Make It Monday: Firework Art

In the spirit of the patriotic holiday of the weekend, I wanted to try out a simple craft that I found on Pinterest {link here} that looked perfect for toddlers! Plus, it involved straws and Nora loves straws and we have an entire IKEA package of them at home already so mommy WINS!

I happen to have an over abundance of craft supplies at home which has been coming in handy for the random toddler craft moments that we decide to have around here. My plan was to try and actually plan some craft time throughout the summer so that I could make sure we have what we needed on hand but that requires a trip to the store on occasion and that is not always at the top of my list of desires these days. When I saw this craft and knew that I had the supplies on hand already it made it twice as appealing. 

After Nora & Janie's nap times were over, we got out the supplies that we needed for our fun firework art project: 

Red & blue paint {I just used the little bottles of acrylic that I had on hand}

Paper plates for putting paint in

Straws

Tape

White paper

Wipes for clean-up

We used the tape to stick a handful of straws together and then bent them at the accordion-hinge-thingy that they have for drinking to make a little straw bouquet of sorts. We made two of these so that we would have one for each color.

We then put red paint on one paper plate and blue paint on the other and used the straw bouquet to spread the paint around a bit on each one. The kindergarten teacher in me then modeled for Nora how to take the straws by the long end and "stamp" it onto her paper to make a firework. I let her use the red and the blue as much as she liked, but we kept each color separate the whole time. 

Other than that instruction, she did the rest on her own! I was happy that she started to overlap them a little bit and her work turned out pretty cute.

Happy girl!

I learned mid-paint that Janie needed a little bit more supervision than her slightly older sister. We put one red stamp down on her paper and I had merely turned the other way to put it back and she had her hands all in the red paint on her paper. WHOOPS. Hence, the baby wipes. We did some cleaning and then finished her project AFTER Nora had completely finished hers.

Janie REALLY wanted to hold hers...

We had a good time painting some fireworks!