I just love spring flowers! Every once in awhile we treat ourselves to a fresh centerpiece of daffodils or tulips, but it costs enough that we don't keep a fresh bouquet on our dining room table constantly. So I thought - why not have S paint a centerpiece for us? This also got me thinking about how most of S's painting is two dimensional. I thought she might find painting in three dimensions unusual (and maybe a bit more interesting?).
I knew I wanted to making something spring-themed, and I immediately thought of daffodils. I'd seen several renditions of homemade craft daffodils on the internet (and by that, I really mean Pinterest) using egg cartons, so I thought I'd give it a try. I wanted to use all recycled materials, so I raided our recycling container for anything that might be useful. I ended up settling on some thin cardboard for the base and the white sturdy paper (not so much cardboard but somewhere between that and cardstock in thickness) that the Hanna Andersson unders came in (hahaha). I wanted the stems to be sturdy, so I used the corners of the orange juice container for those.
S and I observed and counted the petals and leaves on the daffodils in our deck planters (the ones we planted together in this post). We made sure that the replicas I was making were true to the original. S also helped me determine the placement of the flowers, grass, and Easter eggs (she had to have Easter eggs, of course!). After cutting all the requisite shapes, I used my hot glue gun to give structure to the whole thing (regular glue would not have been supportive enough, I fear).
Then she was ready to begin! She has recently learned the difference between 2D and 3D and kept exclaiming "it's so weird to paint in 3D, Mama!" over and over. So cute.
She had to bend and twist her hands and body to get into the little spaces; she needed to bend and move the parts of the flowers. It was a lot more challenging than painting a 2D project for sure!
She had SO much fun painting the ground brown. She spent a painstakingly long time getting it just right.
Here she's spun the piece around to get to some different parts of it.
After painting the ground so very carefully, she ended up wanting to take a break and finished the project the following day (this is often the case with projects she's taking her time on - she'll spent 30-45 very focused minutes before wanting a break. To her credit, she does come back and finish (also doing a nice job) the following day). Here's her final product! The tiny gold glitter is a bit hard to get out of the shaker, so she had me dispense the glitter on the flowers; however all of the other painting was done totally by her. We just love the bright colors of our new spring centerpiece, and S had a great time mixing things up by painting in 3D!
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All activities here are activities I feel are safe for my own children. As your child's parents/guardians, you will need to decide what you feel is safe for your family. I always encourage contacting your child's pediatrician for guidance if you are not sure about the safety/age appropriateness of an activity. All activities on this blog are intended to be performed with adult supervision. Appropriate and reasonable caution should be used when activities call for the use of materials that could potentially be harmful, such as scissors, or items that could present a choking risk (small items), or a drowning risk (water activities), and with introducing a new food/ingredient to a child (allergies). Observe caution and safety at all times. The author and blog disclaim liability for any damage, mishap, or injury that may occur from engaging in any of these activities on this blog.
