Sunday, March 20, 2011

Fingerpainting Art

My girls LOVE to get messy with paint. It's safe to say that it's one of their favorite activities. They are more than happy to cover our kitchen table with vast expanses of white paper and fill them up with their colorful designs.



We were accumulating quite the stack of finished artwork, so I decided to do something with it. I really didn't want to get rid of it, or at least not all of it, so we repurposed it into something new.

I picked a simple, graphic shape of a flower and cut out some templates in plain paper. I just freehanded some different size petals that would fit on my canvas. I already had a 24"x 24" canvas left over from another project. I painted it a turquoise blue and dry brushed some brown on the edges to give it a little dimension.

I went through the girls' finished artwork and separated it out into different colors that I wanted to use. After cutting out all of the shapes, I used matte Mod Podge to attach all of the petals onto the canvas. I had the girls put their handprints onto one of their paintings for my center portion of the flower. I used a brayer to try to get all of the air bubbles and wrinkles out. There are still a few, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Finally, I gave the whole thing two coats of Mod Podge over the top and then sprayed it with clear acrylic spray.

It was the perfect addition to our little playroom at the top of the stairs. The girls love knowing that they created it. They always point out their handprints to guests!

6 comments:

  1. What a beautiful and unique piece of artwork! I too have more piles of artwork from my daughter than I know what to do with.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a great idea! Of course the only problem at my house would be that my oldest would realize I was cutting up her artwork and probably have a fit...if only I could get her to realize that's better than secretly throwing it away. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, this looks really great! I love the color saturation and how bold the design is, and I love that they know that they made it! It's really adorable!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is beautiful! Seriously! My kids are grown but I have never {willingly} ever thrown out a piece of their art. And I love the messiness of your petite artists - because that's how I work :) Enjoy your little artists - they are too cute! Thanks so much for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is such a fun idea!!! I love the design you chose - it really shows off the colors. What a great way to save and use their artwork.
    Thanks so much for linking up to Think Pink Sundays! :)

    ReplyDelete