and baked them and colored on them with crayons. visit our guest post all about it over on moms by heart.

when i opened it up, i remembered N coloring these mandalas right around her third birthday. they are so lovely!

mandala means “circle” and brings one a feeling of wholeness. they have long been used as a tool for healing and meditation, and are a part of many world wisdom traditions and religions.

once N spotted the coloring book, she wanted to work on more mandalas – naturally!

it’s an inspiring coloring book, but even more simply and creatively, you can create your own by tracing a round plate onto the page or using a compass to create a circle and let your child (or you!) create art in relation to the circle.

when i lived in new york city a decade ago, i took a “dry media” art class where i discovered the wonders of the watersoluable world of art materials. i spent five months creating images with only these crayons, by choice.

seashell, summer 2001

i had to share the joy with N. first, i demonstrated (on my own piece of paper) how you can color with these “special artist crayons” first, and then use a wet paintbrush to go over your drawing to magically turn it into a painting! this was met with some “ooooh”s and “aaaah”s and an immediate desire to try it herself.

N created several “paintings” during the time it took me to make broccoli cheddar soup for dinner.

she practiced layering the colors and watching them blend together when she added water.

i showed her the technique of using a wet wipe wrapped around your finger to blend the pigment (instead of a wet paintbrush.) she giggled at the thought of “wiping” her picture. she loved how the colors popped once they got wet.

N made many masterpieces this afternoon… all with watersoluable crayons, using different blending techniques. here are just a few: (click the image to see it larger)

she also made this picture of our cat eating her dinner, which i just love. she didn’t use water on this image, but i had to share.

well, this lovely rainbow ikea frame was just calling to us for some original artwork to fill it. N was up for the task! we started by painting a lavender (N’s choice) watercolor wash onto a heavy weight piece of drawing paper. N wanted to background of her mixed media picture to be purple like her bedroom.

after the paint was dry, N wanted to draw a picture with pencil onto the page. she had an idea that she wanted to draw a porcupine wedding taking place under a decorated tree, with some animal guests.

after N drafted most of the picture in pencil, she got out our crayons and got to work coloring in this huuuge coloring page.

some of the areas were so large (like the tree trunk and some of the tree top.) that her hand got tired and she asked me to help out coloring “in the lines, mommy!” as it was progressing, the look on her excited face was priceless!

the details are fabulous, and i wanted to share a few…

dancing groom & bride

fox, mice, bunny wedding guests

mama bird, nest with eggs, and squirrel

N was pleased with the finished piece.

but even more psyched when it was framed in her bedroom!

we had an awesome time cutting the cookies…

and decorating the cookies.

and admiring the cookies and eventually eating the cookies! (and gifting some)

the next day when N was playing alone in her room, she asked for scissors and paper. i knew she was coloring, and she was being sort of sneaky about it, but we granted her the items (regardless of my fear that she will someday soon attempt to cut her own hair.) after almost an hour of total quiet in there, she emerged with “cookies!”

she had been cutting and decorating lots of “cookies” on her own, and was quite proud of them. i just love child-originated art projects!

(angry gingerman shown for scale? or just because we were about to munch on him... which is probably why he was angry)