paint cut paste

over the weekend, we went over to N’s classmate’s house for a playdate. N’s friend “s” has a super-creative momma, karen, who planned out a cute halloween craft for the kids to do together. she agreed with my photographing their process and sharing it with you on my blog. so here are our silly spiders!

the night before the playdate, karen covered a few styrofoam balls with orange tissue paper (using glue) and gathered other materials such as orange and black pipe cleaners, googly eyes, puffy balls, feathers, and glitter glue. you could do this with black tissue paper to make black spiders, too, or any other color, of course!

we started by asking the kids how many legs a spider has, and the girls began to stick the metal pipe cleaners (legs) into the ball (body) to create the spider’s form.

dress-up time was right before art time, so N was dressed as tigger here

then the fancy decorating began. they glued on googly eyes and puff ball noses.

while N kept her spider quite minimalistic, “s” decided that her spider would have really colorful feathery hair and lots of sparkly glitter glue, and it turned out so awesome!

both girls were quite proud of their silly spiders! this is such a non-messy, super-easy craft for kids from 2 years old and up. our spider will certainly be a cute addition to our annual halloween decor.

thank you for the playdate, “s” and thank you, momma karen, for this sweet idea!

play-doh is a surefire way to occupy N all on her own for at least two hours, if not three. throw in some googly eyes, and we were doing the monster mash up in here!

the day N was playing with play-doh, i happened to see my blogger friend’s post about her pink and green mama’s halloween craft fun book. at the bottom of the post, there was a cute little piece of play-doh with an eyeball stuck into it. again, with only that one photo, i was inspired by the wonderful mary lea (her books are great – check them out!) anyway, adding the eyeballs to N’s play-doh play was a hit.

she squashed so many different colors together, giving them funny eyeballs and faces, and having a good time making silly monsters.

play-doh is not all that strong when it’s dried, so admittedly model magic or another modeling medium like sculpey would have been better to do this with if planning to keep the final product. but it’s about the process, right? and well, it was a play-doh day for us anyway. so we went for it regardless.

we decided to see what the product would be like if we kept N’s cute creatures, so we let them dry for a few days. sure, they’re a bit crackly in spots, and sure a few eyeballs fell out and needed to be elmer’s glued back on, but still so adorable.

so much so that i decided to use household cement to attach magnets to the back of each monster face.

right now they’re gracing our fridge and getting cozy with some of N’s other art work, though i anticipate that each unique  monster will be given a new refrigerator home come halloween week…

N and i tried this new (to us) clay out called paperclay that i got from my boyfriend, dick blick. (i heart dick blick.)

i love the texture of this stuff! it’s non-toxic, smooth and easy to mold, and it air-dries within 1-3 days without getting all cracked and dried out. (you can also expedite the drying process of it by baking it.) we had fun playing with it and squishing it around for a while (and N thought it smelled like glue… uh, has she been sniffing glue?)

N wanted to make some animals out of the paperclay, naturally.

carving details into her cat's face

she asked me to make a dragon for her, and she created a cat and a small turtle.

we took a long weekend vacation, and when we returned, the clay was dry, of course. we had a good time painting it with tempera paints. (you can also use acrylic paint or markers to color the paint.)

after the three animals were painted, N wanted to use the extra paint to paint each of their portraits!

i thought that was such a sweet idea… say cheese, animal friends!

we’re definitely going to do more sculpting with paperclay soon! (gosh, i wish i got paid for these reviews/endorsements! oh well… it’s all for art’s sake, right?)

a handfull of my friends have little ones who have recently celebrated their first birthday. along with new experiences of toddling around and mastering some words, they are also ready to begin some early art-making experiences. a few moms have asked me what i first did with N in that realm. this sent me back through my memory and my zillions of photos of my wee little teeny N-bear.

playroom 12.5 months

generally, the very first art materials are those that we refer to as “pre-art materials.” this basically means they are safe items that can either be digested (such as beans, whipped cream, or dough) or that are large (such as building blocks, balls, bowls). they promote tactile experiences and are used for sensory-motor stimulus, and are great for kids between one and two years of age. pre-art materials are still useful beyond the two-year-old mark because they reinforce the sensory experiences that a child is discovering, and since children at this stage can become easily frustrated, pre-art materials may provide them with a sense of mastery over the art task.

N was a kid who, at around 9 or 10 months old, loved to hold the stems of two leaves in her hands everywhere we went. then two drumsticks from her toy drums. which evolved into two fat crayons, one in each hand, with which to make her first marks. often, two or three crayons were in each hand, making marks together.

15 months

she loved the cause and effect of being able to create a mark… to make something on the page! how powerful that must feel for the first time, for a brand new being to assert herself and push pigment across paper and watch what happens! she was sold.

15 months

as you can see in the photo above, we have always loved taping off the borders of the page — not only does it keep the paper from wobbling all over the place for early artists, but it also creates a lovely frame around abstract scribbles.

14 month scribbles by N (bottom pastel rainbow by me)

we ventured into the realm of homemade dough as we got closer to 18 months old. mostly she just loved to mush it around, pull it apart, squish it, feel it, poke it with straws. she would command certain things for me to make for her like balls, snowmen, various animals, and then manipulate them, while cracking up, after i created them.

playing with dough at 20 months old

and always, sandtrays, water tables, and natural materials found outside are great for exploration… (keep an eye on where sticks and rocks end up at this stage, of course.) have fun introducing these tiny artists to their own creative potential — it truly knows no bounds!

after making so many wooden easter and springtime friends, N 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.

N 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 N 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 N 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 N 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. N 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 N’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 N, but sometimes the neon colors and unmatched squishiness of play-doh is irresistible.

so when N 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 (N’s aunt kim) gave N a a set of dough tools that melissa and doug makes, and N 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.