Four Art Activities for Valentine's Day!

1. Sticker Resist Foam Hearts on Canvas

This project is much like the sticker resist on paper that we did a few weeks ago, but with much better results. With foam stickers that were easy to find and peel as well as canvas rather than paper (which of course doesn't doesn't rip) this was easy! Tyler first placed the stickers wherever wished.

We used many shades of purple, pink as well as white, but Tyler also insisted on using black. It was his art, not mine, so okay! I admit to not giving him much though. If he asked for more I would have obliged, but he was quite happy.

Hands are much faster at covering a large area!

As he's discovered in the past, rollers make a nice effect

Though not as dramatic of an effect as laying your belly over the paint! His methods are funny and he knows it, but he also likes what it does to his art.

You can see his belly print int he middle! He decided he was done after this and my husband whisked him off to the bath, but I had forgotten about the glitter! I literally held the canvas over the tub while Ty happily shook glitter on.

When it was dry (well, almost...whoops), Ty removed the stickers.

The finished result! He obviously got a bit of the wet paint on his hands and it ended up in the hearts, but it adds to the character. We hung it at eye level in our dining room and Ty has been quite proud to see there when he walks by!

2. Hearts Collage

I didn't think I'd post this activity so I don't have a lot of pictures, but it's pretty self-explanatory.

I cut several different sized hearts from paper, Tyler spread glue with a brush and stuck the hearts to the glue.

When dry, we hung it in our bay window. It looks quite lovely when the sun is shining in!

 3. Multi-media Heart Collage

I've always adored setting-up collage projects for toddlers. I try to offer several different mediums to create with and let them do as they will. Here I provided Tyler with crayons, pink glue (dyed with a touch of paint) and a brush, glitter, all sorts of paper cut-out hearts, pink and red tissue paper, several different kinds of heart stickers and three large hearts cut from heavy white paper to glue everything on to.

Not surprisingly, the glue and glitter were big hits!

He also discovered that crayoning through the glue made a neat negative space effect. I wondered how the crayons would write after this, but discovered they were just fine after a simple wipe with a cloth.

 His table typically stays in the kitchen, but I pulled his table into the living room for this project as the sunlight coming through our side window was just lovely on a very cold afternoon...

After he had finished, I asked if I could poke a small hole in each heart and put them on a string when they were dry. He was excited by that! It may seem silly, but I don't want to mess around with his work without asking first, just as I wouldn't want someone to do that to me! He decided we should hang it over the couch, so that's what we did.

4. Toilet Paper Tube Hearts

This idea has been all over Pinterest and various blogs, but I'm posting it here in case someone hasn't seen it!

All you need is an empty toilet paper roll, paint, paper, and a shallow container for the paint. Simply bend the tube to the shape of a heart, tape it to allow it to keep it's shape, then let your child use it as a stamper!

Before we even started, I kinda knew that Ty would probably just stamp a few hearts then want to paint with his hands, but we gave it a shot! After he covered the paper, he did go back to the heart stamper for a moment.

He had more important things to do, like his signature scratch painting. :)

I have to end this post with a thank you to my Mom and Dad for knowing how much of an art lover Ty is and spoiling him by sending him a large box of awesome art supplies for Valentine's Day. Much of it was used in the above projects!