Easter Felt Art Project (& Math Tie Ins)

Recently, while perusing the dollar section at Target, the boys and I came across some cute seasonal felt place mats.
The place mats came in two packs,  in both pink and light blue.
The pink place mats featured floral cut outs. The light blue place mats featured Easter egg cut outs.
We bought two of the light blue place mats.
These mats are not only decorative for Easter but they make the concept of positive and negative space very concrete, as well as the concept of patterns.
Plus, we figured that they would be fun to paint!
So, we took them home and discussed the designs on the place mats.
We discussed the pattern on the place mat and discussed how we thought that the place mats had been made: most likely, they were done using a die cut tool, as the egg shapes were identical on both of the place mats.
We got into the concept of positive and negative space.
After briefly discussing, it was then left up to them to explore their mediums: the felt, the paints, and the paper...
Both Big Bro and Little Bro placed their mats onto their art trays and carried the trays outside.
They both chose to place card stock paper under the felt place mats.
Big Bro and Little Bro then discussed if they were to paint only on the surface of the felt, that they would be painting on the positive space of the place mats. They then discussed if they painted in between the die cut outs, they would be painting in the negative space of the felt.
The boys enjoyed exploring patterns, colors, and positive and negative space during this project.
They were very deliberate in their paint choices and really took their time on this art project. Big Bro took two days to complete his art work.
Little Bro is still working diligently on his...he has already spent two days, but has more to go...
The process of getting to explore the concepts of pattern, color, texture, and positive and negative space has been really interesting to observe.
They both have seemed to get quite a bit out of doing this project.

Here are some pictures of their work in progress:

Big Bro went back and forth painting the positive and negative spaces...

Little Bro painted all of his positive space first. Then, he went back to do the negative space...

Big Bro's art work...note how he has painted both the positive and negative space as he has worked on this...

Big Bro, day 2, working on his art project...

Little Bro, day 2, working on his art project.

Close up shot of Little Bro's art in progress...he focused on painting all of the positive space first...

Here is Big Bro with his painted felt place mat...he is still debating whether he wants to use it as a place mat or if he wants to affix it  onto tag board...

Big Bro's finished art from painting all of the cut outs on the felt mat...the negative space becomes the positive space on the card stock paper!

Have you done some Easter or Spring themed projects that you would like to share?

Have you created art projects that drive home math concepts?

Would love to have you link up and share your ideas in the comments section so that I can come see you art projects and so that I can pin them to my Pinterest boards.