Cute design ideas for paint-your-own pottery for the grandparents?

[ourbabygirl]

I've seen some cute Christmas-themed designs, but I'm wondering if you have any ideas for less 'seasonal' designs? I'm taking the kids to a paint-your-own pottery place to paint something for the grandparents. We may keep it simple and do mugs, but I'm open to other ideas, like bowls, platters, etc.

Have your kids done any cute ones over the years? I'm looking for something a 2 and 4 year old could do, so probably hand or fingerprints, or something else that's simple.

Thanks for your help! :)

[sunnyside]

I have a 2 year old and we go to paint your own pottery all the time. Your best bet to not have a brown art piece is to pick something that would look ok painted with a few colors on the same side of the color wheel. Either Red/Yellow/Orange or Green/Blue. The keep just those colors available to the kids. My daughter really likes to mix up her paint, and this is the only way to keep her piece from becoming really crazy looking. She recently made a sunflower bowl with her dad, and he didn't know about the color thing so it's sort of a yellowish brown. :)

[Nyfeara]

Last year DS did a few projects like this. For the grandparents, he did Santa's sleigh with reindeer and elves. We did the sleigh body using his footprint, then drew in the other parts. We used a fingerprint for elf bodies and 2 fingerprints for reindeer (small one for the head, larger one for body). I think we used the side of his fist to make Santa's body/belly. He did his part on one day, then I came back & did the details on another day.

We thought about making a tree out of layered fingerprints this year but he just wanted to paint however. You could also use a footprint for an angel's body & then handprints as wings. You could figure out a way to do snowmen, gingerbread boys/girls, penguins, etc using hands & feet.

As a pp said, limiting the available colors definitely helps prevent the "muddy water" look.

[Pear]

Last year we did a platter. We picked some light and similar colors and let the kids paint. Then we did handprints on top.

[nfowife]

You could do a bowl and then use fingers on it in white. Then decorate each finger like a snowman. There's a cute poem that goes with if you'd like it.