paint cut paste

among my favorite art media are fat, creamy, colorful oil sticks. it is so satisfying, the way they glide smoothly across a page and deposit ultra-rich colors… kind of like using fat oil pastels, but somehow creamier. anyway, i found the kid version of these.

the goods

alex’s creamy crayons aren’t cheap, but they’re so worth it. we put the matte and metallic sets on novi’s holiday wishlist, and gwee (what novi calls my mom) came through! the other day we tried them out, and just as i suspected, novi got into the flooooow.

the cool thing about these crayons is that unlike oil sticks, they are watersoluable (yum, watersoluble crayons. don’t get me started on my boyfriend, caran dache.) so you (um, i mean your little one) can paint over them with a wet paintbrush to blend the colors together for a paint-like effect.

novi had a lot of fun “painting” with these schmooove crayons.

person, flower, tree, sunshine

i know this isn’t an art activity per se, but when i find a fun art medium that helps kids to really let go and enjoy the sensory experience of art-making, i always want to shout it from the rooftops… blogtops… blogosphere…

while we’re on the topic of personalized cards, i thought i’d share another little idea along those lines. novi will be turning three at the end of this month, and together we made the invitations to her birthday party. novi is really into fairies, so she wanted a pixie party where all of her friends would wear wings, so of course the invites had to follow suit.

i save all of novi’s completed coloring books because they’re full of little gems. she has a fairy coloring book that she completed in the fall, so we pulled this one out and selected a few fairies from it – one for each of her friends. we cut them out and glued them to blank cards with a glue stick.

i typed up the party details and glued them to the inside. (photo retouched to remove our personal info, of course.)

a super simple idea… but just a reminder that you can repurpose those coloring book pictures into invitations, greeting cards, stationery, wrapping paper, and all sorts of sweet artsy goodies of any theme!

we’ve been traveling for the holiday, thus we haven’t been crafting at home or updating this blog as often. hope you all had a wonderful holiday! we did, however, find a fun, travel-friendly art material on our vacation. how many parents out there hover while your kids are creating with markers, for fear that your couch and walls will soon be decorated with doodles? well, have no fear – some clear markers are here! i know they’re not that new, but they’re new to me and novi as of this trip: crayola color wonder!

crayola color wonder magic markers is sorta more like… “i wonder where the color is.” these seemingly clear markers show up only on the special paper that crayola also provides. these were absolutely perfect for the airplane, especially the travel pack that we got with (who else?) the tinkerbell fairies all ready to be colored by my little fairy.

she had a blast on the plane with her new “magical markers!” after she got over the lack of instant gratification — it takes a wee bit of time before the color shows up.

bonus: she didn’t scribble all over delta’s lovely seat cushions (though she totally should have! grrrrr, airlines!) and if she had, no one would have known.

i’m not necessarily a person who stresses staying inside the lines… but once novi was showing interest in “coloring in” everything she drew on her magnadoodle, i realized that she’d probably love coloring books. i was right!

i found these great do-a-dot activity books that have large color blocks to color in, which is great for toddlers and young preschoolers. (i think these books are intended to go with the do-a-dot paints, but good ol’ crayons do the trick.)

i gave novi a set of crayons and her new animal coloring book, and she sat at her little table in the kitchen and colored for over an hour (while i made tuscan kale soup for dinner) and she talked with me about all sorts of imaginal things while she worked, and made up rhymes and songs.

as an art therapist, i often lean toward free expression and art activities that are not pre-fabricated (like coloring books are;) however, coloring books can be a wonderful way of fostering confidence and pride in a young artist. aside from the obvious lessons of color, shape, and line, they metaphorically teach boundaries and limitations, which are skills my 2-year-old is working on in her life.

introducing coloring books a year ago led to a lot of scribbling over the pre-drawn images (also awesome,) but when i gave novi the coloring book yesterday, i saw that she is now ready and interested in coloring the shapes. i saw firsthand how coloring books can increase concentration in an activity and diligence at a task. and aside from all of that psychobabble mumbo-jumbo, they’re just fun, and they give momma an opportunity to cook dinner without resorting to plugging her into little bear. (<– OMG, i just saw at that link that they have little bear printable coloring pages… this blends novi’s greatest loves – art and little bear. must print immediately.) happy coloring!