Kid Painted Umbrella (Mother's Day Gift Idea)

Lately Chuck and I have been painting... a lot... and I thought I'd take his artwork up a notch.  So I let him paint one of my umbrellas!  What?  What?  Well, it's always fun working on projects involving bigger and different objects.  Plus, Mother's day is coming up, so I thought that this painted umbrella would make a lovely handmade gift. 

Mother's Day Gift Idea- Kid Painted Umbrella

Painting an umbrella is a great way to showcase your child's artwork... plus, it's super fun.  (Chuck also had a blast painting it.)  Rainy days are always kind of a downer, so opening up an umbrella and seeing a beloved child's artwork will surely brighten up someone's day.   Now let's get painting!

Paint your own galaxy umbrella

Inspired by Carl Sagan's quote, "We are made of star-stuff," I painted this galaxy umbrella:

On the outside the umbrella is black. But open the umbrella up and wow, you're now standing under a galaxy full of twinkling stars.  Let's get crafting!

Materials Needed to Paint Umbrella:

(*Note:  Some of the links in this post are affiliate links which means I earn a small commission for every purchase at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support.)  
 
- Black Umbrella
- Painter's tape
- Craft Paint (I used black, red, yellow, blue, and white)
- White fabric paint (I used the bottle because it had a nice tip to draw stars)
- Fabric Medium
- Cups
- Sponge
- Stick for stirring
- Palette (or crapty styrofoam plate)
- Paper towel
- Inspiring photo of the universe

Steps to Make Galaxy Umbrella:

1.  Cover the umbrella's ribs with painter's tape.

2.   Make your fabric paint.  Not sure if you have this problem, but I own a ton of craft paint and very little fabric paint.  So instead of buying different bottles of fabric paint, I bought one bottle of fabric medium to turn my craft paint into fabric paint.  (Wow, right? Oh Martha, you crafty minx!  What will you think of next?) Following the bottle's directions, I mixed the fabric medium and the craft paint together to make black, blue, purple, red, yellow, and white fabric paint.  

3.  Use a dry sponge and a piece of paper towel to dab the different colors on.  (I tried starting with my darker colors first and then adding on my lighter colors... but then ended up using darker colors again.... so just play around and have fun with it.)



4.  Once you're satisfied with how your background looks, use your white fabric paint to paint stars.  (I liked using the bottle because it had a nice neat tip.  But, you could also just  use the white fabric paint that you previously made and apply it on with a paint brush.)

5.  Make some stars cross shaped to look like they're twinkling.  Remove painter's tape. Then, let your masterpiece dry overnight.

Voila!  Now you've got your very own galaxy.  Open this baby up on an icky rainy day and you're guaranteed to feel better.

(Psst- Wanna see another painted umbrella?  Check out my "rain, rain, go away" umbrella.)

Have fun creating your own galaxy!


UPDATE 8/26/13- I've now taken this umbrella out a couple of times and the paint is fine.  Phew.  The only problem that I have with this umbrella is that the insides are now a bit sticky, so the umbrella is a bit more difficult to open.

Decorate a "rain, rain, go away" umbrella with fabric paint

Let's Paint an Umbrella!

They say that April showers bring May flowers.  

So, I updated an old umbrella with some fabric paint.  

Now we'll look cute while staying dry.

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Preschool Weather Science: How can we stay dry?

I'm always looking for really easy ways to help Chuck learn science and math concepts.   We've been fighting colds these past two weeks, so activities that are easy to throw together and take little time to prep have been on the top of my list.  That's probably why I really appreciate good ebooks like STEAM: Preschool Activities for STEM Enrichment  (affiliate link). It's co-authored by one of my blogging buddies, Jamie from Handmade Kids Art and contains over 30+ simple and fun ways you can teach young children about science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics!

I recently received a free copy to review and ear-marked several ideas that I'd like to try out with Chuck.  Inspired by one activity in the book, here's a fun Preschool Science activity that we did to look at how we stay dry during the rain.

Easy Preschool Science:  How can we stay dry during the rain?

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Review of 2013

Happy 2014! 

Before starting this post, I just wanted to say a big thank you for visiting this blog.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Thank you for joining in our family's daily adventures and thank you for appreciating my crafts.  Honestly, blogging wouldn't be as fun without you.  Your support really means the world to me. 

Ok, ok, enough mushy stuff.  Ahem, now onto today's post.

Since I enjoyed last year's 2012 review post, I put together something similar together for 2013.  Looking back, I'm amazed by how many crafts I made (oy vey- thanks hubby for being so supportive!) and how much Chuck has grown.  My baby is gone.... he's a little boy now.  Sheesh, time just flew by.   

Are you ready to grab hold onto 2014?  Hope your New Year is off to a good start!  

 January


Memorable events: Choosing to try new things and attending a wedding
Favorite kid activity:  Painting with cornstarch paint
Favorite craft:  Dying flowers rainbow colors


February
 
Memorable event: Attending this bridal shower
Favorite kid activity:  Making bubble snakes
Favorite craft:  Whale Tissue Box Holder



March

Memorable event:  Selling goods at the craft fair
Favorite kid activity:  Feeding birds outside
Favorite craft: Sumo Plastic Bottle Bowling Pins


 April

Memorable events:  Attending a Mehndi ceremony and wedding ceremony
Favorite kid activity:  Blowing humongous bubbles with Chuck
Favorite crafts: Tattooing a banana and Painting an umbrella 


May
 
Memorable events:  Attending a lovely wedding and hanging out with Aussie family  (in DC and NYC)
Favorite kid activity:  Attending a niece's birthday party
Favorite crafts:  Good Night, Bonne Nuit Pillow Cases


June

Memorable event:  Visiting Colonial Williamsburg (1 and 2)
Favorite kid activities:  Making cornstarch paint and Grass Egg Heads
Favorite crafts:  Making a Mosaic Styrofoam Picture Frame  and painting a galaxy umbrella


July

Memorable event:  Reflecting on faith and crafting
Favorite kid activity:  Visiting The Children's Museum
Favorite crafts:  Painting a rainbow fan


August
 
Memorable event:  Having a house guest and being part of a craft e-zine
Favorite kid activity:  Painting with toys
Favorite crafts:  Tattooing bananas and Orange peel canola candle

September


Memorable events:  Visiting the zoo and Maker Faire (1 and  2)
Favorite kid activities: Blowing up balloons with baking soda and Cardboard spaceship toy
Favorite craft: Making crystal flowers


October
 
Memorable events:  Visiting Lancaster and Baltimore
Favorite kid activity: Celebrating Halloween!
Favorite craft: Making a tulle mask


November

Memorable event:  Thanksgiving!
Favorite kid activity:  Craft stick dominoes
Favorite craft:  Heart stenciled shoes and Making roses out of autumn leaves


December

 

Memorable event:  Christmas!
Favorite kid activity:  Playing with Chuck in the snow
Favorite crafts: Hiding a jump drive in a rubber toy and Making reindeer antlers

Pie Plate Solar System

We love space themed crafts!  Do you?  Today's Creative Preschool Collaborators theme is space.  This means that 4 other bloggers and I will share 5 super fun solar system crafts!  So be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post to see everyone's ideas!

We've been studying how the earth revolves around the sun.  So we made this pie plate solar system game!

Pie Plate Solar System

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Star Painting (using Contact Paper)

Lately the cooler temperatures and shortened daylight hours have me looking at the sky to find stars.  However, since we live in a well-lit, urban environment, star gazing isn't really a viable option.

So once again I felt the urge to make some star-inspired artwork.  If I can't see stars in the sky, then I'll just have to make my own to enjoy.  Now, if you've been following this blog for some time, you'll recall that this isn't the first time I felt drawn towards the stars.  Last year I placed a galaxy of cardboard stars on our living room wall.  Then earlier this year I painted the inside of an umbrella to look like a galaxy.  This time I took a simpler approach and made myself some star artwork using contact paper.

Materials:

• Canvas
• Contact Paper
• Pen
• Scissors
• Paint
• Sponge brushes (or paint brushes)

Directions:

1. Sketch out your stars onto the back of your contact paper.  Cut the stars out.
2. Place the stars on your canvas.  Play around with their arrangement until you're satisfied.  Once you have a pleasing design, pull the backing off and stick the stars onto your canvas. (Make sure that they are stuck on well so that you get nice crisp lines.)
3. Dab paint over your canvas.
4. Once the paint dries, carefully peel off your contact paper stars.  You should see a bunch of white stars where your contact paper blocked the paint.

Quick and easy, right? Just remember to make sure that your contact paper stars are completely stuck on tight.  Eeek!  See that leftmost star below?  The paint bled through because the contact paper wasn't sticking to the canvas properly.

 Happy star crafting!