If you’re looking for Olympic Craft Ideas for kids to make during the Olympics, this Olympic Rings Craft is as real winner. Using just cardboard rolls and paint to match the Olympic Rings, kids can stamp up a piece of Olympic Ring art to hang on the wall of their playroom or bedroom.
Because my daycare kids really get into the whole Olympics scene, we’re focusing on some Olympic themed Crafts here in my daycare this month.
Recently, we made this awesome Olympic Torch Craft, and these bronze silver and gold Olympic medals, and today, the preschoolers made a piece of Olympic Ring Art to hang in our playroom.
This is a great Olympic craft for preschoolers and toddlers but older kids will love it too.
You’ll love it because the supplies are minimal. All you need is a canvas (more about that in a sec), some sturdy cardboard tubes (the sturdiest are aluminum foil rolls and plastic wrap rolls), and paint.
Inexpensive art canvas idea:
You can pick up a cheap canvas at the dollar store, but here’s a little art hack for you:
When we’re creating a permanent piece of art, I love to use an old, second-hand painting as a canvas.
I pick up old, unwanted pictures and canvases at thrift shops, and we prime them, and paint over them, turning them into hooligan-made, one-of-a-kind art for our playroom. See how we’ve recycled an old canvases before with this abstract art project and with this piece of smoosh-painted art. Both of these paintings now hang on the walls of our toy room.
If you don’t have an old canvas to use, you can stamp your Olympic rings on cardboard or card stock.
For our Olympic Rings Craft, you’ll need:
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- a canvas
- Gesso or other surface primer
- white paint (or whatever colour you want for your backdrop)
- cardboard tubes (we used the sturdy ones that hold aluminum foil and plastic wrap)
- acrylic craft paint in red, green, blue, black , yellow
- small bowls or plastic lids
How to prep a second-hand canvas:
If you’re painting over an old canvas, you’ll want to prepare the surface with a primer. This will cover up all traces of the original piece of art.
I used Gesso to prime the canvas for today’s Olympic art project. In the past, I have used household latex primer for this step, and it works well too.
When the primer was dry, the kids gave it a couple of coats of white acrylic paint.
A blow dryer will speed up the drying process so you can be painting your Olympic Rings in no time.
Stamping Olympic Rings with cardboard tubes:
Now, for the fun part!
I poured a small amount of paint into some small bowls and plastic lids, and set out the cardboard tubes.
I dipped the end of each tube into a different colour, and then explained to the hooligans that they had to match the colour on the bottom of the tube to the colour of paint that they were dipping into. This prevented the paints and rings from getting “muddy”.
Let the stamping begin!
The older hooligan worked on the primed canvas, and she had a great time stamping the painting was covered in rings.
The younger hooligans worked on a piece of white cardboard, producing equally beautiful results.
For the youngest kids, I poured paint into a styrofoam produce tray, and they dipped their cardboard rolls into that.
What do you think? Didn’t our Olympic artwork turn out great? I can’t wait to hang this original piece of art in our play room!
More Olympics Themed Activities for Kids:
Easy Olympic Torch for Preschoolers
Tissue Paper Olympic Rings – Mess for Less
Olympic Olive Wreath Craft – I Can Teach My Child
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
Anik
Easy, beautiful and so much fun! great idea 🙂
kewkew
What a great idea for an easy craft for kids to get involved with the Olympics! I am not sure that we would be able to find old canvas art in our tiny community, but we have plenty of cardstock!
I would love for you to stop by and share on my recently revived Toddler Ideas Tuesday linky. I will be featuring 2-3 posts every week, linking back to the original post.
I hope to see you at Tots and Me.
http://totsandme.blogspot.com/2014/01/toddler-ideas-tuesday-january-28th-2014.html
Have a great evening.
Claire
Love this!! Such a simple activity that turns out so cute! 🙂 Great idea!
teachingyoungchildren
How cool! I always wondered how to upcycle unwanted art. Thanks for sharing your technique and this fun and cheerful Olympics art with Afterschool!
Tiffiny
I LOVE the idea of re-purposing unwanted artwork. I always see stuff like that sitting in thriftshops and wonder who would buy it. Now the answer will be me!
jeannine: waddleeahchaa
Hi from HHH!
So easy (I like low-maintenance projects) and cute. Great way to develop fine-motor-skills.
Going to pin and share.
Jolanthe
So colorful – I love it!! {and simple – even better!}
Skirtfixation
Hey, that’s a great idea! We linked up this week too! http://skirtfixation.com/2014/02/copycat-soft-surroundings-top/
Carrie @ Crafty Moms Share
Very fun idea! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
aiming4simple
Pinned! I’m visiting from the Hands on Play Party!
Camille
Would love for you to link up this idea with us! Such fun! @costours.blogspot.com
Jennifer Dawn
What a fun idea! It looks like they really enjoy it.
Kate
What a fabulous idea!! I can’t wait to try it before the summer Olympics start!!
Kate
Thanks for the fantastic idea! I can’t wait to try this with my kids before the summer Olympics start!!