MARSHMALLOW PRINTS

Dave made a fire in the backyard the other night and Kinley was thrilled. She came screaming in the house hollering about marshmallows and going through every single cabinet that she could reach trying to wish some of those fluffy treats into existence. But, alas, no marshmallows appeared and she had to go to without her "smows".

When I was tucking her into bed that night she asked if we could buy some marshmallows at the store for eating and for painting with. I never, ever say no to a craft request (unless it involves glitter. I reserve the right to veto glitter crafts at my discretion 😉) but I wasn't quite sure what kind of painting she meant. I had just seen a really cool marshmallow painting idea from Bar Rucci on Instagram and thought maybe she had seen it over my shoulder, but no, she didn't want to paint on marshmallows, she said she wanted to paint with marshmallows. Genius, right?

I should mention that Kinley is a complete and total polka dot addict, so the fact that her sweet little dot-loving mind came up with a dot-making process all on her own is extra cool. I love that she is getting old enough to come up with her own ideas for getting creative.

We headed to the grocery store the very next afternoon and as soon as we got back home and walked through the door with our fresh bag of jumbo fluffy white sugary stampers, we squirted Kinley's choice of paint colors on a plate and got down to it.

That's really all you need for this project: marshmallows and paint. Well, and paper of course.

Kinley and I did our printing on our IKEA easel paper so we could use it to wrap Grammie's Mother's Day presents, but these prints would look great on anything I think. Wouldn't a dotty apron or t-shirt be cool?

K had so much fun dot-dotting her marshmallow around all over the place, but I think her favorite part was teasing me mercilessly by pretending to eat her painty stampers. I made sure to put a bowl of fresh no-stamp marshmallows on the table while we were working so she wouldn't even think about sneaking a bite of acrylic paint.

Speaking of eating, I thought of an idea for all of you mommas of teeny-tiny artists that might wanna give this process a go. What if you tried making sugar-free vanilla or white chocolate pudding, tinting it with food coloring and using that for your paint? You could still use the marshmallows for stamps of course. That way you wouldn't have to watch like a hawk and be ready to knock poison covered treats out of tiny hands at any moment. Plus, bonus, you get to eat the leftovers! Hey, sounds pretty tasty to this grown-up 😉

Think you'll give marshmallow painting a try? It's one of those simple but super fun kind of projects. We spent twenty minutes stamping to the beat of our eighties tunes and I'm sure we will do it again, possibly in a couple of weeks when we need gift wrap for Daddy's birthday presents 😊

As usual, holler if you try it and have fun and don't forget to tag me (@raising.kinley) if you post a pic of your masterpiece on Instagram. I'm on there all the time and I'd absolutely love to see how your marshmallow art turns out.

Happy stamping!