Heart Canvas Kids Craft Tutorial
/Last spring we did a bunny canvas painting with my daughter’s 2nd grade class and they turned out really cute! I generally have a “no paint, no slime” rule for class parties, but with controlled amounts of washable paint it wasn’t as scary as I thought. I am going to try a valentine canvas painting with first grade this year, so we made sure to test it out a few times. My 6yo made the one with the wiggly lines and my 11yo made the ombre one.
I have yet to do this with the 21 first graders at one time, and I will update afterwards, but I have come up with some things that make this easier:
Flat canvas panels. The stretched canvases have a higher chance of being destroyed in backpacks on the way home.
Contact paper. I don’t have a vinyl cutting machine (insert sad emoji) so I needed an alternative for keeping the heart white. Last year I was working on replacing the contact paper in my kitchen cupboards, so I have some skinnier pieces left over. It stuck well enough for painting, but it was still easy enough to peel off. (I am less than impressed with its quality as shelf liner.) I am precutting all of the hearts, plus a few extras.
Washable paint. Obviously. Michaels had it on clearance for $1.47 per bottle in the paint aisle when I was there a few days ago. They have more expensive washable paint in the kids craft aisle. I have found that washable paint is less opaque.
Limit the paint. I am keeping this to two colors per students. Otherwise, you know they would want all the colors and it would end up brown. I also have blue and green. Too many choices can over-complicate things. #storyofmylife
Paintbrush alternatives. My PLAN is to have them paint with cotton balls held in clothespins. I want them to lightly dab the paint on so that they don’t catch the contact paper and lift it up. Sponges would probably work. Thumbprints would be really cute but I can envision some pretty awful scenarios spiraling from that.
Paper plates. That is all I ever use for paint trays. Clean up is easy. I asked a parent to donate the small, cake plates so that they fit on the desks.
I think this is pretty straightforward, but here is a tutorial for good measure:
Heart Canvas Kids Craft Tutorial
Materials:
canvas panel (I like the square better. I got them from Amazon HERE.)
contact paper heart cutout
washable paint (2 colors)
cotton balls
clothespins
paper plate
Cut out a heart from the contact paper, peel the back off, and attach it to the canvas. Smooth out the wrinkles. If you mess up, you can peel it off and re-stick it a few times.
Put a small amount of paint on the paper plate. Pinch a cotton ball in the clothespin and lightly dip in the paint. Use the cotton ball to paint the canvas. Paint gently and try not to lift the contact paper.
Wait for the paint to dry (it does not take very long) and then peel the contact paper heart off.
I am really excited to see how some of the other color combinations look with this project. I think it would be cute just to dot all around the heart with the alternating colors, but my girls did things their way. #keepitreal
If you want to pin this for later…
Here are some more kids crafts that you might like:
