Avery's Art

In our house we love creating, whether it be painting, coloring, building, sewing, crocheting, you name it, we dig it. And our newest addition is getting right in on the fun too. I've known people that say, "Aww, I can't wait until my little one is old enough to make me some art to display!" Well guess what, folks? If they're outta the womb, they're old enough! I know one big concern is the safety of paints for babies under one, especially because they like to put EVERYTHING in their mouths. But fear not, I've got the perfect recipe for you and your little guy/gal and you'll have some adorable baby made art to display proudly.

You'll need:

1 cup flour

2 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

Combine water and salt in a large pot. Cook on medium heat. Once the water mixture is heated slowly add flour, stirring constantly. Remove from heat once smooth and thick.

The consistency is that of yogurt, and after making this recipe I realized that I could've used just that - plain vanilla yogurt, then simply added food coloring to my liking. So give that a go as well.

We used a cupcake pan to place the "paint" in then we added different food coloring to each section until we liked the color.

Initally I taped a piece of paper to the counter, dropped some blobs of paint on the paper, then covered it with clear sheeting also taped to the counter (shown below, sorry for the terrible quality iPhone pics throughout this post) but Avery wasn't interested. 

I think her lack of interest was due to not being able to truly feel the texture of the paint. With four kids and a dog I'm no stranger to messes so I said screw it and took off the plastic sheeting and let her just grab the paint straight from the cupcake holders and paint it directly to the paper. She absolutely LOVED it.

Not only does this activity give you the cutest artwork made by your babe but it also gives them some much needed sensory play, so it's a win-win in my book. 

And I'm a sap so we framed her art, I mean, come on, its the first piece of art she made so naturally it has to go in a frame and be treasured forever. If you've ever been to my house you know that I decorate with both mine and my kiddos' art work, there's just something so wonderful about being surrounded by their works of art that they worked so hard on. I absolutely love when I see the kids digging in our craft closet and breaking out the canvases and paint. It make this creative momma happy. 

So if you ever thought your three month old was too young to make you some sweet art, think again ya'll. Happy painting!