Art as a gift

The kids made this gorgeous canvas painting for Pippi's (paternal grandmother) Christmas present.  It looks so pretty, but it didn't look like it would end up so nice at the start.......

I thought that it would be nice, and easy, if the kids did a finger painting together.  WE have done this on canvas before and it turned out really nice and funky.  I thought this would be the best way of making sure that the canvas wasn't 'wasted'.  The other option offered to the kids was for them to each do a self potrait, one next to the other, on the canvas.  Ben wanted to do the self-portrait, Jasmine wanted to do the finger painting.  Typical.  We decided that they would do a self-portrait with finger dots all around it. 

Well, Jasmine did this tiny little head in one corner and Ben did the biggest head you ever did see on the other.  It was not looking good.  At all!  I was so disappointed I'm afraid I couldn't contain myself and told them how rubbish I thought it looked - cue crushed faces.  Bad mummy!  I decided to just let them do what they wanted and we started to experiment with mixing the paints, splashing it on, swiping it on, swirling the brushes on the canvas and so on.  By the time they finished we had the above masterpiece, though I did have to threaten Jasmine not to go near the brown or black paints again (she seems to like them a lot)!  To finish it off and make it really special, we sprinkled a little coloured glitter over it whilst it was still wet.  I think Pippi is going to love it.

I do love crafting and arty things, and I know the kids do too.  So I make the effort now and then to do crafty activities with them to enable them to explore their artistic abilities.  Jasmine, in particular, has always loved to 'experiment' with paint and the like.  But I do find it very stressful.  I'm very much a control freak, I don't like it when they use every sticker over every inch of paper, or when they want to use my special paper to cut up and do sticking and so on.  I also have a firm idea in my mind how their creations should look, and they NEVER end up looking like that.  I try to micro-manage the whole thing and get stressed when they go all maverick on me.  Not to mention the mess they make.......I cried with laughter (and relief that I'm not alone in feeling like this!) when I read this blog post.  I could have written this myself, it so perfectly describes my experience/feelings on crafting with kids.  I am trying to be less wound up about it all and my new coping strategy is to just leave the room and let them get on with it.....