Puffy Paint, Cereal Box, Picture Frames for Father's Day

I'm hoping to inspire the children into action, with a few Father's Day themed, craft projects, this week.

Not every project appeals to every child, and I'd like the children to come up with their own gifts for their father, as much as possible. But, sometimes it doesn't hurt to have a few suggestions on hand.

I started today, with picture frames, cut from cereal boxes...




...ready to be decorated with puffy paint...


...and filled with child-drawn artwork, or sentimental notes, for the Man of the House.


We made our own puffy paint, using a recipe I saw last week at Brimful Curiosities:

• 1 Tablespoon Self-Rising Flour. We didn't have self-rising flour, so we added 1/8 teaspoon of baking powder to the flour - per a suggestion from Brimful Curiosities. She didn't have self-rising flour either, and just used regular flour, and both seem to work about the same.



• 1 Tablespoon Salt.



• 1 Tablespoon Water. Brimful Curiosities thinned hers with additional water, for painting with a brush. We kept ours thick, and used it as a finger paint.



• A Couple of Drops of Food Coloring.

Once the paint is thickly applied onto cardboard, or card stock, it can be microwaved for 15 seconds, to make it puff, and dry. The children thought that was pretty nifty.

As to the picture frame, the decorated portion once puffed...


...was glued on the bottom, and sides, to a solid rectangle of cereal box cardboard, with the printed side forward...

...a strip of cardboard was folded at the top, and glued to the back of the frame, to make a stand...


...and artwork was slipped in, from the top.


So, they have one Father's Day gift down, and five to go (even though this one was really a group project).

Meanwhile, the children also enjoyed open ended painting with the puffy paint...


...and made a set of letter cards for spelling practice.


I'd say they liked the paint. It was simple to make, and easy to clean up, so I'm happy with it, too. But, it dries pretty fast, so it's probably best for small projects, if you want to be able to microwave it, before it hardens on its own.

It's great to be a homeschooler.