paint cut paste

happy earth week! i saw this sweet idea on the mackville road blog, and found it to be pretty ideal for my little gatherer and crayon lover. novi and i are no strangers to picking some leaves and flowers nor to melting some crayons between wax paper… this combined both!

once again, we spent the afternoon in the yard and novi gathered all sorts of leaves, petals, and flowers… even if that meant picking them from our flowerbed.

we collected them in the bottom tray from a flower pot. (it was handy.)

we gathered up some supplies, which include old crayons, a veggie peeler (to shave the crayons with,) some wax paper, an iron, and a towel.

after i shaved some of the crayons, novi arranged the flowers and other findings on the wax paper and sprinkled on the crayon shavings.

when we were finished arranging, it looked like this:

we put another piece of wax paper on top, then a dishtowel. i ironed it on the maximum setting, but nothing seemed to be happening. i’d recommend using a very thin towel or cloth napkin — or you can do what i did and risk ironing directly onto the top sheet of wax paper. (somehow this worked out okay…??!?) then voila — our spring collection preserved in a sun catching way!

when out for a little walk around the ‘hood yesterday, novi began to collect natural treasures, as these little people often do. since she’s pretty into sticks and wands and her seasonal altar, making a medicine wand from her gatherings seemed like a fun idea.

medicine wands are traditionally used by native american cultures in spiritual ceremonies. generally, they include a feather, as well as sticks, leaves, flowers, crystals, or any other natural object that holds energy or meaning for a person. kids might enjoy making and playing with these wands, or placing them on their altars and using them to create sacred space. during our walk, we gathered red leaves, a green magnolia leaf, some twigs, a tiny pinecone, clover, and flowers.

when we got back home, we grabbed some yarn (any string works,) scissors, and a feather from my craft stash, since we didn’t find a feather outside, and honestly i’m a bit weirded out by avian flu and whatnot on feathers, regardless. (should i be?) traditionally, i think the feather should be the largest object with all other things placed on top of it, but our feathers were small, and took the front spot in the “medicine bouquet” as novi called it.

it was tricky to gather them all together and hold them while tying yarn on it, and since my little shaman was galloping through the yard, embodying a horse spirit by this point (see photo above,) i was left to my own devices to tie it up, so i relyed on a clothes pin to hold things in place while winding the yarn tightly around the base.

it should cover about two inches or so at the bottom of the “bouquet.” you can tie the string in the front or the back, depending on your preference. i stuck an extra feather on top as i tied the last knot, which is why you can’t see my two inches of yarn in the picture below.

after you’ve created it, just hang your medicine wand upside down to dry for a few days.

enjoy the healing properties of the earth! happy earth-day month!

i just love when art activities evolve organically, and from a child-centered place. we’ve been spending a lot of time in the yard lately, and novi is a bigtime twig gatherer. and lemme tell ya, we have some amazingly flexible, shiny, cool twigs in these parts.

wish i knew what types of trees these were.

the giving tree

this was the scene yesterday: novi collecting all sorts of sweet sticks…

today, when i suggested putting them into a pretty vase, she said, “noooo, i want to make a vase out of them!” um, okay. improvise, momma! so i grabbed an empty honey jar and a couple rubber bands, and we went to work, covering the outside of the jar with the twigs, securing them with rubber bands at the top and bottom.

novi helped with this for a long time, and i had to finish it up. it’s somewhat tedious for little hands. she took lots of breaks to gather more twigs.

keepin' on keepin' on

eventually the whole jar was covered with twigs that extended from its base to about an inch above its top lip, secured by two rubber bands. (i had to trim some of the longer twigs with scissors.)

i slid the rubber bands into the center, and covered them with raffia, (realizing that the blue rubber bands weren’t gonna get fully hidden, so i switched them out with tan ones, so be sure to start with tan if you do this.) novi picked some flowers from our yard for the vase, and our creation was complete and functional!

i’m not entirely loving the raffia, and may change it to a groovy rustic ribbon. (mostly because my cat chews in raffia and will flip this vase over in two seconds flat if it’s in her range.)

it did make for a wonderfully earthy dinner centerpiece tonight.

while i’m not necessarily posting daily photos of us outdoors for the entirety of this blog in april, most of our projects lately and this month will involve mother earth, so….

thank you, 5 orange potatoes, for getting the kids outside!

once upon a time, i made terrariums for my friends as birthday gifts, but it’s been ages since i made one for our own house. with a sick little lady at home this week, we decided to beat the cabin fever by bringing the outdoors inside, and getting our hands dirty!

i already had a bunch of great jars from world market with tightly sealing lids. (we use them to store snacks, grains, etc.) we found a stray one, and some organic potting soil. while novi (and daddy) were tasked with finding stones and toys who might want to live in our terrarium, i made a little trip to the nursery down the street for the rest of the supplies.

the types of plants who enjoy living in an enclosed, moist environment are: members of the peperomia family, pileas, miniature fern, coleus, cuban oregano, penta, tradea scentia, miniature mums. even collector plants like african violets, orchids or small begonias are great. miniature and dwarf plants work the best. i chose baby tears, a pink polka dot plant, and a small african violet. i though novi would enjoy each of these.

the other things you will need are charcoal chips and pebbles (for drainage) and you can get some moss for ground cover, if you’d like. (i skipped this step, as our jar is very small and i knew the non-plant space would be covered with rocks and marbles.)

now you’re ready to create a tiny ecosystem – first start with a 1 inch layer of crushed gravel or pebbles. next sprinkle a layer of charcoal chips, enough to cover the gravel layer. top this off with 2 inches of potting soil.

then uses your fingers to gently plant your plants and place your landscaping items. we put smooth river stones, rose quartz, glass marbles, and novi’s little ladybug into ours.

give it a bit of water, and close the lid. put it in a bright area of your home (but not direct sun.)

there wasn’t enough room for the baby tears plant to live in the terrarium, so i found another home for it.

i’m not the world’s best green thumb at all, but here’s some info i’ve gathered for keeping your terrarium happy:

ailments:

• yellow leaves or leaf tips turning brown – too much moisture, try taking the top off your case for a few hours a day until plants look greener.
• leaves falling off the plants – foliage is touching the glass, adjust your plants or prune when necessary
• leggy growth – not enough light (remember don’t put in direct sunlight)
• brown or black blotches – too much sun, move to lower light area
• remember also to remove dead blooms and twigs

other tips:

• you won’t need to water much, encased plants can go months without water, watch the condensation, when it becomes extremely minimal it is time to water.
• no need to fertilize – it will create toxic salts that kill plants.
• put your terrarium in a bright area, but don’t put in direct sunlight it will bake (kill) your plants. putting plants atop a television or other electronic equipment will also bake their roots.

novi enjoys checking on her terrarium a few times per day, and waves hello to the ladybug in there. and bonus: this is one way to have houseplants and cats at the same time! whoo hoo!

on a warm spring day in the backyard, novi made up a game that she simply called “interesting things.” it’s really just a natural treasure hunt… but it made for quite the beautiful nature collage.

we took turns hunting for “interesting things” in our backyard. she made up a rule that we could not pick anything – it had to already be on the ground. each time we found something, we had to “place it gently on the board. gently, gently…”

we had to hide our eyes while the other one found an object and placed it on the board. then we had to look at the board to try to figure out what was new each time, which got harder as we gathered more things.

i just loved this kid-initiated activity – and it resulted in a lovely nature collage installation, however temporary it may be. (at least photos aren’t!)

gotta love her paint cut paste shirt - click this photo to get yours!

our collaborative masterpiece with mother nature

sometimes the most beautiful, artful times are spontaneous. unplanned. open.

the weather here this week has been sunny and in the 70s.

we have been enjoying some time outside in the yard.

just bringing a basket outside of simple art materials (colored pencils and paper… easy.)

egg in the nest

simple leaf rubbing

add a few beautiful wooden toys from mamakopp. these are part of novi’s custom “little bear” set that we adore.

little bear picnic

making new friends.

happy spring equinox to you and yours!