Where does the time go - AND a little project!

Wow - I'm so sorry you guys! Life caught up with us and I just did not get around to getting pictures of any of the projects Monster Boy and I have done lately....

But to assuage you all - I have a NEW project for you!

Last month, we redid Monster Boy's bedroom. We (finally) got paint up on the walls - he had been living with Builder's White since we moved in to this house three years ago! Well, our paint turned out a bit brighter than intended (think highlighter green!) but looks AWESOME with all his new bedding that we got on clearance at T.arget!


Well, as you can imagine, all that bright green is a little overwhelming with nothing on his walls!
We discussed long and hard our options for decorating his walls - we looked at stores and nothing just stuck out to us. Then came time to go through his school folder this last week - and lo and behold - the answer to our needs!

Monster Boy's preschool teacher, Mrs. R, is a fantastic woman who is SO wonderfully inventive. Well, she'd have to be with a class full of boys (seriously, Monster Boy has only ONE girl in his Pre-K class this year!). She has done several art projects with the kids (and has graciously agreed to let me "steal" them for you all here!) and, since Monster Boy's favorite colors to paint with are, conveniently enough, blue and green, some of their art projects made PERFECT artwork for his room! So off to the local craft store for some plain white mats and plain white frames (which I found on sale 2/$7 - doesn't get any better than that!) to make REAL art pieces out of them!

His FIRST project was "Painting with Cars". What a GREAT idea! Mrs. R let the kids take tempera paints and some matchbox cars and "paint" with the cars. Basically, the kids put splotches of paint on their paper and then ran the cars through them to create patterns. Here is Monster Boy's results - all nicely framed and ready to hang!




The other project they did was painting paper towels! Again, inspired! Mrs. R gave the kids some individual paper towels and water color paints. The paper towels really absorbed the paints in VERY cool patterns and look FABULOUS (well, at least in my opinion) all nicely framed up to hang on his walls. Monster Boy made two paper towel paintings on different days out of the same colors (have I mentioned he likes Blue and Green?) that really look like they belong together. So they are our other "works of art" for his room.



I think these projects are GREAT and are SO easy to do. And what better way to decorate your kids' rooms than with their OWN works of art? Monster Boy was so excited about framing these projects to hang up in his room.

Ghosties!

Monster Boy cannot call them plain Ghosts, for some unknown reason, so we named this project "Ghosties". He had a BLAST making these and it was super-easy!

Items you will need:

Styrofoam balls (in the size of your choice - I used multiple sizes for this project)
White fabric (you will need to cut this into squares to go over the Styrofoam balls)
Yarn, ribbon, or other tying mechanism of your choice! (We used yarn)
Black Marker or Fabric Paint (We went the marker route, but you may want to test your fabric first - the marker bled pretty badly on our fabric)
Optional - Small Dowel Rods or Paperclips and string

Directions:

Take your Styrofoam Ball (if you have chosen to use a dowel rod, you will want to insert it into the ball at this point) and cover with your fabric. Using your yarn (or other choice), tie around the fabric underneath the ball to create a head. (If you are using a dowel rod, you will want it to be coming out of the loose fabric) You now have the basics of your ghost. Taking your fabric paint or marker, draw a face on your ghost - our preferred face was two solid black ovals for eyes and a larger solid black oval for the mouth. You now have a Ghostie! You can use stamps, stickers, markers, etc to decorate your Ghosties however you want. If you have chosen the Paperclip and string items - bend one end of your paperclip out straight and press through fabric and into Styrofoam ball to create a hook.

Suggested uses: If you utilized the dowel rods, you can create a "Ghostie" bouquet - take a pot, bucket, candle holder, anything really, and fill it with the green floral foam. Stick the dowel rods into the foam at random intervals to create your "bouquet" of Ghosties. Cover the foam with face spiderwebs and plastic spiders for even more fun effect! If you created a hook with your paperclip - hang with string from the ceiling, doorways, in windows, or wherever you (or your child) would like!