Crafts: Bear Painting

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Painting is a favorite pastime for our children. So, I like to find new and creative ways to allow them to paint. From using different materials as brushes like painting with leaves to using handprints, there are many fun ways to paint. We've also experimented with watercolors and using q-tips to paint, too! 

For this painting project, I wanted our children to focus on the background and not the animal they would include in the painting. So, we used a clipart drawing of a bear when the entire painting was completed and dry. 

Materials 

• Paint and Kwik Stix Paint
• Different types of paintbrushes
• Construction paper of varying colors 
• Foam shapes 
• Glue 
• Scissors 

Steps 

1. Gather your materials. 

2. Decide what color construction paper you and your children wish to use. Do you want to create a nighttime picture, a picture of a polar bear, or one in the forest? 

3. After choosing a piece of construction paper, pick what colors you want to use. Then start to paint your picture. 

4. After the picture dries, put on foam shapes and glue on your bear. 

5. Your picture is ready to hang! 

More Painting 

If you are getting ready to prepare for winter studies in your homeschool, I've shared a very cute book and a painting craft previously.  In Winter's Coming: A Story of Seasonal Change, your children will see numerous woodland animals. Pick one of the animals in the story and create a painting highlighting the change in the season.

Another fun way to incorporate painting into your homeschool lessons is to paint on a different medium. When we were reading Black Bird, Yellow Sun, we created a picture of the sun and a black bird using beans. After the beans were dry (we glued them on the paper), we painted the beans.

Looking for More Painting Lessons and Courses? 

Why not take a look at SchoolhouseTeachers.com? They offer over 400 courses, including many art courses. With so many schools limiting their electives, including art, homeschool families have the chance to explore art in a great number of ways. They can learn new techniques, study famous artists through history, and explore different mediums such as sculpture, painting, watercolor, and more. As I look through their course offerings, there are currently 19 art-related courses, including: 

• A Century of Art
• Achieving Art Success with ArtAchieve 
• All About Art
• Art & History: Interconnected 
• Art: The Timeless Treasure 
• Art Tips with Jan Bower
• Digital Art and Product Designs for Small Business
• Discovering Art History
• Drawing in Pen and Ink
• Drawing with Realism
• Elementary Art 
• Everyday Easels
• Exploring the World of Art
• Inkscape Online Adventure
• Learning About Art
• Let's Do Art Outside
• Preschool: Arts, Crafts, & Music
• Studio Art for Teens 

Virtual Refrigerator Weekly Art Link-Up

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Favorite Products

What items do you like to keep in your arts and crafts drawer (or box or however you store your supplies)? These are a few of our favorite items.

Crayons

Our children can never seem to have enough crayons. I do find that different brands are better than others. However, I let them keep a mixture of crayon brands in a plastic box. They have access to this box at all times for drawing and coloring.

Colored Pencils

As our two younger children get older, they have been enjoying using colored pencils. They have a basic set they keep in their pencil case and on occasion I let them use the colored pencils I keep for my own projects.

Drawing Paper

Most of the time our kids use scrap paper left over from when I was a high school teacher. I do make sure we have several drawing pads in the house for when we do more sophisticated projects, make cards for family members, or use water colors, Kwik Stix, or other paints.

Kwik Stix

I love these solid tempera paint sticks. The fact that my kids can uncap them to start painting immediately is fantastic. There is no water needed so I do not have to worry about spillage on the table. They also dry almost instantly so they won't be smudging it on their clothes. 

They paint well on paper and wood (we have used them for the wooden masks you can pick up at craft stores).

And if you are concerned about allergies they are nut-, egg-, and gluten-free.

 

So what crafting items do you always have in your home? Have you found they have changed as your children have gotten older?

Please Join Us!

We would like to extend an invitation to you and your children to share their artwork created while homeschooling. Each month we will host a link-up for you to share your posts about you or your children's art creation.

After you link up, please visit the other blogs and admire what they have shared from their fridges.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

An Honest Review of The Pencil Grip, Inc.'s 24-pack of Magic Stix Washable Markers

My daughter just *had* to take all the markers out on the very first day. 

One of the principal tools in our box of craft supplies are markers, so I was very excited to review The Pencil Grip, Inc.’s Magic StixWashable Markers with my family. As soon as we received the markers, my kids started using them right away for almost every project. From drawing on scratch paper to completing more extensive craft projects, Magic Stix markers are a fantastic resource.

Unlike other companies, The Pencil Grip, Inc. offers a seven-day guarantee that their Magic Stix markers won’t dry out if you leave the cap off. We completed the seven-day #nocapnoproblem test. I shared each day’s results on my Instagram and here is the completed test. The only changes I noticed were that the colors actually seemed deeper than the first day or two and they had more of a tendency to bleed on the paper than the early days. Neither result would prevent me from recommending them as a great marker. For parents and teachers, this is great – because how many times have you put away markers that look like the cap is on but only find out later it was off enough to dry out the marker? Now you don’t have to worry. (Kwik Stix Paint on Instagram made it to 100 days with the #nocapnoproblem challenge!) After all, who hasn’t found a dried-up marker under the sofa with no cap on it? 

We have completed so many projects over the course of the review period with the Magic Stix markers: My sons made Valentine’s Day cards, my two younger children decorated fire trucks, I used them while Bible Journaling, and all three of my kids colored in some knights. For all of these projects, they were fantastic. The only items with which they don’t work well are the $1 coloring books because the color bleeds through the paper. 

The color will bleed through on cheaper quality paper.

However, the color bleeding through the paper resulted in creating a really neat effect on some knights we were coloring while listening to an audio drama.  

The reverse side of the children's knights.

When we first started using the Magic Stix markers, my two-year-old daughter was determined to draw on herself, her clothes, and the markers rather than on the paper. I am pleased to say that if you draw on one markers tip with a similar shade neither lose their original color. (She used a darker purple shade to color onto a lighter purple shade’s marker tip.) One washing of her hands, though, did not remove the marker from her fingers but that is not uncommon with markers. So, it would not deter me from letting my children use them again and again. On other occasions the marker came off her hands more readily than the first time. Consequently, I would recommend washing hands right away rather than waiting till the craft is completed.

One thing I love about the Magic Stix markers is that they don’t have an odor or smell. I find that when I am coloring I tend to get close to the paper and – with other markers – you might notice an odor as you color but not with Magic Stix. 

One of my favorite crafts to complete with my children is with coffee filters, markers, and a spray bottle of water. In the past, I have used a competitor’s brand of markers but I thought I would try the Magic Stix markers and see how well they blended when sprayed with water. I was very pleased with the result. It looks better with more ink on the coffee filter but I think I would still choose the Magic Stix Washable Markers over other brands for this craft technique in the future.

 

The Pencil Grip, Inc.’s Magic Stix Washable Markers are a great addition to any family’s craft supplies. They are odorless, non-toxic, and available in 12- and 24-packs of bright, bold colors.

For more information about The Pencil Grip, Inc.'s products, please visit: 

The Pencil Grip, Inc.

The Pencil Grip, Inc. on Facebook

The Pencil Grip, Inc. on Twitter

The Pencil Grip, Inc. on Instagram (Kwik Stix Paint)