Finger painting - a new Tuesday tradition?

Since the weather has been getting nicer outside, I decided that Lily and I needed to do some more messy crafty activities at home. So, last Tuesday I thought that we would try some finger painting. In order to do this I made some 'paint' from a mixture of corn flour, water and food colouring and set it up outside with a fair bit of paper.



Lily loved it. She was able to smear the 'paint' everywhere and the bright colours showed up on the paper without really staining anything else. Next thing I knew, Lily - creative genius that she is - decided that her painting needed to include more textures and set about gathering things from the deck to add to it. I was very impressed with the results and resolved to do this again and to try to provide her with some more 'natural additions' from the beginning.



Well, of course, I completely forgot about it until this morning when Lily started asking for "Painting: finger painting."


OK, I thought, and made her some more paint (my first attempt was rather lumpy because I didn't mix the corn flour with cold water before adding the boiling water - because I I have a bad habit of rushing ahead of instructions). I set it up outside again and gathered a little bowl full of leaves, berries and flowers and stood back.

Life doesn't always turn out how you plan does it?



The next thing I knew Lily had broken into her sandpit and was busily tipping handfuls of sand on to her paper and into the 'paint'. Then she went on her own nature gathering mission and 'collected' dirt and dry leaves from nearby pot plants to add to her mix (smearing paint around the deck as she went). The collage that I had envisaged didn't exactly eventuate, but Lily had fun and that was the whole point really...



I am not sure what I will bring out next Tuesday.