Cardboard Paintings Inspired by Our Favorite Books

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

We have been having lots of fun coming up with ideas for this project, using the illustrations from some of our favorite picture books! These cardboard paintings make for an interactive, sensory way to paint and are a great way to incorporate an art activity into a story time or lesson based off of a book. The steps are pretty simple and easy to adapt to just about any book, although those with simpler shapes in the illustrations lend themselves well to this process.

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

What you’ll need:

cat at night rainbowgoodnightmoon

Pick your book and cut out shapes from the cardboard from the illustrations from your book of choice. Planting a Rainbow gave us lots of ideas for flowers in rows, while the houses from The Cat at Night were great to recreate. We drew inspiration from the starry night sky in Goodnight Moon. If you want the ridges showing, simply separate the layers of the cardboard carefully to expose them. I cut out all the shapes by myself but this would be fun for older kids to do on their own.

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books                 Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite booksIMG_9755

Start by taping down your piece of watercolor paper to the table. If you’d like a background now’s the time to add it. We squirted blobs of paint on the paper and smeared it around with the edge of a card until it had covered all of the white. We also left our flowers with a white background, so feel free to skip this step if you’d like!

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

Next, it was time to glue! Using a hot glue gun, I adhered all of the shapes firmly to the paper. Then it was time for the painting fun to begin for my girl! I chose to squirt all of colors of paint into an ice cube tray we’ve dedicated to craft use and put in Q-tips for each color for her to use for painting.

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

 

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite booksCaitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

 

When you’re all finished it’s time for the reveal, start peeling off the tape from the table (a 45 degree angle works best to prevent tearing) and ta-da! You have yourself a beautiful, dimensional piece of art.

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

Caitlin Betsy Bell | cardboard paintings inspired by our favorite books

Cardboard Paintings | Caitlin Betsy Bell

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1 Comment

  1. Caitlin what beautiful pictures, what a beautiful blog, excellent projects… I am so happy I found your pics on Instagram somehow. You’ve got a new subscriber. and, I think you know this already but you’ve also got wuite the little artiste on your hands too!

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