Monday, November 15, 2010

Painted Windows

After putting up my kids handmade decorations on the front windows for Halloween, I decided to continue that theme for Thanksgiving. As I was recently reading a friend's blog, she posted a picture of a shirt she made inspired from this site. That got the wheels in my head turning and this is what we came up with.
It turned out to be a really fun project for the boys and me too.
I looked around online for some homemade window paint instructions and found lots of ideas. I settled on one involving liquid tempera paint and dish soap. I'm assuming you all have dish soap, so the only additional things you might not have can easily be picked up at a craft store. My paint came in a 6 pack at Michael's and I used a 40% coupon. You can use any kind of paintbrush. The foam ones are super cheap, but might not be quite as good as a regular brush.
I just used a little bit of dish soap with my paint. If you want exact ratios, I'd suggest a Google search. ;) A bonus lesson here is teaching your kids about mixing the primary colors to make new colors! First clean your window and make sure it is dry. Then you can start painting. I painted the turkey body and let it dry for just a bit.
Then the kids got to have their turn. Just paint thie palm and have them press it to the glass and repeat. then chane colors and repeat.
 When it's time to change colors, it's actually super easy to get their hand clean because of the soap already in the paint. Even the red washed right off with no additional cleaner.
We ended up doing this over 2 days so that the colors would just be one mushy blah color. The kids tried various angles and either fanning their fingers out or keeping them all together. Because they are small I did most of the feathers on the top half. 
 Once we we all done making the turkey I added "Give Thanks." That phrase was vetoed, so I replaced it with a simple "Thanksgiving" (after 3 attempts of fitting it all in). I can attest to it coming off the glass very easily, so don't be nervous.

4 comments:

heather said...

what an awesome idea! Looks like your boys had a lot of fun with this painting too!

Unknown said...

So fun. My sons would flip if I let them paint a window. Just wish I had one big enough to display some kid art.
Thanks for the daily inspiration ladies. I'm giving you a "Stylish Blog Award". Feel free to stop on over and pick it up.

http://boyohboyohboycrafts.blogspot.com

Alyssa said...

That is really fun and cute! I really gotta remember to check this blog when my kiddos are older.

Rachel said...

C- super,super cute and clever