Hunt for Random Acts of Kindness not Pokemon

In my area, a new craze has caught on. Instead of catching Pokemon (which I'm not ashamed to say I do also), the big thing is to paint and hide rocks. Kind of like a scavenger hunt. At this point you're either thinking, "What?" or "Sweet. we play to", but hear me out. The point of this game is to spread cheer and joy within our community. You don't have to be a great artist to play and there's no age requirement. The rules are pretty simple:

• You can paint rocks, or not
• You can hide rocks, or not
• You can find rocks, or not
• You post hints to your rocks, or not
• You can share your designs within the social media group, or not
• If you find a rock:
• You can keep it
• You can take it and re-hide it somewhere
• You can leave it
• You can share it with others
• You can add rocks to it
• You can replace it with a different rock, or not

There are a lot of these groups around if you such local media for them. Type in your city and "rocks". Again, the point is to spread joy and cheer with others. In my area, people have said that this has helped them become closer as a family as they will now paint and hide and search for rocks together. Several others have also said its helped them with depression and anxiety. I know several families who have said its helping their autistic children communicate more.  And I think that's the best part. That this one simple activity by many random strangers is helping so many people in so many different ways. I am really glad and grateful to be a part of this. 

As such, I wanted to share it with all of you. Maybe you have hidden rocks or other treasures in your area. Maybe this is the first time you are hearing of it. Either way, I would love to see any rocks and/or treasures you make if you decide to play along with us in your own areas. 

Here are a few I have done and sent out into the world :)

I post more on my Instagram, check it out. :)

Valentine, You're Griffindorable!!

With Valentine's day fast approaching, we are hard at work making our valentines.  As we are pretty big Harry Potter fans here and with the anticipated new Harry Potter movie coming out in November (you can see a trailer for it HERE), Rini decided her valentines this year would be wands.

We printed the valentines on thick card stock and cut them out. Then punched a whole through each one and used string to tie them to the wands. You can get a set of your own awesome Harry Potter valentines at Art by STOWE.

To make your own Harry Potter wands you will need:

• Printer paper
• Hot glue gun
• Hot glue sticks
• Acrylic or craft paints (we used black and brown but you can add other colors too)
• Marbles or gems (to add to the base- this is optional)
• Wooden dowels (this is optional but add support to the wands and makes them more sustainable)

Begin by taking a dowel (if using them) and placing it diagonally across one corner or a piece of printer paper. Grab the corner and place it on the dowel. You can tape it here with scotch tape if you want. Now roll the paper and dowel (as tightly as you can) until you get to the end of the paper. Once there, secure paper corner to the paper wand with a bit of hot glue.

If you aren't using a dowel, you will do the same process, just without the dowel. Start at a corner of your printer paper and roll (as tightly as possible) diagonally across the paper. Once at the end, secure with hot glue.

For both wands, you will need to fill the inside of the wand with hot glue.  If using the dowel, its easier as you have less of an area to fill. Fill both ends (and middle if not using the dowel) of your wand with the hot glue. Be patient as this part can take a while. 

If you wanted to add a gem or marble ot one end, now is the time to do that.

Once your wands are filled and dried, you can use the hot glue to make designs on them. Rini wanted them to look like wood, so we made a wood fiber like pattern on all the wands. You could though build up areas and make larger 3D decorations on wands.

We found that its best to do one side of a wand before doing the other as the glue is hot and doesn't always dry as fast as we would like. 

Next comes the painting part. Take your acrylics and paint the colors and designs you want on your wands. Since we wanted ours to look like wood, Rini first painted them brown. Once the paint had dried, we made a black wash to paint over the brown. The black wash will pool up in the crevices and create a sort of rugged and aged look, making the paper to look more like actual wood.  To make a wash, simply add a little bit of paint to a cup and mix with water. Start with a little water and add more until you get the desired liquid base. For us, we used a 1:2 ratio. 

Once they were dried from the wash, we added our cards and viola,  Harry Potter wands for all.

Happy valentine's Day everyone!

Ice Ornaments

With all the snow storms rolling in lately, we decided to check off some holiday projects we didn't get round to at Christmas time.

Ice Ornaments were high on our to do list because they're fast to make and convenient.  They sit overnight and are completely ready for use by morning. And best of all, there's very little clean up. You can find tons of examples of these all over the web. Pinterest is a great source as well.  We used the instructions over at It's The Little Things, though we couldn't quite get our coloring to work like hers.

Here's the run down on how to make them.

Supplies:
* Water
* Natural debris (like leaves, needles, flowers, etc.)
* Food Coloring or natural food coloring (if you'd like to dye them)
* Containers to create them in
* String or yarn
* Scissor for cutting string
* Cookie cutters or other solid objects for making holes

And that's pretty much it. Now take your containers and put in a bit of water. Add your natural elements and dyes. You can also add your cut sting to the mixture, making sure to leave enough out for hanging and tying. Or, you can use the cookie cutters or another object to place in the center which will create a hole for you to use to tie the string through later.  To get them  out, simply run the outside of the bottom of the container under warm water and they pop right out.

Here's what we learned:

If you want your objects to be in the middle, add the water, freeze it, then add your objects. Now add cold water on top and refreeze. This will put most items in the center. Small needles though are tricky as they like to float.

Food Coloring will stain containers and came off on our hands when we took the ornaments out of their containers.

Place containers in the freezer. The containers we put outside under piles of snow and the ones we left out in the open still haven't completely froze. It's been 2 days. If it's freezing where you are, then it shouldn't be a problem. But you may want to pop a few in the freezer, just in case. There's nothing more disappointing than having the weather warm up before your ornaments were ready for hanging.

Yarn Block Printing

As it's February and National African-American History month, I thought I would post about one of the many famous African artists whom I adore. This project was done with my art class, but could easily be done at home as well.

William H. Johnson (whose bio you can read here)  painted the piece Going To Church. This piece was created using a technique called silk screening, which is basically a type of block printing done on cloth.

That got me thinking; I had been wanting to do a printing project, so this seemed like a good fit. One problem, I couldn't find the supplies I wanted anywhere. For those of you have better luck or an art store located by them, this would be a great project for Mono Printing using scratch foam. I realized after the project that scratch foam is basically like the Styrofoam containers you get take out food in sometimes. So you could cut those, clean them off and save them until you have enough to do the project. Which I love cause it cuts down on cost and is reusing materials. :)

So I had to come up with something else. That is when I came across this post at one of my new favorite blogs.  And viola. We have our project!

Block Printing

Supplies:

•  Yarn - (I had this at the house, but you can get yarn pretty cheap at Joann's during their sales. It can range from .99 cents to over 5$ depending on type and size of roll. We used both thick and thin yarn. I suggest the thin as it seemed to work better.)
• Wooden Blocks - (I got mine at Joann's, 3 for 1.99. You can scour yard sales though and pick up ABC blocks, which would be fun and allow for letter blocking as well. Building blocks can also be used if you have some of those. Or if you have the means of sawing, you can make your own. We also used wood circles.)
• Paint - ( I used tempura colors because they wash out well. Most block prints use ink, but for kids I think tempura paints work well. They can be found at Fred Meyers/Kroger's/ most art or craft stores and usually are about 3 to 4 $.)
• Paint Brushes - (these are handy in case you mix colors or just to paint the yarn)
• Paint Palette - (We used paper plates - one per table group to save on waste. You can use plastic palettes also if you have those.)
• Paper Towels - (something to dab off extra paint and to clean up any messes.)
• Paper - (I used card stock. It holds up well with tempura paints. You can use anything, just make sure that its thick. Printer paper probably isn't a good choice for this project.)
• Scissors - (to cut the yarn)

Addition supplies you may want:

• Smocks/Aprons - (to help kids stay clean)
• Newspaper - (to lay down in order to have less mess for clean up. You could also do your printing on Newspaper instead or with card stock.)

Instructions:

 

For this project we revisited secondary colors. I gave each table group the choice of which secondary color they wanted to use and then asked them which colors made that color. We had briefly discussed the colors at the carpet during our project discussion.

In our project discussion we talked about the artist and his work. How it was made using silk screening techniques and what they are.  One of the kids pointed out that the piece wasn't lined up properly because there's a chunk taken out of the sky where the tree should have been. :) I hadn't noticed that. It's amazing what they pick up on.

For the yarn you can either pre-cut it or do it when you pass out the supplies. Everyone should get a block, a piece of yarn, a paper towel, and paper. You can decide if they share paint palettes or get their own. Same with paint brushes.

Have kids wind their yarn around their block in whatever manner they want.  Then have them tie the string ends together or tuck them under the wound strings. Just be sure that string is tight.

For younger kids, its easier if they paint the string with paint brushes, instead of stamping. I had my class use the stamp method for the most part.

After they have paint, have them use a paint brush to mix it into the color it is supposed to be. Then they can paint or stamp their yarn block. When pressing the block to the paper, its best to be firm but not to slam it. We learned this the hard way. ;) Paint everywhere.

And that's pretty much it. It's more interesting if they turn the block one way and then another, so the image isn't the same through the whole paper. It's also more interesting to add focal colors here and there. So maybe a few squares of  a primary color to spice up the secondary colors. You could also turn this into a complimentary color project quite easily by having the few splashes of color be from the colors compliment.

Clean up for this project can be a bit cumbersome...you have been forewarned.  :)

Tennis Ball Painting

A while back I bought a new container of tennis balls and set them aside for when summer came. Today, wanting to hit the courts and play a few rounds with my kids, I went to pull them out. However, they weren't where I thought I had left them. After looking around I eventually found

them. They were a bit worse for wear as they appeared to have been gnawed on and were slobbery. My Sherlock skills tell me that our Great Dane found them to be rather appealing. So today's plans ended up being changed.

Instead of hitting the courts, we used the tennis balls (minus one that we let the dog keep) as paint brushes....sort of.  Here's what you will need to replicate the project:

• Tennis balls
• Paint (we used acrylics)
• Very small Screw Eye Hooks ( I got mine at Fred Meyers-the smallest size they had)
• Yarn or some sort of string ( you might use thing rope as the yarn frays and breaks after a while)
• Canvas or Canvas Boards or something to paint basically
• Some place to hang your tennis ball
• container for your paint
• Paint Brushes (for painting tennis balls or adding details to your canvas)
• Scissors (for cutting the yarn)

Once you have everything ready, you are going to screw in a small screw eye hook into each of the tennis balls. Then tie the yarn to one of the eye holes in the screw (like the image on the left).


Once that is finished you can take the tennis ball and yarn out to where you want to hang it. You need to make sure that the string is long enough after you tie it for the tennis ball to hit your canvas. I figured this out the hard way.  It also needs to have room to swing. We tied our tennis balls to the monkey bars on the play structure.


 And used an old trike to hold the canvas. It worked pretty well.



Now pour your paint into a container and either use paint brushes to paint your tennis ball or dip the ball into the paint container. It's fun to experiment and see what different types of marks you get when you apply the paint differently. We used a different tennis ball for each color so as to not mix the colors until they were on the canvas. However you could paint rainbow tennis balls or mix colors on the tennis ball. We also only tied one at a time, but it might be fun to tie several up and use all at once.




 The last step is the most fun. Pull the string back and let it go! The tennis ball will fly into your canvas and create one of kind marks, lines, dots and splatters. :)

This process can get pretty messy, especially for younger artists. So I would recommend using paint clothes or old clothes, that way when they end up covered in acrylic paint you won't be upset or stress over trying to wash it out. Or you can have kids wear an apron or art smock to protect your clothes.

I personally didn't mind paint getting on the lawn or the old trike, but if this is something of a concern for you, you might think about putting an old sheet or tarp under where your canvas is.











You can also hold the tennis ball and drop it onto a canvas laying on the ground (like the image to the right) or throw it at a canvas that's secured (and not just propped up). The possibilities are endless!

 

As always, we would love to see any variations you may have on the idea or your beautiful works of art.
Happy creating!  ;)

 

 

Valentine's Day Bookmarks



Here we are in 2013 and can you believe that I got away with not making valentines until this year.  Maybe that's not so hard to believe for some, but I was raised that valentines were made not bought. I have several fond memories of sitting at the kitchen table with my mom into what I thought at the time were the wee hours of the morning putting together Valentines for my classmates.

This year Rini decided she wanted to make her valentines after she stumbled across these adorable little owl bookmarks on pinterest.

Rini herself, is an avid reader and wanted to share her love of books with her class. And so, the bookmark valentines were born. :)

Ours turned out a bit different, but still cute I thought. Rini did almost all the work and in two days after school made 30 bookmark valentines.

Here is what we used:

• Card stock- for bookmark base and heart base
• Pattern Paper- (left over from pages in our scrapbook) for the inside part of the base and inside of heart
• Clip Art- image we found on google
• 2" Circle hand punch
• 3 in 1 scallop circle hand punch
• Scissors
• Glue sticks
• Printer for the saying and clip art image
• Stapler
• Ribbon Scraps
• Pencil for marking and signing name
• Suckers for treats (were attached using paper clips)

The process we used was pretty simple. First we cut the card stock to the size we wanted the bookmarks. Then measure and cut the pattern paper you want on the bookmark. We decided ours should be smaller than the bookmark as we wanted some of the card stock to show and frame the pattern paper. Then glue these two pieces together. We ended up with the above image once this step was complete.

Thirdly we printed out a few sheets of the clip art image (cat and dog) and used the circle punch  to cut them out. In order to make the scallop border around the circle, we used a scallop circle punch that we had at the house. However, our scallop circle punch is much smaller than the 2" circle punch so after asking Rini what she wanted to do about it, she decided that if we punched out several and glued them to the back of the circles it would create approximately the same effect. So that's what we did. We ended up punching out 5 scallop circles per 1  2" circle.  Of course you wouldn't have to do this step or you could hand cut out a border for the circle part.
Once they were all glued together we ended up with these.


The fourth step were the hearts which are made up of three pieces. First, choose the card stock you want. Rini chose green as its the opposite on the color wheel from red. Now measure how big you want the hearts and cut them out. If you have a heart hand punch you could use that, but we cut all 30 of ours by hand.

The next step was to cute the pattern paper into smaller hearts so they would fit inside the green card stock ones. For this we measured the green hearts and cut the paper into slightly smaller squares. Then traced a green heart on each square. Once that was done we tore the paper along the line to make the hearts. The result is the uneven and white line around the pattern paper hearts. Now glue those two pieces together. Thirdly, we came up with two sayings, typed them out in word, printed them and then cut them out. These were then glued on top of the hearts.

The fifth step is the ribbon. We used scraps of ribbon and folded them in half. Then using a stapler, stapled the ribbon to the top of one of the bookmarks before gluing our circles over the stapled ribbon. This hides the staple on the front.

Lastly, you glue all pieces together. This is what we ended up with when it was all done.

The bookmarks weren't perfect but they were well received and I don't know about her class, but mine will be well loved and cherished!!

January Flowers

Here I was thinking, "I can't believe its already January" and before I knew it January had come and gone.  Now with it begin February I'm playing catch up.

Last month at my daughter's school I taught a class on Georgia O'Keefe, who is an amazing artist and an amazing woman. She stood tall and continued doing what she loved, painting;  no matter how people looked at her or what they said about her. I think that's a great lesson that we can all learn from and it was a great way to start out the beginning of the new year.

This year I teach an art class every other month to a class of third graders. For our project on Georgia O'Keefe we painted flowers from the perspective of a bee (or other small insect). The pieces turned out fantastic I think.

This project is really simple and would make for a great rainy day art project at home. Here's what you need:

• Thick paper like card stock
• watercolor paints
• paint brushes
• small container for water
• a tissue or napkin for drying your paint brush
• a pencil for drawing
• a sharpie marker (or other permanent marker) for tracing

Have children look at a flower or imagine a what a flower would look like to a bee. Tell them the flowers have to be BIG and has to touch each side of their paper. Have them draw the image out first in pencil. Then they trace the image with the marker. You need to use a sharpie here instead of a crayola because you will be adding water and paint to the paper and other types of markers can bleed sometimes.

Once the flower is traced, the next step is to paint it. I like to let kids go crazy here and paint however they want. Maybe they want rainbow flower petals or orange steams or flowers with stars on the petals....the skies the limit.

Once the painting is dry, you are done. I think a set of these framed would be wonderful to dress up a bathroom or nook in a hallway. And what better to display proudly in your house, than your child's masterpiece?

Ebru Paper Marbling

 When I was younger I can remember doing an art project with water, paint and paper. In which you poured small amounts of paint onto water and then gently placed a paper on top to create a one of a kind print. This project was always one of my favorite memories.  But everytime I tried to recreate the project I had done as a kid, it always ended up in a failure of attempts and frustration.

A few weeks back I had come across a youtube video in which several beautiful images were created by using a special chemical solution in water and ink applied to the surface. The technique dates back as far as the 10th century and was used by many cultures to marble paper, fabric and other materials.

Paper Marbling was exactly what I had done as a kid and wanted to share with my kids and the kids I work with.  But I wasn't sure how safe the chemical solution was for children so I went about thinking of new ways to do the project but still achieve the same or at least similar results.

Here is what I came up with and the supplies you will need:

• Trays (We use throw away trays that are found in the baking isle of your grocery stores. These can be used multpile times.)
• Vegetable oil and water in a tray
• Corn syrup in a tray
• Liquid corn starch in a tray (you can buy this at the grocery store with the laundry soap or you can heat up corn starch and water as I did to make a sort of thick liquid. Be warned though that this does congeal when cold and doesn't work well then. Also let cool slightly before using as it is very hot.)
• Tempura paints
• Water to thin paints
• Paint brushes
• Tooth picks
• Old combs
• Straws (for mixing or blowing bubbles into the oil and water tray)
• Paper (we used a medium thick cardstock)
• Newspaper to put down to limit mess and to dry prints on

The process is pretty simple. Simply pour in the paint and use a toothpick, paint brush, comb, etc. to mix and swirl the paint on the surface to create the image you want. Once achieved, place a piec of your cardstock gently on the top of the liquid and count to 5. Then pull it up gently and viola.  If you want darker coloring, you can leave it on the water for a longer amount of time.

The paint can be applied straight from the bottle or can be watered down and poured into the pans. I recommend using small cups if pouring with little kids so that they don't dump large amounts of watered down paint into the pan.


Also, the oil and water pan has to have paint that is thinned down and applied carefully or it will sink to the bottom and you won't be able to make your prints. This one can be a little tricky for younger kids but is still very fun to explore and play around with.

I will also warn you that the corn syrup is sticky and will stick to everything while drying. This is why I recommend laying them in the sun on newspaper. That way you can cut around the newspaper once they are dry. Sometimes they are a little tacky after they're dry, but are very pretty and fun to make.

 Each of the ingrediant trays creates a different type of marbling effect. Which allows for quite the exploration and discussion between kids during the project time.

 The one on the left here is corn syrup while the image on the right shows the results from the liquid corn starch. The image above (with the hand pour liquid froma cup) shows the tray with oil and water.




I found that this project was rather successful in teaching young kids about primary and secondary colors as the colors will mix together, creating new ones when the kids swirl the colors around. This is also a great sensory project and allows for creative exploration.


By the end of our project time however, most trays had become goop. But the kids had a great time.


As always, we would love to see any variations you may have on the idea or your beautiful works of art.
Happy creating!

"I'm Bored" Game Boards

If your kids are anything like mine, then you have definitely heard this phase said in the whiniest of tones, " Moooom, I' bored!!"
As much as I love that phrase, it gets old real quick.  So during a rainy afternoon one day after hearing that phrase about a thousand times between the kids and having them reject any ideas I had come up with I threw my hands up and said, "Well, I'm gonna clean the toilet. You can entertain yourselves or help". Can you believe they chose to entertain themselves? I mean come on, who doesn't love to clean toilets? lol.

So while I set to my work, I started thinking there had to be a way in which I could entertain them and still get more things accomplished around the house or education wise. Then like that caffeine buzz you get after having a 6 shot espresso, it hit me. So that night I drew up what would be known as the "I'm bored! Game Board".

Here is what they look like:

I used an 8 1/2x11 sheet of paper and drew 9 columns across and 11 columns down. I did this 3 times, one board per kid. Then I filled each square with this that was relevant to each child. For example, Kat's board here has boxes like make dessert, plan the dinner menu, or babysit brother for 30 minutes. Where as Clara's board has things like, wash windows, put laundry away in rooms,  and set the table. Levi, being the youngest, has things like brush teeth and pick up toys.
And since I never miss an opportunity to educate my kids, I added things like math test, spelling test, write in your journal, science experiment, etc. to all boards.

Then feeling that the kids would refuse to play, which would make my efforts useless, I added things like trip to the park, scavenger hunt, library visit, ice cream parlor, etc.

 I also added 5 special squares. These are special because the tasks are more intense, but come with a great pay off.  If all 5 squares are collected, the winner of their game board gets to pick a prize from the treasure box ( which is extra little toys and things I collect through out the year and wrap up. They then go into a giant box we call the treasure box). The last square I added to each board is a free square, because well, it makes them happy to think they get something for free. :) Don't we all.

So in case you're interested on how the game is played, here are the rules I came up with.
A player can start on any square on the first row. Each square is a space. Spaces are gained by completing the tasks on them. You can only move spaces in a vertical or horizontal manner (see more of that education stuff right there). No diagonals. You also can not skip or jump over spaces (unless a spaces says to, which none of these do, but it might be fun to have some like that).  Once a task is completed a sticker must be placed on it for completion and moving forward ( X's would work too, but we like stickers here ).  Follow this method until you hit the bottom row. Once you have completed any task on the bottom row, the game is over.

Now the 5 special squares work like this: there are 4 on the main board and 1 on the bottom row. In order to get the treasure box prize you have to do the task on each of these and "collect" them. So for the last row, you would have to make that your last square. This forces them to think ahead (see more hidden teaching). If 4 or less are collect, they can be traded in for random things, most likely smaller goodies or candy.

Lastly are the initials on each piece. For every 10 square they complete, it counts as chores towards their allowance. When they choose to use this, I initial them off so we don't get the "but I didn't use them..." whine.

So now when they say, "I'm bored" I get to say, "have you checked the game board yet?" it doesn't always work, but it has definitely cut the whining down by at least half. Which in my book is awesome!!

Do you play games like this at your house? How do you deal with the "I'm bored!" whine?
I'd love to hear your stories and if you should choose to try the game out, please share it!

Hope everyone has a nice and sunny weekend!

DIY Scratch Boards

Geh, I can't believe January is already almost over. It seems like it was just the other day that I wrote up the post on the To Do List Project. Man, I have no idea how other parents manage to blogs so often. I made it a resolution to try harder on my frequency. So here's hoping, right.

Well today I'm going to cover a project I taught in Art Discovery a week ago. It's pretty simple but does require a bit of prep time, which I would suggest you span out over a few days. Otherwise your hand will cramp up from the coloring you have to do.

In Class we covered expressionism vs. realism, so I made the base multiple colors. However, you could alter the project for halloween or Xmas by using only those colors. Another variation would be to color white crayon over white paper and then paint with a blue. This way you could make snowy wonderland scenes. Now onto the project:

What you will need:

• Cardstock (or thick paper)
• Color crayons (I used cra-Z-art, but crayola work well too. Any that are waxy should do it)
• Scissors or an industial paper cutter-if you want to make them smaller(the scrapbook ones wont work unless you have a top lifting blade one)
• Toothpicks
• Black (or blue or whatever color) Tempura paint
• A paint brush

This first part is the most time consuming. You need to take your cardstock paper and completely cover it in a thick layer of crayon. Again I did multiple colors, but you don't have to. My only suggestion is to not use the same color of crayon as you have for your paint. Otherwise it won't show up when you scratch it off.
I colored 25 sheets of 8.5x11 cardstock so after a while I got bored of the same pattern. As you can see you can actually make some pretty nice pictures just by doing this step. If you are having kiddos help you with this part, make sure to stress to them that you don't want to be able to see any of the white paper underneather. You need to build up a thick layer of wax so the paint will adhere to the wax and not the paper. If it adheres to the paper, you won't be able to scratch it off.
Next step is to cover your colored papers with tempura paint in your color of choice. I used black, but you can use whatever color you want. When applying the paint, it does tend to not want to stick. Just be patient with it. You want a nice even coat of paint, but try not to make it too thick cause it will flake off or too thin because the crayon will start to show through. It's best to let it dry for a day or two if possible. I have had the best results when I let the paint still longer than just over night. However overnight does work and is completely do-able.
Once sheets are completly dry, you can use your scissors/ cutting board to cut them into smaller pieces if you wish. Other wise, they are ready to be scratched into master pieces. Using a toothpick, the end of a paintbrush or anything else you might want to try out (forks make cool multiple lines), gently scratch your picture into the paint to reveal the color(s) underneath. Just remember not to scratch it all off. Enjoy!!

Art Advent Calendar

Create a To Do List

This project usually takes my kids all day. It's about a continual 30 minutes of work and then off and on for the rest of the day. My examples are from our summer list mostly, but we make one 3 times a year. These are also nice to point bored kids to later on as they are full of fun ideas/activities. Here are the materials you will need:

* Pencils
* Sharpies (Different colors are more fun- you can get a pack of 5 at the dollar tree )
* Paper (I use a 11x14 sheet of water color paper- but you could do this on cardstock too-I recommend thicker paper as you will be covering the whole thing in watercolors)
* Watercolor paints (we use the cake set from the dollar tree)

* Different sized brushes (this isn't needed but larger brushes will make the painting part faster)

* Salt (plain old normal salt)
First start by deciding how you want the overall design to look. For our summer one, the girls wanted flowers, so I drew in pencil large flowers on the paper and then traced them in black sharpie.
Be sure to set some ground rule if you have younger kids or you will get a crazy wildness of impossible things to do as well as a scribble mess. :) I usually tell the kids they have to keep their art and writing inside the large designs I drew.
Next give the kids the sharpies (the tiny ones work well for little ones who like to push hard) and let them go to town writing and drawing pictures of the things they want to do. Don't forget to date your list :)
Once they have filled the space completely, break out the watercolors and paint your list. Here you can use the salt. If you sprinkle a little bit of salt on wet watercolor you will get a frosted effect. Tip: it works best to not apply the paints too thick or it can be hard to see the words underneath.
And Viola, you have a beautiful and functionable piece of art for your house!
Here is our fall/winter to do list after its been painted- the kids didn't follow directions so much on this one.