Super Cool Magic Card Painting, Turns any toddler into Picasso (Part 2 of our Last Minute Mother’s Day Gift ideas)

This is Part 2 of our 2 part series on last minute chop-chop Mother’s Day gift ideas. You can find Part 1 here which includes an awesome freebie template for download 🙂

This Super cool yet simple magic card painting method is called ‘crayon resist painting’. Besides the fact that I almost went blind trying to get the words written nicely in proportion, this activity took me all of one minute to prepare.

I let Riley have a free hand at drawing on the inside of the card. I told him these were to be given to his grandma’s this Sunday for Mother’s Day. Then came the fun painting part.

My little Picasso in the making – Riley’s impression of grandma =p

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Enthusiastic toddler ready to exercise some creative muscles
• White wax crayon for drawing out the resist painting pattern
• Crayons for drawing on the inside of card
• Water/poster colours and paint brushes
• white stock card or drawing block
• Shallow tray

MUST DO USEFUL TIPS:

• White crayons worked best to get clean lines if you want to write a message. I also tried it with wax candles but it was harder to manage.
• We used a watered down poster paint. The more watery the better the effect.
• Stick with the same hew of colours for a professional looking effect. Example, if you want a warm tone, only use reds, yellows and orange on the same project. Riley was super excited to mix all sorts of colours so he tried a version with purple, red, blue, orange and green. Naturally, the colour came out a muddy brown and he promptly rejected the finished product.
• Use a thicker stock card. We used normal drawing block and it worked fine.
• Wipe off any excess water or paint. As you will find out, with enthusiatic toddlers the whole painting will be filled with water. I wiped off the excess and we left it out in the sun to dry.
• Place the card on a thin baking tray (or any shallow wide container) before painting. This made cleaning up SO MUCH FASTER. And all busy parents know cleaning up the BANE of home made activities involving messy toddlers =p 

Do share your toddler creations with us in the comments below. If you like this activity, have a look at the Part 1 ‘Magic Simple Flowers‘ of this 2 Part series. And..

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all the awesome hardworking, never resting mummies out there!