Holy-quacamole Father’s Day has crept up on me fast this year! I truely feel like it was just yesterday that it was the 1st of August. Time just seems to speed up when you’re a busy Mama!
So, I pulled out my trusty Resene test pots and some plastic animals we bought a while back, and called the kids down to the art room to make some homemade cards and badges.
I decided it would be fun for the kids to paint up some plastic animal toys, turn them into a badge and put them on a card for Fathers Day. This badge idea would also make great party favours, or a party activity, and even a great idea for older kids to make and sell at their school gala.
I knew the kids would really be into this. Because, if you have young children, I can almost guarantee if it’s anything but paper to paint on, the kids are going to love it!
And today I am giving them a selection of toys to paint on. Seriously they were in painting heaven!
Now here is the warning part… this is going to get messy!
You can just imagine right, little objects plus little hands, equals the opportunity for a big mess. So, setting up the space beforehand can minimise some of the stress.
The best way to do this is by laying down an old towel or sheet under where the kids are going to work. Then, if you have a sheet of plastic use that underneath or cover with newspaper. Make sure you have a couple of containers of water on hand for washing brushes (and hands) between colours.
I also like to have a rag or paper towel for the kids to wipe and dry their brushes on between colours changes.
Otherwise you will notice they dip the paint brush into the water then dip a soaking wet brush into the next colour. And all this achieves is a very watered down paint that doesn’t cover very well on the toy.
Another great tip is to show your little ones how to dip their brushes.
Again, I can almost guarantee they’ll get giant globs of paint on their brushes, especially if they are 3 and under.
So what I say and show to my Mr 2 and Ms 5 is to ‘just dip the tips‘ of the paintbrush. I say the brushes are, ‘like ballerina toes, and only the tips of the toes need paint on them for this project’.
I had to remind Mr 2 a couple of times, but he started to understand, and actually got really good at it.
Fathers Day card and badge
You will need
Small plastic animals
Resene Quick Dry Primer (optional – if you’re making the badges to sell or for party favours I would recommend this step)
Resene test pots in different acrylic colours
Small paint brush
A4 white thick card stock
A4 Fluro pink and green paper
Glue stick
Strong craft glue
Badge clip
free printable
What to do
1. Paint your plastic animals using Resene Quick Dry Primer and leave to dry. You can skip this stage if you just want you little ones to get stuck in. But I really do recommend, especially if you’re thinking about giving them away for party favours or selling them at galas, etc.
2. Let your children paint all the different animals any colours they like.
3. You can dry them with a blow dryer on a light dry, or set them in a sunny window and let them air dry.
4. While they are drying you can make the card. If you have very little ones this will be an adult-led activity, but the older they get the more capable they’ll be to create their own cards.
5. Cut down your white card stock paper so it is slightly smaller than your A4 pink paper. This will become the inside of your card.
6. Glue the white paper to the inside of your pink paper using the gluestick.
7. Now cut the A4 green paper in half and then trim it slightly smaller than the pink face of the paper.
8. Glue the green paper to the front of the card and set aside.
9. If your plastic animal is dry use your strong craft glue to attach the badge to the back of the animal and let dry overnight.
10. Print out the free printable, cut them out and glue them on just above where you will attach your badge.
11. Now all thats left to do is write a special message in the card and pin your badge to the card. Happy Father’s Day!
For more great craft ideas, check out our Creative arts and crafts section.
