paint cut paste

i remember the curious process of making paper when i was a kid — it was always sort of odd to me that we’d take perfectly good paper, shred it up, get it wet, and make it into new lumpy paper. curious, indeed, but making your own paper is a fun and wonderful way to recycle scraps you may have laying around the house into something lovely (and something that blooms – read on!)

i was inspired by a guest post on make & takes and decided that creating plantable paper with flower seeds in it would make for lovely mother’s day cards. so novi and i got busy collecting select colors of paper scraps we had around our art studio. (we chose analogous colors so that when they blended, they’d make a color that was not brown. novi’s favorite colors are purple and red, so this worked out well. she helped in hunting for the scraps in our art room, and chose to recycle some of her own preschool art work and valentine hearts, too.)

then the ripping process began! little did i know that tearing is a good lesson for little hands! i sometimes forget that these seemingly ordinary tasks are things we learned along the way, so i took the opportunity to teach novi about tearing. we tore them up into little bits no bigger than a square inch.

next we put the colors into our blender.

we added just enough water to cover the paper shreds, then we blended until it looked like, as novi said, “a raspberry smoothie.” after that, novi sprinkled flower seeds into the pulp. (we chose zinnias.)

do not blend after the seeds are in – just stir them into the pulp with a spoon.

after that, i strained the pulp through a mesh strainer, pushing the water out with a wooden spoon. (if you don’t have a mesh strainer, just place a thin towel in the bottom of your colander and that should work, too.)

i had prepared a cookie sheet with an art rag/towel on it, then a layer of felt. once i pressed the water out of the pulp, i attempted to spread it out evenly onto the felt sheet. (this is where i realized that it may be really hard for this pulp to dry in such a way as to make a sheet of paper – it seemed really clumpy and separated.) i pressed on it (to squeeze water out) with another towel on top. novi even helped with this using her small rolling pin.

i put it aside to dry overnight… and it actually took about a day and a half. once it was dry, i attempted to cut it into cute flower shapes; however, as i suspected, it was crumbly and very little of it was able to be cut. i tried and struggled a bit to get a few good pieces that look like flowers. you could also make hearts, butterflies, or whatever you wish… or whatever you can manage to cut. i get the sense that using cookie cutters when the pulp is almost dry would work better. or even using a stencil after to make a nice, clean shape. i think that next time we do it, we will try for a finer pulp so that it can be spread more thin on the felt, and hopefully stick together enough to make a sheet.

then we chose some colors to make a few cards, and glued the seed paper flowers onto the cards, using buttons for flower centers.

we will write a note inside with the planting instructions for the pastel zinnias in hopes that the recipients will watch these paper flowers bloom into real blossoms… sweet spring, easter, or mother’s day cards.

ah, the luck of the irish! my daughter is 1/8th irish, as my husband is 1/4th… (no irish in me, but i did enjoy a brief trek through ireland back in college.) i figured that we should celebrate st. patrick’s day with some sort of craft, in honor of novi’s bloodline…

who couldn’t use more luck? thus, blarney stones! in ireland, the famous blarney stone resides at the top of blarney castle in the southwest part of the country, where tourists climb winding stairs just to kiss the stone. this is said to give them “blarney” which means luck, but more specifically eloquence. (um, the gift to gab isn’t really something my daughter needs more luck with!) in the craft world, it seems that blarney stones are traditionally rocks painted green, with little faces on them (kissing faces usually) or they could have shamrocks on them, instead.

we figured it’d be fun to make our own blarney stones for our seasonal altar at home. we collected a few smooth stones with a flat bottom from our backyard flowerbed and washed them. then we gathered up our crafty materials and green acrylic paint (well, we mixed our dark green with some yellow to make more of a kelly green color.)

we painted each of them (except one*) green and let them dry. to speed that along, i used a hairdryer on low heat.

after they were dry, we glued on googly eyes, felt mouths, embroidery floss hair, and even a hat made of felt and a flower sequins adornment.

after making three blarneys to kiss all month long, novi had enough, so i painted a shamrock onto the fourth stone with glitter glue (which might make a cute good luck charm to give to someone someday?)

* novi was adamant about “keeping the last stone natural!!!” so we did, and she gave it to her “good luck care bear” as his st. patrick’s day gift.

this is an easy and seasonal variation on pet rocks…  it can be fun any time of year to make a face on a rock, but if you want the luck of the irish on your side, be sure to kiss these green cuties every day!

so, your kid made some art. now what? as most of us caregivers know, there’s the clean-up and the figuring out clever ways to display and/or store the art. true. in my pre-mommy role as an art therapist (to which i plan to return once kindergarten allows me the time,) i learned that the art-making part is just one part of the creative process. of course there is contemplation of what to make, preparing for what to make, making it, and then there is also another very important step in the creative process, which is unfolding meaning from the image. this is a HUGE topic in the art therapy world with a scope that’s way too broad and sometimes esoteric for a blog like this one, so i will try to extract and provide here just a few useful suggestions that parents, teachers, or caregivers of little ones can use when engaging in art with our small friends. i should note that these tips are most applicable to art-making that comes out of free play or free drawing/sculpting time… not so much the highly directive crafting projects.

influential art therapist, janie rhyne, once said that form leads to content, which is to say that the images that any artist (aka: your child) makes contain the stories, emotions, intellect, and world view of the artist. don’t miss out on the rich opportunity to engage in uncovering the gems embedded in the lines, shapes, and colors that come forth from your child’s imagination. not only will you learn something, but this step in the process often makes the unconscious conscious for the artist — or to speak plainly, it can help your child’s idea to come full-circle and be integrated into his or her everyday life.

here are some respectful ways to approach talking about your child’s art-making and art product:

during art-making, be an active observer by assisting as a “third hand” when the artist might need help. for example, using scissors to cut something a child may be unable to cut or getting a fresh glass of water to rinse used paintbrushes, etc. also, while your child engages in the art-making process, you can support this by reflecting back only what you see. you can reflect verbally (“i see yellow lines across the top of your page”), non-verbally (mirroring the child’s affect or posture) or graphically (making art alongside the child copying the child’s artistic “handwriting” -so to speak- as a way to communicate: “i am paying attention to you.”)

once the art product is complete, approach the image with a humble curiosity, never assuming that you know more than the artist knows about what it is or what it means. i often describe the respectful way of talking about art to be the opposite of a dream-decoder book. you know, the books that say “if you dreamt of a pig, you are greedy or stubborn.” nonsense. art symbols, just like dream symbols, are unique to the artist. for one kid, a pig might be the scary boar he saw at a state fair. for another kid, a pig could mean the sweet, soft, cuddly friend he hugs when he goes to sleep at night. (sure, there are symbols that arise that reflect the collective unconscious, etc etc, but that’s a whole other can of worms.)

"this guy is sad because mommy said he can't drive the car" (car in brown, upper left)

to keep this objective attitude, you can try to visualize the art object as a separate entity that has entered the room, and engage in conversation with your child about it. for example, ask your child the simple question, “what do you see?” to begin. trust the artist’s words about their own art. if you have a younger child who may not have the ability to describe the art, you can plainly tell about what you see. be careful not to interpret what the image “must be” or what it “looks like to [you]” or what it means. just describe the lines, shapes and colors that you see with your eye. by describing the image, meaning comes. (again, form leads to content.) so, now your conversation may lead into a story from the child about what s/he drew, who is in the picture, what is he doing, what is happening, what is he feeling, why is he feeling this way, etc…

another fun approach is to dialog with the art itself. kids are great at pretend and imagination, so suspend any adult self-consciousness and your disbelief and go for it with them. “if the duck that you drew could talk, what would he say to us?” (only after child has identified that her picture is, in fact, a duck.) then you, your kid, and the duck can have a full-on conversation. stay within the metaphor, behind the safe veil of play. allow the meaning to unfold organically. you don’t need to translate the play into what it must really mean in the life of the child, at least not out loud. this sort of imaginal dialog with art allows the art piece to be projected upon or acted upon by the child, which can often externalize the child’s internal world (and get out feelings s/he may be harboring.) try to curb your own inclinations to change, brighten, or smooth over content that may seem angry or violent or negative to you — art is a safe playground. art provides an opportunity for sublimation of the darker side of being human, and for a child to be able to do this through art is a sign of health. if the child seems to be looking for a way to ameliorate a darker situation in his or her own art, you can certainly follow his/her lead and provide assistance in changing and moving the story. even when helping with this, be sure to allow space for the child to exercise internal resources to arrive at his or her own unique solution and make choices.

the mean yeti

when looking at someone else’s art, always check in with your own biases and opinions. if we were acting as a child-centered art or play therapist, the rule would be not to criticize or (get ready for it) praise the art or the behavior. as a mom, it’s hard not to say, “that’s a beautiful flower you drew, sweetie!” but honestly, as supportive and nurturing as that statement is, it doesn’t provide the type of positive reinforcement that the examples above on how to talk about the art can give to your child.

above all, be authentic. be yourself. art making and art talk shouldn’t take you outside of your role as mommy (or daddy, teacher, grandma, babysitter, or whoever you may be to the child.) your child depends on your voice, your context, and your consistency. coloring with your kid at home every day isn’t art therapy, so there are no hard and fast rules. these are merely suggestions for ways you and your child might get more out of making art together, and suggestions for what to do when the art is complete and how to learn from it. if you want more info on art therapy or recommended reading along these lines, you can check out my professional web site’s art therapy page or feel free to contact me with questions.

being witnessed and feeling seen are huge confidence-builders for any human being, especially our little friends who are forming their sense of self in relationship to the world. the art process allows cargivers a really concrete way to give children the affirmation they need.

"mommy, i drew a jellyfish!"