Yellow crayons

This week for Open Ended Art, the theme was yellow crayons. We wanted to participate, but Lucas doesn't like crayons. Not at all. So it took me a little while to think of something he might enjoy doing. The solution: rubbings. We found this cute little set to use for rubbings at the thrift store recently. We picked out two train plates and one that said 'have a nice day.' We put them into the tray with paper on top and I handed Lucas a yellow crayon and encouraged him to draw on the entire page. He was so entertained when the train image started to show through. After he finished coloring on the whole page with the yellow crayon, he went and got a blue marker to color over the yellow crayon. We've been doing a lot of resist work lately with crayons and markers :) It's so nice to see Lucas using the techniques we have been learning about. The blue marker was a little too dark for the pale yellow, so you can barely make out the image anymore. But Lucas was very proud of himself and loved the finished product! Which is what matters most!
I tried to have Gwendolyn participate this week. Because I figured crayons would be good for her. She ate a good portion of a yellow crayon. And colored her mouth pink and purple. And colored her legs orange. *ahem* Not a single mark ended up on her paper. But she did happily crumple it up and take a bite out of it. :) I guess I should have taken a picture of her - she was her own canvas. LOL

Yellow mixed mediums

our materials:
yellow colored pencil
white colored pencil
silver crayon
gold crayon
gold gel pen
glue
geode pieces (we got a geode to crack open a few months ago and I have been looking for a fun project to use it for)
a piece of cardboard with a piece of black paper glued on top (the paper was way to flimsy to glue the geodes onto, and the cardboard was too plain, so this was the happy compromise)

Lucas colored with the colored pencils and crayons. (He couldn't get the gel pen to write because he tends to hold writing implements in his fist and it just wouldn't write like that..) He was pretty entertained by the way the marks showed up on the dark paper. But only wanted to color for a short while because he saw the glue. And he LOVES glue! He used a generous amount. :)
I got the idea for a night sky art project from the Let's Explore Blog. The geodes are supposed to look like stars. Lucas has been fascinated by the moon lately and I thought he would really enjoy doing an art project involving the night sky. He DID like it, but seemed indifferent to the theme.

Yellow prints

our materials:
stamps
green stamp pad
3 yellow markers
yellow crayon
yellow colored pencil
yellow star stamp marker











Lucas loved using the stamps to make prints! He is getting so good at making clear images with the stamps and it makes him so happy :)













Lucas's artwork!
He was so proud of it and told me 'this for Grandma!'
So, of course we had to pack it up in a yellow envelope and mail it to Grandma :)











And just for fun - this is my finished project. I almost always sit and do art with Lucas. It seems to really encourage him to sit and create for a longer period of time and he enjoys it so much more. And, really, who couldn't use more art in their lives?? I sure enjoy the quiet time spent creating with my small one! It's so peaceful and happy :)

Lucas and artwork

Sticking new stickers that arrived in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa :) He said that he made it for Gwendolyn. So sweet!!















Gluing elastic bands and googly eyes because we have been talking about 'e.'

A yellow collage

our materials:
one piece of cardboard (Lucas uses a ridiculous amount of glue and paper just doesn't hold up well enough - we switched over to cardboard for gluing projects)
bottle of glue
piece of yellow paper to cut into strips (with a generous amount of supervision)
strands of Mardi Gras beads
pom poms of various sizes
a matchbox car
a tiny little spiny ball


The little car was the first thing to get glued on :) He loves little cars!! He, of course, had to glue a pom pom right on top. Then he made a 'fence' around the car using popsicle sticks. He then covered everything with heaps of glue and pom poms. And then threw on a few extra little things like paper and beads for the finishing touch :)




























Lucas's finished piece of art.
(He wasn't actually done, but he started licking the glue off of his fingers, so we decided it was time to move on...)

Stamping

Here is Lucas trying out his new stamp set. He is loving the super long handles. I'm not sure they really help the image turn out any more clearly than his regular stamps, but they sure are enjoyable. And loud. Which makes them even more enjoyable. We were doing this while Gwendolyn was napping. Apparently, Lucas can stamp loudly enough to wake Gwendolyn up from her nap. She was only too happy to join in the fun. She watched Lucas stamp for a little while and wanted to try, too. Our ink is indelible, and I just wasn't that brave today. We got out the markers for her instead :) I think we're going to have to go out and get a few washable ink pads. After Lucas finished coloring his stamped paper, he sized it up for a while. And happily told me it was for Daddy. To make Daddy happy. :)

Art and Neighbor Watch

The kids have been loving playing on the art table lately. Gwendolyn is really starting to take an interest in art materials. They mostly still go straight in her mouth. Today she actually drew a little bit with a marker on a piece of paper. Then she started licking it.. Thankfully it was a dark pink color, so you couldn't even tell that she had a colored tongue :) I'm trying to come up with more activities for her since she is enjoying it so much. But I'm not finding much of anything appropriate for a nine month old.. (any ideas????) So I guess we'll keep licking markers for now :) And eating crayons, of course. (In one of the pictures, Gwendolyn was playing with marbles.. I didn't realize she could reach them. LOL )

Lucas is teaching Gwendolyn how to neighbor watch. He stands at the window and watches for our next door neighbors that he REALLY likes to come outside. Then he screams 'HI!!!' until the neighbor notices him.. And then they talk for a while :) Did I mention that the neighbor is REALLY nice and exceptionally tolerant of Lucas? Anyways, Gwendolyn now stands with Lucas and waits for the neighbors... Lucas screams 'Hi, Gwos(nickname for Gwendolyn) here too!!!' It is really cute :)

Eating crayons

Thankfully, this post isn't about Lucas eating crayons! It's about Gwendolyn eating crayons - and that's just plain happy!! I thought *maybe* she was ready to start coloring. I gave her a big disc crayon (that we made!!) and a piece of paper and helped her draw a few lines. It promptly went into her mouth and she grinned the entire time she bit chunks off. She sure did enjoy herself, tho!

More crayons!

Since Lucas's crayons were such a hit, we decided to make more :) We ran out of stand alone metal muffin cups (and I didn't want to chance ruining our muffin tin) so we're trying a different method this time. We still peeled and broke up the crayons, but instead of putting them into the oven, I'm double boiling them on the stove and pouring them into plastic molds. Lucas isn't helping with this part, because I think there's a few too many hot things around... But I think he will definitely enjoy even more new crayons :)

The crayon project

I read about this great project to turn old broken crayons into new big disc crayons. I really wanted to try it, but Lucas doesn't use crayons (I have no idea why, he just won't..), so we don't have any old broken crayons :) So we went out to the local thrift store and bought a big sack of broken crayons. We peeled off the labels, sorted the crayons by color (which was great for reinforcing Lucas's color recognition and matching skills), broke them up into little pieces (because what boy wouldn't love that???) and filled muffin cups with the pieces, then baked them for a LONG time. And then let them cool for an even longer time.

Lucas hasn't gotten to use them yet (nap time came along before the crayons were cool enough for him to handle). Even if he doesn't like the new crayons, I'm totally calling this project a success. He LOVED the whole process! And it's all about the process for little ones :) I think he's going to be so entertained that there is actually an end result to this particular project. (usually we do things just because they're fun and don't worry too much about the results) While our crayons were cooling we went out and bought two more bags full of broken crayons from the local thrift store. At a whopping 25 cents a bag for the crayons, this is a super cheap project that kept Lucas busy for a LONG time - too good to be true!!!

A smock!

Ah, I finally made a smock that Lucas likes :) I've bought several different ones, but he just won't wear them. So I made him a few out of some of my old t-shirts. It was super easy and he LOVES them. This is his Curious George smock - the boy loves Curious George. He wouldn't take it off for a few days :) So now his clothes can finally be paint and glue-free. And our poor Shout stick can get some rest...

Lucas photographs

A picture of the window because one of his favorite activities is standing on the couch and looking out the window at the birds and the squirrels.


A picture of his recycling truck - need I say more?

And various pictures of his artwork. It entertains me to no end that he walks around taking pictures of his artwork :)

Fun all around

Lucas using glitter glue - what can be better than sticky glitter??? Bwahahaha. We have one sparkly house these days! (See his pet tiger in the cage sitting on the table with him? It watches television with us, too..)

Lately, we have had a fascination with taping things to the wall. These are the pictures that Lucas took a little while back and we had printed. I left the pictures sitting on Lucas's art table for him to find when he woke up from his nap. Before I noticed, he colored them all. He enjoys them all the more now :)

And my sweet tiny girl digging through her basket of toys. She loves old fashioned clothespins.

And both kids playing in water on the kitchen floor :) Lucas enjoys dumping water from one cup to the next (with a generous amount spilling on the floor) Gwendolyn is playing in the water that escaped from the towel :)

Oh yes, more projects.

Lucas is loving water play these days, so we got him a little tiny tiger in a cage that slowly expands whe you soak it in water. He was so excited to pour water in it and watch it grow. He's been carrying around the little cage telling us that his tiger will grow big. When asked just how big the tiger will he get - he roars at us :) I guess it will get big enough to roar like a real tiger.

This is an activity I found on-line somewhere. Get really cheapy shaving cream and pour it on the table along with a glob of tempera paint to mix it with. Lucas loved mixing the the paint/shavig cream and seeing what new colors were made (we used red and yellow paint) He stuck his hands in it to play, but it kind of freaked him out a little and he started waving his shaving cream covered hands around trying to get it off... Hmm.. It was definitely not an easy clean-up sort of project. I had to scrub shaving cream/paint off of the walls, toys, the rug, the drapes, the entire bathroom... It turn out that washable paint just isn't that washable... Yeah, definitely not easy clean up :) But oh so worth it - we will definitely be doing that again soon!

Lucas found this itty bitty bird house when we were out at the store the other day, so of course it had to follow us home :) And who doesn't love painting birdhouses??? Lucas's favorite part was trying to paint the little perch.
This is the finished birdhouse and the tiger on the grow, sitting on the windowsill.