When the weather starts to get nice in Wisconsin, we never know how long it will last. So, we spend as much time as we can outdoors. One of our favorite ways to spend time outdoors is completing artsy activities!
Art is one subject that is perfect for the outdoors for several reasons. From keeping the mess out of the house, being inspired by nature or just getting outside of the four walls of your home. Art outdoors just works!
10 Outdoor Art Activities
1) Create Bird Feeders
We love to feed the birds and watch them. What better way than to create your own bird feeder?
There are so many fun ways to make one; this is a lovely twist on the traditional bird feeder from Saltwater Kids. You can even make these as summer gifts to share with friends and family.
2) Make Fairy Perfume
This is fun for the girls; they’ll enjoy making their own rose petal fairy perfume using this recipe from Anna at The Imagination Tree!
If you have rose bushes in bloom, this is a fun way to use some of the petals from your own roses!
3) Have Fun with Tie Dye
How about this oldie? I always loved tie-dying things. What a fun way for the kids to make something that is all their own; a unique one-of-a-kind shirt, bag, dress or skirt.
We love to collect plain and inexpensive skirts and shirts (whatever we can find) when we visit the local Goodwill store, so the kids can paint them.
4) Sidewalk Painting
This one is lots of fun! I saw it on the Kids Activities Blog: Fizzing Sidewalk Paint and I knew we just had to try it. We put ours in squeeze bottles since all three kids love using these. It was a little thick in the beginning, but we managed to add some water and thin it out a bit.
Since this gets a bit messy (my kids paint themselves along with whatever they may be painting), we had to spray them down a bit. The result when we did was that they also got all fizzy and bubbly. My daughter thought that was the best and she said it tickles!
5) Rock Painting!
We cannot have a nice day that includes paint without first going on a hunt for rocks and then painting them! Since we don’t live far from the lake and beach, we tend to make this a fun day.
Once the kids have their bags of rocks, we head for home so they can paint them. With washable paint, of course. My oldest son likes to try to make them look like different kinds of animals; my two little ones just enjoy finding the rocks and painting them.
6) Spray Chalk
This one is lots of fun and the recipe is super easy to make and washes off easily! This art project will keep the kids busy for most of the day if they are anything like mine.
All you have to do is fill your spray bottles about 1/3 of the way with a baking soda and cornstarch mixture, using equal amounts of both ingredients. Add a few drops of food coloring or washable watercolors, and then fill the bottles with warm water. Use a butter knife or stick to stir the mixture, and then place the spray spouts on and shake the bottles really well. You will also want to shake the bottles again just before play, since some of the cornstarch will settle a bit at the bottom of the bottle.
7) Bubbles Art
Bubbles are always great fun and this is a fun recipe that smells great too! All you need to do is mix 1 cup of hot water with 2 TBSP of Karo syrup (we tripled this so we could have one for each of our three bubble lovers!)
We separated the liquid into three bottles, and then let the kids add 4 Tbsp of dish soap, 3-5 drops of food coloring and 1-2 drops of extract or essential oil (peppermint, orange and lemon were big hits here!). By the way, you can paint (think watercolor) with this stuff too!
8) Ninja Balls
My little ninjas were so excited to find these. We all loved those squishy balls that we used to play with as kids. Yet, they broke very easily!
Learn how to quickly make your own “Ninja Stress Balls” at home here. This is great fun for the kids!
9) Miniature Fairy Gardens
How about a miniature garden? In fact, most people call them fairy gardens. My oldest loves to plant flowers and help tend the vegetable garden every year, so he is excited to develop his very own miniature garden this year.
Landscaping is art! We plan to do this on a much smaller scale, of course; perhaps using an old cake pan or getting a nice pot for my son to create in.
10) Make Edible Art
Care to have sand that is edible? This fun, colorful kids’ activity is fun to look at and play with! This is a fantastic texture for sensory play and the grains of sugar look just like sand! The colors come out super too – rainbow bright – my kids say. We’ve used this for tracing letters and numbers and molded it to make a castle and turtle (because it holds just like real sand)!
Just mix 2 cups of pure cane sugar (found next to regular sugar in the baking aisle) and 10 drops of liquid food coloring in a Ziploc bag. Now shake up the bag to mix the colors. Allow this to dry completely to ensure food coloring doesn’t bleed on your child’s hands.
Need more outdoor art ideas to keep your kids busy the rest of the summer? Download the free printable outdoor art challenge below!
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Outdoor Art Challenge Calendar
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