paint cut paste

we’ve been having a lot of BIG fun over here…

often in our house, we hear novi calling from the den, “mommy, will you trace my hand on the magnadoodle?” so i oblige, and she decorates her hand.

yesterday morning, a light went off for me – body tracing! body tracing is a wonderful body awareness intervention in the art therapy world – how perfect for a toddler. novi loves to draw people’s faces and bodies and learn about what parts go where. this is right up her alley – making a life-sized self image! so we got down to business. i rolled out some light brown kraft paper that i had around (any roll of large paper would work – like the rolls you put on your kid’s easel or solid wrapping paper, etc.) then novi layed down on it, oh-so-giddy about the prospect.

i traced her outline with a black crayon (so as not to mark up her cute peacock pajamas.) she giggled when i traced her ticklish feet! then we got out our creamy crayons to decorate it (markers or crayons would have been fine, too, but she chose to use the creamy ones because “they show up brighter”)

she tried to make it in her likeness with blonde hair, blue eyes, a pink mouth.

she chose the outfit the “big novi” would wear and decorated it, down to the flower on the shirt, green crocs, and a silver bracelet.

when it was finished, she had a laughter fit about how her new novi friend was her twin…

then novi instructed me to cut out the image so she could put it on her wall. we taped it (with blue painter’s tape) to her bathroom door. (i could totally see these lining the halls of a preschool or elementary school…)

now she laughs at it every time she heads to the bathroom. such a fun activity that teaches little ones who are just learning about drawing people how to place all of the parts onto a figure, and a great confidence booster in celebrating and decorating their own body’s shape and size!

one year ago, when novi was 26 months old, we went to a spring festival where they offered many crafts for the kids. this is an easy and fun one that novi enjoyed making — clothespin butterflies! all you need are a few household items: a pipe-cleaner, a clothespin, and a coffee filter, as well as some markers.

first, let your child’s imagination run wild in coloring all over the coffee filters with the markers. if it is raining when you do this – you know those spring showers can be an artistic blessing – then put the colored (with a water-based marker) filters onto a cookie sheet outside for a minute to let the colors bleed, then dry them out before proceeding. you can see that effect from when we made coffee filter flowers last year. even if it’s not raining, the butterflies can be lovely. just let your child color away until his or her heart is content.

then bend a pipe cleaner (or half of one, actually) into an antenna shape. crinkle your coffee filter in the center and clip that into the clothespin along with the pipe cleaner. and there you have your winged springtime friend…

flutterby - ours got a bit wrinkled, but you get the idea

last weekend novi and i went to our local waldorf school’s spring faire, where many crafts were being made… mostly with wool, true to the waldorf spirit.

while i didn’t initiate these (nor did i take pictures of them being made – sorry) i wanted to share what we learned and created so that you may be able to do this, too. the theme was spring, and we made some little friends to hang out with this season.

first was the pipe cleaner and wool caterpillar. he’s a fuzzy cute guy made by bending a piece of pipe cleaner in half, and fashioning some antennae out of the top, like so:

then we wrapped colorful wool roving around and around his body until he was all covered in fuzz. i curled his antennae at the end so that the pipe cleaner wouldn’t be sharp, though some kids at the faire coated the antennae in felt all the way to the tip, as well.

next we made a furry bunny rabbit. this was done in the “make a pompom” fashion, which if you’re a knitter or crocheter, you probably already know how to do. the cool thing is that novi could do a lot of this on her own, as we were using very wide (about 1.5″) natural colored wool roving instead of thin yarn.

here’s how ya do it. sorry i didn’t take pictures of the process – it was sort of awkward to do so, as a kindergarten waldorf teacher was just sweetly whispering instructions to novi as she did this, oh-so-quietly and slowly, while taking breaks to run screaming like a wild banshee normal 3-year-old through the grass in between steps, and asking the teachers “why is everyone just whispering here?” anyway, here’s the how-to, but you can google “how to make a pompom” if you are visual (like me) and need to see pictures.

• cut two piece of cardboard into the shape of a doughnuts. the bigger the bunny, the bigger the doughnut. (ours were about 5″ in diameter with about a 2″ in diameter hole in the middle.)
• hold the two cardboard pieces together and wrap the yarn evenly around the doughnut in a circle, working around the cardboard until the hole is full, but don’t wrap too tightly or cutting will be hard to do. don’t worry if you happen to run out of yarn – just leave the ‘tail’ on the outside and start with a new length of yarn. (this is the part novi did with very little assistance. the rest is for the grown-ups.)
• once the wrapping is complete, use the scissors to cut along the edge of the doughnuts a few layers of yarn at a time until you reach the cardboard.
• pull the two cardboard pieces apart slightly, and using another piece of yarn, wrap it a few times along the middle and tie tightly.
• pull out the cardboard pieces or cut a slit through the cardboard pieces so that they can be pulled away easily.
• fluff up your little pompom bunny.

take a look at the figure and see which part could become the head. then tie a piece of white yarn around what would be the neck so that the head stands apart a little bit from the body. then you can gently pull two pieces of the wool roving up with your fingers to create bunny ears. and there you have your faceless waldorf bunny.

except that when we got home, novi said “where’s his face?!” so she opted to glue buttons on for eyes and a nose… “blue eyes just like mine!” as opposed the the usual red rabbit eyes.

i imagine we’ll be making a lot of little springy friends this season, using various methods, so stay tuned and your spring altars, seasonal tables, and easter baskets will be chocked full of sweet little handmade creatures!