To say that it has been extremely soggy and damp around here is not really an understatement at all, so my kids have been stuck inside a bit more then is usual for the summertime. Over the weekend, I asked the kids if they wanted to do a project, and I heard hoots of joy (except from Ian who had his own "things to do") and I got faces like this one:
The inspiration for this project came from a pile of craft supplies that had been sitting on my bedroom floor for too long. I know I originally brought them upstairs from their proper storage area for a specific purpose, but I have since forgotten what that purpose was, so it only seemed right to let the kids use the watercolor paints and rubber stamps to decorate the leftover blank greetings cards I had so carefully saved before returning them to the basement.
The girls decided that they wanted to both paint AND stamp their cards, so the project ended up being both a morning AND and afternoon event, which I think was masterful management of time AND energy. The girls were entertained almost all day, but I only had to clean up one mess!
After the all the paint dried, out came the rubber stamps. Blair picked her favorite letter "B" and and monogrammed all her cards using the high-speed, high-power, low-accuracy "Wham" method of stamping. My ears are still ringing!
Brynn's method was much more careful, using multiple stamps and ink pads, and often asking for spelling confirmation.
I only managed to get a picture of a single finished card, because the girls whisked their completed treasures away as soon as all the ink had dried. I think they were hoping that doing so qualified as enough help cleaning up. It did not.
I did take a few pictures of the cards I ended up making. I hadn't intended to get involved in the project, but as I watched the girls work during the morning, I was inspired to mess around with my own set of watercolors, and although I really have no idea what I am doing technically speaking I tried different things like getting the paper wet first, dropping globs of paint and then adding water, and also mixing varying amounts of water into the paint. Most were utter flops, but a few turned out to be aesthetically pleasing, so I joined the stamping party as well. By the way, my stamping method falls somewhere between Brynn and Blair's: less painstaking then Brynn's and less violent then Blair's.
1 comment:
You are hilarious. :)))
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