Regina Lord currently lives in southern Arizona with the love of her life and her two beautiful boys. She is passionate about doing what she loves and incorporates art into her daily living whether though painting, drawing, photography, art journaling, sewing or blogging about her creative passions. You can see more of what she does on her website Creative Kismet.
Have you noticed the chalkboard paint craze? It’s everywhere! On walls, doors, jars, posts. Really you can put it on just about anything. I’ve already painted it on my pantry door, but thought it would be fun to do something more portable for my kids. Something they could carry around, take in their room or on a long road trip.
I thought a painted board book would be fun and perfect for this idea. So, I went on a trip to my local thrift shop and the hardware store to grab a few things in order to try this out. All you really need is a large board book, a can of chalkboard spray paint, sand paper and some gesso or white primer.
A board book is easy enough to paint, but needs a little prep so that the paint stays on and doesn’t peel off.
Most books have a glossy finish, so with a bit of sandpaper lightly sand the surface of each page– just enough to take the gloss off.
Paint or spray a light layer of either gesso or spray paint primer. Pages may start to curl, but will flatten out when they dry.
Spray on chalkboard paint according to manufacturer’s directions. I did a couple of layers on each page allowing sufficient drying time between layers.
Once the book is dry, you can keep it as is, or go a step further and make different activities for the kids to play. I used a permanent white marker for this so that it wouldn’t wipe away when cleaning up the chalk.
These two books recently came into my house at about the same time, and not that long after my Kids’ Crafternoon series came out, it seems too serendipitous not to write about them – they both advance the creative kids cause – so if you have some crafty and creative kids in your life, or you want to get more creative with your kids – read on.
Little things by busy hands is written by Katie Evans and published by Penguin/Puffin Australia. This book is just perfect for primary school aged kids who like to make little things with fabric but don’t yet have the skills or confidence to use a sewing machine. Sweet projects like a hand sewn stuffed toy, and a glue and fabric wall art piece, some simple bunting flags and a plaited rag table mat are just a few of the projects in this book – along with non fabric projects like a paper lantern and a clay brooch. The instructions are simple and appropriate and the accompanying illustrations are cute too! In Katie Evans words: The idea of the book is to get kids to be resourceful – to try new things on their own with minimal supervision and come up with something they are proud of and want to display.
Playful Learning: Develop Your Child’s Sense of Joy and Wonder by Mariah Bruehl (published by Roost books), is a mighty book full of both practical projects and tested theories on playschool learning. With so much schooling based on tests and sitting at desks, this book is a lovely fresh look at a more hands on playful approach to the early childhood school years. This book is very much after my own heart and feels very real and necessary so we can get back our wonder of childhood and help our children develop a lifelong love of learning.
I getting emails with interesting links and also love to trawl through my rss feeds for cool things – so here i give to you some of my finds and some things that landed in my inbox this week.
If you would like to send press releases or submit your own project please send to submit[at]whipup.net.
Issue 5 of Action Pack: A Mini-Mag for kids – August issue {chalk & cheese} is out. So excited about this issue – it’s all about chalk & cheese – those two very different materials that might look similar but are really not similar at all. In this pack you will find projects to keep you busy no matter what the season. From kitchen science experiments to outdoor art and craft projects.
This is a printable downloadable emagazine – with no advertising and only $5
Available now
40 pages of crafts, science, cooking and games exploring the theme of Chalk + Cheese.
Make chalk + cheese
Kitchen science
Chalk boards & chalk bags
Sidewalk games
Plaster crafts
Cornflour experiments
Plus More games, crafts, science & cooking.
I am also really excited this issue to introduce three new contributors: Lisa Tilsa from Sydney, Australia shows us how to make your own chalk board paint and some creative chalk boards; Anne Weil from Boulder, USA shows us how to mix chalk and sand together to make some textured art, Pascale Mestdagh from Paris, France shows us how to make a simple drawstring bag to carry your chalk and sidewalk games kit around with you.
Plus we are offering a freebie from this issue too – along with fun video!
Download the instructions to make this cool cornflour slime – video of the project in action above – how cool is it!
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