making things out of things

I definitely try my best to use as little technology with Penny as possible.  I’m pretty sure I was the last person to get an iphone, I will NEVER read a book that is not printed on paper, and I do not like to write with my fingertip.  I like making things with my hands and I want Penny to enjoy that growing up as well.  I’m not gonna lie…we watch a lot of Daniel Tiger and I do a lot of my artwork using programs that are super awesome, so I’m totally not saying all technology is banned in our home. But when it comes to Penny doing art projects, no technology for us!  Mainly because I want her to know what paper and pens are.  I want her to learn how to hold a paint brush and to get her hands a little dirty creating.

My daughter has had an intense growing interest in art.  She rarely requests anything other than “PAINT!” these days…which i LOVE.  But, some days I really just don’t want to deal with cleaning up after the little artist.  So against my pre set rules for ipad use, I’ve let her start doodling with the app Sketchbook.  I don’t feel too bad about it, because I have her use a stylus so she’s still getting that pen holding technique down.  So I thought I’d share a fun little project that is…DUN DUN DUN…solely with apps!

I pick the paint brush style and Penny asks for new colors as she pleases, and we’ve ended up with some of these fun looking little pieces of artwork.

If you can see the occasional arc in those…those are definitely “rainbows” according to Penny.

I decided to run the little “paintings” through the AfterLight app.  This is my favorite app for editing photos and it also has super awesome borders you can use, including the alphabet, so this got me thinking.  What could we spell out with these bad boys?  After messing around a bit, I made these little examples.

I may use the little x’s and o’s as Valentines Day cards for Pennys friends and family this year.

The great thing about a project like this is, there are SO many things you could do!  You can print them out individually at your nearest photo printing store and put them in square frames.  Or you can use pic stitch and make a square print of a 4-letter word.  You can spell out your childs name in their room from their own artwork, or I thought of making Pen a little art corner and printing out the word CREATE.  Seriously…you can do anything with it.

It’s such a fun way to display your kids art work, even if it is completely created through that stinky ol ipad.  And I have to add…these arent too shabby for a nearly 2 year old.