Ice Paint with Toddlers

My son’s 1st birthday party was a few weeks ago and I have yet to send the thank you notes. I may or may not have a thank you note love affair. Generally I feel that if someone gives you a gift, particularly at a time you did not get to speak with them and thank them properly (like at a party or if they send it), then you should send a thank you note! It doesn’t have to be fancy, just heartfelt. That doesn’t mean it can’t be fancy: I personally like fancy ones the best. Anyways. Toddlers can’t write their own thank you notes, but they can make something pretty to go on the thank you note. I wanted to have my son use finger paint for making these cards. It was a fail. He cried almost the whole time and just kept trying to crawl over to his big brother. A few days later I decided to try ice paint which I had seen on Pinterest (of course, where else.) I filled some leftover yogurt and applesauce containers with water and a few drops of gel food coloring. After an hour in the fridge I stuck in some wooden dowels. (After cutting them down by hand in the garage as the boys were sleeping. Yeah. That was an adventure.) I let them harden overnight and the next day had a successful ice painting session!

I used painter’s tape to keep the paper in place on the high chair tray. (I used inexpensive watercolor paper, but any thicker paper would be fine.) Then, I pretty much gave my son the ice paint chunks and let him go. It was great because he is teething, so he loved chewing on them. Much less nerve-wracking than regular paint because eating it is safe!

A week later I finally got around to turning the artwork into thank you notes. I cut the tape off and cut each piece into four separate pieces.

I used patterned and plain cardstock to make cards and affixed the artwork to the cards. I also had some cute “Thank you” adornments hanging around and used them on a few cards.

Now if I could just get all of them written, addressed, and mailed, my life would be complete.