Product Review: Master Kitz Paint Kits

I came across these kits quite some time ago at the Creative Kidstuff toy store. They looked so neat!

Source

I received one for Christmas a couple years ago and one of my daughters received one for her birthday. This summer we decided it was time to break these out and give them a try. Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of in-progress photos of both kits. But here it goes:

The first kit we did was the Starry Starry Night Kit. The kits come with the instructions, paint, applicators, paper, and stickers provided. All you add is the newspaper and creativity. The instructions are easy to follow and very visual so an older kid could definitely do this on their own without much supervision. The thing I think is really neat about this is that it introduces kids to layering paint. Admittedly, I've never actually taken a painting course (just other generic art courses) so my knowledge is limited to what I've observed. But I do know that artists paint their images in layers and this is a great way to teach kids about layering color together!

The way the Starry Night kit works is that you place removable circle stickers down, then apply different shades of blue paint with the stamped roller applicator included. You remove the stickers and tape down a stencil. You roller black paint over the stencil to create the town. Then using your own creativity you layer on pastel color to create the details of the stars and town. Here is my 10 year old's version of Starry Starry Night:

I absolutely LOVED how she didn't just copy what she saw on the box. She created her own masterpiece with her own color choices. She asked to use our pastel colors so she would have a wider variety of color to pick from than what was included in the kit.

I give this kit FIVE stars and HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT! Here are a couple more details:

Another thing I truly love about this kit is that there is great TEXTURE in the paint application. Just like Van Gogh's work!

I visited New York City this past spring and had to see MOMA. I can't tell you how excited I was to see Starry Starry Night in person and to be able to get up close and really "see" it!

But to be honest, I kind of like my daughter's version better. Ha! ;-)

Now onto kit #2: Gustav Klimt's Tree of Life. I have more in-progress photos for this one:

This kit was admittedly, quite a bit less involved. You placed the stencil over your paper to start. And then apply the included gold paint with the roller brush.

After that, you use a darker brown and stamp over the gold paint:

This created patterns and shapes on the gold paint.

You remove the stencil and add the included stickers wherever you like. And then you have a finished Tree of Life!

And here they are on our art wall:

All right, I'm going to be 100% honest here and say, the Tree of Life kit was kind of a disappointment TO ME. Now, my 8 year old daughter enjoyed it. But when the PROCESS of this kit is compared to the process of the Starry Starry Night kit, the Tree of Life kit was a letdown. There were more steps in the Van Gogh kit and there was more room for the child to be more creative.

I think the Tree of Life kit is perfect for ages 6 and younger. I think the Van Gogh kit is better overall for any age (with help). But especially for ages 6 and up. I'm glad I wasn't having my 10 year old do the Tree of Life kit or I think she would have been easily bored with it. The only complaint I had about the quality of the kit is that our black paint in the Van Gogh kit was unusable. It was very clumpy and you could tell just sort of old. Luckily I had some black acrylic paint here so it wasn't a problem for us. But for someone using this kit that doesn't have access to a fully stocked art room like we do, it would have really changed my perspective on the kit.

Overall, not a bad gift idea for a creative gift. But I definitely recommend the Van Gogh Kit over the Klimt kit. I would be curious to try the Water Lilies kit and the Matisse kit just to see what the process was like for those kits. Anyone out there try those?? What did you think?

Art & Science Collide: Watercolor Salt Paintings

We actually created this project months ago. The girls had a no school day back in February and I kept them busy with art projects that day. One of them was watercolor salt paintings! This is a relatively easy project to do and the girls really seemed to enjoy it! It would be a short quick-drying project to do as a birthday craft as well.

What you need:
--watercolors (I like liquid watercolors, I think they are much more vibrant)
--table salt
--watercolor paper
--blue painters tape (optional)
 
Start by having the kids block off a design on the watercolor paper with the blue tape.

Here are their taped off designs:

Then just fill in a section with watercolor paint. We found being liberal with the paint/liquid worked best. After doing a small section, sprinkle a little salt on the paint and move on repeating the process in the next area.

And here are the finished wet paintings with the tape still on:

My nine year old's:

 My seven year old's:

 Here is the one I made. :-)

 And here they are with the tape removed:

 And just for fun, here's a close-up:

This was a really fun project because not only is it artistic, but scientific too! I explained to them about how salt is a dessicant and sucks up the water/liquid. They thought this was such a neat thing to see! You can see the speckling happen as it dries.

Once the projects are dry, just remove the tape, brush the salt away and enjoy your beautiful artwork!

Craft Project: Handpainted Garden Art

I came across this post for painting glass plates and turning them into garden art. I decided these would make some fun and creative Mother's Day gifts. So the girls and I set out to make some pretty garden art for grandmas and great-grandmas.

What you'll need:
--glass plates/bowls from Dollar Tree
--Gloss Enamel acrylic paint and Crystal Gloss Enamel Paint
--Triple-thick Glaze spray
--3/8" coupling
--threaded rod
--UV6800 industrial strength glue (You might also want to try Gorilla Glue--We had a couple of our gift plates separate from the coupling during some really strong storms that have come through in the last several weeks. The plates survived, but the coupling had to be reglued.)

The nice thing about this project is that you can buy the plates and paint, and just go for it. You don't have to add glazing medium (unless you want to and we did add a bit on a few of the plates). We chose to paint the BACK of the plate because you can use the pattern detail in the plate as a guide. It also creates a smooth look on the front.

We did some pour paint on a few of the plates.

  Our art room turned into a glass painting studio.

 We used both big plates, small plates, and a bowl.

The four plates on the left half of the image were Mother's Day gifts this weekend. The three plates on the right are for our landscape bed and they are not quite done yet. I'll add a photo of them when they are.

As I did with our pour paint wine glasses, I baked the plates to cure the paint into an enamel surface. 350 degrees in the oven for 30 minutes. Starting with a cool oven and letting the glassware heat up with the oven. Remove items once cool.

I had no issues with the paint baked on wine glasses. I did have some issues with the paint on a few of the plates bubbling up once baked. I think this may have happened because we applied the paint thicker on the plates than we did on the wine glasses.

It ended up working out that we painted on the back of the plates. Even though the paint bubbled up, it still looked smooth and great from the front of the plate.

Once the plates were baked, I further sealed the painted side by spraying Rustoleum Triple Thick Glaze spray on them. When that was dry, I used UV6800 industrial strength adhesive to glue the two painted pieces together. I let that sit for a day and then flipped it over and glued the coupling on the back. I let the whole thing sit for two more days. It seems like it has an incredibly strong bond so I'm crossing my fingers that it stays attached for a long time. (EDITED TO ADD 6/28/13--You might also want to try Gorilla Glue--We had a couple of our gift plates separate from the coupling during some really strong storms that have come through in the last several weeks. The plates survived, but the coupling had to be reglued.)

And finally here they are with the threaded rod attached and in the ground. Unfortunately, our landscape bed doesn't quite look like spring yet (even though it's May 12th) because our winter hung on for soooo long this year. We gave this one to my mom for Mother's Day.

And here is one in my Grandma's flower bed on Mother's Day!

I'm excited to finish our last three plates that will go in our yard! Maybe spring will finally arrive in Minnesota so we can enjoy them with our beautiful flowers in our landscape bed.

2012: Mommy Art Camp--Painted Peacocks

Note: I am hoping to put a PDF document together with all of our bird art camp projects in one place for anyone interested (though I'm not sure when I'll get it all done). With this in mind, I am not going to go into quite as many how-to details on these projects. But, the projects are fairly self-explanatory. :-)

This project was inspired from here, here and here.

The girls really LOVED this project, especially my 9 year old. She took her time and really got into this one. I LOVED how both of them turned out!

 

Before Ella painted her feathers she was very concerned about making sure they were exactly how she wanted them. So we worked together on a separate piece of paper. First, we figured out the color combination she wanted, then I helped teach her how the feathers might be painted. She practiced quite a bit before finally working on her painting. So fun to see your go through the artistic process!

She painted one color all the way around so that it would dry before adding the next color. This way the colors wouldn't blend together quite as much.

Here is my six year old's masterpiece:

And my nine year old's finished painting!

Aren't they both soooo gorgeous!!!! I just LOVE them!