Yesterday my boy and I had an arts and crafts day. It was grey and windy outside, and I quite fancied having a lazy day indoors. But this did mean keeping the boy occupied. That’s when the brainwave of painting came to mind, and I also joined in. This is what i created, a funky photo frame. I’ll show you how I did it in this post. As for the boy, he painted a car.
I bought this kit for my husband on Father’s Day as an activity to do with his son – a ‘Paint Your Own Vehicle’ kit. Without any sign of it being done for 3 weeks now, I thought why not just let the boy paint it now!
He was so so excited. We lay out newpaper on the floor. I couldn’t find the little brush that came with the kit, so we used a big brush instead. Tyler got stuck in.
He was surprising tidy about it, and let me wash the brush between colours, and if he got any paint on his hands, I had to wipe it with a baby wipe – he’s a bit OCD about getting stuff on his hands!
You can see the finished car at the end of this post. This put me in the painting mood too, so I painted a photo frame that I had been meaning to do for ages. I had bought this M&S frame for £1 in a charity shop.
My idea was to make it more contemporary, by painting it light grey and painting the inside edges in pops of colour. I would get rid of the gold inside borders (yuck) and paint the text ‘family’ on the top curvy bit. Here’s how I did it – first I mixed a grey colour from white emulsion paint with a drop of black mixed in. I painted the whole frame in this colour. Ideally I would have used a mini-roller, but I only had Tyler’s paintbrush to hand. So I painted the strokes in the same direction to make it look neat.
Once the grey had dried, I painted the inside edges in green, yellow and pink – using mini-emulsion tester paint pots that I had in storage. The paints are 2 years old and still usable, so I definitely recommend them (they’re from Wilkos, 99p each). I have loads of colours stored in a shoebox, really handy.
Next, I wanted ‘family’ written at the top in a trendy watercolour type font. I tested a few out on my laptop and settled on the font ‘The Lost Paintings’
Then I roughly copied this style on to the frame in pencil and then drew over it in a black Sharpie pen.
It’s thinner than I’d like, so I may go over it in black paint once I’ve bought a suitable thin paintbrush. Still, the whole thing is how I imagined, and here it is, together with Tyler’s masterpiece painted car! Now all we have to do it choose the photos to go in the frame. Mummy and Son Painting Day – pretty productive eh? 🙂
Sabrina x
What a lovely way of spending a rainy day. That’s a great tip on those little tester pots, I’ve got a fair few lying around too. The frame looks great x #HomeEtc
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Quite a productive rainy day eh! Yes it’s so worth it those tester pots, I like the Wilkos one as you can reseal the pot, and so many colours to choose from 🙂 xx
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What a great idea! I have lots of paint samples etc I just forget to use them! I love that it looked so old and dark and now it’s loveły clean and fresh! Inspired! (PS nice car too!)
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Oh yes, it’s so worth keeping tester pots for those arty days! Thank you, I am so pleased with how it looks now. And the car ain’t so bad either 😉 xx
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What a lovely idea of getting little ones involved! Upcycling for the children too! Thanks for linking up lovely. Much appreciated. Jess x
#HomeEtc
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Yes the kids can get involved. I must admit, I normally steer clear of painting with him for fear of the mess, but he’s quite tidy thank god! xx
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SUCH a lovely way to spend a day Sabrina!! I love the fact that your little was occupied, so it meant you could get on with your upcycle!!! I love the flashes of colour on the frame — just gorgeous — it really lifts it doesn’t it? Thanks so much for linking up with #HomeEtc — hope to see you again next week! x
Caro | http://www.thetwinklediaries.co.uk
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Thank you! I think I have a mini artist, he loved it! It was good fun xx
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That looks great – and what a great way to spend an afternoon. It’s amazing how different a frame can look with a coat of paint isn’t it #homeetc
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Thank you! I love painting old things, gives it a new lease of life! xx
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What a fab job you both did! I haven’t done anything arty with my two in ages, I suspect thy think they’re too old for it now! Thanks for linking up to #PicknMix lovely,
Stevie xx
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Thank you, hee hee, yes I have no idea what Tyler will be like when he’s older, probably will find footy more interesting than painting! xx
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