Thank You Notes: Sticks & Drips

Our children love to collect sticks, so we thought that we would incorporate them into a bit of painting!  (Perfect for toddler and pre-schooler involvement making a thank you card for holiday gifts!)

Materials

• Sticks
• Ink or paint (or both!)
• Pre-made card blank card set (or make your own out of cardstock)
• Glue gun/glue
• Circle punch (*Optional)
• Eye droppers (*Optional)

We always find these items helpful too:

• Smock
• Craft tray

Directions

• Bundle up and go outside with an adult, looking for sticks.  If your sticks are damp, allow them to dry overnight.

• Don your smock.  Dip your sticks into your ink and paint away.

• If you like, using your eye dropper, add drips to your work.  Your child might need a little guidance/assistance at the beginning with squeezing the eye dropper to suck up the paint!  (Or son saw our daughter using eye droppers and “Me!, Me!” followed!  You could also use your sticks- dip them in the paint, tilt them downwards and watch the drips land on your paper.)

• You could also paint on cardstock and punch out circles of the work, gluing them onto envelopes.

Purpose

• Getting out into nature.
• Painting with different materials.

Safety Notes

• We suggest that you wear a smock and use a craft tray to protect your clothing and surfaces.