paint cut paste

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!

one of our favorite holiday cards this year was made by a dear friend and her little artist, and it inspired this project… painting/stamping with cookie cutters!

first we selected some cookie cutters (mostly stars, moons, and hearts… we were working with a few themes) and some construction paper.

we put a pool of paint onto a paper plate. then novi just dipped the cookie cutters in the paint and novi stamped away!

novi stamped some hearts that i’m sure we’ll use for valentine’s day in some way.

we decided to use the stars and moons to wrap the friend’s birthday present, and it made really cute gift wrap!

it’s the time of year for baking! it is a family tradition in my family to make fudge and russian tea cookies at christmas, but novi’s very favorite one to help out with is the sugar cookies! last week, we got some serious baking done in our kitchen!

novi helps with (almost) everything in the process, from rolling the dough…

to cutting out her favorite holiday shapes with cookies cutters… (this year made much more exciting with our purchase of 101 cookie cutter shapes!)

"pressing haaaaard!"

she gets so excited when they’re ready to go in the oven…

and the most fun is when they come out of the oven, are iced, and are ready to decorate!

exclaiming, "yummy cookies!!!"

now, this is PURE ART for novi. she takes her time choosing which colors and sprinkles go on each cookie.

when they’re all finished, she practices great restraint in not eating every single one (last year when she was 22 months old, this was harder. at 34 months, she’s able to resist a bit more.) finally, she gets to enjoy all of her hard work by eating a cookie and a glass of milk.

she helps me to package up the cookies to give to neighbors and friends, and “plays santa” in proudly handing them out, along with some of her handmade ornaments.

the part she’s not so jazzed about is the clean up. unfortunately this year, that ritual is still just for momma.

i must say this aproned elf did most of the work this year! messy, but so worth it!

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…)

this entry is a departure from the purpose of this blog, which is to share ideas for ways to get artsy with your little one to inspire their own creations. my aim for this blog is to foster creativity in those little people we adore, who always have huuuge ideas and often just need a third hand (and someone to drive them to the art store) to put those ideas onto paper or clay or canvas.

but, dear readers, today i just thought i’d share a few pics of what i’ve been making lately, sans little helping hands. just for kicks.

i’m no geninne (urban outfitters is not banging down my door for me to silkscreen a pillow for them, dammit) and nor is my inspiration board nearly as cool as hers, but i take inspiration from her board and studio. here’s my own board in my own mini-studio (in our playroom/guestroom):

and i have been collecting some fun natural objects for later use:

despite my complete lack of sewing skillz, i made a few felt owls for new baby friends a la craft stylish:

as you may have seen here, i made our pets into rocks:

i immortalized our cats

i got hungry:

animal crackers (they're cookies!)

i added to our felted wool acorn ornament collection from last holiday season (and then i used some pom poms inside of the acorn caps when i ran outta wool balls, a la pink & green mama‘s idea)

making more felted wool & pom pom acorns

triplets!

i got some wooden beads and watercolored them and used my homemade wood creme to finish them off, to make little toys for novi’s advent calendar:

our wooden family

i resurrected an old passion for making homemade bath products (i used to have a company called green athena where i sold these goods in nyc and on the web, in a former life,) and whipped up some yummers sugar scrubs for the body (raw sugar, grapeseed oil, vitamin E oil, any fav combo of essential oils. i like peppermint grapefruit and lavender rose!)

rub-a-dub-yum!

and some homemade lipbalm to go with (beeswax, jojoba oil or olive oil, honey, and essential oils. these are lemon mint!)

yip yip

when i have a chunk of time, i loooove to watercolor… i took out this one from a few years ago as inspiration and as a reminder that the visual stimuli of this time of year is fun to capture in this medium:

happy holidays to all of you mommas, dads, kiddos, caregivers, teachers, and artists out there! i’m going to be doing more painting, knitting, and baking before the  year is out… and, of course, always making art with my little artist in residence. enjoy the beauty of the season!