Sunday, January 10, 2010

Painting With Light


One of my favorite New Year's projects this year was painting with light. (Thank you oh Craft King, a.k.a. "The Hubby.") Imagine six kids, ten glow sticks, and my camera on a tripod in our living room after dark. Add in a little creativity and 10 second exposures, and you've got at least two hours of fun.


It was great to watch the creativity just ooze out of the kids - and to see their strategies change as they saw each image they created. Six kids was probably a few too many to be practical as it was hard for everyone to get a chance to experiment with their ideas, but they still had a good time...


After the kids went to bed, the adults had to get in on the fun. Mrs. Rose, my third grade teacher, would not have been pleased with our cursive!

Next time you're out shopping you should pick up a few glow sticks (check out the sporting goods section.) At about $1.00 each, the fun was well worth the cost!

17 comments:

Brigide said...

Too cute! We did this once in the summer when I was a teenager. My sister and her husband were selling glow sticks at events around the state, we had some left over so we played outside most of the rest of the night with them. No camera's tho :(.

stitching under oaks said...

how clever....i'll need to check this out! such neat results.

Erin said...

Fun! We did something similar at camp this summer (before all the kids arrived) with sparklers. Took a few of the counselors a little longer than it should have to figure out that they had to make the letters backwards for them to appear correctly from my vantage point behind the camera. :)

Sara said...

Very cool! Love your banner picture too!

Sam said...

The first image is fantastic - I love it :-)
Yet more reasons why I need a tripod!

Loralynn said...

This is awesome! My Mom just got a new, expensive, digital camera for Christmas and this would be so cool to do with the kids! tfs

Karen Bosch said...

Awesome idea! Love it!

kate said...

Too cool - me thinks this household would love to do that!

Allie said...

That is very cool! I need me some glow sticks.

The Hubby said...

You don't need to use glow sticks. If your cellphone has an always on camera flash, use that. Single LED key chain lights work also. Any concentrated light source will work.

Valerie said...

That looks like a ton of fun - I'm thinking some moonless night at the cottage this coming summer...

The WoodLand School said...

Awesome idea!!! I can't wait to try it out tonight :-)

Anonymous said...

What fun! I am teaching a dance unit right now and the kick it off I gave each kid 2 glow bracelets, turned off the gym lights (except the closet light for safety) and we danced like crazy! It was great fun. Now I wish I had thought of the camera.

susan said...

more fun at the homeplace...looks like everyone had a great time. we used glo sticks for fishing in hawaii and then the boys started breaking them open....boys! but that was about thirty years ago...can it really be that long.

cathleen said...

Liz, that is really cool. I bet my granddaughters would LOVE it!

Mike Forrester said...

Okay, I'm really starting to get a complex reading your blog. What clever and fun things you and the 'Craft King' create!

I need to up the ante or Siena may want to come live with you!

zakkalife said...

That is so cool, will have try this out. And your photos came out great!