"Finger" Painting

I hate messy crafts.

My poor kids hardly ever get to play with anything squishy, oozy or gooey.

We usually stick to things like felt, paper, crayons, markers, beads, pipe cleaners, etc.

and avoid certain things (i.e. play dough, glue, and most paint) like the plague.

However the other day I sucked it up and brought out my all time least favorite craft-

finger paints.

I'm not sure who invented this awful creation or who bought me these paints

but I had them and was feeling brave

so I set out to create a less messy yet still fun (and less stressful for Mommy) version of finger paints.

First I dressed the kids in Daddy's old dress shirts.

I just put them on backwards and rolled up the sleeves.

They thought it was pretty cool to wear Daddy's clothes and I liked that it covered their entire outfit.

Then I covered my table in an throw away plastic table cloth.

That way I didn't have to freak out about paint getting all over the table.

Next, I squirted some finger paint onto plates for each of them.

And then...I convinced them that it would be so much more fun to use Q tips to paint with instead of our fingers.

(I really have a problem, don't I?).

Luckily they thought it was super fun and had no idea I was just trying to avoid fingers and hands covered in paint.

Mackenzie was very precise with her picture putting each design exactly where she wanted it.

It's so fun to see how she is growing up and becoming a little artist.

Wesley on the other hand, ditched the paper all together and preferred to use his Q tip to make designs in the paint on his plate.

Oh and he only tried to put the Q tip (covered in paint) in his ear once. Not bad if you ask me :)

All in all I think the Q tip painting was a huge success.

It may even have changed my mind about using finger paints.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that no fingers were actually used in the paint.

Here's to a little mess free crafting

and to keeping crazy, mess hating Mommies like me sane.