v-day art project #1

I have been trying to be more diligent about coming up with fun holiday crafts for us. We did some really great ones for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas that I never posted on here, but I am going to try to be a little better from now on. Jed seems to really enjoy these crafts and he seems to better understand the holiday we're celebrating because we talk about it more while we're doing the craft. Plus, it's nice to have an excuse to pull out the construction paper, tissue paper, glue, scissors, paint and whatever else and make a good old-fashioned MESS once in a while!

 

This first craft was easy and lots of fun. I don't exactly know what to call it...maybe Abstract Marble Art? Anyway, while Jed was at school, I traced a heart-shaped metal container I have (a chocolate tin from a previous Valentine's day) onto construction paper and cut the hearts so they would just barely fit inside and lay flat. When we were ready for the craft, we laid one of our hearts in the container, took a marble and dipped it in our paint and then rolled the marble around on the paper. The container kept the marble contained and let us get crazy without getting too messy*.

 Jed had to be Rudolph, of course. I like how his nose got all marbleized.

 Jed seemed to really enjoy this project. He had a great time rolling the marbles around and around. It was pretty relaxing trying to making them roll different ways to distribute the paint.

 Mine

I LOVE how these turned out. They remind me a lot of Jackson Pollock's paintings and are so fun on our craft wall.

*While this was an easy, fun project, it is important to note that marbles covered in paint are incredibly SLIPPERY and have a tendency to fly out of containers that are shaken at high speeds. Acrylic paint comes off of cupboards and floors when wiped up immediately. Forewarned is forearmed.