
Meet Baby B

Making Window Stickers With ALEX Toys
*** I received the Window Sticker Art Kits from ALEX Toys for the purpose of this review. ***
***All opinions expressed are my own. I did not receive any compensation for this post.***
The girls and I were thrilled to be able to review some products for ALEX Toys.
If you've been following the blog for a while you know how much we love window art,
so we jumped on the chance to give their Window Sticker Art Kits a try.
ALEX generously sent us
the Glam kit AND the Zoom kit.
Little A was so excited to make window stickers!
Here's what I love about these kits,
they come with everything you need!
I just had a baby
and as much as I love setting up art projects for the girls to do,
sometimes I need something quick to grab off the art shelf that they can set up themselves with minimal help.
Both kits come with:
preprinted artwork, 5 different colored glues, outline glue, a plastic worksheet, and instructions
According to the box, these kits are recommended for ages 6+
Miss C is 5.5 and Little A is 3.5
Even though C's lines were shaky she was proud of her creations and was not once upset that her lines were not straight.
Finding the right amount of pressure to use for squeezing out the colored glue took a few tries.
We found that squeezing and swirling at the same time helped to fill in the outlines and spread the colored glue without using too much.
Little A was not able to trace the outlines herself
The black outline glue was too thick for her to squeeze out.
She did enjoy filling in the outlines with the colored glue.
The girls couldn't wait to stick their stickers to the window
Once they were up
Miss C exclaimed, "They're suncatchers!"
We love that this is window art we can take down and move around
They stick to windows, mirrors, fridges, etc.
They are really sticky
(without being a sticky mess!)
As soon as their first stickers were done they sat down to make some more
and we still have glue leftover to make a couple more batches!
We really enjoyed making these window stickers,
the instructions are simple and fool-proof,
the kit comes with everything you need,
the colors are bright,
the preprinted designs are fun.
The only gripe I heard from the girls was that they wish they dried faster.
The outlines take two hours to dry and the colored glue takes 24 hours
Of course drying time can't be helped and the waiting is well worth the fun to be had!
Thank you to our friends at ALEX Toys!

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Labels:
Product Review,
Window
Gelatin Plastic Butterflies
Unflavored gelatin is one of our favorite materials to create with.
You can make a sort of gelatin "plastic" when you mix an envelope with a small amount of water.
Let the gelatin dry for a few days, and it hardens up like plastic!
It reminds me of acetate sheets that teachers use on projectors
(do teachers still use those?)
Here's how we used our sheets to make gelatin plastic butterflies!
Pour your gelatin into any type of tray you wish
we've used plastic plates, baking sheets and plastic wrap, and these plastic trays from Discount School Supply.
The girls decided to add more colors and swirl them around
and
then dumped generous amounts of glitter on top
Here is the gelatin before it is dry
Here is the gelatin after it is dry
It took several days for this batch of gelatin to dry and it dried quite crinkly
(I'm blaming wet weather, it rained several days during the week)
While we were waiting for our gelatin to dry, the girls decorated clothespins with
paint, googly eyes, and pipe cleaner antennae
Miss C traced a heart cookie cutter to make wings,
then cut her hearts out (there was some free form wing cutting happening as well),
and glued her wings to the backs of her clothespins.
Here are the butterflies waiting for their wings to dry!
We stuck them to our windows,
I love the light shining through the wings!
See how you can see some of the Sharpie marker?
Drawing designs on the wings with Sharpie would show up really nicely!
Have you made gelatin plastic yet?
If you'd like more inspiration why not

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Labels:
Gelatin,
Suncatchers
Picture Book Art: Dog's Colorful Day
For awhile I've been wanting to do simple art projects to go with the books we check out from the library
So, here is the first Picture Book Art post
Dog's Colorful Day
by
Emma Dodd
This adorable book is about a little white dog that collects colorful (and messy!) spots on his fur throughout his busy doggy day.
After reading the story the girls drew dogs on a large sheet of white paper.
I set out paint and paint daubers that I made with clothespins and cotton balls
(pom poms also work great).
The girls' favorite part was dabbing on the paint and talking about how each spot got there.
When they were done with their spots we counted them and made a list of what every spot was.
Little A's dog had spots from black rain AND blue rain!
That brown spot on Miss C's dog's ear was from a scrumptious chocolate bear
YUM!

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Paint,
Picture Book Art
Inspired {Wayne Thiebaud}
We were Inspired by Wayne Thiebaud!
The girls wanted to do something special for my husband's birthday
(since he doesn't like to eat cake)
so they painted cakes!

Whenever we're learning about a new artist the first place I visit is YouTube.
I love searching for interviews, it's so interesting to hear the artists speak about their methods and work.
We really enjoyed this interview with Wayne Thiebaud.
In the video there are close ups of his work where you can clearly see the build up of oil paints on his cakes, it looks exactly like frosting.
He even mentions that while he's painting it almost feels like he's making real cakes and pies.
I haven't ventured into letting the girls use oils yet
(no particular reason why)
so I thickened up some tempera paint for them to use instead
I mixed 1 cup of cornstarch with 1 cup of water in a saucepan
and heat it over low heat stirring constantly until it was the consistency of sticky play dough
Using a muffin tin I mixed the tempera paint with my cornstarch thickener and
voila!
tempera frosting.
To make their cakes, the girls drew a simple cake shapes onto their paper with pencil.
An oval top, two straight sides, and a curved bottom.
Then they went to work using popsicle sticks to spread on their "frosting"
Alongside the thickened tempera,
I also set out regular tempera and paintbrushes for them to use
Sweet Little A was so proud that she drew her cake all by herself
She worked on the same cake picture the whole time
(Miss C painted three in the same amount of time)
A was absolutely fascinated with adding layer after layer of paint
and then she decided to mix it all together.
I wish I had a picture of her face when she saw that she made gray
she was surprised and amazed all at once
C was also surprised, pointing out that A didn't even have black paint.
How DID that happen!?
The girls really enjoyed painting Thiebaud-Inspired cakes and couldn't wait to show my husband when he came home from work.
He loved them!
Unfortunately, we weren't able to keep the paintings because the paint started flaking off
(due to the cornstarch, I'm sure).
Whenever we decide to try oil painting, Wayne Thiebaud-Inspired cake might just be the first thing we paint!
Check out our other Inspired art here!

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