June 9: Blow-Paint Monsters

My boys don't like to color or do crafts so Wednesday is "Project Day" where we do can color and do crafts. :) Actually, they both enjoy painting, so I thought we'd test the waters with 2 painting projects.

The first project we tackled was Blow-Paint monsters. Like I said, they both enjoy painting and their friend, Ian, has introduced them to monsters (I guess the monster intruige is a boy-thing...I don't remember thinking about/talking about/pretending there were monsters chasing me!), so the Blow-Paint Monster was a natural fit.

I got the idea from the Disney Family Fun Magazine, and you'll find that I get a lot of ideas from this magazine...it's one of my favorites. I included the website in case anyone feels like creating their own Blow-Paint monster. And yes, as the title of the project indicates, you do have to blow paint (through a straw) to create your monster. I didn't realize how much the boys enjoyed this project until a few days later when their friend Ian was over. When there was a bit of lull in play, I asked if they wanted to do a project. Koen turned to Ian and exclaimed, "We get to make Blow-Paint Monsters!" as if that was the only project in the world. Though I suggested a few other ideas, we did, indeed, make another round of Blow-Paint Monsters.

The difficult thing with this project is that with the amount of paint on the paper, we had to wait a day to add the googly eyes, and when you're excited about something as cool as Blow-Paint Monsters, it's hard to wait to finish them.

http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/blow-paint-monsters-876582/

The second project was "cool" for Koen and Tysen because they got to use the rolling pin. They each painted a picture -- both with a paint brush and the straw to blow the paint -- then we placed a clean sheet of paper on top the picture, rolled the rolling pin over it, and separated the papers. Viola! A print of the first picture! Koen actually turned these pictures into monsters, too...just add eyes!

While it was a bit messy, the afternoon was enjoyable for all.