Things to Make - Sunprints with Dark Construction Paper

On a sunny weekend, this project is wonderful, in that it combines nature and art in a super-simple manner. Here's the scoop:

1. On the night of day 1 (or early in the morning of day 2) go for a nature scavenger hunt, look for things with interesting "shapes." Our 9 year old neighbor joined us and she was fantastic as helping the girls spot different shapes and patterns. We brought a plastic bag with us and dropped everything inside.

2. We then went home and taped our found objects to dark construction paper (DARK is key), we tried glue too, but tape worked much better.

3. Early the next morning (day 2) I placed everyone's papers on our deck in the sunniest spot possible. Throughout the day, we kept checking on them to see the silhouettes form. The girls loved this part, so we checked on them A LOT throughout the day.

4. Finally, on the evening of day 2, we brought the papers inside and carefully removed the tape and objects. I was hoping to make some sort of artwork out of our sunprint, but the kids had a much better time just looking at them and trying to figure out which silhouette belonged to which object.

OTHER ART IDEAS AND PROJECTS FROM AROUND THE WEB:

*I can't explain this one, just trust me and take a look here. Pretty cool, huh?

*Trula Kids makes beautiful stamps out of her daughter's artwork. And this etsy post explains step by step how stamp making works.

*Paper tiaras has a great tutorial on making your own stickers.

*For adult crafters - this DIY doiley hanging sculpture is incredible as are these DIY colorful cake stands.

*As I'm always looking for ways to use old toilet paper rolls, I found this snake both simple and fun.

*Make a paper crane and help Japan, for directions and info, click here.

*These little linen bags are adorable (link via Modern Parents, Messy Kids).