Thanks so much for having me here at GOMHP, Brooke!
If you've never heard of us, The Better Half is a new sister site to
One Project Closer (OPC). OPC has been around almost 5 years now and is for the hard-core home improvement lovers. Kim and I (Jocie) are the wives of Fred and Ethan (respectively) and we run
The Better Half, dedicated to the finer things, like DIY home decor, crafts, and sometimes kid-friendly stuff too. I write a lot of the crafty, decor posts, while Kim focuses more on gardening and updating our
coupons for Lowe's and
coupons of Home Depot.
Here is me and
my better half, Ethan with our girls, Izzie and Lucy gearing up for what will hopefully be an awesome Raven's season!
Last month, I began a mission to organize all our kid crafts and pre-school learning books that were previously being stored in a heaping mess on top of my china cabinet and window seat in our dining room. It looked horrible!
I started with moving the china cabinet to the side and put in a small 9-cube organizer and added scrapbook paper to the back to fancy it up.
Once that was done, the wall space that previously was occupied by the tall china cabinet, looked VERY bare and boring. So, in keeping with the trend of making it a more colorful, kid space, I decided to paint some canvases with the girl's help.
Love
This first canvas was inspired by a picture on Pinterest I found ages ago. a simple idea - use painter's tape on a canvas and then paint the whole canvas. Remove the tape and the negative space provides a pretty design or word.
I added to the concept by first taping my self-healing X-acto mat and using an X-acto blade to cut more ornate letters. Using this technique, you could really cut any design of your choice for cheap. If you don't love cutting your own, you could also use stickers.
Izzie painted the canvas using acrylics - this was her favorite part of course!
Finger Print Tree
Not long ago, I had painted a similar canvas for my cousin's adoption shower , and guests were able to place their fingerprints on the tree.
This canvas I painted a little more simplistic, but the same concept. Izzie placed her finger prints on the tree after the tree trunk I painted had dried. Lucy, my 20-month-old didn't want to get her hands dirty - she's too much of a lady. :)
I tried to let go of the way I wanted Izzie to do it, which gave it a very personal and kid-like appearance. There were some crazy outlining fingerprints that were easy to coverup with white paint once it was all said and done. She did a great job and we both had a good time.
Act, Walk, Love
This third and final canvas was my favorite. Again, inspired by Pinterest -
This Glorious Day put her children’s hand and footprints on paper, wrote the phrases on top of the prints, and then framed it. So simple and beautiful!
Izzie (with lots of help and supervision) put her hand and foot prints on the canvas, and then I quickly washed her hands and feet!
Then, I made my own heart stamp using craft foam and my peanut butter lid - lol!
After it all dried, I used a paint pen to write the words on the canvas. So much easier than hand-painting the words, like I did with the fingerprint tree!
Finally, I painted a small and messy pink border to add a little extra color to the canvas.
Here they all are, together on the wall!
What do you think? Have you done any kid canvases using finger painting?
Thanks again, Brooke for letting me share fun kid canvases on your awesome site.
For more fun projects and crafts, visit me at
The Better Half! You can also connect with us on
Facebook,
Twitter, and
Pinterest. Hope to see you soon!
