Not the right Goo

I love me a good messy art project where you can get up to your elbows in paint and fling goo around and just have fun. There's something quite fulfilling in creating something and going whole hog. The submission for today's post has me itching to get painting! 

Rhya sent us in a project she tried from Pinterest. She read the directions, tried tweaking it to what she had at home (come on...we all do that with something every now and then...even you "I always follow the directions exactly" people surely try to improvise once in a while), then tried it with the supplies called for and sent us in all her results. I love the whole process and that she jumped in with both feet right away. Here's what happened:

The Original Pin

http://www.sweethappylife.com/2012/activities/preschool-activities/painting-with-watercolors-glue-and-salt/

Isn't that cool?! I think it is anyway. It makes me think of the Batik fabrics that are so popular right now. 

Rhya saw this and decided that that was the project to tackle for her Spring Break. The instructions called for clear Elmer's glue, but since Rhya alread had mod podge on hand, she thought she'd try that before running out to the store and getting the clear glue she only needed for this one project. She said, "Maybe I'm an idiot for trying it with mod podge, but hey It dries clear, I figure it would work....No.  nope.  Not at all.  Also, I thought this would be a really easy project, which it is, but I was over confident and used my big canvas to start with....*smacks forehead*"

Here's what she did:

"First step was easy, cover the canvas or watercolor paper generously with the watercolor paint; this allows for the salt to really soak up the water and paint. I figured this out on my first try. you need a heavy coat of watercolors when adding the salt, if it's not watered down enough the salt doesn't take in any of the paint."

"Then spotting the little stencil in the corner I decided why not use it? Make it less abstract....(that didn't really work) What happens when using a stencil with watercolor:"

"I still thought it was cool, so I kept going, trying to give this more texture (even though that's what the salt and glue was for)."

"Now the mess of attempting to use mod podge.  I didn't know How to spread it on the canvas, because I couldn't squeeze it out of the bottle like the site told me. So, I just poured it out in globs and then tried to spread it around...."

"Looks real nice doesn't it?. . . . oh yeah and I poured some of the kosher salt and then I saw some gliter laying around and said, what the hell I'll add that too."

"Went out for dinner for 2 hours came back to this:"

The Pinstrosity

"Doesn't look nice at all.." she said. 

"At this point I was like, okay substituting mod podge was a bad idea, lets go try the Elmer's Glue the original post said to do.  Bought some from Michael's for $1.29 (also bought some "chocolate" colored glitter). And tried this project on a super small scale. Threw on some watercolors, not paying attention to color combination.""

"NOW the glue starts to work its magic, and you can see the salt in their soaking up the Paint.  I think this looks much closer to the original."

So Rhya finally got the method figured out and decided to give the project another go to see if she could get a large scale "painting" that she liked. Do you hear the applause for her giving it another go? I do. I love that she kept trying!

The next day Rhya was able to come up with this Pin Win:

http://alflaylawalayla1001.blogspot.com/2013/03/watercolorsalt-elmer-glue-success.html

So moral of today's post? Try and try again. Oh and eat ice cream. I'm sure that moral is in this story somewhere. In fact...I think a small bowl of Peanut Butter Panic for breakfast is just what I "need" for breakfast. 

Oh...and I just saw this and thought it went well with today's post and with life in general (I needed the reminder today too):

Happy Friday everyone.