It's almost February which means it's time for us to start working on our calendar art for next month! I put together a super simple and fun kids heart art project for our February calendar art- all you need are some simple supplies and our Blank 2024 Calendar Templates that you can print at home!
This mixed media heart painting is fun to create and you only need some very basic art supplies to get started. Suitable for toddlers to adults you can use this technique for more than calendar art- last year this is how we painted our own Valentine's Day cards!
What you'll need:
Watercolor Paper - trimmed to 8.5"x11" if printing your calendar template
Printable Template for February 2024
Cardboard tubes (toilet paper rolls)
Acrylic Paints (you can use a single color or multiple colors)
Paper Plates or old plastic lids for acrylic paint
Watercolor Paint, Water, and Paintbrush
Markers or Pen to trace dates on template
What to do:
Step 1. Trim the watercolor paper to fit in your home printer. For me this means turning it into an 8.5"x11" sheet. Then print your calendar template at full scale.
Step 2. Squeeze your cardboard tubes into a heart shape, start by pinching one side of the tube to create the V of the heart, then push in the opposite side of the tube to make the rounded parts. These don't have to be perfect! They can be long/skinny or short/fat- you can even use small cookie cutters.
Step 3. Put your acrylic paint on a paper plate or a flat dish like an old yogurt lid. I save the lids from my cream cheese/cottage cheese containers because they're great for paint stamping projects! Tip: You can roll a piece of masking tape to put underneath the plate/lid to get it to stick to the table - this helps stop the tray of paint from moving around while stamping.
Step 4: Stamp your heart tubes into the paint and then decorate the blank space on the template with different colored acrylic hearts. Try letting them overlap which makes it extra fun to watercolor.
***Allow the acrylic paint to dry COMPLETELY***
Step 5: Once the acrylic paint dries completely you can paint directly on top of the hearts with watercolor paint. Experiment with staying inside the lines and letting the paint bleed and blend together.
Step 6: Trace over the name of the month and each of the days of the month- this is great handwriting practice and is a wonderful opportunity to talk about numbers, days of the week, and the month! Did you know? February 2024 is a leap year!
More of a visual learner (me too):
Find a quick video tutorial over on Instagram here, or watch below.