I looked at Emily one day and realized that she is no longer going to eat the acrylic paint.  On that day, I decided to buy some canvases that were just her size and set a few parameters.  This project was 100% supervised, involved limited paints, and occurred while Jacob took his afternoon nap.  Emily does not nap.  She is a Big Girl now, and she proved it by only getting a tiny bit of red paint in her hair.  And just a swoosh of magenta on her chin.

Step 1 - Prepare the canvas.  I painted the entire canvases white, let that dry, and then taped around the edges with blue painter’s tape.  Masking tape of any sort will do the trick, but it isn’t necessary.  I just thought it would be nice to have white borders framing her art. :)   If you tape it, seal the edge of the tape with a coat of white paint.

Step 2 - Paint!  I chose a limited palette of magenta, red, light blue, aqua green, and white.  Then I put a dime-sized drop of each color in a plastic lid.  I encouraged Emily to use different kinds of brushes in different sizes so she could learn how they are different (and because this makes the paintings more interesting).

Step 3 - Finish.  Allow the paint to dry a little before you remove the painter’s tape.  Once your paintings are dry, hang on the wall and enjoy!

Emily’s signature is that green “E” on the second painting.  You may want to encourage your child to sign their work too.   Just not with their tongue.  (Please do not eat the paint!)

If you happen to have a pretty Saturday forecast, I highly recommend hitting up your local Craigslist and planning a morning of yard sale shopping.  Evan actually did all the planning for us to visit about 15 or so yard sales in our area on Labor Day Weekend.

I found this set of vintage canisters for $1.

And these Dutch clogs for $1.  I am “refashioning” them & will share again soon.

As you can see, they were $17 originally.

Before hitting the yard sales, it helps to know what kind of things you like.  Evan hunted for European board games, and I generally spent my time looking at housewares.  But a day spent looking through old clothing or books could really pay off too.

Evan thought you might like to know how he planned our trip, which was amazingly efficient.  Go to Google Maps, type in your starting address and a yard sale address, and then keep adding stops to your route.  Google Maps will do all the work for you and plan out your path.  Along the way, you’re likely to find more unadvertised sales, which is a nice bonus!

We scored a huge bag of beads for the children, a red Victorian side table, a large vintage mirror, several board games, a vintage needlepoint picture for the kids’ room, and more.  And we spent, oh, about $15! :)