Doing Art Together: Family Hand Portrait

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This was a homework assignment for Lu. She had to count everyone in the families hands then trace their fingers on a page and number them.  I thought it would be fun to take it a step further.  I had Lu use watercolor paper. She traced every ones hands, overlapping each hand as she went along. I traced them with a Sharpie and Lu numbered them. Then I gave her some watercolors and let her paint them any way she wanted. I think it came out beautiful! What a great family "portrait." I am definitely framing this one!

This would make a great gift for a Mom, Dad or Grandparent!

Tip: I highly recommend you use water color paper. Water color paper won't buckle as much and will hold up better. Also outlining the hands using a permanent marker will make sure the hands don't get lost under all the paint.  You don't need to have your little one number each finger unless you want to reinforce counting.

Father's Day Craft for Kids: King for a Day

Why not make Dad "King for the Day" with a personalized crown.

Decorate your crown with pictures of Dad's favorite hobby, fishing, golf, baseball, cars...

We raided Dad's old car magazines to create our crown. 

Cut out lots of picture in varying sizes.

Glue them down onto a piece of of card stock.

Be sure to tell your kids (or help if they are younger) to overlap the pictures.

Once dry cut piece of paper in half the long way.

Cut V shaped notches out of the top to create crown shape.

Staple or tape together. 

Roughly measure using one of Dad's ball caps if unsure of size.

Our kids are excited to "crown" Daddy. I have already been asked the question, "When is Father's Day?" 20 times today since making the crown. Be prepared!

Water Color Resist (Part Two): Silhouette for Dad

This is definitely a fun step up from a traditional silhouette! What a cool gift your kids can proudly give their Dads. I love how colorful and graphic they came out!

Take a picture of your child's profile. (Remember your picture will come out facing the opposite direction.) Preferably use a white background. (I saved over the original photo but this is an out take to give you an idea.)

This next step is not a necessary but can be helpful. Pump up the contrast in Photoshop or something similar. Print to the size you want for your silhouette. Tape to a window.

Tape a piece of contact paper (edit: Use Removable Contact Paper) on top. Paper side facing out.

Trace with a sharpie or similar. Cut out with exacto knife. Now you have a positive and a negative. Peal off backing and place on center of heavy paper. Make sure edges are smoothed down.

Paint with water color.


Let dry. Carefully peal off contact paper. We had some issues with the paper pealing off with the contact paper. I am going to try different paper next time and not rubbing the center. I also have some cheaper contact paper that may not be as sticky. This looks great matted and in a frame. Let me know if you try this and how they come out! (edit: Use Removable Contact Paper! You wont have any sticking problems. Thanks for the tip Painted Maypole.)

This did not work out as well. A lot of the paper pealed off making it look messy.