Progress on Evan's Big Boy Room

Evan & I did another project for his room update - some art to replace the baby quilt below:

Before - baby decor with my "blankie" from when I was a baby, a dress that Grandma Pete wore when she was little, baby photos of family members, and Winnie the Pooh accessories.

First we applied letter stickers to two canvases.  We spelled out part of the chorus from Three Little Birds, which is one of Evan's favorite songs.  =) 

Then we painted the canvases with green, blue & orange paint, chosen by Evan.  He was desperate to mix the orange paint with the blue & green, but I did not want the paintings to end up "preschooler brown," so I put the kibosh on that!  We added orange accents after the green & blue dried.

Then we pulled the stickers off, and it looked kind of crappy!!  The paint bled under the edges, while the adhesive would not come off of the canvas on some letters - not sure how both could happen at the same time?!  I did not take photos of me touching up the letters with white paint after Evan went to bed... I was ok with it being "free-form," but I could not handle all those jagged edges! 

And here they are, hung in his room!  Next up is changing out the baby accessories on the shelves.  When I mentioned to Evan that we could choose some new things for his shelves, it kind of blew his mind.  It will be interesting to see how it turns out!  I also ordered some cute fabric for new curtains and perhaps a bunting?  =)

It's hard to see here, but I did sneak in three little blue birds in the lower right corner of the bottom painting.  See how I am?

Ben's take: This goes really great in his room

along with his pop art. I am most excited about seeing

what will be new for those shelves. It was awesome just watching

them paint it, and it looks SO great when you are actually right there.

Watercolor Circles - AWESOME

Today and yesterday, we made art with circles and watercolor paint (Idea from here.).

Two different views of the starting "frames",

made with black (or once, blue) paint
stamped using contaier caps.

 

And me, systematically painting
inside the lines from top to bottom.

Evan mixing WILD colors...

Evan's work of art...

And mine.



Mine                 Evan's              Mom's

All 6 finished paintings side by side

This was really fun! -Ben

From Mom:  This was quick, but SO FUN!!!  I love the finished products, and need to find a place to display them permanently.

Splash Pad

For somwhere fun friday, we went to kelley park, where they have a splash pad and a playground. It was really great!

 It was fun...

But every 5 min. or so I got too cold
:( weather!

Evan, too!
at least I THINK tat's why he's like that.

 there was 2 squirters pointed right at each

other, too!

It was so much fun!!!

-Ben

From Mom:  BRRRRR!  The kids got so cold so fast even though it was a beautiful day.  We will definitely go back to Kelley Park on a nice, HOT day. 

Tie-dying!

Today, we tie-dyed with Lisa, Carmen, and Brookie.
It was SUPER fun!

My shirt on the left, and Evan's on the right. Personally, I like Evan's,

because it is "all cosmic" (quoting Mom)

 A washcloth by Evan,

 Two that I did (note: the bottom

 one was supposed to be a lightning bolt)

and one that mom helped Evan with.

hope you like it

(and sorry there is no pics of actuallty DOING tie-dying)

-Ben

From Mom:  The orange parts on Evan's shirt are actually socks that we also dyed... they might be my favorite, because they are like secret craziness that no one else sees!  Those washcloths were originally white, and had turned a little on the gray side (ok, a lot), and now will be really great for injuries as well as regular washing.  =)

We failed to take any pictures of anything today, including the tie-dye process & brownie cookie eating. Small people were very anxious to get on with the dying already; I think we would have had a revolt on our hands if I had tried to stop them to take photos! 

Brownie AND Cookie...

Today, we made brownie fudge cookies (recipe from here). it was awesome!

 Brown sugar into the bowl!

Mixing is fun!

Not A licious or B licious or C licious...

Delicious!!!!!!!!!!!

note: there will be pics of EATING tomorrow.

-Ben

From Mom:  These really are delicious & perfect if you are needing a nice, rich chocolate fix!  They came together really quickly in the mixer, and I had the kids gather the (few) ingredients on their own, so it really only took a few minutes of my time.  =)

lego guys

sorry, no crafting today. :( however, I will post the individual pictures from my pop art of yesterday.

this is me!

a guy named chris.

 Hector (with his robotic arms backpack)

lego evan!

the leader of the miners.

(that is not quite all of them, but I don't have enough time,

 mainly because pictures take FOREVER to load on here)

hope you like them, Ben

PS. there will be MAKING TREATS tomorrow! woooh!



Back on with pop art!

HI! we have started things up for sumer again! today, for MSM (Make Something Monday), we did minifigure/train pop art (idea from here). it is fun!!!

 this is where the pictures are taken.

 what's fun about this is that as well as arranging the pictures later,

you can choose the colors of paper the subject will be sitting in.

evan's room - before,

in-progress,

and done!!! isn't it so cool?!

this one is mine. it has a puzzle- most of the pictures

have three copies on here, but two of them don't. (hint:

they are of the same guy, but on different backgrounds)

I hope you like it!!! -ben  

And from Mom:  I am SO pleased with how these turned out!!!  I worried that there wouldn't be enough for the kids to do, as it isn't really an art project, but we all had fun choosing which color papers to use and arranging the photos in the frame.  We are working on changing Evan's room from a baby room to a big boy room, and this is the first step (not counting his big boy bed, which has been in there for almost a year!)... more projects to come in his room.