I've been in a bit of a crafting funk lately. Maybe it's the preparations for homeschooling or the fact that I've been picking up too much freelance work, or that it is sunny outside and my brain has been checked at the beach. Regardless of the reasoning, I can't quite seem to make myself get artsy with the kids. So when Max asked if we could "spray paint" last week, my mind kicked into overdrive, and came up with a project that totally did NOT turn out as planned, but was so very fun anyway.
We ran to the dollar store and grabbed some spray bottles (any sort of spritz bottle will do). Then we headed to the woods and fields behind our house, gathering bits of natural treasures to spray around (the idea being the leaves, sticks, etc. would be the "white space" on the paper). We didn't get far before the spray bottles (which had to be filled with water for *testing*) became weapons of war. Go figure.
But still. We headed down the trail, stopping briefly when Max found an entire colony of beetles and exclaimed "Look! Bugs do piggy back rides!"
Ahem.
In any case, we eventually got going on our collecting...
stopping to nosh on some wild raspberries....
and twirl stuff...
Eventually, we made it back home, where we promptly put out some brown and white paper on the drive, and filled our bottles with paint and way too much water (if you plan to try this at home, I think an 8:2 ratio of paint:water is best). The spraying commenced-- completely forgetting about the sticks and stones and grasses we'd collected.
Instead, we made a huge, colorful, watery mess...
And the boys immediately began to make up fantastic stories to accompany said mess, and I let go of the original craft plan to sit back and enjoy their creativity at work. Sometimes, the best art *and by best, I don't necessarily mean finished products;)* is the stuff that just happens.
In what ways is art just happening in your world??
