paint cut paste

it’s back-to-school time again! this time of year brings so much nostalgia for me. while N doesn’t start kindergarten until after labor day, i realize that many are starting this week and next, so i wanted to share this simple little idea with you all for that sweet first day of school photo op.

my first day of kindergarten back in the day, age 4.5 (nope, my mom couldn't get me outta terry cloth clothing)

a couple weeks ago, the kind folks at decoart sent us a box of awesome free art supplies(!!!)

among other wonderful things (all of which i will share in the coming weeks with a giveaway at the end) were two bottles of chalkboard paint. score! we decided to create a first day of school sign. we found a really smooth, hard particle board (like the kind you’d see on standard clipboards) in our stash, and decided to paint it with the chalkboard paint. first we applied one layer horizontally to the board and let it dry for an hour.

then we applied another layer vertically to the board and let it sit for 24 hours. on the bottle, it says to dust lightly with chalk to condition the board, and then clean with water.

dusted

N and i thought it’d be fun to create a frame for the board out of pencils. i hot glued them around the edge of the board (breaking and sharpening where necessary to get the proper measurements.)

N wrote “kindergarten 2011″ on the board to show the year of school she is heading into. (do not adjust your screens – it is not 5011 and we are not in the future. 2s and 5s can be confusing to a 4 year old. )

she practiced her first day of school pose that we’ll do in a couple of weeks. this is not only a fun chalkboard to play school with, it would also be a neat tradition to break out the same chalkboard each year for the quintessential first day of school photo.

this is the second time i’ve done this post, so it’s an update of sorts. for christmas 2009, N received a kid camera, and took a ton of cute photos that i posted in january 2010. that camera has since gotten quite a workout.

mirror shot

because i have taken photos every single day of N’s life, it is only natural that N want to take pictures, too. photography is one of my favorite art forms… and let’s just say that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

fotog N taking a pic of fotog mommy

i wanted to share a few composites of N’s photography here. (these are lazy screen-shot sort of “composites” so bear with me. i just couldn’t hang out in photoshop all night tonight.) click the images to open the composite pages into a larger view.

november/december 2010

around our house in february 2011

trip to hidden villa farm, march 2011

such interesting choices and composition. here are a few of my favorites from this winter:

red

orange

yellow

green

blue

purple

it is just so refreshing to see the world through my 4 year old’s eyes!

what a perfect thing to do on these sunny summer days – make your own nature photos with sun art paper!

on saturday, N had a friend over to play. i tasked them with finding interesting looking natural objects in our backyard. they mostly gathered leaves and flowers.

then we went into the shade and pulled out a couple sheets of our sun art paper. (i bought three sizes of it from amazon over the winter, when i was daydreaming of sunny days ahead. this time we used the 5″x7″ paper.) we arranged the leaves and flowers on the paper before going into the sun.

next we put a clear acrylic sheet (comes with the paper) over the objects. this holds down your things so they don’t blow away in the wind or move around while exposure is happening. each sun art paper kit comes with just one, but if you want to do more than one at a time, raid your picture frame stash (especially the cheap plastic ones) and borrow some more from those. we left the paper in the sun for just 3-5 minutes (until it turns a very light blue.)

next we put the papers into a tub of water for one minute. because we wanted out images to turn out a deeper shade of blue, i added a few drops of lemon juice to the water (like it said to on the package.)

we repeated the process with more leaves and flowers… and some bubble wands, too!

after the prints have soaked for a minute, let them dry on a towel. (once completely dry, you can press them in a book for a day or so to make sure they are flat.)

the girls had fun watching how their pictures turned out, but mostly they were psyched just to run around with their popsicles. (perhaps the reason the package of sun art paper says for ages 6+)

these beautiful natural prints would make lovely cards, but i think i will frame this batch in a series to display in our home.

N received her first digital camera from her aunt kim and uncle john for christmas this year. photography is one of my favorite art forms, and lately N has been following suit by miming a camera when she wants to take a picture of something. thus, her christmas gift.

N's vtech kidizoom camera

while the resolution isn’t the greatest on these toddler-proof cameras, they make for amazing works of art! i love the abstract ethereal quality of some of N’s very first images, taken over the holidays.

i also love to see through her lens… the choices she makes as to what is important to her in her environment.

the black bear rug at my mom's house fascinates her

her first game - candyland

no doubt, we’ll be incorporating N’s photography into many of our future creative endeavors. say cheese!