Craft #1 - Kid's Canvas Painting

I admit, I am not a perfect housewife. I do not clean the bathroom every week...I do not sweep all the floors in the house every day...I don't always wash the dishes immediately after finishing cooking a meal. However, though my house may not be perfectly clean, my children do get my attention when they need it.

I decided when M. was born that I was not going to put him on a schedule so I could do things when I wanted to do them, but would follow his own schedule. I fed him when he was hungry, changed his diaper when he needed changed, and let him nap when he got tired during the day. We even let M. stay up late as a baby (not putting him to bed until around midnight most nights) since my husband wanted to watch the sports games that were on each night and we wanted to spend time as a family. We decided to do the same with A. except to put him to bed earlier. It has worked out well. We spend lots of time together as a family, and I spend plenty of time individually with each of my boys.

Lately, M. has been trying to get into the area where his aunt has her art stuff for her paintings in the living room. One day, he came up to the kitchen while I was cooking and I heard D. yelling downstairs in the living room. When M. came into the living room, I noticed he had some green paint on his hands. After washing him up, I brought him back downstairs and noticed that he had gotten into his aunt's painting area and had painted a little bit on the painting she was had started. When I told her she said it was okay. He hadn't done much and she could paint over it and fix it.

I decided M. needed a chance to do some painting of his own. I have seen a saying online lots lately that says, “Please excuse the mess. The children are making memories.” I decided to use scrapbooking stickers and put them on a blank canvas spelling out the saying.

Then I let him paint over the words. I painted with him, which was fun, since it was basically scribbling with the paint to cover the canvas.

After the paint was dry, I peeled off the stickers, exposing the blank canvas forming the words.

I noticed it wasn't perfect, since M. got some paint under almost all of the letters which made the stickers hard to get completely off, so I decided to use white paint to paint the letters and make them better. Now I love it and can't wait to hang it in the house since it's one of my favorite sayings now and perfectly describes my life.

This is a great craft to do with your children, or even on your own to let your inner child out. Choose any saying you want to use and use stickers to write the words on canvas. Paint over them, and peel the stickers off. Have fun letting your creative side out.