Summer Outdoor Art

Its been so hot out lately, and the kids have just wanted to stay indoors to avoid the heat.

Aria was asking for some sort of painting to do, and I remembered a blog I had seen at Frugal Family Fun Blog about outdoor painting methods that I wanted to try.  So, we mixed up some tempera paint...

 I had bought the spray bottles at the dollar store, knowing that we were going to try "spray-painting" sometime soon.  Both kids LOVED spraying the paper, but because we were using newsprint, I suggested they not SOAK just one spot (or else it tears)

 It created a very nice "watercolor" effect backdrop to the paint strokes of the brushes.  To finish the whole thing off Aria used a great splatter technique of flicking her paintbrushes at the paper.  And since we were outside, and I was out of splatter-range, I let her splatter to her heart's delight.  (I was not as impressed later when she decided to paint her legs with the leftover paint... luckily it was bath night!)

 

Aria was of course, much more interested in the painting for longer than Roscoe, and the wind often threatened to steal the painting away, but it was a fun, easy to clean up outdoor craft activity!