Be Ready to Answer When Opportunity Knocks at Grandma's Door

It doesn't happen to often.  Getting the cousins together and building joint memories with Grandma.  Busy lives and 450 miles a part add to that challenge.  I think Grandmas are a vital part to having fun with cousins time.  After all, Grandma's house is a common destination.  A place where a bond can develop that can result in  your grandchildren's hearts tightly tied together.
I had 8 first cousins and all were from my dad's side of the family.  My brother, sister and I were the youngest of my Granny's 11 grandchildren.  Looking back, I feel there were so much more that perhaps could have been done to develop a bond between us.  I regret as adults we didn't share more of our lives together.  I'm not saying that my Granny was at fault but she just didn't seem to be a unifying force.   So last week when the opportunity presented itself for me to have my beautiful granddaughter visit from out of town, I was ready to seize the moment and make that grandma memory.  The secret here is preparation and a plan.

I had done my research and had picked out an art project that I thought would be perfect for this age group.  I had even done a practice run on this little project I had in mind to make sure that I had the confidence to pull it off with 4 years old x 2 and I am so pleased at how the final art project turned out.  You can see when you look at the photo of these precious little one and the happiness and pride they feel as they hold up their finished artwork.

My kitchen table offered the perfect art room because it was large and there is plenty of light.  I made sure to spread out an old vinyl tablecloth that it would matter if a little more paint got applied here or there.  I pulled out some old T-shirt of mine to cover their clothes because Grandma doesn't want to get on their parents bad side.  Finish it off with a mug of hot chocolate complete with marshmallows and we were ready to get down to making art!

I let them pick their color schemes and just helped put out the paint for them on their paper plate palettes.  We used 9 x 9 stretched canvas that I had taped their initials and made a border around the edges.  All they had to do was dip their cotton Q-tip swab paint brush into the color of their choice and dab away.  When the canvas was sufficiently covered with paint we only had to wait for it to dry.  The kids really looked surprised as they pulled off the tape to reveal a clean, crisp edge and a sharp border.  When they completely dry I applied a coating of acrylic varnish with a foam brush to seal the canvas and give it a shiny appearance.  We then installed d-rings and hanging wire to complete the project.


These great pieces of personalized artwork look great when they were finished and were all ready for dad or mom to hang in their rooms.  I made sure and wrote on the back, "Made art with Grandma on 12/28/16".

Intently focused on adding his second color choice

For the best result the edges of the tape need to be completely covered with lots of pink!