easy diy {kid friendly!} art

Before Valentine's Day I saw an adorable canvas bag on pinterest.  The short story, they used a pencil eraser and some paint to make an ombre heart on a canvas bag.  Really I thought it was so cute, but I don't currently need another tote, and wasn't really sure if anyone else would want one.

Then one day I had a little light bulb moment.  I've been wanting to use stamp pads for art projects with Ryann (somewhat less messy than paint) and throw in the addition of the pencil, and we could make our own version of the heart bags.  Just on paper.  So a couple weeks ago I busted out the supplies...

It worked fabulously!  Obviously paint would be an easier medium to use when trying to achieve the ombre effect, simply because you can mix the paint.  But the stamp pad we used that day had a gradient of colors so it worked pretty well.  I decided to make another one that I could put in Ryann's room, and so I could share our little project.  It didn't work out quite as well, because the colors don't really blend the best (and I grabbed the cheapest ink I could find, maybe don't do that...), but it is still cute and still incredibly easy.  Here is a quick play by play in pictures...

See?  Easy peasy.  You probably don't even need an explanation, but on the off chance someone does, here you go...

First, gather your supplies.  Two pieces of card stock or whatever you want to stamp on, some ink pads, a cheap pencil, a pair of scissors and some tape.  Next fold one of your sheets of cardstock in half so you can cut out a uniform heart.  You can really use any sort of a stencil here, but I went with my easy card stock heart.  Then use your tape to hold the paper in place, your stencil on top of your other piece of card stock.  And then just start stamping away!  When you fill your shape, remove the stencil and you're done.  So simple.

Really the pencil makes a great little stamper for kids, because it keeps them (for the most part) from getting ink all over their fingers.  With stamps their little hands are so close to the ink that really, a complete mess on their hands is almost inevitable.

Now to finally get something in the frames that have been on Ryann's wall for well over a year...