the weekly craft update: weeks of july 7 and july 14

I’m telling you. I can’t keep up at this pace. How do these fancy bloggers do it? I mean, if I can remember to take a shower some days, I am totally proud of myself. Remember how I said that I was going to slow down this summer? I'm still working on that. I really do want to do crafty things, though, especially with the kids. When we last left off, we had experienced a complete and total craft fail attempting to make bouncy balls.

Last week, we experienced another craft fail. For the first time all summer, we made no crafts. Ok, we made beaded bracelets in a booth at an arts and crafts fair but that is so lame that I just can't count it as a project. On the bright side, we organized legos, watched Frozen for the 267th time, started swimming lessons, watched Pocahontas for the first (and second) time, and made s’mores in the broiler.

Broiler s'mores.

Gus and I also spent a little time inspecting art in a local gallery (Man in Clouds by Rodney Smith was Gus's favorite, followed closely by Hacer's elephants). 

This week, I decided that we needed to get a jump start on the craft time. I was inspired by this really simple idea from Pinterest. I don’t ordinarily include links to pins as a source, and I try really hard not to repin things for which I can’t find a source, but I could not find a source for this idea and it was too great not to replicate. Please let me know if this is your work so that I can say thank you. My kids loved this project (although their finished paintings were not quite as beautiful as yours).

We started with inexpensive, flat, white canvases and a selection of craft acrylics. The kids picked out six colors each then directed me to where each color should go on their canvas.

They mixed and brushed with one brush until each was satisfied that their paintings were finished. 

As you can see, Gus likes to paint in his underwear. Or it was really hot out. The kid is definitely going to kill me some day for posting these photos. Gus honey, I promise to pay for your therapy later in life. 

This was a great project that took very little time or effort on my part but really excited the kids. Now I just need to figure out where to hang their paintings in their bedroom.