Painting leaves with feet, sponges and spray bottles.

Today we decided to have a day in crafting! This week we have been so busy getting out and about that it was a much needed day to stop and relax (well as much as you can with a 2 year old) the day was actually far from relaxing but was great! Therefore, I have a few activities to share with you all.

 The first few hours was spent outside playing and using our spray bottles! The idea was to get the outline of the leaves by using them.  However, this idea did not work for the desired outcome but we still had fun using the spray bottles and ended up with a very pretty piece of paper! The paper that we are using is wall paper lining brought from the £1 shop this is a wonderfully cheap alternative to the usually very expensive rolls of easel paper and much thicker.  The leaves were stuck down using masking tape folded back on itself.  I used this as the tape is not too sticky and does not damage the leaves when they are peeled off this way the leaves can be reused.

The next thing that we tried was sponge painting.  Little Boo was unsure about this to begin with but once I showed her what would happen she was really engaged and excited to see the results.  I have recently brought Little Boo the block paints that are in the picture.  I realised when she used these type of paints at a local craft day that it encouraged her to mix the colours and she loved doing it.  I then saw the paints in Wilkinsons for £2 and could not resist, she loves them! 

Now for the most fun activity painting with feet! Little Boo LOVES me painting her feet to do footprints and she loves to paint my feet as well. First of all we started off just doing footprints.  I then decided to try out the idea with the leaves and it worked.  Little Boo loved it as well.  I did join in as well and ended up having my feet painted and most of my legs! We did this activity in the kitchen this way I can just clean the tiles as it can get quite messy.

Little Boo peeling away the leaf she was so excited to see what it looked like . 

The finished picture was lovely and if you look you can see the outline of her little feet.  

The Motherhood Games

When on Mumsnet one evening I came across a post a Lady was doing a creative proformance and needed muslin cloths that children or people in their care had created.  Great I thought a wonderful way to be creative and help someone out I immediately sent her a message. Stephanie the lady who is doing the project got back to me straight away so I knew where to post the muslin cloth when it was completed.  I also thought it was a great idea for a blog post as I agree with her thoughts.


In Stephanie's words the Motherhood Games
"The idea for the Motherhood Games came as a result of my own frustrations at often not being able to participate in creative projects because I don't have access to childcare.  I felt that being a mother was in fact an incredibly creative thing but that it was difficult for me to access arts based projects so when I had to create a piece of theatre for my post grad course I knew I wanted to look at this issue.  I wanted to the piece to be about motherhood and I also wanted to offer mothers an opportunity to be creative and contribute to the creation of a performance.  I have asked mothers to contribute a piece of cloth of their choosing, I have suggested a muslin cloth but it could be anything, and asked for them to decorate it in anyway they like.  They could get messy with the kids and the glitter glue or create something themselves.  They can write, paint, draw, embroider on the cloth - anything goes - then they send it to me and I will use it in the creation and performance of a short piece of theatre which I hope to film so that mothers can see what they have contributed to.  Any mother of any age can get involved or people can follow the project on the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TheMotherhoodGames"


Making our cloth was fantastic yesterday the weather was still amazing when I got back from work so it was great to get in the garden and be creative with it! Originally a few days ago we had a go at using some cheap fabric paints.  They worked well but Little Boo lost interest in them very quickly. 


Therefore, (due to the nice weather) I decided to get out the spray bottles we had used earlier in the week.  I was unsure whether this would actually work on cloth but it did! I think as long as it is not washed it should be fine.  Little Boo was a lot more interested in decorating her cloth this way.  Then out came the glitter glue and the painting dabbers.

Spray painting the cloth

Adding the glitter glue

The cloth finished

The colours have come out really well.

Painting with trucks and spray bottles

Today we went to our local library then did a bit of shopping and found some spray bottles in a shop.  After a quick check that Little Boo could now independently use them we brought three :) all only 99p each.  The idea was that they could be used to paint with.

I was really pleased as when we got back the sun was actually out perfect weather for our spray painting (this is not an activity that I would encourage to do indoors unless you want your house redecorated).

Spraying the paint.

Watching the colours change.

The completed masterpieces

Luckily we have slabs in our back garden so I just stuck some big sheets of paper down (recently started to buy wallpaper lining as it is thicker and cheaper than the craft rolls) and we set to work.  Little Boo was fantastic at spraying the paint and the activity even got her noticing how the colours mix. I decided to get out a few trucks that we have recently brought for Little Boo to use as well.  The tyres make a fantastic pattern.  We also used paint brushes to flick the paint at the paper. 

In the bottles is just a watered down poster paint.  There is no exact measurements I just kept on adding poster paint until I was happy with the colour. I hope that you can enjoy this activity as much as we did.