Art Ideas to Make with Your Baby

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Time

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Try your hand at these fun and quick ideas and start making with your little one. They're great exploratory activities that will be enjoyable for parents and babies alike.

The best way to get your little one involved is to get stuck in with them! You can do the pieces collaboratively or you can each have your own canvas – so often your baby will relish in contributing to yours too!

These pieces are made directly onto canvases so you can easily display them and keep them for years to come.

Projects and instructions by Georgia Coote.

Find more projects from Georgia here andgt;

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How to make

Sensory Art

This sensory art piece is a great way for your baby to play with textures and it gives the most beautiful results! If you're not keen on mess then this is the technique for you as all the paint is kept safely in a zip lock bag.

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You will need

Canvas

Masking tape

Paint

An A4 zip lock bag, or you could use a plastic sleeve and tape the opening shut.

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Step 1

Tape over the back edges of the canvas with masking tape - this is to keep the back clean so that you can lie it flat to dry once painted.

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Step 2

Squirt some paint directly onto the canvas but bear in mind what colours your paints may change into when mixed together – if you stick to the same tones it will generally sit well together. Place the canvas into the zip-lock bag and fasten it. You could tape it up to make it extra secure if needed.

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Step 3

Let your baby press, pat and squish all the paint underneath and see all the colours moving and blending together.

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Step 4

Take the canvas out of the zip-lock bag, peel the masking tape off of the back if it's gotten messy, if not just leave. Then leave to dry. Display your artwork!

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Paint Stick Art

The paint sticks used to make this art piece are wonderfully soft and great fun for your little one to use. They don't require much pressure for really bright mark making, dry in minutes and are relatively mess free!

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You will need

Paint Sticks

Canvas

Masking Tape

A Sponge

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Step 1

Tear off small pieces of masking tape and make little crosses all over the canvas - do a few pieces going off the edge to give a more organic look.

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Step 2

Get your baby to colour the canvas with the paint sticks, you may want to do it during a few different sessions. Once a good amount of the canvas is covered get a dampened sponge and let your little one rub it over the canvas, this will blend some sections to create a painterly effect.

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Step 3

Once the canvas is dry peel off the masking tape to finish.

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The artwork is now ready to display

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Initial Art

This is a fantastic first art project to do with your baby - you can use any paint you have to hand, and your baby can smoosh on the paint in whatever way works best for them. Here I've used a chunky paintbrush, but if you don't mind the mess, they could use their hands, sponges, or any other implement.

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You will need

Canvas

Masking Tape

Paint

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Step 1

Using the masking tape cut and stick on the shape of the initial you want to use. Curved letters will be much trickier, to do them cut small pieces and gradually curve them round to form the letter shape.

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Step 2

Let your baby apply the paint to the canvas, you could do this is 2 separate sessions, building up the colours of paint layer by layer - or simply let all the colours merge and blend as they go.

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Step 3

Once dry peel off the masking tape to reveal the initial.

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Toy Art

Painting and printing with toys will entice even the most reluctant little artist to get stuck in with the making! Anything that you don't mind getting messy and that can be cleaned easily is perfect for this, blocks, toy cars, or even the feet of toy dolls or animals. The joy is in the exploring with this, seeing which toys make which marks on the canvas, and just having fun with your baby in the process.

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You will need

Canvas

Paint

A selection of toys to paint with

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Step 1

Pour some paint onto a plate or shallow dish, then get your baby to dip and then print with the painty toy onto the canvas.

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Step 2

Encourage your baby to use all the different toys and experiment with dipping into all the colours. When you feel that the canvas if full enough then leave to dry and display.

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