Sunday, April 21, 2013

Love Canvas

We have been hit by the stomach flu at our house and I'm working on some more time consuming DIY projects so I'm behind on posting, but here's one I did quite awhile back that I wanted to share. I apologize there are few step by step photos as the one of the tape on the blank canvas was accidentally deleted. I used an 11x 14 board from a value pack of blank canvas covered boards that I find to be more affordable for these projects with kids than the wrapped canvases. You can get them at Michaels or JoAnn and they are even cheaper if you save one of those 40 or 50% off coupons. I simply used painters tape to tape off the letters L, V, and E and made a heart shape for the O. You could cut out letters that are much more perfect or use enlarged stickers, but I really liked the effect of the rough outlines. After the painters tape is firmly in place, just let the kids go with finger painting in whatever way they want to do! One of my tips for truly messy projects (as this one could be with younger kids and certainly was for us) is letting the kids do the painting in the bathtub. Then afterwards all I have to do is spray down the tub and if they are a terrible mess, I don't have to worry about paint drips all the way from our kitchen table to the bathroom to clean-up! It also makes it easier for me to let them enjoy themselves rather than constantly reminding them to "be careful". 
I admit I always love seeing the little hand prints, so I convinced my oldest to do a few clear hand prints of
top of the masterpiece. Then comes the fun part: peeling off the letters!
As you can see the paint did bleed a little on the edges of the letters (my kids used LOTS of paint) but I thought the effect looked cool. Plus the quirky lettering and imperfections in finishing fits with the overall idea that even in the midst of the of chaos and mess that kids make, we find the very best thing.

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