New Year, Same Craft Cult,
We are starting the new year off right with a super easy craft perfect for parents. I myself am not a traditional parent. My daughter is a 2-year-old rescue that I call “Togurt” most days. Yes, she’s a cat. My cat, Saratoga Cats.
No matter if you are a real parent or an animal parent, you can do this craft. Technically, if you have neither, you can do it by yourself, but it loses a little of the charm. Very little changes about this keepsake craft between using a child or a pet, but I will shout it out when it does (it’s pretty obvious honestly.) Today, we are doing abstract painting keepsakes.
I first saw something similar to what we are doing on a mommy blog and then on TikTok, but we are making this simple project our own with one added step on the end.
To start you will need paints and a small canvass. You will also need a ziplock bag that your canvas can fit in, I am using a freezer bag, but using a smaller size canvas will allow for easier bagging. I am using acrylic paint, but honestly, any paint (that isn’t watercolor) will work. I got my canvas from the dollar store. Any small canvas will work, but I would use a cheap one. Keep your nice canvases for other art.
Step one is just adding some of the paint randomly to the canvas in small globs.
I would use several colors, but you should have at least 2 or 3.
When you are happy with the number of paint blobs you have on your canvas, put it in the ziplock bag. Make sure the bag is fully closed and will not leak any paint.
Now it’s time to give your canvas to your helper. If you are doing this craft with a small child, simply give it to them and let them play with the paint through the bag. Make sure to supervise (don’t let them open the bag). If you are doing it by yourself, shake the bag around. Have fun, treat it like a fidget toy or a stress ball. If you are using a pet like myself, get a treat out or some of their food and smear it on the bag. Wet foods or treats work better, like soft cat food or peanut butter. I am using a Japanese cat treat that is pretty much a go-gurt full of tuna.
Now it’s time for them to lick off of the treat.
Their little tongues should move around the paint as they lap up the treats. Take the canvas out of the bag and let the smeared paint dry.
When your paint is dry, you can add a drawing ontop. I am using paint pens, but a sharpie or more paint and a brush should work fine. If you doing this with a child, they can also add their own drawing on top, or if they are too young, you can add it for them. Tracing their hand or foot on the canvas will also make a cute keepsake.
I just did a quick little doodle to mirror my child’s abstract art, but you can add any image or style you want on top.
In the end, you’ll have a little piece of art that you can say you and your child made together. Even if you are a 27-year-old woman and your child is a cat.
I hope you had fun with this! It’s a new year and I am sure a lot of you made some resolutions. It’s great to give yourself goals, but this year was hard and 2021 is probably going to be too. Be nice to yourself and don’t beat yourself up if you can’t do every single thing you wanted. The holidays are stressful for so many people but you made it through them and you can do this. If you are looking to give back, here is a helpful article. On a larger note, I wanted to highlight Racial Equity Tools, it’s a great website to help educate yourself on a topic we can’t “simply leave in 2020.” It’s a new year, but we still have to fight racism and we still have to fight Covid, but you can do it!
as always stay safe, stay crafting.