As the Christmas period ending often means tightening the purse strings whilst we all wait for our credit card statements to land on the doormat at the end of the month, I thought it might be a good idea to come up with a few ideas over the next few weeks to help entertain the children that won’t cost the earth!
Obviously, up here in the north there is still a great abundance of snow to keep us all entertained, but as I return to my southern home at the end of this week, I’m aware that it is our weekend to have the boys (ages 6 and 10) and that the snow that is falling in Yorkshire is more likely to be rain down in Hampshire, so I’ve been trying to come up with new ideas to keep everyone occupied and off the Wii for a while!
There are ‘paints in your pantry’ that you might not have tried before and I am promoting the idea of painting with coffee today!
Painting with coffee is easy and great fun. Instant coffee is the easiest to use and requires only some coffee granules and hot water to create your colours. To create a light paint effect just add more hot water and for a darker paint effect just add less hot water! I would say that 3 to 4 different shades of coffee paint should be enough to produce some great pictures. These can be mixed in either coffee mugs or paint pots if you have them. Coffee works well with any paint brushes and these also wash out easily with just water.
Obviously, the other thing you are going to need is some paper to paint on. I would recommend using a watercolour type paper, but if you don’t have any just use an ordinary paper and have some tissues or cotton wool available to blot the coffee paint and prevent the paper becoming saturated!
Your subject matter can be anything you like. I find cartoon characters are great fun with younger children, although older children may want to create an image of their own. Use the different shades of coffee to create the effect of different depths of colour. For example, if an area of the picture would normally be yellow use the lighter shade of coffee paint. If an area of the picture would normally be navy blue or black use the darker coffee paint. This will create the illusion of the colours by exaggerating the light and dark.
Most importantly of all though, just remember that art has NO rulebook, and therefore, whatever you create is great just as long as you have fun doing it!
Enjoy xxx
Filed under: Arts & Crafts
