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Tag Archives: painting

Magic Mystery Painting

6 / 14 / 196 / 18 / 19

Magic Mystery Painting | Mama Papa Bubba

With Sam not feeling well earlier today, we decided to spend our afternoon close to home and out of the sun.  I love setting little play invitations out for the kids to discover after school, but since I hadn’t gotten a chance to set something up during nap time, I quickly pulled together a classic while Grae and Sam devoured their afternoon snacks…  Magic mystery painting!  {An absolute childhood classic if you’re old like me – hah!}

Magic Mystery Painting

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Now I have to preface this all with the fact that I wasn’t planning on sharing any of this here, so didn’t pull out my big camera like I should have… hence the cell phone photos. Not ideal, but meh.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • a white pastel
  • watercolour paper* 
  • watercolour paints**
  • paintbrushes (I love these and these)

* Other thick, absorbent papers will work too, but watercolour paper can soak up a ton of paint without sogging up and ripping and it dries flat.

** Any type will do, but we love our Sax liquid watercolours and I think they’re PERFECT for this project…  They make it super easy for little ones to get a brush full of paint (just dip and go) and they’re super washable.  We used just a few drops of liquid watercolours diluted in small cups of water.

Magic Mystery Painting

Okay, so here’s how easy this is…  First, use the white pastel to draw simple pictures, lines, and designs all over your watercolour paper. Two things to keep in mind…  1) Solid, thick pastel lines make for the best end result, so be sure to use lots of pressure when drawing and 2) your kiddos don’t care what your drawings look like whatsoever, so don’t let the fact that “you can’t draw” stop you from doing this…  Just really go for it!

Magic Mystery Painting

Here’s how I set it out for Grae and Sam…  My white pastel drawings on a giant page of watercolour paper, plus little jars of Sax liquid watercolours diluted in water right on top.  Oh, and paintbrushes too, of course!

Magic Mystery Painting

I had already told Grae and Sam that this activity involved something magical / mysterious, so they wasted no time getting to painting once I told them it was ready to go.

Magic Mystery Painting

And they were totally wowed. (Even though Miss G’s done this loads of times…  The resist part is fun, but it’s uncovering the hidden drawings that makes this activity so fun and engaging.)

Magic Mystery Painting

Part way through they decided that they’d try to paint the entire surface so as not to miss a single drawing or design, which I thought was very clever!

Magic Mystery Painting

When they were mostly done, I encouraged them to go in and add more paint – a) because the paper can handle it and b) because it allowed them to explore colour mixing.

Magic Mystery Painting

Isn’t their piece beautiful?!  Plus, when you have kiddos with a 5-year age gap, the very best thing is finding activities they both enjoy and can do alongside one another.

Magic Mystery Painting

When they were done with the first one, Miss G asked if she could create a second one full of things Sam loves…  And I mean, how can you say no to that, right?  So while she worked on her version, Sam whipped her up a snack of toast, carrot, ice cream, and pancake. 

Magic Mystery Painting

Then it was back to work!

Magic Mystery Painting

Here’s the one G made…  Isn’t it the sweetest?  Complete with all of the things Sam loves – fire engines, food, and Blippi, plus his name and his age.

Magic Mystery Painting Activity | Mama Papa Bubba

 

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Easy DIY Rainbow Painter

2 / 18 / 172 / 27 / 17

Easy DIY Rainbow Painter | Mama Papa Bubba

Oh how we love new books!  Honestly, just send Miss G and I to the bookstore or library for the afternoon and you’ll have two very happy girls on your hands. 

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Mess-Free Marble Painting for Babies

1 / 11 / 171 / 18 / 17

Mess Free Painting for Babies | Mama Papa Bubba

Welp, it’s been exactly one week since my surgery and I’m officially ready to be done with resting and being low key…  Sadly though, my body’s not feeling the same way. :/  While I think I honestly thought I’d just hop up off the surgery table with my three little incisions and be on my merry way, this whole having my appendix removed thing has slowed me down more than expected.  What I really wanted to do today was to pop Sam into the stroller and go for a long walk in the sun, but with our neighbourhood still being incredibly icy and snowy, I decided not to chance it just yet.  For today, my little man and I settled on some indoor fun that was sure not to cause a fall or popped switches – mess-free marble painting.

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‘I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More’ Inspired Painting

3 / 16 / 163 / 18 / 16

I Ain t Gonna Paint No More Inspired Painting | Mama Papa Bubba

Our morning started innocently enough… I thought I’d keep the munchkins happy and busy in the playroom with some morning painting while Brad took a conference call upstairs. 

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Squirt Gun Painting

7 / 21 / 157 / 27 / 15

Squirt Gun Painting | Mama Papa BubbaThough this afternoon’s squirt gun painting wasn’t planned, a monstrous hour and 45 minute clean-up after quiet play time didn’t leave us much time before dinner, so we ditched our other {more involved} painting plans and tried something super simple and quick to set up!

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Colourful Painted Handprint Keepsakes

5 / 7 / 155 / 16 / 15

Colourful Painted Handprint Keepsakes | Mama Papa Bubba

Yay!  Another round of Preschool Book Club with our lovely friends – Buggy and Buddy, Sugar Aunts, Frogs Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, and Homegrown Friends!

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Beautiful Oops Painting

3 / 11 / 153 / 11 / 15

Oops-Painting-Mama.Papa_.Bubba_..png

Finally.  The Beautiful Oops instalment of our Preschool Book Club with our friends from Buggy and Buddy, Sugar Aunts, Frogs Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, and Homegrown Friends.  We love this book!

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Painting On Snow

12 / 30 / 141 / 17 / 15

Painting on Snow | Mama Papa Bubba

After our recent attempt at painting on snow turned out to be painting on ice, we decided to give snow painting another go this morning.

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Painting on Ice

12 / 28 / 141 / 12 / 15

Painting on Ice | Mama Papa Bubba

A couple of days ago, I asked Brad if he’d fill a dish with snow and pop it into the freezer for us to play with at a later time.  Back home in Canada, Miss G really loved snow spray painting, and I figured we’d try another {more traditional} type of painting on snow once we got our hands on some paint.  Well, Miss G and I found some really inexpensive acrylics while out and about yesterday, so I was excited let Miss G paint on snow using brushes today.  The project didn’t turn out quite as I envisioned it due to the fact that our snow turned into a full-on rock hard ice block during it’s time in the freezer, but painting on ice was a really fun and unique experience too!

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Rock Painting {a summer favourite}

6 / 23 / 148 / 23 / 14

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Spice Painting

2 / 19 / 143 / 2 / 14

Spice Painting With Simple DIY Paints | Mama Papa Bubba

I had actually planned spice painting as an open-ended activity for my Crafty Kids students today, but between making senses books, creating squishy sensory balls, and exploring the magic that is slime, we didn’t get to it.  Not to worry though, between Gracen and a handful of friends, the paint got plenty of use down in the courtyard this afternoon.

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Bringing Fall to the Desert… With a Fall Tree Painting

9 / 22 / 139 / 23 / 13

Painted Fall Tree Using Homemade Leaf Stamps | Mama Papa Bubba

Let’s be real here for a moment…  At 43 degree this afternoon, it doesn’t feel like fall here in Kuwait in the least.  So when I told Gracen that today was the very first day of fall, she glanced out the window, furrowed her brow and said, “It certainly doesn’t look like fall!’ in an almost accusatory tone.  Hah!  Gotta love her spunk.  I told her that she was right and that the desert is tricky when it comes to seasons, but back home in Canada, fall changes are beginning to happen.  We read a stack of fall-themed books which seemed to help convince her, then decided to create a fall tree in celebration.

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Taking Advantage of the Heat with Ice Painting

8 / 27 / 139 / 3 / 13

Ice Painting | Mama Papa Bubba

Last night as I was tidying the kitchen before heading off to bed, I came across our silicon mini muffin pan and randomly decided to fill it with water and gel food colouring instead of putting it away (totally normal, right?)  Don’t ask how this all came about…  An idea came to me, and I just ran with it (I blame jet lag and ridiculously early wake ups – we’re talking 2 or 3 a.m. right now). 

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Simple Summer Fun: Seashell Painting

8 / 7 / 138 / 17 / 13

Simple Summer Fun Painted Seashells | Mama Papa Bubba

While cleaning out our vehicle yesterday, I realized that we still had a big stash of beach shells we’d collected a couple months hiding in our hatch (you know you’re a parent when…)  We’d originally collected them with the intent of painting them, so that’s just what we did.  

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Bubble Painting

8 / 6 / 138 / 17 / 13

Bubble Painting | Mama Papa Bubba

Yesterday Miss G and I finally got around to something that’s been on my mental activity list forever now… Bubble painting!  Now if you cruise Pinterest, you’ll see that bubble painting is all over the internet and everyone seems to do it a little bit differently.  Variations include all different sorts of bubble solutions, wands, and methods, so we just made up our own.  

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