I'm currently in day #83646712353 of the pandemic, and now that we're in the middle of winter, I'm becoming a little stir crazy. I live alone with my dog & 2 cats, I work from home with the exception of a few hours on Friday & Saturday & now that it's cold out, socially distanced outdoor gatherings with friends aren't happening. I've watched more television in the last 10 months than I have in the last 10 years, I'm bored with reading, bored with cleaning & organizing, & I really need to curb my online shopping. What else can I do to pass the time besides watch videos for countless hours on TikTok?
Paint! Okay, so I'm a terrible painter. I've done a few of the Paint N Sips with friends & while my artwork is proudly displayed in my hallway, I'm not really all that proud of it. I'm good with instruction for the most part, until it comes to painting trees or flowers & then I completely ruin it. This paint project is a little different.
I always think the artwork with kids hands & feet are just the cutest thing ever.... but I don't have any kids, and that turkey wouldn't look as cute with my adult hand. So time to put my dog to work! He is my child, after all. This was a cute idea I stumbled across, somewhere, on the internet. And if you do have kids, you could easily modify this for your human children.
As you can tell from my amateur TikTok's, the process is quite simple. Start with a blank canvas, add your dog's name with sharpie (if you wish), add paint to the canvas, spread peanut butter on a ziploc bag, place the canvas carefully into the ziploc, seal it & let your dog get to work licking the canvas! I did apply some additional peanut butter halfway thru. The hardest part is removing the canvas. As you can see, I kinda got some of the paint on the bottom over his name when I pulled it out. I just took a paper towel & smeared it across the bottom like that was my plan the entire time.
And as far as modifying this for your children... just skip the peanut butter! Just spreading the paint around with the ziploc while keeping their hands clean will be fun for them. Or if they're really young, maybe you could put some snacks on top that they grab that would spread paint around too.
This is not my first round of dog art... with some help from a friend, we also created this using Gunnar's paw prints. If you try this out, here's a suggestion I wish I thought about before we did it... paint the paint onto your dog's paw before pressing it onto the canvas. It's way easier & less messy than dipping their paw into the paint!! Make sure you're using non-toxic paint for a project like this. If it's safe for your kids, it should be safe for your pet too.