Spontaneous Art

I am all about setting up an environment for my children where they can feel free to create something beautiful on a whim. This came naturally for my daughter and she spends hours (yes, hours) a day creating things. My son, however, is just coming out of the "eating the crayons" stage and more into the "Look mama!!! Papa's airplane!!" stage (that's his favorite thing to draw). Well, months ago (as in, back in March) I bought an easel at a flea market for only $3.00. It had good bones, it just needed a little spicing up. So I took it home and finally got around to making it look like new again. It is just so hard to do a big project like this without the kids seeing it.

Here's what it looked like before:

And with a fresh new coat of paint, some new boards (my husband found and cut dry erase boards at Home Depot! We used the backside of one to spray the chalkboard paint on) and some tightened bolts we now have a beautiful new easel.

You'll notice that the new boards are larger than the originals. I didn't think it would hurt to have MORE space for creating.

We'll be adding accessories to this as time goes on: a tray to set cups of paint in, perhaps a dowel across the top to hold a roll of paper, and some clips to hold down the paper. For now, though it is getting a lot of use and a lot of love from the little ones in my life.

Cost:
     easel: $3.00
     spray paint: $6.00 (with some to spare)
     hardware: $3.00
     dry erase board: $12.00
        
               Total: $24.00

Not bad when compared to what they retail for! And I love that there are no plastic pieces that can break and are then very difficult to replace.


Sharing the love at some of the following:
Monday:
Keeping it Simple-- Motivate Me Mondays
Skip to my Lou-- Made by You Mondays
Sew Can Do-- Craftastic Monday 
C.R.A.F.T-- Making Monday Marvelous
Tuesday:
Today's Creative Blog-- Get Your Craft On!
Creative Itch-- Sew Cute Tuesday
Tip Junkie-- Tip Me Tuesday
Wednesday:
Sew Much Ado-- We Did It Wednesday!
Blue Cricket Designs-- Show and Tell
Friday: 
Simply Designing
Kojo Friday Fun Finds 
Fingerprints on the Fridge-- Feature Yourself Friday 
Tatertots and Jello-- Weekend Wrap-up
Weekend:
The Girl Creative-- Just Something I Whipped Up
Under the Table and Dreaming-- Sunday Showcase