Colorful Mud Paintings for Our Mud Bakery

We created Colorful Mud Paintings for our New Mud Bakery and Cafe.  All Cafes need a little art on the wall or in the trees. (since we have no walls)  C thought it was a great idea....it didn't take much to convince this sometimes stubborn almost 6 year old to make some mud paintings again.  Keep reading to find out how we created our paintings.

For Colorful Mud Paintings you'll need:

Mud

Water

Food colors

brushes

paper, cardboard, or Scrap Matte Board

Containers

To create our mud paint (this is not an exact recipe) we put some mud, water, and food color in plastic cups and mixed it all up.

Then, we began painting....my daughter loved this. If I brought out regular paint she wouldn't have been as interested, but when you change things up a bit.....success!

Splatter Painting.

Cat Painting.

Colors.

Are whole array of Colorful Mud Paintings for our Mud Bakery.

I even made some mud paintings in my sketchbook for TInkerlab's DPS Challenge. Find out more about the challenge here.

Another sketchbook mud painting.

You can check out more Mud Painting here from last year.

Our Mud Bakery and Cafe Reinvented

We had a lot of fun with our Mud Bakery from last year so we decided to create a "newer" version complete with "mud painted" signs for 2012.  Keep reading to find out what else we added to the set-up.

We added part of a plastic shelving system to create the preparation area for "new" mud treats. Water buckets underneath for our water source and a big pile of mud to the left (not visible) complete with shovels for easy access.

Our new version includes a Cafe with our Bakery.

It also includes more bakers to help.

New treats such as our daisy petal mud cake, mud cup daisies, birthday mud cups, and sandy mud cakes.

And more: Mud Drizzled Pie.

And our Colorful Mud Birthday Cake with powdered sand.

Looking forward to creating more Mud Bakery treats.  Stay tuned for our next post to find out what else we included in our "New" Mud Bakery.

What else do you think we should add to the Mud Bakery?

Wet Chalk Fun: Making Hand and Foot Prints

Have you ever used chalk and water together? Just dip some chalk in water and it makes the colors so vibrant and smooth.  My daughter spent a whole hour or so playing with this idea.  Then we realized you could make hand and foot prints too.  Keep reading to find out how.

To create Chalk hand and foot prints:

First draw a huge rainbow chalk picture and add some water.

Then add some water and put your hands in....

Now print your hands.

Next put your feet in...

Then print those...

Add more colored chalk and water. Have fun coloring, drawing, and making prints with chalk. 

Then have fun washing it all away with the hose!

What kinds of fun have you had with chalk?

More chalk Fun:

DIY Crushed Chalk Paint

Outdoor Nature Collages

This was my daughter's idea.  I gave her some scrap matte board and white glue and she went to town! Busy for about 1/2 hour.  Lately it has been difficult to get C into making things and this definitely sparked her interest. If it is "her idea" she is more likely to create...maybe it is just those 5 1/2 year olds? Be sure to check out all the beautiful nature collages below.

C easily gathered lots of nature around our yard to get her started.  The great thing about making a making an outdoor nature collage is that the supplies are endless...

C hard at work...

Here are all the lovely collages:

A dandelion sun and a leaf for a cloud.

This one is mine.

So simplistic, but Lovely.

Trees with green leaf clouds.

The outdoor show.

I love how simple the collages are.  We even attempted a stick sculpture in the lower left corner.  I loved making these too and I'm sure your children will love it because as you can see we had a blast!

What have you been creating with your kids outdoors?

Need More Flower Ideas?

Check out other Flower Inspired ideas below for Tinkerlab's Challenge.

This post is shared with: It's Playtime

Family Recipe: Houska Braid Bread

I was so proud of myself for making this Houska Braid Bread for the first time ever.  This is one of those handed down recipes from my "Baba" (or Grandma) that she would make for Easter and Christmas each year.  I actually made it as a gift for my Dad for his birthday which was at the end of April and he loved it! Apparently after researching on the internet I found this out to be a traditional Bohemian Bread.  My Baba was Bohemian which made perfect sense to me.

Here is the recipe:

Houska Braid Bread

(makes 2 loaves)

1 cup milk scalded

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup cream

4 eggs (beaten)

2 pkg. yeast dissolved in 1/2 cup lukewarm milk

2 tsp. lemon rind

1/2 tsp. mace

8-9 cups flour

1 cup yellow raisins

1 cup chopped blanched raisins

Scald milk and add butter, sugar, cream, and eggs.  Add to the yeast mixture.  Mix in lemon rind, mace, and then add flour, raisins, and almonds.  Knead until smooth.  Place in greased bowl and let rise until doubled.  Punch down and divide in half.  Divide each into 3 parts and braid. (great tutorial on braiding bread here.)  Bake at 350 degree for 40 to 45 minutes. I brushed the top of the bread with an egg wash too.  Enjoy!

What are your favorite handed down family recipes?

How to Draw a Penguin: by C

Here is yet another drawing lesson from my daughter C.  Yes,  it is almost summer here and I have no idea of her interest in drawing penguins?  This is one of her finished penguins. I love it!

Get your pencils. markers, crayons,and paper ready....

Take it away C:

First draw the head like a half circle with an eye and beak.

Then, add and oval body.

Next, add the smaller belly and wings.

Now add the feet.

You can add what ever you like in the background.

Here is C adding even more detail and textures.

Finished Penguin. Fabulous!

Here is my finished penguin after C's instruction.  

I think these drawing lessons from C have been really building her confidence.  She is drawing everyday.  She is such an inspiration!

How to Draw a Bunny by C.

How to Make a Sailboat by C.

What have you let your children teach you?

Paintings on Newspaper

Whenever we paint I lay down newspaper to protect the table and guess what?....my daughter always loves painting on the newspaper more than the project at hand.  So I figured why not do some actual paintings on newspaper?  It actually went over really well. 

All you need for this project is:

Newspaper/Phonebooks/Magazine pages

Any Kind of paint (we used tempera)

brushes

Here is a gorgeous flower painting with a dark cloud above:

Simple line painting like Artist Franz Kline

Circle Painting

Another Circle Painting

Many famous artists have made paintings/drawings/collages on newspaper....including:

Franz Kline:

Untitled II

Juan Gris:

Bottle of Rum and Newspaper (1914)

Jasper Johns:

Detail of Flag (1954-55)

Kids always have the best ideas.  Listen to what your children want to make and you may actually make some discoveries.  

Have your children come up with ideas for projects?

This post is linked to: Kids Get Arty. Playtime