Toddler Tuesday - Fingerpainting

So now that my little one is turning into a little man I love doing lots of new activities with him.  I'm pretty relaxed where I'm not too worried about a little mess or a lotta mess as long as he's having fun and maybe learning something. 

 

So we've tried painting before but it's mostly been just handprints for projects or feet prints for gifts.  I never let him just go wild with paint and he didn't seem all that interested.  But now with the weather finally getting nice we can go outside and make a mess.  Today was that perfect day.  He had a great nap and was in a good mood so we went outside with the paints, a throw away plate for the paints, his huge scribble pad and a few flower pots to paint for mother's day.  I had clothes on him that I could care less if they got dirty and really with the crayola fingerpaints it doesn't matter much as it is all washable.

 

At first he was a little apprehensive but I demonstrated a little and got myself pretty covered in paint as well.  We had a blast!!  I even lifted him up and dipped his feet and he walked all over stuff.  The driveway looks like a rainbow exploded and he successfully painted a huge picture and two flower pots.  Cleanup was a breeze as I just put him in the sink and washed him off. 

 

I loved it and he loved it.  I think we will do a lot more painting exercises.  I'm excited to introduce him to paint brushes too to help with his dexterity.  I love crafts so so much and I hope he embraces his creativity forever!!

 

Here is a few shots from the day!

 

Happy Painting!

SS



Valentine's Day Cards

So now that I have a 19 month old I've been wanting to introduce a lot more crafts and I'm finding myself more interested in holidays which is very unlike my old, pre-baby self.  This year for Valentine's day I knew I wanted to make a personalized Valentine for immediate family and close friends.  So with the help of Pinterest (follow my boards here: Amy Hendrickson )

 

I had seen this pin:

(Link here to original project)

 

I had some notecards in my printer paper stash and since his hands are so little yet I was able to fit them on there.  Plus we had nontoxic, washable finger paints (Crayola) already. I put him in his highchair without a shirt and we practiced on a few pieces of paper first.  He loved it...it got messy but thankfully it was completely washable.

 

And yes he did try eating it...BUT this was a super fun and surprisingly quick project.  We made 8 cards.  I embellished with some stamps and wrote a quick note on the inside signed with Gabe's name.

 

I kind of found a quick system of painting his hands instead of dipping them (he would try to pick up the paint ending in a huge glob on his hand) and then pressing his hand down and doing it all over again.  I only did one hand at a time so both weren't messy.  We will be using finger paints and hand print pictures a lot I think as he loved it!

 

Here's our finished project!

 

I really love how they turned out!!

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

(all of my photos are taken on Instagram, follow me on there as well!)