Painting Easel

I have always wanted to buy an art easel for my kids but it takes up too much space, there's a huge waste of paper, and the paint makes a mess all over the house when the little one is not supervised.  I think I have stumbled across a solution: use a window, door, or other glass pane.  Using washable paint, this will be easily cleaned.  It can be set up outside (if you are really brave you can use your own back door!).  The only expense becomes the paint and brushes which you can purchase nice jars for paint at Lakeshore Learning or Learning Palace and it will help keep the paint a little more contained.

While visiting a children's museum in Seattle I saw this idea in use and I immediately thought of going to ReStore and finding a used window at an affordable price.  It would be easy to add a base of some sort (depending on the base you find.  Also, a picture frame might work if you hung an old frame on your fence your children could use that to paint.  The frames would have to be weatherized but there are stains or sprays that make that really easy.