Creating Art With Toddlers

Eva really loves craft activities. Give the girl a bowl of glue and a handful of sequins and she'll happily occupy herself for whole minutes at a time - most likely gluing them to both herself and the sofa, but hey, I'll take what I can get. Usually I give her the materials and free reign to make whatever she feels like - but sometimes I like her to create things for a particular purpose - in this case, Christmas cards.

Here's a simple technique for making toddler art that's both fun for the child involved and looks *almost* pinnable :-)

You'll need a few sheets of peelable/removeable stickers - I bought a bunch of A4 sized ones by Avery. I cut out several dozen Christmas tree shapes - you could do this by printing multiple shapes onto the sticker paper and then cutting each individually; I chose to layer up four sheets and cut through them at the same time.

Press the stickers firmly onto a sheet of thin card and let your kid go to town with a load of paint (you may have to deploy a certain amount of parental control with regard to keeping one brush per colour to avoid ending up with a delightful sludgy brown mess).

When the paint has dried, carefully peel the stickers away to reveal the white shapes beneath.

Ta da!

Accessorize with sequins as required.

Eva was fascinated to see the Christmas tree shapes revealed within her masterpieces - "MY MADE IT MY MADE IT!", she shrieked excitedly. Good job, baby girl. You can go and get started painting the walls of your sister's bedroom now, OK?