Coloring Wildflowers – Food Dye and White Blooms

Our beautiful Hudson Valley is in full bloom. Have you noticed? The roadsides are graced with the presence of Queen Anne’s Lace and periwinkle hued chicory. It’s a feast for the eyes and it’s one you can bring inside and have fun with! Any white flower can be changed with the assistance of your kids or grand kids, some food coloring, and water filled jars.

What you’ll need…

Glass Jars (from your recyclables) ~ Food Coloring ~ Queen Anne’s Lace ~ Daisies ~ or any white flower from the garden or roadside ~ Water ~ Children

This is a great project because not only is it fun and lovely to watch, but it doesn’t take any exact science or measurements.

This is a great opportunity to teach your children that

Red + Yellow = Orange   ~   Blue + Yellow = Green   ~   Red + Blue = Purple

Then if you really want to rock their socks, go ahead and put…

More Blue than Green to create Aqua   ~   More Yellow than Red for Coral   ~ and so forth, have fun!!

Squirt a bunch of food coloring into your jar of water and you will increase the intensity of your color, add just a little for pastels.

No need to fill the entire jar, only fill your jar or glass 2 inches full.

Let your children squirt away, don’t even worry about how much or how little they put in!

During the course of a day you will see your white blooms turn into a rainbow color! Daisies will become speckled and give off a somewhat tie dyed effect. Each year my kids are thrilled to see their flowers change before their eyes! nature’s magic

If you would like, when your flowers have reached their desired hue you can press them within a phone book. Cut them at the head and place between the pages. Put some weight on top and let sit for 4-6 weeks. When they are dry and crisp, frame and hang for a living memory in your home, or gift to a grandparents!

Note to moms: this craft can be used to decorate baby showers, weddings, and other summer parties! go ahead, make a bouquet of all your rainbowed hues. For intense colors use Wilton’s color gel from the cake decorating isle in ACmoore, or craft section of Walmart.

American Pride Tie Dye Dipped Tees

This is a fun project full of hands on and parent/child collaboration. There are a lot of parent steps, but your children will be more than happy to assist you and watch as the project goes on. Recommended for ages 4 and up. Make these now so you are ready for your 4th of July weekend! it’s coming faster than you think

Step # 1  Rubber band both sides of your shirt as to define a bottom, middle, and top. Cut both ends off of a walmart bag… the handles and the bottom so that you have an open plastic “tube”.

Place tee inside the tube so that only the middle is inside with both bottom and top of tee hanging out.

Roll your tee inside the bag up tightly. Fold down ends of bag so that they are directly over the rubber banded tee area and rubber band again over top. This insures that no dye will get into the middle section of your tee.

Step # 2 rubber band the top of and bottom of the tee in any way you would like. You can evenly space the rubber bands one after another which would make stripes, or you can pinch pieces of your fabric up which would make firework type patterns. You may be asking at this point what your children are actually doing… I had my children count with me each time I wound the rubber band so that they felt involved and could practice their numbers. My 6 year old could do the rubber bands himself with just a little assistance. I also had them hand me the rubber bands and choose weather they wanted stripes or firework patterns.

Step #3 pour half your container of RIT dye into a bowl, if you have powder only use half of the box. Add 1/2 cup of salt to each bowl. Mix these with hot water and stir. Let your child do the stirring.

Step #4 Let your child hold their tee like a upside down “U” shape and put the bottom in the blue bowl and the top in the red bowl. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.

Step #5 Pull tee out of the dye carefully and squeeze out on an open laid out trash bag, then move over and lay onto another trash bag as to not put it into the colors you have squeezed out.

Take care here not to mix colors.

Your children can wear plastic gloves and help squeeze their tees. I used another walmart bag.

Step #6 Rinse in warm water each side separately until they run almost clear.

Step #7 Do not cut off rubber bands yet or your plastic bag. Hang on a line to dry. When mostly dry (damp) cut off your rubber bands, open tee, and hang to complete dry. When completely dry wash in your washing machine each separate tee on cold.

Step #8 Optional Step… if you want, here you can cut a sponge into a star shape and let your child puffy paint stamped white stars onto their shirt. This is great if your child wasn’t able to participate enough in this project or if you wanted to do this ahead of time for your younger children and then present them with the tee to decorate.

Don’t forget to praise your children as they help you with this project. Completing projects and helping out, builds good self esteem. Smile, laugh, and have fun!

Firefly/Electric Votive Lantern Jars

A fun and inspiring craft for you and your little one. Enjoy creating this tissue paper jar… tissue paper will become bright and colorful with blinking fireflies inside and behind the colors.  Children will enjoy being hands on with this project. Encourages fine motor skills and as always solidifies the bond between parent and child. The kind of bond that forms from working one on one.

Recommended for ages 4 and up

{{Supply List }}

* Jars from your recyclables * Modge Podge * Left over tissue paper

* Hammer and Nail * Left over spray paint * Pipe Cleaners * Glow in the dark Pony Beads *

{{ Step #1 }} Parent Step – Hammer 6-8 holes in the lid of your jar, spray paint and set aside to dry.

{{ Step #2 }}  Apply a thin layer of Modge Podge on your jar in small sections at a time so that your glue doesn’t dry while you are working. Let your child rip, tear, and apply tissue paper to the section that has been modge podged. Help your child smooth out their tissue paper if needed by applying another layer of modge podge over top. Repeat until entire jar is covered.

{{ Step #3 }} Let your child thread a pipe cleaner with your glow in the dark pony beads, making sure to leave 2 inches on each side free of beads. You will need this area to twist handle onto jar. While your child is doing this, take two pipe cleaners and twist the ends together creating one large pipe cleaner…

{{ Step #4 }}  Bend your child’s beaded handle into a “U” shape and with one hand hold it onto the lip of the jar.

{{ Step #5 }}  Take the pipe cleaner your lengthened and while holding beaded pipe cleaner with one hand… take your other hand and wrap the longer piece around the entire jar 2xs and weave in. Be sure to leave the area your child did not bead out so that you can fold it up and twist around itself.

{{ Step #6 }}  Fold up un-beaded ends and twist around itself, this secures your handle to the jar.

{{ Step #7 }} Enjoy! let the little one stay up a little later and enjoy going into the yard on an adventure. I have seen fireflies early this year, so keep your peepers open. When there are no fireflies, place an electric votive candle inside and take a dark adventure walk with your child through the yard. Point out all the differences between the things you see in the dark with those that you see in the day.

Electric votives can be purchased in the candle section of your local craft store. These items are flameless and safe for little ones. Just turn them on, place them inside, and enjoy!

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Create patriotic windsock!!

 

 

Marble Rolled Canvas Art – Good Messy Fun!

We welcome Ashlie Blake, artist and Hudson Valley parent, who will be showing us how to create terrific arts and crafts projects using simple items around the house.  Just for HVParent.com.

Ashlie Blake is a mixed media artist and blogger living in the Minisink area of our beautiful Hudson Valley N.Y.. Ashlie loves life with her husband and three young boys aged almost 2 to almost 7. Working out of her home studio while the children play and create right along with her, she loves having the ability of being a stay at home mom as well as a working artist. Ashlie hopes from sharing children/parent craft tutorials that it will encourage parents to spend more time with their children and have fun doing so. Creating is a time to explore and increase self-confidence… praise from a parent to a child can be one of the things that stays and builds character for the rest of a child’s life. In a world where creativity reigns, Ashlie hopes to guide parents into making, doing, and painting up a whole storm of projects!

This is a craft for ages 18-months and up… a beautiful canvas painted by your little one and a hand full of marbles!

{{Marble Rolled Canvas Art }}

Recommended for children ages 18 months and up

Prepare to get messy and have fun too!

Your kids will love this project with it’s bright colors.

Get ready to hear giggles as paint covered marbles glide across a kid driven canvas!

{{Supplies}}

Canvas

Bag of Marbles

Liquid Acrylics (found in the wood section of your local craft store)

Cardboard

Packaging Tape

Paper Plates, water and bowls

Special Note: Liquid acrylics will stain clothing, please dress your child accordingly. In our house I let my boys create in their underwear, this way it’s straight to the tub when they have completed their projects.

#Step 1 : Cut several long strips of cardboard about 2 inches wide, attach pieces together with packaging tape. Wrap strip around canvas creating a rim (This rim will protect your marble from falling off of the canvas while your children roll)

#Step 2: After forming rim and securing with tape,  flip canvas over and tape vertically/horizontally pulling tension tight (see image below). Cardboard should be secure yet removable.

#Step 3 : Cover your dining room table with a twin sized fitted sheet. Corners will hold onto the table preventing slippage while also keeping your surface clean. Offer bowls of water for rinsing marbles between colors and paper towels for drying them as well as wiping hands.

#Step 4 : Squirt paint onto paper plates. Let children coat marbles one by one and place in the center of their canvas. Once you have placed your marbles and are ready, let your child pick up and roll the marbles in any direction they want.

The more you roll, the more you paint… when marbles appear to have lost their paint, coat again and keep creating. Repeat as much as you want! layer after layer your child’s canvas becomes a modern piece of art to be shared!

Also, the more the marbles – the more fun rolling them!

This project being an absolutely hands project provides a child with fun and enjoyment. Parent’s work one on one with the child/children offering plenty of quality time and smiles. Finished projects create confidence and build esteem.

Be sure to offer lots of praise to your child/children, they soak it up like sunshine.

Artist shares advice with kids

Newburgh pastel artist, Clayton Buchanan, recently had the opportunity to give hands-on art advice to children when he visited the River Valley Artist Guild in Port Jervis.  Buchanan had visited the Guild last year where he taught the youngsters about Impressionism. This year, the children, ages 8 to 12, concentrated on lining up features when drawing  a portrait.

Clayton Buchanan visits River Valley Artist Guide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buchanan’s works are in private and corporate collections in Canada, England, and, locally, at the Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck.  He was thrilled to be at the event, working with fellow contributor Joan Kehlenbeck, president of the River Valley Artist Guild, especially at a time when arts programs in schools are lacking funding and attention.  “Artists should get interested in helping schools,” he urges. “and show the children how art is incorporated in life.”

Clayton Buchanan gives drawing advice to students

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“For example, in science class kids are taught about atmosphere and filtration,” he says. “What my expertise could teach them is how filtering light affects color. You can see that if you hang a sheet on a clothesline. The white sheet looks like a light orange by the end of the day because the molecular structure in the atmosphere changes the colors.”

Kids learn about drawing and color

Buchanan says the most important part about teaching kids is that they have a good time. “If they aren’t interested, it doesn’t go anywhere,” he says.

He recommends that all artists — visual, performing and creative look into sharing their expertise with students.

In an August Hudson Valley Life column, Carole Wolf, the executive director of the Mill Street Loft writes, “the arts uplift the human spirit and nourish the soul. Especially during these challenging and difficult times, the arts bring us joy and help us better communicate and express ourselves.”

For more information on Clayton Buchanan, visit http://claytonbuchananart.com/