Toddler Fingerprint Stencil

The big boys went to the Eastern Shore for a fishing excursion today (all three of them, lol).
While they were away, Benjamin and I had lots of time to play- crafty play that is.

I have seen several of these Toddler Masterpieces on Pinterest (where else?).

So, we decided to give one a try, on a smaller scale than some of the massive murals I have seen done.

We started with a small canvas, 8x10. I used black vinyl to cut a stencil with the Cricut.

Specifically for this project, I cut a 4" (real size) B with the Roly Poly font on Plantain Schoolbook.

I affixed the vinyl letter to the canvas and covered the kitchen table with a plastic tablecloth that I use for messy projects.
(Pick these up after holidays at Wal-Mart for 50 cents. The always come in handy! Way cheaper than tarps.)

For paint, I used the every day craft paint, I think "Apple Barrel" brand, that I had on hand. I stripped Benjamin down to the diaper (because I would never have him running around in the house in just a diaper already, nooo), and plopped him up on the kitchen table. I squirted a little paint on a styrofoam plate and just let him play. Take note of how he began very meticulously dotting the canvas with his fingertips.

It didn't take too long for him to realize that playing in the paint was as (more?) fun than painting on the canvas.

Each time he would swirl a new layer of paint on the canvas, he would throw his hands up in the air and shout "TA-DA."
(He was quite confident in his artistic ability apparently.)

He would announce the color each time he used it too... or maybe I should say announce "a color" each time he used it. Because we worked with such a small canvas, I decided to stick with the yellow-orange- red pallet. According to the prism, all the colors of the rainbow make white... but in finger painting, they make MUD.

Clean-up for the project was pretty easy too!