I bought a pack of 16 x 20 canvases at Hobby Lobby (my favorite craft store) for super cheap. Loaded up on acrylic paint, brushes, palettes, and water bowls. We were ready to rock. The 2-year-old used three shades of blue for the background and went to town painting. Once I convinced her painting her knees wasn't a good idea - to just stick with her hands - we got things moving. Baby niece used a large craft paint brush and her hands to cover the canvas. We flipped it around a few times to get all the white area covered (and helped just a little).
While baby niece was painting, teen niece used the back of wrapping paper to draw an artistic Palmetto Tree. Next: cut it out, dry the massive amount of paint baby niece used on the canvas, and use the wrapping paper tree as a template, lightly tracing the tree onto the canvas in pencil. CAREFUL: you don't want to poke a hole in the canvas or make too dark of a mark.
Teen niece painted over the outline with dark blue...
Filled it in and then got crazy artsy with it. By mixing colors she had shades of blue for dots inside the tree. She added a crescent moon in the corner, and gray "moonlights" to one side of the tree. White/yellow dashes in the gray just to make it interesting.
She did such a good job, I love all the fun and unique things she added that created texture and movement to the piece. Love it!
Since teen niece will be at her mom's house for Mother's Day, we celebrated a week early and surprised my sister with this coolness! She's a SC History teacher and she LOOOOOOOOVED it. (For you non-South Carolinians, the Palmetto Tree is part of our state flag. We are very proud of it!)
The best part is this gift is nice enough to be displayed in the living room; both girls feel a sense of pride and "ownership" in seeing their talents displayed in the house and for creating something so nice for their mom/stepmom; and my sister treasures a gift from her girls.
I really do encourage you to try it and share your experience with me! I'd love to see what you create. Please don't think it has to be perfect - that's part of the special uniqueness of the artwork! Just let them go for it and see their pride when it's all complete. :)
Wanna pin it? Use this:
