L painting her canvas.

We took our painting outside today to create some lovely canvases with a stained-glass look. We made a couple of these earlier in the year, and they worked wonderfully. They are hanging up on the wall above our TV.

I bought the canvases, paint, sponge brushes and painters’ tape at Bunnings before our first canvas painting effort. A loves putting things into the little kid trolleys they have at Bunnings, and it makes for an interesting outing all in itself.

Finished canvases.

I placed the canvases side by side, and then placed the painters’ tape across the canvases in a random pattern. One canvas for each child. the paint went into a baking tray lined with aluminium foil, with a sponge brush for each colour, though the colours always end up getting mixed. Then I let the kids loose with the paint.

L’s canvas.

A completed hers fairly quickly. We had to take the red paint brush away from her or the whole canvas would have been red. L took her time painting hers, choosing which colour would go where, and blending colours to make new colours. They covered the entire canvas with paint, and then we left them to dry.

A’s canvas.

Despite the art smocks they were wearing, they both needed a bath afterwards. There was plenty of paint on the smocks, but they also had paint on their legs, and L even stepped in the paint at one point. Luckily the paint comes off easily with water and soap!

After they were dry, I carefully peeled the painters’ tape off the canvas to reveal the white canvas beneath. The finished product looks great, and the kids had fun making them.

The finished canvases.