1. Rock Painting
Rock painting is one of the most fun and inexpensive art projects you can get your kids involved in. The canvas for the painting – rocks – are totally free and you will have a gala of a time hunting for the perfect rocks with your kids. After you have selected the rocks that you would like to paint – mostly the ones with a smooth surface works the best.
Set up a painting station – outdoors if you want. Rock painting is great for working outdoors because no paper is going to be flying around. So, it will not be a mess. You and your kids can paint the rocks and make characters out of them which can then be used for stories or playtime or just decorating your garden.
2. Crumpled paper art
Crumpled paper art is a simple technique and is not much different from your regular painting. I would say it works best with watercolor than acrylic, poster, or oil paint because watercolor is easier to move around and simple for kids to play with.
Crumpled paper makes even just running brush strokes on the paper turn it into a different design every time. Other than you deciding what colors to use and what to paint, the end result will always be a surprise to you.
3. Leaf wreath
Making a leaf wreath isn’t only an activity that you will enjoy while in process, you will also get to have fun preparing for it. Just like rock painting, you can spend time with your kids walking and talking and collecting leaves.
Then comes the process of making the wreaths and that is fun trying to decide what leaves to use, which color combo to go for. Do you want it close nit or spaced out? Let your kids decide how the wreath is going to look.
4. Paper mache
Paper mache is a great way to teach kids about recycling and also getting them into the habit of making best from waste. Teach them how to get the paper ready to be sculpted into whatever they want. You can teach them to make paper mache statues, utensils, dishes, and even jewelry. Once you have spent a messy afternoon making them.
You can have another play date painting the dried results. This is a great activity to spread out during the week. The kids also learn how to consistently work on one project over the course of time.
5. Shaving cream marbling painting
This is a fun activity preferably done outside. What we do is get a tub and put in some shaving cream, you then have to put in some paint and swirl it around with a toothpick making a marbling effect. You can use any color combination and swirl it to your heart’s content just let the paints remain streaky.
Place the paper on top and let it stay for a few seconds and then pick it out of the tub. When it dries the paper has a cool marbling effect. You can scrap off the access shaving foam from the paper to have a smooth marbled paper.
This paper can again be used for crafting so the kids are making their own decorative paper. The paper can be used as gift wrapping or can also be used to make greeting cards.
