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Fourth of July Preparation -with kids!

June 27, 2022 By Erica Deuel Leave a Comment

Do you love to celebrate the seasons with your artists by creating? Letting your artists help “decorate” is such an empowering, confidence building gift to invest in your child!

It is also such a fun way to talk about the upcoming season, by creating together. We designed this project to be all about the process! So, you can have fun being together, as you do all that!

Splatter, drizzle, squeeze, and pour paint to create your one of a kind Fourth of July centerpiece. Use it to hold candles or stick silverware in it for a utensil holder in the buffet line. There’s so many possibilities, when we use our imaginations!

What started as a phone call from Matt saying, “hey, do you want any of these old bricks?” led to such a fun process art paint project! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

If you don’t have any old bricks on hand, I know you can get some at a hardware store for less than $1.00 each. Here are some basic supplies to get you started. Please feel free to use what you have, or if you are local, you can pick this kit up in our shop as well.

Supplies:

brick (with holes)

paints

paper cup

stirrer (like a popsicle stick)

pipette

tea light candles (optional)

Once you have all your supplies out, you are almost ready to have some fun! You might be able to tell that I laid some paper down before I started painting. This project can get a little messy, so protect your surface. I also used washable Tempera paints. That means this centerpiece can’t stay outside for forever. The rain will wash our beauitful colors off, but it also means if paint splatters somewhere unwanted, it will come off too. Once you are set up, you are ready!

1. Splatter

Every kid loves to splatter paint. Use the popsicle stick or any stick you might have to scoop a little paint up and flick it onto the brick. It creates fun splatters of globs and some strains of stringing paint. I love the mix of amounts that get placed and that you can’t really control the outcome. It’s freeing!

2. Drizzle

This is a little bit slower of a technique then the splatter painting. As you scoop up the paint with the stick, you let it slowly fall off the stick, so it creates like a drizzle effect as you move your hand around. This has a bit more control as you can determine how much paint falls in a particular area before you move your hand -thus, moving the paint! I tired to aim for the areas that the dark blue paint didn’t get splattered.

3. Squeeze

Pipette’s are such a fun little tool to paint with! You can also use a small syringe, baby nasal aspirator, or pool toy that does the same technique of sucking up liquid! I used a small paper cup with a little water in it to pour some of my paint in on top. I then used the pipette to stir the water + paint mixture to create a more runny, liquefied paint. The pipette then sucked up that newly created paint and I got to spray it wherever I wanted.

Again, this can be a more controlled painting step then the splatter paint. It depends on how high in the air you squeeze the paint. Play around with squeezing it low to the brick verse about 2 feet high. Talk about aim and the different effects the height had.

4. Pour

How often do you just get to pour paint!? It’s not something that happens a lot as it can be considered “wasting”. I would argue that it is also a freeing step that gives a different look and teaches things like spacing, managing, and control. Pour a little paint and watch it drip down the sides of the brick! it can be mesmerizing!

5. Dry

This might be the hardest step! After layers and layers of paint, the newly created decoration is going to take some time to dry. It might test your young artist’s patience. That’s another valuable skill to invest in! Try to not touch the brick, while this important step happens. It helps if the brick sits in that hot June/July sun to dry more quickly!

6.  Decorate and enjoy

Once your newly created centerpiece is dry, you are ready to enjoy it! Place tea light candles it for a fun decoration or use it as a utensil holder in the buffet line!

We know your artist will get so excited explaining how he/she made it to all your Fourth of July visitors!

Have fun and embrace the process! The best part is this was hopefully a really fun memory with your artist. The second best was it was also really cheap. Throw the brick out after the holiday and create a new one next year! There is no need to store it.

Just get creating memories and fun!

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Good days make a GOOD life!

July 11, 2012 By Erica Deuel 2 Comments

Our summer has been so packed full of awesome things.  It’s been crazy but really, really good.  I look at our schedule and although it is full, it’s full of people and things we love.  We are having some really good days!

There are still those mom moments where I find myself with a screaming one year old…climbing out of Target’s shopping cart (even with the buckle tightly clasped) while my three-year old is hiding under a clothe’s rack or in a totally different aisle (or jumping in the cart on every item also in the cart-yelling I want to “wwwaaaallllkkkk”) and my five-year old is asking for every thing we walk by.  I love Target runs, but they can be pretty exhausting and require a sweet tea run on the way home.

These exasperating moments are just that though…moments.  What my eyes are open to seeing is that in the hard grind moments of our day, they are moments and don’t define us or our life.  So, in my tired, exasperated mom moments I’m praying I have eyes to see the bigger picture.  By doing this, I see my days are full of good things, and I am extremely blessed.  Here is a small glimpse of two days we LIVED last week…

Matt and I celebrated eight years of marriage!  What a gift to do life with my best friend!!  One of my favorite wedding pictures is this one where we are studying his ring.

It looked so good on his finger.  He was claimed and all the world would now know he was MINE!  I can’t believe it’s been eight years!!  How time flies when you are having fun!

What I really wanted to do for our anniversary is take our boys to White Water. I know it’s not the usual anniversary outing.  I mean take your kids with you!?  It just sounded so fun, so we took them!!  I was giddy all day!  Matt told the boys (as we were walking into the park) that if I had fun, the day was a success.  I had a blast!

It turns out White Water has gotten a little more expensive since we went as kids.  Oh well, it was worth it!!!

These two were on cloud nine!  Reagan got to enjoy a summer camp day with her Grammy Pammy (my mom).

I might have a special thing for Dip and Dots and get them every time I see them!  One goal for the day was teaching my boys that it is the best ice creme.  The ice creme of the future is I’m sure what Buzz Lightyear would eat, right!?!

We came home and dropped the boys off, got cleaned up, and went out for the traditional anniversary date!!  Six out of Eight anniversary dinners have been at the Melting Pot.  We might have a thing for the place.

I got to stare at that man all night.  Cheers to a great day and great life!

The giddiness from White Water had not worn off.  I think I was having an awesome day and was a wee bit happy.  What do you think???

The next day was the fourth of July, and we went to hang and cook out with Matt’s family.

The boys swam.  The girls talked.  How cute are these girls!?  My niece and daughter are both so darn kissable!

My boys might be little pyros like their parents.  The look in their eyes as they are holding fire…is scary!!  🙂

Matt’s 91-year-old grandma even got in on the sparkler action!  She’s one amazing lady!

The boys were playing follow the leader as their own sparkler parade.

Reagan didn’t want to miss out on a good time.  She always wants to be right there with them!!  Love it!

Until this happened….

My fun, spunky, adventurous girl had hit her wall for a crazy two-day schedule and was ready to sleep!  It didn’t take Matt and I long to rethink going to the crazy Roswell Area to catch fireworks.  We went home and put our kids to bed and sat on the couch and watched a movie with a beer.  It was a great day!!

So, good days definitely mean you have a good life!!

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Erica Deuel

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