Hand-painted Storage Jars

These were our main gift for Jessica's nursery teachers. She filled the storage jars with feathers and pompoms and decorated them with (yes, you've guessed it) a cat! She drew a cat and wrote a couple of messages on paper, I then traced them onto the plain glass jars. Once they were dry Jessica painted the cats. We do love a keepsake!

Hand Painted Glass Vase

When someone special in your child's life has a birthday it would be rude not to make a fuss don't you think?! This post and the next will showcase Jessica's efforts for one of her favourite people on this whole planet!

This first gift (photos are front and back views) is a cylindrical vase decorated with her drawing and writing. She drew her design on a small piece of paper which I placed inside the vase to trace over using black relief outliner. After drying overnight, Jess painted the design herself. Drying it without the paint running was a challenge because of the shape of the vase so we'll be shopping for square vases in future!

Glass Painted Decoration

This is the last of my tree decorations to share from this year although there will be one more post tomorrow, which will feature some of last year's creations. Here I have used glass painting on a flat acrylic star. I drew my poinsettia design on paper first and taped my star on top so that I could trace the design with my black outlining fluid. Once dry I filled in the design with glass paints and left to dry overnight. This is the freshly painted piece sitting to dry...

Then here is the dried piece held up so that you can actually see the yellow details at the centre of the flower. As you can see, there are some gaps and it would take a second layer of glass paint but I rather like it just as it is. The odd imperfection just goes to remind you that it's handmade after all!

Adapting a Favourite

I have raved about these suncatcher kits from Hobbycraft before but we gave them a twist today. There was some great fine motor skills going on here as Jessica used pipettes to paint the mandala suncatcher.

She delighted in the sound effects and the bubbles. Her delicate squeezes meant, unlike me, she didn't pick up and expel all of the paint in one go so the craft wasn't over in a flash either. It's almost certainly not what was intended by the designers but I love it. 

Hobbycraft Suncatcher Kits

We love these - they are cheap, they have great designs, which Hobbycraft keep updating and they look wonderful when they're finished irrespective of how carefully they have done so they are brilliant for kids of all ages. Jessica has probably done half a dozen of them now. Like a packet of stickers they are a staple item that I pop into the trolley every time I go to Hobbycraft (that's right, I do need a trolley every time I go!).

That said, there are a couple of down sides. I am not complaining, just offering up some insight and advice. The kits come with plastic spreaders for the paint, which are reasonably effective but I have found that younger children find them a bit tricky to use so we always stick to using our own brushes. Secondly, once you've hung these suncatchers up in your window we have found that the colours in the paint fade fast. We hang ours in a south facing conservatory so they are put to the ultimate test and your experience may be very different. So, I have been encouraging Jessica to use my glass paints alongside the gelatinous ones provided in the kits. My paints don't seem to fade so we have ended up with some areas appearing unpainted when if fact they were originally completely covered in paint. Here are a couple that Jessica has done with a combination of paints. She has painted the J twice so it's not so obvious where the Hobbycraft paints have faded but all of the clear patches on the 3 are as a result of having been painted with those included in the kits.

Overall they are great value for money, the process is really good as are the finished products but they do not expect them to last in strong sunlight. We'll keep buying them!