The girls come from a family of painters. Their grandma (my mother-in-law) has done some beautiful paintings and drawings–in my opinion, she is the queen of sunsets. Their abuela (great-grandma) is an accomplished artist who often combines her work of counseling with art, creating simply stunning works.
I enjoy painting and try to do it regularly (one of my pieces actually hangs in our sitting area). I’m a firm believer in including your children in what you enjoy. The girls show a great amount of interest whenever I bring my supplies out, and I wanted to be able to include them more and more. Right now, they aren’t really ready for paint. They are still mouthing most things and, honestly, I’m not too excited about the mess that would be involved. So we started painting with water on cardboard and ice painting.
While painting on cardboard is a great solution and enjoyable, it doesn’t dry very quickly. I remember the Buddha Board I had seen at Epcot and thought that might be a great alternative. But once I saw the price, the idea of getting two, at this time, seemed like a lot. I also wanted it to be a little more durable and portable. I was ready to write off this idea and just keep with cardboard, when I saw Japanese reusable calligraphy paper in the related options. At an affordable price, it was perfect! I just needed to make it so that the girls could easily use it.
I asked my husband to create a frame for the reusable paper so there was a spot for their brushes. But when I came across frames at Target on clearance for $3.50, I bought two with the plan to slightly modify them to meet our needs.
Using a chisel, some scrap wood, and safe wood glue, I created a platform for their brushes. While the frame itself will be resistant to water, the back needs to be. So we added a layer of shellac to protect it. Cutting the paper to overlap the backing, I was able to secure it by folding it behind. It’s not necessary to glue it, which I don’t recommend, and it works perfectly.
One of the best parts of making your own is that you can create it to whatever size fits your needs.
Wallah, a budget-friendly DIY Buddha Board, perfect for two little girls who wish to paint with their mummy.
This post contains affiliate links at no extra cost to you.
.
.
.
Could you share where you found your reusable paper? I teach art classes and would love to have this as a resource for my students.
My apologies, I though I had it linked. It is Japanese calligraphy paper. I hope your classes enjoy this as much as my children do❤️
“wallah” is not a word. You are looking for the word “voila”. Makes me sad thinking about how these home-schooled and unschooled kids are being taught by a bunch of mouth breathers – they simply have no future. This is also such a poorly compiled idea, just everything about this post screams “incompetent”.
Oops, someone doesn’t have access to a dictionary as ‘wallah’ technically is a word. While the word ‘voila’ is normally said, and appropriate, someone like myself, with a hearing imparement, often hears ‘wallah’ and so it has become a humourous thing in my community. In your attempt to attack homeschoolers, you just made yourself look silly. Have the day you deserve and make sure you use a dictionary next time you troll and masquerade yourself as an educated person❤️ (Fyi, ‘masquerade’ means that I’m implying you are a false “doctor.”)