A Work in Progress

This is another playroom piece of art. We have not finished this one but it is probably my favorite. I thought I would share how we are doing this piece so if any of you are interested in doing it with your child you could. It is a process and we have stepped away from it several times but this one is defiantly a keepsake.
1. Jake painted a canvas with a few colors - no rhyme or reason mainly just a backdrop.
2. I cut out 2" squares in some of the scrapbook paper and newspaper and a few are pieces of mail with the stamps on them. I think I also used lined paper for a few.
3. I used glue and water to make a modge podge mix and glued the squares on the canvas. I put glue under the squares and a layer over the squares.
4. I made 2" squares on a piece of white paper. I had Jake draw each letter with a pencil in the square. I told him the letter needed to be big in the square.
5. Next I took a fat marker and traced his letters just so they would be big enough for me to cut out. You can tell they are not uniform. I wanted them to be in his handwriting but I needed them to be fat enough to cut out and glue on the squares.
6. I used the modge podge mix and glued the letters (after cutting them out - which was tedious) onto the squares. You can see how I did every other one and switched each row.
7. The last thing - we are still working on this part - is coming up with an object that starts with each letter. Jake has come up with all of them so far. We have skipped around because he still doesn't know all of the letters sounds. I had him draw them in the 2" squares and then I colored some and he helped with some of the coloring. Some were too tiny for him to color without tearing up so I let him tell me what color and I filled them in. I then modge podge them onto the square beside the appropriate letter.

I love this because he is coming up with the items. Some of the things he has come up with have surprised me like popcorn, lily pad and jellyfish. Sometimes I just think - where did you learn these things. It has been fun, especially since I am not trying to rush and finish it.