More abstract kid art (Now trimmed with yard sticks!)

Here’s another piece of abstract kid art Elise made for her uncle (my brother). He doesn’t have any children of his own yet to make him sloppy paintings, so I thought he might appreciate one from us.

We started with a piece of scrap wood left over from making our DVD shelves. After priming it and painting it white…

I set Elise up and let her go for it. We layered one color at a time with drying time in between (just like we did in our earlier paintings here and here). And when all was done and dry, I gave it a coat of clear polyurethane.

I wanted to trim out the piece and remembered that I had a bunch of cut up yardsticks from the first failed version of my growth chart project. I used a hack saw and a miter box to cut the pieces to the dimensions of the painting. Really quick and easy. The wood is so soft, you could practically cut it with a butter knife.

I painted all the trim strips a dark gray and sealed them with polyurethane. Then to attach them, I drilled some pilot holes around the edges of the painting and nailed them in place.

Lookin’ pretty sharp! I have some additional material, so I’m definitely going to use the yard stick trim trick again.

At 2.5 years old, Elise really does recognize that she made this painting. She still fully expects the paint to be wet when she touches it, but it’s fun to see her be proud of something she made.

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This is part of my 2011 Handmade Gift Challenge.