paint cut paste

we are delighted to have been invited to be a part of tinkerlab’s creative challenge this month! our tinkerfriend has asked us to upcycle magazines to create a project that is child-directed. given all of the junk mail and catalogs inundating our mail box this season, i was more than happy to accept this challenge so we could upcycle some of this unnecessary paper! (why all the catalogs from stores who have web sites?!)

the other night, while sorting through the stacks of catalogs, i said to my daughter, “i wonder what we could make out of all of these extra magazines…” with christmas undoubtedly on the brain, she immediately responded, “ornaments!” but of course! she said she wanted to rip them up and glue them to balls. sounds like a plan to me — so she got right to work on the ripping that evening (thus the dark photo. my apologies: it’s a casualty of wintertime blogging.)

the next day we took a trip to michaels and scored these brown paper ornament shapes for 60 cents each (which turned out to be even cheaper with a coupon – love it.)

later (and again after a mad-early sunset,) N got to work mod podging her “magazine confetti” (as she termed it) onto the ornaments.

once they were covered (and she was kind of bummed by the white look of wet mod podge initially) she said she wanted them to sparkle more, and asked for glitter. [artsy-mom guilt-producing confession: i so HATE loose glitter.] while i knew glitter would be a lovely and festive addition to something for our tree, i shuddered when N asked for it. then sighed a bit of relief when i realized quickly that we didn’t have to sprinkle it onto the ornament. i suggested stirring the glitter into the mod podge and painting another coat of glittery mod podge onto the ornaments. she was sold - phew!

we hung the ornaments to dry (which only took about an hour actually – not bad in terms of fairly instant gratification.)

and they are super cool, colorful, and sparkly on our christmas tree!

thank you, rachelle, for including us in this challenge!

check out all of the other amazing bloggers below who gave their junk mail a second life:

• tinkerlab (our lovely hostess!)
• kids in the studio
• teach mama
• the imagination tree
• childhood 101
• teach preschool
• hands on as we grow
• the artful parent
• a mom with a lesson plan
• toddler approved
• kiwi crate
• art 4 little hands
• red ted art
• the chocolate muffin tree
• imagination soup
• michelle’s charm world
• messy preschoolers
• mommy labs
• putti prapancha
• sun hats & wellie boots

visit each of their amazing projects on the linky below – so many fun ideas! there’s a second linky at the bottom where you can join in the fun and add your own upcycled magazine ideas, too!

add your own ideas here:

i’m a big fan of inspiration boards. i love looking at the ones that geninne and jean post on their blogs… and gosh, pinterest is just one big ol’ inspiration board, isn’t it? i’ve put up my own boards in the past (dec 2009 board seen below) but i don’t have one going at the moment.

then i figured that my little artist in residence is actually producing more work than anyone here, so we might need to revamp the board that is on the wall in front of the art desk she uses in our kitchen. she has one of those magnetic white boards from michael’s mounted on the wall. here’s what it has been looking like for months now, unattended.

N doesn’t need to look at her letter magnets while writing at this point, and the board needed some overall TLC, so we removed everything from it. then N selected magnets she has made over the year. then she chose works of art and various images that inspire her.

what i love is that N said that her own art inspires her art more than any other images, so she selected her own works to post.

do you have an inspiration board for yourself? for your children?

(if so, share a link to it or a photo of it on my facebook wall)

it’s eric carle‘s birthday, and art bloggers all over the web have been celebrating with their children and colorful animals! we were invited by an amazing child to join the party – and we’re showing up with bells smocks on!

when i think of eric carle, i remember N’s very first baby books and how much she loved when i read the very hungry caterpillar (my all-time fav) and brown bear brown bear to her in our comfy nursing chair before sleepy time. these will always be cozy memories for me. in the past year, N has been reeeeally into foxes – it’s her most favorite animal. can you tell?

i saw the book hello, red fox in our local library and decided to grab it, as we had not read it before. what a perfect choice, as it teaches children about complementary colors in a really cool optical illusion sort of way – and we’ve been exploring color wheels over here lately. we dove right in and read/stared at the book. (if you click this link, you’ll understand why. it’s tricky – like a fox!)

then we got out a bunch of art materials for two different projects…

first, we mixed and created our own color wheel using momma’s fancy watercolors (just because) and talked about the idea of complementary colors… and why the “red” fox on the cover of eric carle’s book was green… hmm…

after that, i suggested we use some of N’s finger paintings brought home from preschool to build an animal – eric carle style! she wanted to make a fox – naturally! (hey, there’s one idea of how to repurpose and transform all of those preschool pieces of art…)

first, we talked about what shapes make up a fox, and she drew them in pencil on top of her fingerpaintings. circle, oval, triangles, rectangles…

then she cut the pieces of a fox… hooray for cutting skills! she did a great job cutting on her pencil lines.

then she pasted them onto a new sheet of paper – N chose black for the background.

after it was glued down, she used a black sharpie (supervised) to add some details to the nose and eyes. this was literally a paint cut paste experience!

what’s your favorite eric carle book, and what memories does it hold for you? have you made any eric carle art with your kiddos? if so, click below to share your own, or click to view many other bloggers’ creative takes on eric carle tribute art!

my sister-in-law & brother-in-law are expecting their second baby this summer – yay! i wanted to do something special to celebrate his pending arrival. what better than a collaborative art piece where family and friends get involved?

i have done this project before for a friend a couple years ago, and it was beautiful and well-received, so i figured we’d give it a whirl for my nephew on the way. i emailed a list of people the couple provided to me and asked each one to send a brief blessing, prayer, wish, quote, or lyric for the family as they welcome their new son. i gathered the quotes and put them into a keepsake book for the family, along with the well-wishers names.

then i selected excerpts from the quotes and wrote them out on pretty goldenrod card stock (this time without everyone’s name.) after i wrote them out, i cut them into strips.

i watercolored a mandala of the family to place in the center of the art piece, which i envisioned would be a sunburst.

we recently visited our adorable nephew (1y 5m old), who is soon to be a big brother, and he (along with mommy and daddy’s help) finger painted the background image for this blessing piece of art. tip: use analogous colors of finger paint so that it doesn’t turn out brown or muddy, unless that’s the look you’re going for.

after the paint was dry, i glued the blessings and mandala to the finger painting to create a sun shape.

what a colorful collection of wishes for the new baby on the way!

this piece, which i framed for their home, holds the energy of all of their loved ones’ support as they welcome a new little boy into the world!

how i just love those cheap, clear glass ornaments you can get at michael’s (or practically anywhere!) there are so many fun things you can do with them. last year we swirled metallic paint inside of them. this year, we decided to do it up fancy-style by stuffing them with all sorts of fun things!

N and i got our ornaments ready by labeling each one with one of her classmate’s names on the tray where it sits, so we could tell them apart since they were soon to be personalized.

then we got out a bunch of stuff from our art cabinet, such as feathers, seed beads, sequins, glitter, foam letters, tinsel, and fuzzy pom-poms. (tiny toys, figurines, shredded paper, leaves, dried flowers, etc could be great in here, too — let your imagination run wild!)

N found the first letter of the name of each of her classmates and we put the foam letter in the ornaments first.

then she carefully considered the colors and things that each of her friends would like, and we went through the materials type by type until each person’s ornament was full of fancy holiday cheer!

a tip for adding glitter, seed beads, or other tiny items – use a small funnel.

i tied ribbons to each one so they can be hung on a tree (or in a bedroom windown year-round, perhaps.) we will package them up safely and give them out at preschool when winter break nears. (hope this didn’t spoil it for any of you parents in her class. sorry )

i’m honestly not sure why N and i have not made many collages before… but we finally did! we gathered up a few magazines, scissors, glue, and a scrap piece of black posterboard i had laying around and got started.

N and i flipped through magazines and she told me the pictures she wanted me to cut out. while she is now able to use scissors, her skills aren’t at the level where she would successfully cut out an image she really wanted. so this time, i was a third hand for her.

N was superhappy to squirt glue onto the backs of the images.

she thought about where she wanted each one placed, and took her time. i was somewhat surprised by the care she took with this.

after the pictures were applied, she wanted to draw on the black paper with crayons, so she created a story involving the pictures and her drawing, and told it as she drew.

when she was finished, she was quite proud!

for my adult art therapy clients, i often have a box of pre-cut collage images from which they can choose pictures that resonate for them without our taking up our sessions hunting through magazines. i may do the same for N when i get a spare moment, by cutting out lots of images for her to have at home for this purpose.