Wednesday, July 30

Cut, squirt, spin


Those are your basic instructions for completing these great spun art paintings. This is one of the easiest and most attractive painting projects we've done. I found instructions here (via The Crafty Crow). I read them one day, recalled them several days later during a moment of great conflict and within about 5 minutes found myself enjoying peace and pretty paintings. Here's what we did.
I traced the bottom of the basket from our salad spinner (yes, the one we use-the washable paint came out fine) onto construction paper, cardstock, and cereal box backs. I cut out the circles. My children (and I, because it really was fun) placed them inside the spinner, one at a time, and squirted in some washable paint.
We spun the spinner.


We marveled at our paintings and removed them from the basket to dry.
That's about it. Except to say that after several paintings, I scraped the excess paint out of the spinner bowl into a glass measuring cup and used that as an additional color for the next group of paintings.
Now, if you want to get carried away like I did, keep reading.
After the paintings dried, I painted over them with acrylic gloss medium. This intensifies the color (construction paper, especially, is particularly dull), gives it a nice shine, and protects the paint.
Then I experimented with how to display the paintings. I liked simply taping them to string, ribbon or yarn and hanging them as garland.

I also liked hanging them in mobile fashion. The ones you see here would be hung flat up against the wall since the paintings are not double-sided, but you could glue or tape yours back-to-back and hang in space.
For these, we painted paper towel rolls and I cut 3 little holes down one side. I poked some yarn through and knotted it inside the tube. I just taped the yarn to the back of each painting, then strung a long piece through the top to hang.

This style of painting is fast, fun, and almost mess-free. Win-win-win.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great craft, Megan! I am so impressed by your blog...you seem to have an increasingly busy, happy, artsy family and home. I love the pix of your new little one. I can't remember her name, but I'm sure it's amazing (as are the others). I hope I get to meet her when I come to church Aug. 30 during my brief Chicago visit (before returning to England). By the way, I am SO pleased that Betsy-Tacy is one your favorite book list. Does B. like them? Is she old enough yet?

Grandma G said...

I can imagine kids would have a blast with this project! Did you have trouble getting them to stop? ;-)

They turned out so pretty!!

Amy said...

So amazing! You are the craftiest mommy I "know." I have had this craft bookmarked and you are inspiring me again. Now I have to do it!!

reprehriestless warillever said...

This looks like so much fun!

Now I just need to get me a salad spinner....

Aimee @ Smiling Mama said...

Ditto to the comment above!!!

Anonymous said...

That's brilliant, to use the salad spinner!

Anonymous said...

that is so fun! i've seen salad spinners at thrift stores before - it would be fun to buy one just for this.... if i had a place to put it....

:)

mayaluna said...

I love checking in on your blog...always something lovely to see and you make each project seem easy an inviting! This spin art looked great on Crafty Crow, but seeing your display ideas made me really excited to give it a "whirl"!

Christie said...

I just left to go buy a salad spinner. My youngest daughters are so excited about this. I love making them into a mobile! Love it!

Monkey's Mama said...

I can't wait to try this! I might have to buy a dedicated salad spinner. Thanks so much for sharing. I'm getting to the point to try projects more than just "here's the paint" with my almost three year old.

Kari said...

Wow, I dont even know how I stumbled upon this blog but Wow! I am super inspired by this project!

Anonymous said...

You know I do not own a sald spinner but for this purpose alone it may be worth buying!. You are a very clever mom!

Megan/Brassy Apple said...

thanks for posting about my spin art tutorial! I would love to have you a couple of photos to my new flickr group! You could even win! check out the details here:

http://brassyapple.blogspot.com/2008/08/time-to-strut-and-stuffand-win-of.html

and here's the link to the flickr group - brassy apple projects:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/brassyappleprojects/

thanks!!!

PS - LOVE the mobile photo!!! I know others would too!

Melissa said...

Homemade twirl-o-paint! I love it!!

Anonymous said...

Blue topaz ring will certainly be thpmas sabo your best option if you are intended to thomas sabo jewellery include a ring into your gemstone jewelry collection. cheap thomas sabo charms Either if you wish to wear the ring on a special occasion or thomas bracelets wear this sort of ornaments on a daily basis, silver charm carriers it is up to your account. Blue thomas sabo necklaces topaz ring can ensure you that you will attract every person.

www.webhablada.es said...

Hey, there's really much effective information above!

Anonymous said...

Guess I will have to keep the salad spinner that was in my bag of donations...will be doing this after school today!

herbalwellspring said...

Oh my god, there's a great deal of useful material in this post!

kristinahojholt said...

Howdy! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could find a captcha plugin for my comment form? I'm using the same blog platform as yours and I'm having problems finding one? Thanks a lot! spin art machine