another watercolor creation, with directions!

I wanted to share this cool princess watercolor Aiyana made the other day and some easy tips to get cool effects with your own kiddos. Aiyana's specialty is drawing princesses, fairies, ballerinas... you get the picture. Then, she loves mixing mediums- crayons, pencils, scrap paper, material, paint, etc. I really like the awesome mix of effects.

Here are the steps she took to create this painting:

1. She drew the princess lightly in pencil (i like how the legs are doing a little ballerina dancing action)
2. Then she took a white oil pastel crayon (will also work with a regular white wax crayon) and added designs and details to the dress and hair (see the circles, lines, and ruffles?). This is the cool part.
3. Then she painted over it with watercolors- lots of colors is always best (we think so!) as you get awesome blended effects you don't get with crayons. that's the point of watercolorin' if you ask me.
4. Lay to dry (flat! remember, they're WATERcolors: flowy, drippy, messy.) somewhere out of reach of your pillaging toddler whom you have renamed, "Destructor".

The frame was made in a similar fashion, 'cept it involves a bit of cutting, glueing, and constructing. You can use a light cardboard (we used a manila file folder. I got a box of these babies for just $2 and they have been SO useful for so many projects. See the linedancin' cow-people for another example).

1. Put your dry (or, almost dry if you're as impatient as I am) painting on top of the cardboard and trace around it. Make sure the front side of the "frame" is facedown.
2. Once you find your ever-missing pair of scissors, stab (or gently snip) a small hole in the middle and cut around the traced lines, leaving 'bout a 1/8 of an inch or more between the line and your cut edge.
3. Now, for a fancy top. Take your homemade frame piece and place it on top of another piece of cardboard, marking the width where the top of your frame will be (horizontal or vertical?). From here, you can draw any sized fancy top to the frame, but make sure the width of the frame stays the same. Again, the front side should be face-down.
4. Cut the brilliantly ornamental frame-top out and glue it on top of the frame you made just mere minutes before.
5. If you want to get more crayon/watercolor effects, do so now. Then paint it all one color so it appears as seamless as possible.
6. You can add a backing to the frame by using more cardboard, then writing your inscription (if it's a gift) on the back.

Hope you have fun! This project took just 10-20 minutes, depending on how picky your child is about their art. Mine are picky. All of their pencil tops are wore down to a nub and we own a lot of erasers.