We’ve had a fair amount of activity in the house lately that has focused on Ella’s new space, so I thought it would be good to do a few updates to Taylor’s room as well. Even at this young age, you can tell that kids keep track of this stuff! For a year or two Taylor has been loving the show Wild Kratts, and he continues to show a keen interest in animals, so I thought I would go that direction (somewhat selfishly, in an effort to keep the theme of his room from turning full on Star Wars for as long as possible). The animal in the project was intended to be abstract, but he immediately was thrilled that it was a cougar, so we’ll go with that! Materials and instructions for this easy and inexpensive project are below.
Materials: Large scale paint “chips” (these are Dutch Boy), an animal cut-out (cut free hand or download – see Pinterest link here), a glue stick and a frame.
Instructions: Choose two different variations of the paint samples. Use one as a base and cut the animal out of the other. Superimpose the animal on top of the base, lining up carefully so that the outline of the animal is clear. Glue together and place in a frame. If the mat is larger than the samples, you can fill the space with contrasting paper, such as the zigzag border shown in the picture.

Reality Check. For those of you keeping track, yes, this is the second art project that has involved a liberal use of the “free samples” at paint stores (see DIY Party Streamers post here).