Toddler Time ~ Snowflake Stencil Painting

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If you’ve been following me on Instagram (you totally should be!) and caught my InstaStory, you’ll have seen that we had a few inches of snow!  Since I’m in Western Washington, land of perpetual rain, this is probably the only large amount of snow we’re gonna get this year and that makes me sad!  Thankfully, I don’t need snow to be able to do another fun snow project with my little man.

This time it wasn’t just Caleb and me crafting our hearts out.  One of Caleb’s little buddies was over for the day and what better than a messy craft to keep two toddler boys content for a cold, blustery afternoon?  I decided we needed to paint and so paint we did.

Snowflake Stencil Painting

Supplies Needed:

Canvas, Poster Board, or Cardboard
Painter’s Tape
Washable Paint
Paintbrush

Instructions

1. Tape a snowflake shape onto your canvas using blue tape
2. Allow your toddler to paint over the tape
3. Once dry, peal the blue tape from canvas

I know what you’re thinking, “Painting with a toddler???  That’s a recipe for disaster!”  And you would be right except that I planned ahead and bought the most awesome paint imaginable!  You guys, it’s totally and completely washable.  As you’ll see in the pictures, the boys got it all over the table and all over themselves but I threw them in the bath, scrubbed down the table, and everything was as good as new!  (Ok, full disclosure, a tiny spot on the table held onto the green paint so there’s a little stain that’s maybe the size of a quarter.  In my world that’s clean, though!)

While the boys were napping I grabbed a few leftover canvases I had in my craft supplies (but poster board or cardboard would work just as well) and used painter’s tape to do a snowflake shape.  When the boys got up I stripped them down to their diapers, handed them paintbrushes, and let them have it!

Caleb’s been painting for a while so he jumped right in but his little friend didn’t quite know what to do with the paintbrush.  A little guidance from me and he was ready to go too!  They were content sitting there and painting for about twenty minutes and when they got bored I just made sure the whole snowflake was covered in paint and let them be done.

When the paint was dry I peeled the painter’s tape off to reveal the snowflake design under the artwork of the boys!

I love that I can now display something Caleb created along with my other Christmas decorations!  I think we might do this project again to create some Christmas presents for Mimi and Grandma.  (Hey, mom and Sheli, pretend you didn’t read that!)

Your Turn:
What winter or Christmas crafts are you doing with your little one?
Would you let your toddler paint inside?