Murals and Props from a Non-Artist

Our church's Vacation Bible School is fast approaching, and I offered to help paint some props to help fit our theme of PandaMania (by Group Publishing.) Considering the fact that I've never been trained, never had art or drawing lessons, and am not an artist by any stretch of the term, I think my pandas came out okay.

I use the highly skilled, post-modern, impressionistic technique of paint by number. LOL
Here's my process:
1) Find clip-art or a picture of what I want to paint (clean lines are usually easier to work with)
2) Put images onto computer and using a projector, project onto the painting surface (cardboard, paper, a wall)

3) Using a pencil, trace the projected image onto the painting surface (when finished, cover the projector bulb to make sure I didn't miss tracing anything)
4) Paint (For the pandas I used Tempera paint for the black, white, and mixed them for the gray. For any green and brown, I used acrylic craft paint that you can buy in the little bottles in craft stores.)

For large areas of color, I use wide foam brushes or a piece of sea sponge. If I want a multi-color look, I squirt 2 or 3 shades of the same color onto a dish and then dip my brush or sponge into each and apply them at the same time. For smaller areas of color, a smaller paintbrush/foam brush or piece of sponge work well.

When the main blocks of color are done, I go back and add any shading, following the clip-art as my guide (and basically faking it.) Then, I add any outlining or definition with markers or a thin paint brush.

Most of my painting projects have been VBS props, which don't require too much detail. (Nor do I want them to take a lot of time.) 

 

 The few walls murals I've done, I spent a little more time trying to make my shading look more artistic. These pandas took about 4 hours total from tracing to final product. I hope it will get the kids excited about our week.

With the easy trace and paint method, you can make props, decor, or even attempt a mural. Dress up a party, make some holiday decorations, or create a fantastic kid space! If I can do it, anybody can!

 

Here are some previous pieces:
Our Baby Nursery Mural (2002) 

Serengeti Trek VBS (African Safari Theme ~ 2005)
I used the props and mural for our kids' combined birthday party first and then gave them to the church to use.

Trading Spaces (Travel Theme ~ 2006)

Noah's Ark (Mural for Preschool Room ~ 2006):

Avalanche Ranch (Western Mountain Ranch Theme ~ 2007)
For the backdrop, I bought 2 plastic backed drop cloths at Home Depot. Then, I used watered down acrylic craft paint and a sea sponge to fill in the hills. It only took about 6 hours total for the whole thing. It's 6' tall by about 22' wide, I think.

Outrigger Island (Hawaiian Surfing Theme ~ 2008)
No backdrop painting this year... just surfboards (and a woody wagon of which I can't seem to find a picture.) I used left-over wall paint from our house and various bottle of acrylic craft paint.

Backdrops made by scrunching up a canvas dropcloth and spray painting it with black. Unfold, re-scrunch, spray with dark brown. Unfold, re-scrunch, spray with light brown. Unfold and let dry. Voila!

 

Linking up here

Kids' I'm Bored Activity Jar

"Mom, I'm boooorrredddd! There's nothing to do!"
It's inevitable; you hear those words every summer. Some times, more than once a day! In order to keep potential whining to a minimum (and having every idea offered shot down with "Nah, I don't want to do that" and a curled-up lip,) I scoured the internet for fun boredom busters.

Using as many ideas as I could find and adding as many as I could think up that would work at our house for my kiddos, I came up with 120 ideas for our "I'm Bored" jar.
(None of the ideas are chores since that's already part of their summer daily schedule and none are for 'away from home' activities since we build those into our week too. They are all at-home, we-have-the-stuff-on-hand, use-your-imagination, little-to-no-supervision-required activities.)
I typed the ideas into a label template (10 up, 3 across per sheet) using a cute, kid-type font.

Then, I trimmed scrap cardstock to 3" x 1.5" and affixed the labels.

Using a few more pieces of left-over scrapbook paper, I cut a circle to cover the lid and made a 3.75" band to go around the center of our container (a $0.25 clearance find at Staples a few years ago! I bought a bunch and have been using them to hold dipped pretzels as teacher and coach gifts at Christmas. I still have a few on hand and thought I could spare one for this project.) Then whipping out my handy-dandy Cricut and the Makin' the Grade cartridge, I cut out 1.5" letters (with the shadow) and stuck 'em on.

Two quick coats of semi-matte Mod Podge to keep it from getting too grimy from little fingers and some left-over ribbon on the handle finish it off! Best part---total cost = free since I had everything on hand. But if I would have had to go buy all the supplies then maybe a total of $2–$3. For a whine-free summer, I'd say that's worth the investment!
The idea is that if the kids say they're bored, I'll whip out the jar and they'll get to pick a card. (Like how I spun that? They don't have to pick a card, they get to pick a card! It's all about marketing, eh?)

Whatever is on the card, they'll have to do! (With the understanding that if it's gorgeous outside and they pick an inside idea, they can pull again.) While I'm sure I'll hear those fateful words multiple times during summer vacation, at least I'll have an answer!

Linking up here!
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This project was featured here

and here

DIY Sand Table

My kiddos are getting a little bit bigger so we had sold our Little Tykes sand/water picnic table at a yard sale before we moved. Well, since I'm now keeping 2 other younglings (a 2-year-old twice a week, year round; and a 6-year-old weekdays until the school year begins) I was thinking that we might need a sand option to add to our backyard activities. We already have a great swing set. (Awesome Craig's List deal. It just needed new hardware.) and a tree swing. My car had a flat tire that needed to be replaced so when we bought a new pair of tires, rather than have the garage recycle them both, we kept the nicer one and Bass got some rope and hardware to hang it for the kids.

But we still needed some sand! I looked around at yard sales and consignments shops but didn't see anything that would work for us (budget or space.) Then... *lightbulb*!
I've heard of parents using a small plastic storage tub with sand or rice to keep kids occupied, which made me think of the under-bed storage container I keep my out-of-season shoes in.
I figured that I could downsize my shoes a little bit and stick them in a box instead thus donating my bin to the cause of summer sanity.
I gave Bass the bin and some general ideas (along with hand gestures and technical terms like "about this high," "about so wide," and "just make something to fit the bin.")

He found three 4x4" posts in his wood stash and another chunky piece of wood that were about the right height. I left him with his toys, ahem, tools, and came back to this. 

This is why I don't often tease him about his wood pile because whenever I have an 'I-want-to-make-this-right-now' idea, he usually has something on hand to make it happen.

He did, without prompting, downsize it greatly before our move and has determined on his own to use as much as can from it whenever possible. (BTW---This totally reminds me of the 'Wood Pile' episode from the sitcom 'Til Death. We didn't watch the show too often but caught this one and laughed. A lot!)

He also used some molding leftover from the last house to dress it up and added a shelf which is the perfect size for a milk crate full of the kids' sand toys or to hold the bin's lid while the kiddos are playing. A bonus with using a storage container is that we can put the lid on when the kids are finished playing and help keep the sand clean and debris-free. Even though this looks small, as soon as we put it out there were 5 kids huddled around it. They all seemed to have enough room to play.

Total cost for this project --- $3.00 for the bag of sand.
Having another play option in the backyard that doesn't require them to be sitting in the sand --- Priceless.

Linking up to these blog parties.


This project was featured here:

Summer Beachy Mantel

 

With the 90 degree weather all this past week, I figured it was time to pack away the spring decor and redo the mantel for summertime. I started with these apothecary jars that I found at Marshall's for only $11.00. I dipped into the kids' sand table for the sand and added shells that we collected on vacation last year.

To the left, I kept my big bird cage and added some yellow and gold tones plus a little beach plaque from my decor stash.

On the right, I reused my spring flower sprigs in a tin bucket that I pulled from the end table. I snagged the conch shell from our bathroom and little Dollar Store bird from the bookshelf.

Then, I added a garland to the front of the mantel. I took 4 strands of jute string and wound it together, then tied on sand dollars and star fish that I got at Christmas Tree Shops. A simple beachy look in about 10 minutes! (Now I can cross it off my to-do list!)

For the dining room table, I changed out the centerpiece and added several canning jars with candles and a taller canning jar with more shells from the beach.

A few quick updates for a more neutral, calm, beach summer mantel!

I think I'd like to change out the throw in the basket and maybe add a decorative pillow or driftwood pieces.... I'm not sure yet. I'll be looking for inspiration next week when we head to the beach!

Linking up here and here