Colorful Crafts

It's finallyyyyyy getting warm out and it was just the right time for an hour of colorful, springy crafting! Last Saturday's aptly named Colorful Crafts program consisted for 6 stations that the kids (and adults) could freely move between to make different...well, colorful crafts.

Here's what I set up:

1. Hand Print Color Mixing
2. Rainbow Crayons
3. Watercolor Tape Resist
4. Watercolor Crayon Resist
5. Fingerprint Doodle Art
6. Rainbow and Cloud Wall Hangings

This kind of craft program is my favorite kind of craft program because there isn't too much weight on one craft. You can use up leftover stuff, do repeats of old projects, and try new things you're not totally confident about. Less pressure because if one thing is only okay, there are a bunch of other projects to make up the difference. Here's the breakdown:

Hand Print Color Mixing

This is an oldie but a goodie for me. I've used this project over and over again and I just always love it. Apart from the mess, I think the patrons like it too. It's quick, totally fun for kids, and even educational! I found this one years ago on Pinterest, but I've done it enough times that I sort of consider it mine now (apologies to the original brain that came up with this!) All you do is paint one hand one primary color (say, red), one hand another primary color (say, blue) and stamp down. Then you lift your hands, rub 'em together, and stamp again to see what it makes (in this case, purple). Here's a link to another time I did this craft.

Rainbow Crayons

What's to say? This one is just rainbow crayons (these from Oriental Trading) and white paper. The supply is the craft. Despite its simplicity, it's no less awesome and well-liked than the other stuff. In fact, it might have been the all-around favorite for the kids last week! More complicated does not equal more fun!

Watercolor Tape Resist

I did this project a few times before, most notably in my Watercolor Workshop in October 2015 (when I discovered the secret to making this work was to use painters tape instead of masking tape). This was probably the favorite project craft among the kids who were more patient, meticulous, and on the older end of the age group. For this project, you cover the paper (we used watercolor paper) with strips of painters tape (see the first picture above) and then paint in all the shapes. Then, when the paint is at least mostly dry, you rip off the tape to reveal a cool finished product. So cool! Everyone was appropriately impressed.

Watercolor Crayon Resist

Also from my Watercolor Workshop, watercolor crayon resist is an easy-to-do-craft and especially cool because the crayon drawing is invisible until you paint over it, like a little magic trick. Saturday's Colorful Crafts program, however, consisted of no watercolor crayon resist paintings. Instead, the white crayons I put out remained untouched and a few very enthusiastic painters just enjoyed using watercolors to paint freely. Hey, that's cool too.

Fingerprint Doodle Art

Thank you, Ed Emberley and your Fingerprint Drawing books. For this craft, I put out stamp pads, paper, black pens, baby wipes, and lots and lots of examples, and let the kids (and parents) be creative. It was fun, but for whatever reason, this table was less popular than the other tables. Totally not what I'd expected! I do, however, feel the need to say that (1) I REALLY enjoyed making my sample for this project and (2) This may have been more fun for the adults than the kids (and probably would work really well with the school-age crowd). But it's ok, I mean, adults deserve a little fun too, right? The kids can have the other 5 crafts, the adults can take this one. I'm okay with it.

Rainbow and Cloud Wall Hangings

My coworker, Jen (of Elephant and Piggie Party) made this craft for one of her programs a while ago and I totally swiped it from her (thank you). It consisted of pre-cut strips of paper in lots of different colors and pre-cut clouds. Add in some glue sticks, string for hanging, and you've got yourself a Rainbow and Cloud Wall Hanging.

What worked least: The watercolor crayon resist craft didn't happen, which was kind of a bummer. Maybe it wasn't enticing enough? Or maybe the watercolors themselves were just TOO enticing to bother with those silly white crayons. I don't know, but the crayons remained untouched and therefor, that's what craft worked the least.

What worked best: It's a tie between the watercolor tape resist and the rainbow crayons. I think almost everyone in the program colored with the rainbow crayons for at least a few minutes and some kids made like, 15 different pictures with them. So those were definitely a hit. As far as the watercolor tape resist, not everyone did this craft but those who did really, really enjoyed it!