Sam wasn't feeling well yesterday, so I picked him up from school and brought him home to rest. You know kids, after about an hour he was bored to tears, so I figured it would be a good day to pull out Ed Emberly's Complete Funprint Drawing Book and do some Christmas fingerprint art.
He tells me what he wants to create, what colors of ink he wants to use and off he goes. He even decided how he wanted to cut it out when he was done. Even stamped 'merry christmas' all on his own.
So.... in case you're wondering, it's an owl. A Christmas owl. And in case you're wondering what the green thing is between the owl's legs - well, that was unintentional :) The green was supposed to be branches of the tree he told me. Once he put a 'branch' between the owl's legs, I think he figured something was off. He tried to ink over it again, even color it with a brown marker, but it's still there. I just sat there and watched him as he tried to figure out what to do to fix it. And when he looked at me like he wasn't sure what to do, I told him it was no big deal, it's art. :)
I handed him this little card at the end and asked him to write something on it. Such a sweet boy!!
More about this fingerprint book. It's fantastic! Everything in the book is done using fingerprints and ink. The book is geared towards kids and shows them how to use prints from their different fingers for different sizes and to make pretty much anything under the sun. And it's super easy! I pull it out a few times a year and it keeps Sam entertained for hours. Even now, at 10 years old. Jack gave it up 2 years ago, I'm hoping Sam might stick with it a bit longer - we'll see!
Here are their creations from the last 3 years of fingerprint art -
2008 - Jack
2008 - Sam
2007 - Jack
2007 - Sam
The boys did these last 2 on 12x12 sheets of white cardstock. I put them in 12x12 scrapook frames when they finished them 3 years ago and now they hang on the wall every year for Christmas. Love them!!