Bring the Springtime In!

It's hard to keep my oldest boy away from the television set. After playing outdoors for a good bit he came in, bored. So we brought out our craft stuff and decided to make a spring time picture, similar to what I have done with the children in the past. I sent the boys outside to look for sticks -- not too big or too small. I cut a piece of foam-filled poster board in half. Got the glue out, the paints, the bubble wrap and the tissue paper.

When the boys came back in we mixed some paint to form what would become the background of our picture. The boys then painted their bubble wrap, turned the painted bubble wrap over and applied it to the poster board. We repeated the steps a couple more times. When the poster board looked the way the boys wanted it to, they placed their sticks on their boards, then glued them on (using a good, strong craft glue). Then we cut tissue paper into squares that the boys crinkled up and glued (with Elmer's glue) onto the sticks to represent little buds.

If you do not have sticks, you can have your kids paint them on to a piece of painted poster board or colored construction paper. I have used yellow and pink tissue papers in the past and I love how real those colors look. I had just the green and the blue yesterday, but I love how the boys pictures turned out!

To do this you'll need:

Poster board, cut in half -- or colored construction paper
paints, any colors
paint brushes
bubble wrap
Glue, strong craft glue as well as Elmer's
Tissue paper, white or colored, cut into squares and crinkled