paint cut paste

after making so many wooden easter and springtime friends, novi really wanted to make more out of “clay.” since we don’t have a kiln over here, i busted out the model magic, and she got down to business.

novi made lots of eggs and a caterpillar. i also helped her make the 2 spring chickies you see above, and a bunny.

it took two days for the model magic eggs to dry (they’re dense, even though they’re lightweight.) when they were ready, we painted them with acrylics. we first had a lesson in what-happens-to-each-color-of-the-rainbow-when-mixed-with-white-paint? PASTELS FOR SPRING!

we had a little painting party…

we probably got more paint on our hands than the figures and eggs, but it was all good clean fun.

we loved decorating our home with our new little spring sculptures…

we are feeling springy over here this week… the trees are already pink and white with blossoms and it’s been in the mid to upper 60s this week. yesterday novi and i went for a long afternoon walk around our neighborhood, looking for treasures and for signs of spring.

we meandered through streets, ducked through bushes, gazed up at trees… we collected all sorts of nature’s gifts, like leaves, sticks, berries, acorns, seeds, flowers… the sweet friends the earth has put in our new california neighborhood. we are still acclimating to our new digs, and feeling our way through the scenery out here. the specimens we gathered were like evidence of our move; like clues to our new surroundings. we studied them.

getting personal with a palm tree

when the sun was setting and we made our way home, i remembered a cool project i’d just seen in a very cool book novi got for her birthday last month called nature’s art box. (i also recognized it from the artful parent blog as well.) the project was about making a clay fossil to preserve the textures and shapes of natural objects in sculpey.

bag of goodies

when we got home, we looked over each treasure while putting it into a bowl on our table. we talked about what it was and where we found it.

then, i busted out our trusty box of sculpey, and we went to work making and squishing little balls of the polymer clay.

then we pressed some of the objects into the clay to make textured discs. like little thumbprints from mother nature.

granted, scupley is not my most favorite clay to use with kids, as it can be toxic while baking. so, i made sure to do that part after novi was asleep on the other end of the house with kitchen windows open and her door closed. (next time, i may try my trusty model magic and see if that works…)

after the discs were baked, i put them onto a pretty plate that we often keep on our nature table or altar.

i wrote with a brown sharpie on the backs of them what the object was, the city, and the date. novi is enjoying examining them and guessing what made the print. they’re a good size for her to carry around and be proud of, too. it’d be nice to poke a hole in the top of some (or all) of the discs with a straw before baking to make pendants or ornaments out of them, too. i enjoy the white of them, but they may also be nice if painted (a light watercolor wash, perhaps) or glazed.

i loved doing this activity – mostly the walking, talking, and paying attention to so many intimate details. seeing the world through novi’s big, new eyes always keeps things fresh for me. i’d love to repeat this activity in different places, like on a beach vacation, almost like a 3-d photo album from a trip, without the photos.

okay, it’s not revolutionary to play with play-doh… but it is a staple of childhood. opening a canister of play-doh set my olfactory memory off on a trip to the 70s, squeezing dough hair through plastic heads in my play-doh hair factory. as an adult and a mom, i usually opt to make my own play dough with novi, but sometimes the neon colors and unmatched squishiness of play-doh is irresistible.

so when novi got play-doh AND dough tools for her birthday last week, i was psyched to have an excuse to use the stuff again! she can sit for HOURS (literally, it’s magic) and sing, play, create, chatter, rhyme. (in fact, she is playing with it right now as i type this beside her.)

my sister (novi’s aunt kim) gave novi a a set of dough tools that melissa and doug makes, and novi is loving these… 3 rolling pins, stamps, and a dough cutter. mix this with some good ol’ cookie cutters, kid-safe scissors, and some of her tiny toy figurines, and she’s off and running for an entire morning.

so i had to give a little nod to the creators of this modeling compound in all of its fluorescently pliable unnaturalness for the guilt-free momma-time it provides while productively stimulating kids’ minds, hands, and senses for decades.

one day last month, novi and i were playing with salt dough and cookie cutters. she ended up cutting out lots of heart shapes.

when she was finished playing, i baked the hearts she had made, in anticipation of valentine’s day.

heart warming

i wasn’t sure if we’d send them out as valentine ornaments for her friends or make a mobile or garland. regardless, i knew they’d be fun to decorate with paint, so she painted away.

once the backgrounds were dry, novi decorated them with polka dots and other designs.

then we strung them together on a red ribbon, knotting each one along the strand.

they ended up making a really cute valentine garland for our house! a shorter strand would be cute on the hearth.

happy heart season!

the other day, novi was in the mood for modeling, but our cans of store-bought play-doh were ka-put… so we whipped up a batch of our own play dough from ingredients we had in our kitchen. i consulted my trusty mudworks book to make sure i had the measurements correct for the recipe.

• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup iodized salt
• 1.75 cups warm water
• mix in a bowl, knead 10 minutes, play!

we got to work creating the dough. novi helped every step of the way.

after we kneaded the dough for 10 minutes, it was a ball of potential energy waiting to become kinetic. (science nerdddd!)

anything is possible

and it did! novi had lots of fun with cookie cutters and clay tools all afternoon!

(as earthy and homemade as we try to be, the longest stint in her play was when the little bear clay dude was “talking on his iphone to duck.” sheesh.)

little bear talking on his iphone, which clearly needs an earpiece so he can avoid brain tumors

we decided to bake a few of the cut shapes to make (what else?!) ornaments! (this really was not what we set out to do, but it just sort of happened. again. hey, it’s december…) i brushed each one with mayonnaise prior to baking at 300 for one hour. before putting them in the oven, don’t forget to poke a hole in the ones you intend to hang – straws work well for this.

the next day novi painted the ornaments (and her fingers) with some sparkly acrylic paint.

once dry, we strung them with pretty ribbons and beads, and hung them on our tree. (well, a few were packaged in the mail to be delivered to the trees of friends and family… guess what you’re all getting this year…)

wax + colorful yarn = genius. me and the little lady are big fans of wikki stix. they’re a really cool modeling medium in string-like form that is endlessly reusable imagination ignition.

image from drawyourworld.com

i first purchased wikki stix with air travel in mind… what a great idea for something new and fun to do on a plane! then today we were in a local cafe that supplied wikki stix to kids (big thrills) and we saw firsthand what awesome companions wikkis can be in restaurants while waiting for meals to arrive.

for us, the sculpting fun can last for hours… with a lot of “mommy, can you make it into a duck?” pleading and a whole lot of novi sculpting on her own, too.

i’m not getting paid by wikki stix for this pseudo-endorsement. i just wanted to shed light on a non-conventional sculpting material that is super-portable, not at all messy, and can keep our small friends creatively entertained for hours. check out their web site to learn about all of wikki stix uses (artsy and household! i.e.; they help to open jars??)

skulpsherrrr

cuteness bonus: novi calls them her “sticky wicks…” and really, they seem like sticky candle wicks, so… why not?