paint cut paste

this is yet another installment of things-i’ve-made-from-pinterest: the valentine edition. yes, maps are all over the place in the world of upcycled-crafts, trending much like tp rolls, paint chips, and pallets. with my sagittarian wanderlust and zig-zagging moves across the country and back, this project seemed like a fun way to say “happy valentine’s day” to my sweetie, who has stuck it out with me through all of the bubble wrap and mail forwarding involved.

i’ve seen it done with a “where met met, where we married, where we live or honeymooned” sort of theme (or some rendition of that, like this one from minimoz.) but i went with the four (so far) cities where we’ve lived together: new york city, boulder, richmond va, and the sf bay area. (in that order.)

i had an old atlas that i didn’t mind cutting up. i mean, we have google maps and GPSs for that these days, right? i cut out a folded heart on construction paper first. then i traced it over the maps where the cities where we lived were included within the heart. (that way the actual map wouldn’t have a fold, and the hearts would be identical in size and shape.)

then i used elmer’s glue dots to affix the heart maps to a piece of large card, gray cardstock from michaels.

i put it in an unused frame we’ve been storing in our garage, and presented it to my valentine along with a teeeeny giftwrapped compass from the world’s smallest postal service (have you seen this cuteness yet? check it out, if not. i met the artist, lea, at an art fair over the holidays, and she’s as lovely as her mini-art!) the note inside her prepackaged compass reads, “where would i be without you?”

cutesy, sure. but i’m finding it to be a fun walk down memory lane to look at our old roads and landmarks in this way. knowing us, this piece is likely to expand. we’ll probably need a larger frame at some point in the next few years. that is, if the past is the greatest predictor of the future. let’s hope not – i’m not a huge fan of cross country moves.

i decided to title the piece: “wait, they don’t love you like i love you.” because it’s pretty much the only lyric in the yeah yeah yeahs song that’s strangely titled maps.

with valentine’s day approaching, my daughter has been interested in creating sweet cards for family and friends. she is of the age where she wants some of the creations to remain a secret. (shhh, i’ve found a few strategically hidden in her basket of play silks – one for MOM – but i didn’t peek at it further!) i decided that since she’s taking the reigns on all things valentine, i’d create a DIY valentine supply collection to support her endeavors.

i repurposed a melissa & doug toy box (aren’t they great for drawer organization and tiny toy storage?) into a valentine creation station! (when i read to N what i wrote on the sign on the side of the box, she asked me skeptically, several times, if i made that rhyme up myself. there are these fleeting little moments when they’re so easy to please, huh? hee hee )

i stocked the box with blank cards and envelopes that were in various shades of red, pink, and purple. there are also small pieces of decorative papers, some pre-punched paper hearts (some leftover from our garland,) the paper heart craft punch (because she can do this herself at this age, too! yay!), fuzzy balls, stickers, sparkly gems, paper flowers, markers, colored pencils, crayons, glue sticks, scissors, and glue.

N was so excited when she saw the festive box on the coffee table, and she set to work right away on making the first valentine for, of course, HERSELF. you’ve gotta be your own valentine first, right? (that’s some healthy self-esteem right there! you go girl!)

then she moved on to creating a bunch of love notes for family members.

here’s a collection of her lovely custom valentines, ready to address and mail – right under our LOVE sign!

i hearted tinkerlab’s recent post about how she made a valentine buffet for her children, too! do you and your children create valentines in your home? how do you invite them into this process?

we’ve been getting in the holiday spirit over here, making all sorts of fun christmas/solstice decor! as a little impromptu project, N kicked it old skool and created some christmas trees out of pine cones and pom poms the other day.

check out our “two ingredient tuesday” guest post on kiwi crate all about it!

what sorts of holiday decorations have your little ones been making this season?

we are definitely feeling the fall spirit over here! where we live, the leaves are slow to change, but now that it’s november, we are seeing more reds, oranges, and yellows brightening up the landscape. N and i went for a little leaf-hunting walk around the neighborhood the other day, and found a bounty of beauty!

what would you make with these fiery treasures?

also, we recently had a great time creating acorn cap jewels and blogged about them over on kiwi crate. go check out our process… it’s super easy. you can turn this:

into this:

happy fall!!!

now, what to make with those gorgeous leaves…???

the other day, N and i set out to play with one of our favorite art media — liquid watercolors. recently there was a $1 per bottle sale on these at discount school supply (regularly $2.99, but they offer discounts all the time,) so we stocked up at a buck each! i just loooove how vibrant and translucent liquid watercolors can be!

i just put out four colors this time: magenta, turquoise, yellow, and purple. (the first three are a variation on primary colors that i just heart, and they mix to create beautiful combos! purple wasn’t even necessary, but it’s N’s favorite, soooo….)

free art play! these are the afternoons i live for. we did tons of experimenting with techniques — such as white crayon resist:

wet on wet watercoloring (saturate your paper first with water, then paint or drop colors onto it and watch them spread like magic):

sprinkling salt onto the painted page and watching the paint gather toward the crystals to create a stippled effect:

then we did N’s favorite method – squirted elmer’s glue onto the page, covered it with salt, and watched the paint get soaked up by the lines and blend into rainbowy goodness:

we played quite a bit. we even busted out the shaving cream at the end and did some paper marbling with the remaining paint in the jars. (because i hate to waste gorgeous paint and just have to use it up!) we did this over two years ago on the blog when N was just a wee thing, so check out that post for the technique. it’s amazingly beautiful and fun!

this day yielded so many lovely creations!

it was such a colorful afternoon with my sweet girlie and our favorite paints.

we felt like the color kittens! (do you know that old golden book? it’s classic!)

as spring has just sprung, i’ve had nests on my mind. we’ve often done spring crafts involving nests and birds, but one of my favorite nesting projects is one that was done while N was still in utero, in the fall of 2006. a handful of my dearest friends created this nest with me and my husband at our blessingway ceremony. the nest still graces my daughter’s bedroom today.

as i’ve blogged about just a bit, a mother’s blessing ceremony or blessingway ceremony can be done in addition to or in lieu of a baby shower. the intention behind a blessing ceremony is to honor the mom-to-be (and/or the dad-to-be!) as they cross the threshold into parenthood.

three of my girlfriends from our art therapy graduate program and one of our closest guy friends held a two-day long ceremony such for us, during which we did several art and pampering rituals they planned — seven different rituals, to be exact. one of which was the blessing nest. we began by each meditating on the baby who was about to come into the world (N!) and the blessings we have for her life.

then we selected from a collection of beautiful ribbons and thin strips of lovely papers, and wrote our blessings on them with glittery pens.

we read the blessings aloud to each other, and to the little one listening from my belly.

my beautiful friend sharing one of her blessings

my friends had purchased a lovely twig nest, which she brought for us to weave our blessings through. (of course, you could create your own nest from local sticks, twigs, and twine.)

we had a wonderful time threading the ribbons and papers between the twigs, using a glue gun to secure their positions, while talking about this little person who was about to come into the world.

we added some green moss into the bed of the nest, to later hold the precious stones, rocks, and hand-painted (by N) eggs it now carries.

this beautiful nest is one of the most special keepsakes from my pregnancy, and it is infused with so much love for N from dear, sweet friends and from her mommy and daddy.

the winter solstice is upon us, where the days will begin to get longer from there. in celebration of bringing the light and due to its being the darkest day of the year, lanterns are often made in honor of the solstice. two years ago, we made a lovely lantern at the waldorf school where we were in a parent-child class with N before she turned 2. they made quite an impression on her, so i thought we’d make them the same way again for this winter solstice.

when seeking a how-to memory refresher online, i found the most lovely tutorial on the garden mama blog. seriously, her beautiful entry about these lanterns deems this one totally unnecessary, as she wrote the most poetic and wonderfully photographed tutorial on these i could imagine. but i’m going to (b)log our experience here, nonetheless.

admiring the finished product on a dark winter morning

we started by beginning the wet-on-wet watercolor process. we soaked three sheets of watercolor paper.

then we opted to dilute my tubes of professional grade watercolors in little jars of water, though you could just use regular watercolors for this. we also chose to only use primary colors, so as to make this an experiment in color-mixing.

N painted and painted, watching the colors run together and create new hues – magic!

when we were finished painting, she wanted a little more vibrance, so i pulled out the watersoluble crayons (one of my favorite media on earth!) and she added some red, yellow, and blue lines into the wet paint. when wet, these crayons behave like concentrated paint.

we hung the masterpieces to dry overnight.

the next day we rubbed them with canola oil on a cloth, so as to make the paper more translucent when lit from within.

after the oil was dry (about a day) we cut fringe along the long side of the paper. we made two like the garden mama blog suggested (ever 2.5 inches, 2.5 inches long) and the third we only did at 1.5 x 1.5 inches.

we used a pillar candle to evenly roll the paintings around, and secured the edge with school glue, and clothespinned them until dry.

after they were dry, we folded the bottom tabs in to create a bottom.

then instead of putting real fire inside, i used little electric tea lights instead.

now we are ready for the darkest day of the year!

all ready to bring the light on december 21st! (which, incidentally, is my birthday )

by the way, those cute wooden reindeer you see in the photos were a custom set that the talented chris over at mamaroots made for N. we sooo love her creations!