crafty

cookie cutter watercolor art

mickey_mouse_watercolor_art_on_wall

Do you have cookie cutters in your house? And watercolors? Some watercolor paper? And maybe a pencil? Well then, my friends, you’ve got an easy afternoon of kid art ahead of you!

The rainy and dreary winter weekends are officially upon us, and I like to have some sort of art project available for Miss L during those time to brighten up the day in any small way. I flipped past a cute art project idea for Valentine’s Day with overlapping hearts on Facebok and from that came the inspiration for an artsy afternoon! 

Why don’t we use our vast array of cookie cutters as stencil shapes?

So, out came the cookie cutter box, along with a few sheets of watercolor paper and a pencil. She immediately grabbed to the Mickey Mouse cookie cutter and was eager to get started. I modeled the first few steps for Miss L in order to show her that we wanted to actually overlap the shapes just a little, and despite a bit of a protest, she obliged.
mickey_mouse_watercolor_pencil_art

She dutifully traced the outlines and after completing 10 Mickey Mouse heads, she declared that phase done. Then we moved on to the paint. We mixed up a palette of greens, blues and purples from our Watercolor set, and then I gave her a brush to have at it. I carefully explained that we wanted to color over the lines and mix the colors, which was initially met with a “MOM YOU ARE INSANE!” look. You see, we work really hard to get kids to color neatly inside the lines for so long… so when you tell them to break that rule they really look at you like you’re crazy. Eventually I convinced her it would work and be great, and once she saw the colors mixing, she was game!

So she painted to stay in the lines, but also painted to mix them up. And in the end, I think we came away with a pretty nice piece of art!

Over the weekend, we replicated the same technique with candy cane, stars, suns and Christmas tree cookie cutters and all with fabulous results. Watercolors can be hard for kid’s to work with as normal paints, so I enjoyed the outline/coloring aspect of this project! I think it helped Miss L really get a feel for moving the water and paint and she really gained painting confidence as she finished each page.

The next time you are caught looking for a quick and fun art afternoon, grab some cookie cutters and trace and paint away!

Project sources:

Reeves Water Colour Paint 

Paint Palette: Michael’s

Watercolor Paper 

Paintbrushes: Hand Made Modern Paintbrushes from Target