Children's Art to T-Shirt

Early April was Papa Juise's Birthday, and we ignored the pressing matters of Spring for awhile to make him some gifts with our hands and our hearts. One of those was a T-shirt, made with Kaia's art, and I have to admit, I am kind of jealous. We yet again used the freezer paper method of printing, and I fell in love with it all over again! Aside from the onesies that I made for Kaia as a babe, we did some freezer paper printing together last year, which I think I failed to post anything about. Oops? Anyway, it is easy, and fun, and very rewarding, here is how we did ours.

 

I taped freezer paper to the table for Kaia to draw on, shiny side down, so that the papery side is the drawing surface. I drew boxes on each of them as guidelines for Kaia to stay within so that I would be left with a border on the pictures. I explained to her that I would need to have some paper all the way around her drawings in order to put them on Papa's shirt, and asked her to try to keep her drawings inside those boxes. Then I handed her a Sharpie. Okay, fine, you do not need to give your child a Sharpie if you do not want to, but the thick, bold lines were nice when it came time to cut them out, and the shiny side of the freezer paper doesn't let it bleed through. At least, ours didn't. I don't want to be responsible for your fancy dining table or anything.

When she was done drawing, I started the iron warming, pulled some paperboard out of the recycling, and got to work with my exact-o blade. I'm sure you could probably pull it off with scissors, but I wouldn't want to try. This is a job for the razor. Next you want to cut all the positive space out of the drawings, leaving the negative space intact. That is to say, you want to cut all drawn lines out of the background, and it is okay if you dice those lines up, but the background itself is what you are going to use as your stencil, so don't cut into it. If that seems confusing, hopefully the next few pictures help clear it up. I cut first around the outside borders of her pictures, and used those to decide where to place the images on the shirt.

In the picture on the left you can see that the empty space forms the lines of the drawing, and in the picture on the right you can see the parts which are being removed. I still have the top half of the face to cut out and iron to the shirt in this picture, but the rest is chaff. I did not bother trying to cut out eyes, little noses, or belly buttons, because those are much easier to dot on later than to cut out of the stencil.

I ironed the pieces in place as I cut them out, mostly because some of the pictures needed to be cut into a handful of pieces and I didn't want to lose track of where they all went. The simplest one was done in two pieces, and I think the most any of these had to be cut into was seven.

Iron the freezer paper shiny side down for about 15 seconds. It will stick to the surface of your cloth. Make sure the edges are all adhered, and then you are ready to paint. Place another piece of freezer paper, cardboard, or something of the like, inside your shirt to keep the paint from bleeding through the back layer. I used screen printing ink, but I have in the past used acrylics. I found that mixing the acrylic with a little water made the end product much softer, and helped it last longer. Either way, though, eventually acrylic will begin to crack, especially over large areas.

Dab the paint in. You want to get the lines filled in, but you don't want to leave globs of paint on the shirt, or have thick layers. Use just enough to give a solid coat, then lift any excess paint back off with your brush. Be careful not to paint over the borders of your stencils, or any areas you wish to be a different colour.

Wait for the paint to dry completely. No, seriously. Be patient. Waiting for the next day would be best. I have messed prints up before because I decided the paint was "dry enough", it's not worth it. Once the paint has set, peel off the freezer paper. It comes up very easily. For eyes, noses, and bellybuttons, I trimmed the swab part off a cotton swab and used the stem to dot paint on in the appropriate places. I found it useful to have taken pictures of the drawings beforehand that I could reference in getting the details in the correct positions. For smaller needs, I used a toothpick.

I think it came out super cute, and Papa Juise loved it! Kaia pretty much wants him to wear it every day and doesn't quite understand why he won't. She's ready to make another, and I don't think it will be long.

Watercolor Lanterns

The girls and I made some lanterns using watercolor paper and paints, vegetable oil, and white craft glue. I think they are lovely! I did see this idea somewhere else on the interwebs, but I am unable to find it now to give any credit. This idea seems to be kicking around, though, so I don't think I am sweeping the glory out from under anyone's feet too terribly.

We started off with plain watercolour paper which the girls painted, using the wet on wet watercolour technique. This simply means that you soak your paper before painting it with dissolved watercolours. (Not "dry" paint, as it is considered straight out of the tube.)  Here, Katalin demonstrates both her one-brush, and three-brush methods. ;) I cut one large watercolour sheet into two, one side a bit smaller than the other, to get two lanterns out of it in different heights.

This pair was a Birthday gift for their Grandma, and I only gave them yellow and red paints to work with so that she wouldn't get mud lanterns. They didn't seem to mind, and enjoyed swirling the two colours into orange in places, and trying to cover their entire papers.

When they had finished painting, we sprinkled the wet papers with a little coarse sea salt. You can use any salt, though, and it will absorb the paint directly under it, and gather the paint in the area into little pools around the grains. Different sized salt grains make different sized patterns. The salt has a nice effect, you can see the visual texture it left in some of the below photos, and the kids always have fun sprinkling it on. Many of our watercolour paintings get this treatment!

When the paintings were dry, the girls rubbed vegetable oil into them with paper towels, until they were thoroughly saturated and transparent. They were a little over-enthusiastic, so I dabbed the excess oil off when they had finished, and we left them overnight to dry on a few paper towels. The next day, I cut little strips along one side, this side become the base. Ours are approximately an inch apart.

Then I put a line of white craft glue down one of the side edges and rolled the paintings into cylinders, overlapping the glued edge with the opposite side. This seam needs to hold together well while it dries, so to hold it in place, I slipped a jar in each lantern. I clipped the edge the jars didn't reach shut with paper clips. To be on the safe side, I left these to dry overnight as well.

Once the side seams were done, I folded the fringe on the bottoms in with a dot of white craft glue where the strips overlap. I set them upright and dropped the jars back inside to hold the strips firmly in place while they dried. This is what the bottom of your lantern will look like when yo are finished. Unless your child's name isn't Katalin.

They look so soft and beautiful, with or without a candle lighting them up. The girls made a couple more for us using lots of colours, and I have been using votive candles (that are contained in glass,) inside them to keep flame away from the paper. In the ones we gifted we included some wax LED candles, so that they can be safely placed anywhere and left flickering away without fear.  

Kaia has been constantly asking me to light the candles in them, I am going to pick up another LED candle so that she can do it herself. I think it would be sweet for her to have one next to her bed at night, glowing warmly while she drifts to sleep. Next, I believe I will be wiring some handles onto ours for them to carry around, as this is what they do anyway!

Homemade Sidewalk Paint

Not only did this sidewalk paint whip up fast, the kids had almost as much fun making it as they did painting with it. It only has three ingredients: corn flour, water, and food colouring. Aside from those, the only other things you will need are some containers to put it in, (with lids if you want to store it,) and paint brushes. Oh, you may want to add some kids, too.

Mix together approximately three parts corn flour to one part water. Our first batch was pretty experimental, but this is the ratio we ended up being happiest with. I unthinkingly mixed each colour batch on its own the first time, and it was a bit frustrating trying to get everything from the bottom of the small containers combined well. The kids ended up stirring for awhile, then handing me each conatiner to finish. In future batches, we mixed the corn flour and water in one large bowl, then poured it into separate containers to add colour, which is much easier. Once you have the base ready, add food colouring. We made red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, and turquoise.

 

 Paint away! Kaia had a 12 year old friend over when we made this batch, and she had just as much fun with it as my little ones did.

 

As a side note, it is also great for painting your body with, or to use as finger paint. ;) It has a really interesting texture that little Katalin was quite fascinated with.

Somehow I forgot to take even a single picture of the products of their various painting sessions, I have no idea how! But we have made it again, and again. The kids have a blast every time, and it rinses out of the containers in a snap. It comes right out of clothes, even when it has been liberally applied and caked on an inch thick.

Oh, and you see that fantastic tie dyed rainbow shirt Katalin is sporting in the last photo? It was made by my friend Jen at Twirlytoes Wearable Art. She is one amazing mama, and you should totally check out her scrumptious shop.

Glue and Paper Painted Fall Leaves

Kaia loves painting with some kind of resist, like watercolour over crayon, so I thought we'd try something slightly different. I used white craft glue to make leaf outlines on a variety of colours of construction paper. Since the glue dries clear, the colour of the paper will show through where glue has been applied.

The girls painted the leaves with watercolours. Because we would be cutting the leaves out, this was an opportunity to use up some odd shaped scraps of paper.

They used so much water that on the porous construction paper, some of the paint bled under the glue. It had a neat effect, though, and you can still make out the glue lines. On the bright red paper, they almost seemed to glow.

This was the longest Katalin ever painted without trying to eat the art supplies, and she had so much fun. I loved watching her really get into every step of the process, and just completely experience the medium. She spent quite awhile simply dipping her brush in the paint and swishing it clean again in the water. She got paint everywhere, it was great!

They each had a piece of paper towel for dabbing their brushes dry on, and when Katalin noticed the way hers picked up colour, she began stamping it in the paint and then on her paper, she was so thrilled with the results! ...And then she decided it would be a fun thing to do to her face, too.

When the leaves were dry, I cut them out around the outside glue edge, and Kaia helped me hang them up on the glass door. I had a very hard time taking a picture of them because of all the light behind the door when I decided to do my photographing, (I'm not always very patient...) but you get the idea, anyway. They are so colourful and pretty cascading down the door!

Pretty Little Birdhouses

Remember when we were making our Living Wreath and I fell in love with how the watercolours came out on the tiny birdhouse? We did buy some larger naked houses to paint and I love them, too! We started with crayon and Kaia worked long and hard on one house, then asked me to colour the other two while she ran off to play. ;)

Seeing as she felt she'd spent long enough on this project for the day, we put them away and got them out again a few days later to paint. I dunked them in water first so that the paint would blend and flow, this yields quick results and so Kaia was happy to sit and paint all three bird houses.

After they were dry, I slapped a coat of clear sealant on them. I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of them all before she'd given one to her Grandmother for her Birthday, which was of course the one she drew herself, but here are the other two finished. She gave one more to her Uncle for his Birthday, and we hung the last outside. We'll see if anyone calls it home!

Easter Crafts

I didn't end up being able to find the time to make as many things as I'd hoped to for the kids for Easter, but I did manage to knock out a few easier projects and do a couple with Kaia, as well. Normally I try to give credit when I try other peoples' ideas, but I don't remember where I ran into each of these and a search of teh interwebz gave me so many results that I don't think I am stealing anyone's original work. :)

We made a string of eggs to hang using watercolour paper, a handful of different small lengths of yarn for wrapping, pinking sheers, (don't use your good sewing pair!) ribbon, tape, crayons, hot glue, and watercolour paints. We used a watercolour paper I had previously demonstrated splattering to Kaia with. I cut out 5 eggs of varying sizes, and Kaia gave them some crayon.

When they were crayoned to her satisfaction, she painted over them with watercolours.

Then Kaia taped a piece of yarn to the back side and wrapped the eggs. She had a lot of fun with that. It was different, it added actual, physical texture and dimension, and the toothy edges made it really simple for her to keep the yarn where she wanted it.
 

 After she finished, I hot glued the eggs to a length of ribbon, and done! 

 Kaia received a "garden" to go on the wall over her bed. I drew some simple flower and grass shapes on sticky-sided fusible webbing, stuck them to a colourful variety of scrap materials, and cut them out.

When I had them all cut out, I stuffed them in a large egg for her to find, and later I ironed them to the wall.

For Katalin, I cut out three different colours and sizes of eggs in felt, and three sizes of chicks in different shades of yellow. I put each egg / chick set in an egg for her to open and play with, sticking and unsticking them.

We also paper-mached over some plastic eggs and carrots to paint and decorate with different things. On one we glued dry flower petals. On others we used sequins, lace, stickers, and paint. I apparently forgot to take a picture of the painted eggs, or the carrots.

I made the girls each a set of bunny ears out of felt and attached to a headband I covered with felt, too. Katalin's were cream with pink accents, and Kaia's the opposite.

And, of course, Kaia hunted for eggs!

If anything, she was more excited to discover in her eggs the chocolates and candies she'd help make, and they got different nuts and dried fruits as well. Just no one tell her what other kids get in their eggs and we should be good! ;)