It's time to go bigger and get messier than ever before.
School holidays bring us more family time and hopefully more sunshine. It’s also when there’s less focus on school work and more opportunity for encouraging creativity. As well as lots of crafty fun at home, we’re seizing the chance to take our play outside and go bigger and messier than we usually do indoors.
Children benefit from time playing outdoors in many ways and one advantage of all the extra space is that you are free to create pictures on a much bigger scale than you can inside your home. With some simple household items, and a little imagination, you can make masterpieces to brighten up the whole neighbourhood.
Taking art outside
Never underestimate the appeal of water for children’s play, especially if it’s presented in water pistols or spray bottles which can be used for some fun art projects. We like to fasten a huge piece of paper to the washing line, add some food colouring to the spray bottles and see what watery masterpieces we can make. Varying the position of the bottle’s nozzle lets you make a wide spray or target the colour in a concentrated blast. Mix up a few bottles with a different colour in each and you can experiment with colour combining.
Using paper gives you a temporary surface and my children love to blast away until they’ve created holes for windows and doors, transforming the paper into a den. For a more permanent result you could try spraying fabric paint on an old bed sheet, creating a canvass that can turn into a tent or be cut up to make bunting.
Painting the neighbourhood
There’s plenty more fun to be had if you raid the kitchen cupboards. If you have some washing up sponges and spatulas you can create some gorgeous splat paintings.
Follow Quirky Momma’s recipe to combine cornflour, baking soda and vinegar and you can whizz up some fizzing pavement paint to decorate the neighbourhood.
Once you’ve ventured out onto the pavements, why not take your art with you to the local park? Place a long roll of paper down the slide, add paint and balls and roll yourself a masterpiece. I can imagine a crowd of kids gathering, wanting to join in!
And if you’re lucky enough to know of an empty wall in need of decoration, you could provide paint and let the kids really make their mark.
Photo: Cathy James
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16 August, 2011
Cathy, thanks for all the inspiration.
I can't wait to create some splat paintings and fizzy pavement paint.... just hope my little one is as enthusiastic! I have a feeling she will be.
Eva
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