The Wiggles Wall

I've had a house full of family for the last few weeks - it's been wonderful but has meant not too much stamping, so I thought I'd show you a glimpse of another creative project I was involved in for my grandson. He is a mad Wiggles fan - like most children his age, and after attending The Wiggles Christmas concert my daughter asked if I'd help her create his very own Wiggles corner in their yard.  I don't think she realized what a huge job this would be, but I sketched out the basic layout in chalk (hoping it wouldn't rain for a couple of weeks) and we started painting. I have to admit to stepping back at that stage - it was so hot painting outside that a couple of hours at a time was enough for me.

The area was quite large, so I worked out a grid to enlarge the design and after the first day used an acrylic wash to "sketch" in the shapes. Rain was threatening and we didn't want to loose all our design! Here are a couple of progress photos.

We added more of the characters hiding in the jungle - Wags the Dog, Henry the Octopus and Dorothy the Dinosaur.

 One of T's favourite characters is Captain Feathersword, and there was plenty of space left so we added him in his pirate ship. Then there was room for Dora the Explorer, her cousin Diego and Baby Jaguar. One day I went along to find Boots the Monkey swinging from a vine, and it is great fun to search the jungle to see who is lurking amongst the trees.

Captain Feathersword taking shape.

And here is a section of the finished product. We outlined each shape with black to achieve a  graphic effect - it lifted the whole design and helped differentiate the green shapes. My daughter added some fun shapes like the little bug on the leaves.

Dora, Diego and Baby Jaguar helped with the transition from jungle to water and a few judiciously placed rocks made a nice screen for difficult to draw parts of animals etc. I think we just about covered all his favourite characters.

I am really impressed with the final result - it ended up being a family affair with my daughter doing most of the painting, but being helped by her husband and "helped" by little T who is nearly 3 years old.

It will provide a lovely space for him to continue to develop his active imagination while he is outside playing as his play gym and sand pit are in close proximity.

I hope you enjoy this little diversion and I promise to be back with some more stamping projects next week.