One of my favorite terms from Tinkergarten is “nature treasure.” It’s sorta perfect, isn’t it? You find it, it’s free, it’s beautiful and unique. It’s a prize of its own.
So, the term inspired me to start storing some of our nature treasures, which I go into in another post. It’s fun to go hunting for nature treasures, but fun to save your favorites too.
For this project, we picked through our stored treasures and added a random leftover bit of wrapping paper roll (you never know what you might need for an art project).
I set out paper plates and watered down some finger paint and poured a little on each, then set it all out on the old bench and called Bug to play.
In total, we had the paper roll, a few small twigs (one with leaves still attached), leaves, glass pebbles, Spanish moss, a pine cone, and a frond off of the bush next to the porch.
Next, we put down a posterboard as our medium. Once that was ready, it was time to paint.
I wasn’t sure what to expect really, I just figured I would turn Bug loose to see what he wanted to do. At first, he carefully dipped objects and put them on the paper. Then he poked a stick in different colors and dotted it around on the page.
Next we used some of the leaves and fronds as paint brushes. We grabbed some pieces of grass and weeds to try for good measure.
Then, we decided a few handprints would make a good signature.
And just like that, the masterpiece was complete! It was lots of fun and now we have a big, fun piece of art for the wall.