Saturday, June 7, 2008

Magic Pictures


Poor white crayon. You never did anything to deserve your bad reputation. It isn't your fault you "don't work" and thereby cause many kids to angrily toss you to the floor in sad disgust. So, there you sit in your box, barely used, wondering what your purpose in life could be...

Well, wait no longer, Mr. White. We need you! We will use all of you up making our MAGIC PICTURES.

Have you ever used the white crayon to draw pictures on your hard boiled Easter egg? It's cool because the dye won't stick to the greasy surface so you are left with a clear white drawing on your colored egg. Well, the same technique works with paper and water colors. You have to press down rather hard with the crayon, and I've found this works best on cardstock, but the kids love it. I will draw the younger kids a picture and then they just slop the water color on however they want to find the picture. My older kids love using this technique to write secret messages to their friends. Here is a secret message that we will be sending next week:

At first glance it only looks like a blank piece of paper (we will have a note on it that says: "We were really busy. Please paint your own Father's Day card. Thank you.")
But what is this? There seems to be a message showing through.

TA DA!

P.S. Some daddy's might not have very much patience for water coloring. If so, make sure to use a large paintbrush, like the one I show here, so that the painting can go quickly. =)

30 comments:

Amy Y said...

How'd you get to be so smart? :)

Montserrat said...

Very cool! My girls will love this. They like sending secret messages but they usually involve fire from a candle. Which is also fun. Except when you get too close then the message gets burned up on accident.

CC said...

That is awesome. Maybe we have a winner for daddy finally!

Packer Family said...

Love it! Adding to my memory bank!!

Shannon @ Gabi's World said...

How cool is that?

Thanks for the neat tip. And thanks for visiting my blog.

Mrs.Naz@BecomingMe said...

Excellent idea. I love this!!!!!

Suburban Correspondent said...

Great idea. Although I always used my white crayons for coloring in Snoopy.

Mia said...

That is a great idea! Love it :)

Unknown said...

I was just wondering how to do a nice, low-maintenance card and you nailed it. Thanks!

Oh, and that pumpkin blog is NOTTTTTT mine but my hubby's. Give me some credit. :-)

Jeanette said...

You always have the most clever and fun ideas. My son will really like this, so much so that he will probably want to paint it for daddy. :-)

Sea Star said...

I think this is one we will try this week. I am sure my kids will have a great time teaching their dad to paint so he can see the message.

Thanks for the great idea!

Richelle said...

What a fun idea. Both for the kids and for the a Dad's day present.

Erika said...

What fun :-)

You know what I've been thinking? You should publish a book with all your great ideas (especially homeschooling stuff & arts and craft stuff).
I would totally buy it. You could separate it by age or something like that. Chapter 1 could be activities for 1 year olds...?

An Ordinary Mom said...

Secret messages ... my kids will love this.

Lisa Merkley said...

This last week we used watercolors to paint father's day cards. Now they are drying in a hidden spot so dad can't see them...J's idea because you did that in preschool last week. Thanks for the inspiration!

Shannon said...

Very cute idea- and practical, too. Thanks for the idea!

Amy said...

These came out super cool! I haven't done something like this in forever!

Prudy said...

Thanks for the great cheap idea. We do lots of crayon resist art around here-but we've never done it as a secret code.

Anonymous said...

Where do you come up with all these cool ideas?!

Leslie said...

Love it! Why didn't I think of this...we do it with easter eggs every year!

Caffienated Cowgirl said...

I've always loved this technique.

Manager Mom said...

That's a GREAT idea!

Unknown said...

how cute! i love the "we were really busy" part. poor dad!

Michal said...

what a cute idea. my kids would have so much fun creating those. we'll have to get to work on it!

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

Fun idea!

Angela said...

What a fun activity. I will use this today with my preschooler. SHe will be thrilled beyond measurement! Cool idea!

daysease said...

thanks for the reminder to include poor white crayon in our daily activities. forgot about it and so nice to remember as i had no idea what to do for Father's Day. yay!!! now i do. fun! have a great one!!

just jamie said...

Perfect. I was just looking for some good ideas. My kids would love doing this.

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love this idea -- so clever! :)

Andi McDowell said...

I love this! teach secong grade and it's a winner in my book. THANK YOU!!!!
mcdowella777@hotmail.com