Painting on Foil

Baby Bear really enjoys painting, so we paint often. To try to mix things up a bit, sometimes we try new paint recipes, new tools, or new canvases. It keeps things interesting. Our latest painting venture involved testing out a different canvas... aluminum foil.

Call me excessively frugal, but when the sun was blazing on yet another 100+ degree day, I put aluminum foil over the window on my front door where the most heat was coming in. It may not look pretty, but it only cost pennies to perform the same function as a thick shade or a new door with an energy efficient window. Anyway, the weather has been much nicer these past couple of weeks, even allowing us to turn off the air conditioner and open the windows, so I finally removed the foil. It came off in great shape, and it seemed such a shame to just throw it away without having a little fun first. So, I gave it to Baby Bear to paint on!

At first, Baby Bear liked to just sit and stare at his reflection in the foil. Once I told him he could pour his own paint, though, that ended quickly! I gave him a paintbrush to use, but Baby Bear seemed to like the smooth yet wrinkled feel of the foil under his fingers. He had a blast pouring all the different colors onto the foil and then mixing them up with his hands. Then, he drew pictures of faces in the muddy-orange color that was left. I have a feeling we'll be using foil as a paint canvas many more times to come.