I had the pleasure of being interview for the local Fort Saskatchewan newspaper as part of my Blue Pomegranate art exhibit! Tonight’s the night for my Artist Talk. I can’t wait to share with everyone my process, inspiration and a personal tour of the gallery. Starts at 7pm hope you can make it out!
Alright Ladies & Gents be prepared to get messy with this one:
Flour Paint!!!
So much fun and best of all Non-toxic which is great for Babies who like to taste test their world.
First the recipe
…really easy
Mix flour with water and add food colouring
How much you ask? Well that’s the beauty, you can make it as thick or thin as bright or pale as you want.
I opted for a smooth consistency and just used a plate for Zoë to dip her hands into.
Next the setup
I used a contained environment for the test drive aka I strapped her into her high chair, pulled on the water-resistant bib and put a drop sheet down.
Then I used a board canvas because it would be sturdy and wouldn’t turn to slop like paper.
I picked a size that would fit in her tray (being a painter I rarely lack canvas to choose from but if you’re not like me just go down to your local dollar store and pick one up there) anyhoo then I duct taped it down to the tray to prevent kitten from pitching it across the room.
Then I offered the pallet to my blossoming little artist.
Eventually I just let her play with it.
As you can tell by her mouth heh she had to become one with the canvas.
Also the flash makes her blink.
If it had of been the “non-toxic” finger/poster paints you buy in the store I might have been a bit leery.
If you’re wanting even healthier dyes you can always use food puree juices to mix with the flour water mixture like raspberries, beets, carrot etc but I was going for quick this time. Plus the unappealing flavor of bland flour might help teach her that not everything is mouth worthy.
As you can tell she’s still teething.
So once she was done painting and I washed her off I took her one of a kind work of art and popped it in the oven on a cookie sheet at 180°- 200°c until it dried out. Spray on a few layers of clear a protective coat and it’s ready to display.
I wonder what the Artist was thinking when she created this heh 🙂
Now if only this would pay her tuition lol
I suspect we’ll be doing this project again someday, because both baby & mommy had fun.
If you decide to give this one a whirl let me know how it goes.
Cheers,
Amanda
Things have yet again become a bit crazy in the Milke household since my last post primarily due to two factors: 1) DST (daylight savings time) and 2) Teething.
So most of my time has been spent adjusting schedules & soothing gums until yesterday.
See one of the basic stereotypes about living in Canada is our Snow and plethora of it.
(Which is fine by me because I love the stuff, though my husbands thinks that’s primarily because he does most of the shoveling)
But in good Canadian fashion we got a good ole blizzard style dump of 25cm yesterday so I thought why not take munchkin out and experience God’s snowy white canvas.
So I bundled her & I up and we tredged in the yard to play. For Munchkin that meant becoming an abominable snow baby, so to give her more mobility I plunked on her sled and pulled her around.
But of course I had to shake it up a bit cause it’s me, so I grabbed a spray bottle added a bit of vinegar so the nossel wouldn’t freeze, filled it with water and food colouring and we set off to paint the snow.
It was fun.
She seemed to enjoy watching the snow burst into colour and shapes.
I would have done more colours other than blue but I only had the one spray bottle on hand at the time.
I’ll have to pop into the dollar store and stock up for next time.
But just one more easy way to do colour and sensory play.
Cheers til next time, whenever that may be.
Amanda
I’ve been hunting for hands on ways to introduce munchkin to colour/paint without the worry of her eating it
and stumbled onto an idea for older kids on Pinterest that I filed in my head for future use.
Then I thought, why not mini-me size it.
So I did and it was a blast!
The Pins that I saw suggested using dyed rice instead of sand in a sandbox. Neat eh.
What I did instead was dyed up some white rice,
(super easy, drop a few drops of food coloring onto some dry rice, stir, voila)
and put it in a square plastic container.
Then I plunked monkey down in her high chair,
rolled up her sleeves, put on a waterproof bib and let her have at it.
I figured worst case scenario, she grabs a fistful and chows down,
I wasn’t concerned since it’s non-toxic & edible.
Of course she tried lol who wouldn’t want to taste the rainbow heh
but one “No honey, yucky” from me and she took me at my word and didn’t try again.
She loved grabbing fistfuls and mixing the colours and dropping it on the dog like confetti ha
I poured it over her hands like rain, buried little toys in it for her to dig out, and just generally had fun with it.
When I saw she was getting tired of it we changed it up, thus the waterproof bib.
I put the container aside and grabbed a water bottle
and poured it out like a fountain on her tray and over all the spilled rice.
The colours began to swirl and mix together and my daughter promptly began splashing wildly.
Wet floor, wet dog, wet baby & mommy, but totally worth it.
Dry mop & sweep later, all tidied up and the leftover rice, in a bag for next time.
I highly recommend it!
She got to have fun while playing with colours, exploring sight, sound and touch and worked on fine motors skills by trying to pick up grains of rice.
Just remember, don’t be a schmuck and supervise all play 🙂
Amanda Milke 