I have been playing around with the idea of a tree silhouette at sunset painting for some time now, but I was struggling to find an easy way for Emily to do this and get good results. Then I had a “eureka” moment this afternoon while playing with some rubber bands. Let me explain…
First, break out the water color paints….
…. and invite your child over to paint the sunset background! Emily loves to cover the entire sheet of paper with paint!
While she was painting, I made up some tree stamps by gluing pieces of the aforementioned wide rubber bands to some thick pieces of recycled cardboard.
Emily loved using the paint roller to paint the tree stamps black. This was her favorite part!
Press down to make a crisp image on the sunset painting! Beautiful!!
Use a sponge dipped in some black paint to make leaves!
Admire your stunning artwork!! I’m planning to scan this in to make gorgeous (and personal) notecards out of it!
I linked this post to:
Please help send me to Vermont for the Stonyfield Barnstorming Tour by voting for me here! As an added bonus, if I make the top 3, Stonyfield will make a $5000 donation to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. ((fingers crossed!))
You are allowed one vote per day per valid email address, and voting ends May 25th @ noon EST.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who is voting for me!! I truly appreciate it!
May 19th, 2010 on 4:45 pm
I voted again, keep reminding us otherwise I won't remember to every day.
May 19th, 2010 on 4:46 pm
That is really clever! I love Emily's big smile. You can tell she really enjoyed making her picture.
May 19th, 2010 on 4:52 pm
awesome craft! love that idea, and your little girl looks so happy.
May 19th, 2010 on 4:53 pm
@ Ticia — Thank you so much!! That is soooo sweet of you! xoxo
May 19th, 2010 on 5:02 pm
I voted!
Good Luck!
May 19th, 2010 on 5:33 pm
Beautiful! We will have try this.
May 19th, 2010 on 5:34 pm
I hope you get to go to VT! I emailed a bunch of people and asked them to vote for you!
May 19th, 2010 on 5:54 pm
that is fabulous idea it looks awesome! again i say i dont want to wish my poppets life away but i cant wait till we can do all of this : )
ps i voted, will try get back again tomorrow good luck : )
May 19th, 2010 on 6:51 pm
You have the BEST ideas!
Voted both yesterday and today! I'll try to remember to vote everyday!
May 19th, 2010 on 8:27 pm
Those would make pretty note cards! And yes, I voted again
May 19th, 2010 on 8:38 pm
How creative! You are really an inspiration to uncrafty moms like myself. I bet even if I try myself without Anna, my sunset will be all smudgy
May 19th, 2010 on 9:56 pm
What a cute idea! I am going to go vote now!
May 20th, 2010 on 8:02 am
That's strange… for some reason the comments weren't showing up here yesterday!
@ Bronwyn — Thank you so much! She really enjoying painting, so this project was a big hit with her!
@ Jena — Thank you!!!
May 20th, 2010 on 8:04 am
@ Mama King, Christy, Alison, mylittlebirdie, An Almost Unschooling Mom, & Jenny — Thank you SOOOOOOOO much for voting for me today!!!!!! You ROCK!!
May 20th, 2010 on 9:53 am
Great idea! We did sunset paintings and glued black construction shapes on the dried painting for silhouettes, but I love your idea even more!
May 20th, 2010 on 10:18 am
I voted again
This project came out really cute.
She seems to be giggling in the pictures, it's so cute.
May 20th, 2010 on 11:27 am
@ Scott — I bet that turned out really pretty too! We must be on the same wave-length.
@ Just Breathe — There is no shortage of giggling going on at our house! Hee hee!
May 20th, 2010 on 12:08 pm
Wonderful idea, I would have never thought to use rubber bands as stamps!
We've been voting for you every day – keep the reminders coming =)
May 20th, 2010 on 12:37 pm
@ MaryAnne — It's a good thing I don't work at an office supply store… I would be crafting all the time with the supplies and never getting any work done! Thank you soooo much for your votes!!!!!
May 20th, 2010 on 1:12 pm
Lovely and so kiddie friendly! thanks
May 20th, 2010 on 1:36 pm
MOMMY:)
May 20th, 2010 on 2:07 pm
I love this!!!!
May 20th, 2010 on 4:24 pm
That's so cool! Making note cards is an excellent idea. I should do that with my children's artwork. I think I will. Thanks for the idea! You know, you could always make cards and sell them.
May 22nd, 2010 on 7:48 am
Hi there!
New follower!
I would love if you would come and visit my blog and become a new follower
Have a great day!
Melanie
http://www.jonathanandmelanie.blogspot.com
Featured Spotlight Blogger for Mommies Faves
May 26th, 2010 on 7:22 pm
I like how it looks and it looks like she had fun making it too.
This would also be a cool idea to put on a roll of butcher paper and make homemade gift wrap.
May 31st, 2010 on 3:15 pm
I love this! Thanks for walking us through the process.
June 7th, 2010 on 11:25 pm
love all your fun frugal ideas! thanks for sharing!
June 16th, 2010 on 9:34 am
I am a Kindergarten teacher and we read a great book in October that we act out…"The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything"
These trees and watercolor project is perfect for the background of the story…THanks for this great idea! Check out the book I think you will agree:)