Drew and I were talking one night about all these creative things we used to do when we were little. I told him about the plays and skits my friends and I would make and then torture our parents with, making sure they watched the whole thing. I told him about the secret agent game that my sister, my best friend, and I would play and how I would come up with all these crazy scenarios for us to act out. And of course, the mountains of paintings, drawings, and sketches that I just knew my mom was preciously cataloging and keeping for future art enthusiasts to awe over (what ever happened to those, anyways??!). Drew himself went to film school before switching to education to become a history teacher. He used to write scripts and comic books. We felt like we were lacking that unique buzz in our lives that comes from engaging creatively and expressing yourself through art. So, we decided to start having date nights dedicated to being artsy and trying new things! And so was born 'Art of the Date'! We originally titled it 'adventures of the heART'... so cute, right?! But apparently very unoriginal as there were a lot of other Instagram accounts with that name! So, the next step was deciding on what activity to start off with. I took this opportunity to check an item off my bucket list that I had been wanting to do ever since I saw this scene in Princess Diaries...
That's right. BALLOON DART PAINTING!! Was this really a thing people did? Could it actually work? Off to Pinterest I went and wondered why I ever questioned it. Of course people did this! I found tons of entries dedicated to the ins and outs of balloon dart painting. I decided I'd rather go with the spatter method instead of the drip method like they did in the movie. Check out the steps for that below!
SUPPLIES: - Paint (we used Acrylic) - Plastic squeeze bottles - water balloons - balloon pump - steel tipped darts - tarp/drop cloth - thumb tacks - Canvases
SETUP:
We started off at Hobby Lobby but were a bit underwhelmed with the choices they had in the larger acrylic paint bottles. We were doing two painting activities, so we wanted to make sure we had enough paint. Then, we went to Michael's and found the Martha Stewart paint line! I'm not sure if the colors were actually any better or if the packaging was just prettier, but we picked out 6 colors we felt somewhat went together. You can do this with as few or as many colors as you want! The rest of the supplies we gathered at Dollar Tree and Walmart. After putting some tarp down to protect the patio, we put the paint into the plastic squeeze bottles.
You take your water balloons and use the squeeze bottle to fill the deflated balloon with paint. You can't see how much you're putting in, so there's a bit of a learning curve involved. Once you've squeezed too much and paint oozes out of the top of the balloon a few times, you start to get a feel for how much to put in! Then, you use the balloon pump to inflate the balloon to about the size of a lemon. From what I read, water balloons work better because they're smaller and the paint splatter gets mostly on the canvas, whereas regular sized balloons are too big and the paint splatter gets everywhere. We're using a 16 x 20 inch canvas though, so if you have a huge canvas the larger balloons might be better! Tying the balloons can be a bit tricky if you have wet paint on your fingers (or in Drew's case, if you have giant man hands), so keep paper towels handy!
Next, you take the thumb tack and push it through the little nub part (??...never had to think of a name for that part of a balloon before) and then onto the canvas. This will leave tiny holes in the canvas but you can't even tell unless you're right up next to it. Once you're finished, it should look something like this! We concentrated them in the middle but you can do any configuration you'd like. It'd be fun to play around with the layout and see how it affects the outcome!
MAIN EVENT:
Now for the fun part!! Drew and I took turns watching each other throw darts at the canvas. Each splatter was oh so satisfying. It was just as exhilarating as I hoped it would be! The darts did leave a few large holes in the canvas from the once or twice (hah!) we missed, but again it wasn't that noticeable and I think it adds another layer of interest to the painting. Even though the setup took a good 45 minutes to an hour, I had so much fun talking and laughing (and possibly downing a couple Moscow Mules) with Drew. The effort was more than worth the reward!
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