do-a-dot artwork

Yesterday we were all out of it... sick and feverish and completely lifeless... well, at least my husband and I. Matthew, on the other hand, was sick and feverish, yet somehow still managed to have a little energy for fun. It must be nice to be 2 years old.

He asked to do art first thing in the morning. My initial reaction was to say no because I just didn't feel like taking the time to set something up for him and then clean up (especially this) after him.

However, a little later I had an idea, and it turned out to be a good one too. Funny how that actually works out sometimes. He does not paint with his Do-A-Dot painters very often, as he prefers the messier tempera paints that he can run his little cars through. But he also likes to spray water out of my misting bottle. So... here's what we did:

I put a couple of layers of newsprint down then some papertowels on top (I left 2 paper towels attached to each other). Matthew made dots all over and then sprayed them with the water bottle. He had a great time doing this. It did make a little mess as he apparently decided to spray the whole table and the walls at some point, but dotting and spraying kept him busy for a good half hour if not more. And that was a blessing for all of us.

It actually turned out quite beautiful. The papertowels absorbed the water and caused the paints to bleed. You could do this with coffee filters or tissue paper too, I think. I'm not sure what we'll do with these; I'm thinking about laminating them with contact paper and turning them into placemats.

All in all, it turned out to be a fun and pretty spur-of-the-moment art project.

Have a beautiful day! ;)