Get Creative At Home With A Little Spirit

When it comes to getting crafty, A Little Spirit’s offering of craft kits gives kids the tools to explore art and what it means to be creative within the home. With so many options to choose from, there really is something for everyone; whether it’s tie-dye, watercolour, pastels, oil paint, marbling and more—and the best part? The kits are essentially free if you use your Creative Kids voucher! 

Here’s why A Little Spirit is the perfect choice for bringing art into the home, and an at-home Scrape Painting activity to keep the kids occupied during the school holidays.

A Creative Space

A Little Spirit is a company that’s ethos is centred around enjoying creativity in the home. They believe that everyone has a creative spirit inside them and that every child should have access to the materials which allow them to express themselves artistically.

A Little Spirit’s core values are about instilling in children the beauty of art, and how it is a process that connects us deeply to our homes. They believe that a home is a creative space—a place where ideas are explored and individuality is encouraged. It's this concept of exploring art within the home that underpins everything that A Little Spirit does; and inspires every element of their creative kids' kits.

Scrape Painting Tutorial

While the prospect of displaying our children’s artwork is a noble one, we also want the artwork to fit the aesthetic of our home, right? A simple process artwork like scrape painting is a double whammy; it’s an ultra-engaging activity that children love to admire when it’s displayed in the home, but it’s also aesthetically interesting. What more could you want?!

What you'll need:

1. Acrylic paint:  4-6 colours; 3-4 for the base + 1-2 for the second layer.
2. Canvas or paper—we like to do this on a large size surface, but this process will work on a smaller panel or page too (You’ll just need to adjust the size of the tool you are scraping with)
3. Wide paintbrush(es)
4. A scraping tool such as: 
   1. Window squeegee 
   2. Piece of hard plastic or perspex
   3. Old store card

Process:

1. Take some time to consider the colours you are going to use.  Lay them all out in their tubes, taking some time to add and remove different colour options after seeing how they interact together.

2. Prepare 3-4 colours to cover the canvas with. If you need to mix colours, prepare those before you start painting. 

Now it's time to move fast! The process is easy but for the best results, you want all of the paint to be wet when you scrape it.

3. Cover the entire canvas with paint; a thicker coat is best.  The faster that you can cover the canvas, the better—so this is a great time to get the whole family involved. Don't be scared to blend the colours where they meet because when you scrape them, they will definitely mix and smear!

4. While the paint on the canvas is still wet, squeeze some paint along the top of the canvas - directly out of the tube if possible.

5. Pressing very lightly and angling the tool you are using as parallel as possible to the canvas, scrape your paint from one side of the canvas to the other. Just remember, don't scrape too hard.  The goal is to smear the paint across the canvas.

6. Once your artwork is dry, hang it on the wall and watch your children admire their amazing work—and if you want, build upon it! These canvases work wonderfully as a base for a collage.

More Crafty Fun

Craft For Kids: How To Make Handmade Paper
Easy Paper Crafts To Make With Kids
Get Kids Craft and Activity Kits Delivered To Your Door

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