When I was asked to share a kid-friendly DIY Christmas project for Design Dazzle's "100 Ideas of Christmas Wonderful" going on right now... I kept thinking how fun (and educational) it would be to create my own little "paint-by-numbers" project for Ross. You may already know she's 3, so I had to start with something basic. My first thought was a nativity scene.
Step 1: A background: Since I needed to do something basic, I simply just drew straight lines across a piece of poster board and gave each space in between the lines a different number (which is hard to see in this picture). Then, I gave each color we planned to use a number.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGLUx00lVhDcXAiwl9hvgpGxjULRn3q90HlJoCOjwsM-tXAUmxRei0qQ8NTx9vKdqJQfLqFt3OHAdTxWCJQlr-WXnfEIa-OgkBYPN4QXZv5VPvr3zqA3GFf1YYHBXkGBqyW5SyAW1dr-G6/s280/nativity+2.jpg)
Step 2: Ross painted the poster board by matching the correct "color" number to the "space" number. Let dry.
Step 3: I made a pattern of the nativity scene on paper then cut each piece out.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhosve0rh_Xazcq3rX5bkeOrjhBe0WDDF-xaPFIxQwcTBHMctLCvTL_H0yqoXa6kh2lbcHEdFd4plPIRcU0ZYZ6_fshG8EJXBrsfD1lym0FbxW7wxAtASVutbnKSF7w_HdVLrPLCTJngQYx/s280/nativity.jpg)
Step 4: I layed my pattern on the overhead and traced it with a black paint pen.
Step 5: Lastly, we both painted the inside black.
I happened to find this old frame for 8 bucks at the thrift store where the poster board fit almost perfectly.
After it was all said and done, I learned.... 3 year olds have the attention span of an ant. I'd go smaller next time. With that said, however, the project turned out to be a lot of fun. Obviously, the older the kid, the more detailed you could make this. I loved that we could do something so fun and learn about numbers and colors at the same time! I'd definitely do it again!
So cute...it turned out great! :-)
ReplyDelete~Sarah
What a fantastic idea! I am pinning this to my grandson's board so when he is older we can do it together!
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