Kids Activities | Live Colorful

Creative Art Projects for Kids: Blow Acrylic Paint with Straws

Posted January 17, 2018 by Elba Valverde

For the last couple of weeks, I had been busy with the holidays and trying to catch up with life, but Jax and I are missing the creative part of our days! Making art, doing paper crafts, playing with stickers and all those fun things. So when @smocks.on invited me to host their weekly Instagram challenge and make a lot of art TOGETHER, I got super excited! This was just a great excuse to push ourselves to be creative and spend quality time while having fun.

I made this piece in collaboration with my toddler yesterday morning. We used acrylic paint and straws to blow the colors and mix them together. The acrylic paint is heavy, and the paint doesn’t move as quickly as if you were using watercolors, but the effect is different too, and looks really cool! Swipe the first picture and watch the video here.

MATERIAL:

Mix media paper, ideal for acrylic paint and watercolors. My favorite: XL Mix Media Pad, 7″X10″ Side Wire
Acrylic paint
Straws

STEPS:

Place your mix media notebook or a piece of mix media paper on a table. Use a plastic tablecloth below the paper to protect the area.
If you are using plastic disposable straws, cut them in half, so your blowing action is more effective and closer to the paint.
Pour the acrylic paint in the paper.
Start blowing the paint and mixing color together.

If YOU want to join the #smockson challenge, here’s how:

Follow @smocks.on @LiveColorfulCo @raising.kinley @toddler_tornado and @momma_teaching in Instagram.
Tag your TOGETHER art pick with #smockson in Instagram. That’s it! (Together art = side by side or collaborative artwork WITH the little people in your life)
I’ll pick four of my favorite projects on Sunday January 21th, and they will be featured on @livecolorfulco and over @smocks.on!

Live Colorful Day of the Dead Crafts Featured in Parents Latina Magazine

Posted October 30, 2017 by Elba Valverde

A few months ago I received an email from a lifestyle director inviting me to collaborate with Parents Latina magazine and Family Fun magazine on a few projects inspired by the Day of the Dead celebration. I remember reading through the email and thinking that it must be a small collaboration for their website, but it ended up being an actual feature in the printed edition of Parents Latina magazine and Family Fun magazine!

We worked together for a couple of weeks. Sending emails back and forth with ideas, inspirational boards, sketches, drafts and photos of the actual finished projects.

Their team was amazing and really helpful! I remember the day I had to send the finished products to their offices in New York for the photoshoot. I was exhausted that morning because I had to stay up late the night before, finishing all the details on the sugar-skull pillows and then as you can imagine, my motherhood responsibilities woke me up at 6am! I survived the morning in Jaxon’s class with tons of coffee. That afternoon I put Jaxon in his crib hoping he would take a nap, but he didn’t love the idea.

It’s funny, but I was so scared the mini paper nichos were going to get ruined inside the box, so I packed them inside some tupperware next to the memory card game and tons of tissue paper. I also watched a youtube video about how to pack artwork to make sure I was as protecting the tissue paper transfer art piece.

Some pictures of the projects before finishing them below:

ABOVE. One of the sugar-skull pillow pieces before iron it and assemble it. Find the DIY tutorial here: 4 Fun Day of the Dead Crafts for Kids

ABOVE. The first illustrations I created for the memory card game. Find the DIY tutorial and printable here: 4 Fun Day of the Dead Crafts for Kids

ABOVE. All the mini paper nichos I made and decorated before packing them inside the tupperware. Find the DIY tutorial and template here: 4 Fun Day of the Dead Crafts for Kids

ABOVE. The tissue-paper transfer art piece took me a long time! I had to figure out a way to make the project easy to make for the kids, but when I got the perfect material and created the template everything was fun and simple! Find the DIY tutorial and template here: 4 Fun Day of the Dead Crafts for Kids

I wish I had a picture of me walking from the parking lot to the USPS offices. I put Jaxon in a stroller and on top of the stroller, a humongous box. I maneuver like an expert with one hand, trying to protect Jaxon’s head from the box and holding the tissue paper transfer art piece in the other hand. I’m sure it was hilarious to watch from far away.

Two days ago, I finally met Grace Bastidas, the editor of Parents Latina and Ser Padres at the #WeAllGrowFamilia conference in Los Angeles. We talked about the collaboration and she gave me a copy of the Parents Latina issue with all the projects I created. It felt great to see the projects in print after putting so much work into them.

I invite you to check out the 4 Day of the Dead Crafts for Kids that I created on the Parents Latina website. You can also find some templates there and all the instructions to create something amazing with your kids.

It makes my heart smile when I think about the Day of the Dead as the inspiration behind the projects I created. Seeing the pictures of the projects brings back memories of my childhood. I can see my mom, beside me, while I hold scissors, glue, felt and paper, and together creating memories while we talk about abuelito and tia rosa.

Dia de los Muertos is special because of the meaning behind the tradition, but also the colors. It connects with me on a deep level, because just like live colorful, day of the dead is all about celebrating life and cherishing the moments we spend with the people we love, even if they are not with us anymore.

Free Printable: Fun Gecko Bookmark

Posted October 21, 2017 by Elba Valverde

My two years old is loving Gill McBarnet’s (Hawaiian Children’s Books) book, Gecko Hide and Seek. The story makes counting fun! encouraging the kids to search for the geckos through the pages. Inspired by the story I created my own version of a fun gecko and made a bookmark printable out of it so my kid can use it in his favorite books. I made them in two different colors so you can pick your favorite, or just glue them together one behind the other, and use both as much as you want, The brown one makes me think about fall, and the blue one about summer which one is your favorite?

Download the printable here: Fun Gecko Bookmark Printable.

Don’t miss the opportunity to win a copy of this cute book for the kids in your life. Enter the giveaway HERE. Good luck!

I shared a craft project a few days ago that I’m sure your kid would enjoy it too. The craft involves fall leaf confetti and another free printable. Check out the project here: Fall Leaf Confetti Craft Idea and Printable

Did you know that “Geckos feet are specially adapted for climbing. Each toe has thousands of tiny hook-like bristles that enable to grip onto smooth surfaces like walls and glass windows. They can even walk across a ceiling … upside down!” as seen on the back cover of Hawaiian Children’s Books, The Goodnight Gecko.

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