 16x20 canvases for less than $6! Yes! Then I came home and The Mister and I started brain storming about what we wanted to put on each canvas. We knew that the canvas for Sandra and Bryson would hang in their play room at their mom's house, so we wanted something inspirational for them. We decided to put "Dream BIG" on theirs and The Mister wanted to do an ocean scene on the other.
Sometimes that guy blows my mind with how crafty he can be! I would have just sloppily put the masking tape in shapes of letters all over the canvas....he had another idea.
He took a piece of board that we had laying around, put a double layer of masking tape down, and carved the letters/shapes out with an exacto knife! Clever guy, that one. Knew I married him for some reason!
Next, we got the tape placed where we wanted it on the canvas. He did a pretty awesome job, right?? I mean, can you believe that he cut all of that stuff out by hand?! That dude is GOOD!
Can you just picture how great these will be?? I'm so excited right now.
We put some newspapers, cups of WASHABLE paint, and paint brushes down on the floor. Then we put the two canvases down and let the kids go crazy!
After a minute, they were over the paint brushes and onto full on hand painting!
Almost done!
These are the hands and faces of some kids that have had a GREAT time making something together!
Remember how I said that the "Dream BIG" canvas was going home with Sandra and Bryson? We thought it would be a neat idea for all three kids to put their handprint on that canvas. So we painted a white hand on each kid and had them place their print down.
Then we wait for the paint to dry....we waited for what seemed like a lifetime....oh the anticipation could have just killed us. The Mister did cheat and pull some tape before it dried....bad Mister!
Here's what they looked like after they dried and we peeled the tape...
Oh but we weren't done yet! We took the "Dream BIG" canvas outside for a smelting of glitter! The Mister outlined the words and patterns with some glue and made a glue border. Then we gave each kid a cup of glitter and let them, once again, go crazy!
Ready to see how it came out??? Of course you are! Left is right after they threw the glitter on, and the right is after we shook it off {the final product!}.
Crappy cell phone pics aside, it looks AWESOME, right?? It now hangs proudly in the kids' playroom at their mom's and they still talk about how much fun they had making it. Win!
As for the one that would stay with us, I carried it upstairs to my crafting area and hot glued some seashells all across the bottom, so it could have a sea floor. :)
As most parents would be, we are so proud of the art that the creative minds of our children created that day! The ocean canvas hangs right above my crafting/our office space, and we get to look at it any time we are here at our computers, or upstairs playing/crafting with The Sophster. They are very precious works of art. :)
What are some of your favorite crafts? Do you think this might be something you would do with your kids? What are some favorite things that your littles have created for you?
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