First Birthday Craft - Yearly Painting

 I wanted to do a craft with Amelia to commemorate her first birthday and when I saw this craft on Bringing Up Babe's instagram I knew this is what I wanted to do. 

Amelia made a painting with her age in the corner! I decided this is something I want to do with her each year on (or near) her birthday. We did it about one week after her first birthday this year.
It took Amelia a few minutes to realize that she could touch the paint, and we had a wash cloth handy to make sure that no paint went in her mouth. Once she was into the craft, she fully enjoyed it! 

Supplies:

- newspaper (to put under her highchair - I thought she might toss the canvas, but it ended up being useful for catching the paint she splattered) 

- dollar store canvas (I used an 8 x 8)

- dollar store number stickers

- acrylic paint

- knife (to remove sticker)

Steps:

1. Put the number sticker where you would like it to be and paint over it with white paint. Allow to dry before letting your child add their paint. This keeps the sticker from moving around while the child paints.

2. Prep the area! Get the newspaper under the highchair (or on the table under the canvas if you have an older child), have a washcloth and water handy and gather your painting supplies. We didn't use a paint brush this year - just finger/hand painting for us.

3. Put dollops of paint on the canvas and let your baby have fun! 

4. Remove the canvas once it is covered with paint / your older child is happy with their result.

5. Clean up time! 

6. Remove the number sticker to reveal the white number. While the paint is still wet, use a knife (we used an old steak knife) or utility knife to carefully peal up the number sticker you originally added to the canvas. I'm not sure how it would work if you allow the paint to dry, but you could give it a try and see what happens. Our paint was a bit thick and the number didn't come out as 'crisp' as I would like, so I went back and painted some more white paint into the number where it needed it.

* I wish I would've had my husband take some pictures while she painted because it was so cute! Definitely try to catch the process in action if you can.

* I want to hang these paintings in her room and since we only do them once a year I wanted to make sure that the canvases will match. I bought 10 canvases at the dollar store so that we can do it each year and not end up with mis-matched paintings - something to keep in mind if you plan to display them!