paint cut paste

in the words of N’s favorite muppet show special guest star, alice cooper, “school’s out for summer!” that means that N is graduating from preschool, and the class presented a really sweet gift to the teacher/school yard on the last day of class — handprint garden flags! (can you tell which parent coordinated this creation? um yeah, i’m a little obsessed with flags/garland over here.)

i cut and sewed a cord pocket onto these little linen fabric squares the same way i’ve done for the food flags and leaf print garden flags, of course. then i gave one out to each family in the class to take home with simple instructions to use fabric paint for handprints and their child’s name (which have been removed from photos for privacy) and to bling out their flag with whatever else they’d like. we got busy handprinting N’s.

in a few weeks, i received a rainbow of lovely handprints from each kid in class.

we worked on stringing them together on a white rope.

then the flags were ready to present to the most amazing preschool teachers ever!

i just love the details on each one – showing such personality! (wish you could see all of the names – they were so cute – but i want to protect the privacy of the kids in class.)

here’s to all the wonderful teachers out there in the world! happy summer!

there’s been a LOT of self-directed drawing going on in my home these past three weeks or so. and i mean A TON. did you see the video i posted on facebook the other day? yeah, N is doing at least 60 of these illustrated stories per day. i know a very prolific artist who is on a roll over here!

3 weeks worth of her 2D, non-preschool, non-paintcutpaste art

one of the themes i’ve noticed (when sifting through the pages that get deposited on my desk throughout the day) is that N is into tracing her hand a lot these days.

in addition to the tracing, there seems to be a lot of rainbow manicuring going on in these images.

and some really cool rings and jewels. (i’m really into the stacked turquoise bands above, personally.)

so just a quick little bit about one of the many themes arising organically in the art over here as of late — yep, this and the muppets.

how about at your house? what sorts of things do your little ones draw repeatedly?

i like how these rings are on the ringfinger

p.s. – any tips for me on storing all of the masterpieces that don’t get recycled? right now these 9×12 images on her drawing paper are archived in a HUGE 3-ring-binder.

i just had to share the sweetest card that came home from preschool with N. again, a great idea from her preschool teacher to do an upside-down handprint santa.

and what’s inside is truly heartwarming.

a picture of us all around the christmas tree

ho ho ho!

i’m a big fan of prayer flags or anything that resembles them. and what better thing to pay homage to than food? (well for me. eat, pray, love – right?) anyway, i saw this awesome idea on alphamom to do a fourth of july bunting using starfruit. i fully intended to do this before the holiday, but after combing 5 grocery stores/produce markets here, there is just no starfruit to be found. we improvised and took a different path.

N and i gathered up some fun and sturdy shapes at wholefood’s produce section. then i sliced them in half and let them sit face down for about an hour on a towel, to absorb any extra moisture.

to prepare, the night before i had cut up some natural-colored linen (i purchased some from jo ann’s fabrics – you could also use white or cream burlap or other fabrics) into 8″ by 5″ rectangles, with a little help from my cat. i frayed the edges by hand because i love the raw look of that.

N and i chose some colors from our fabric paint stash (you can also use acrylics) and began to paint the flat sides of the fruits and veggies to do some printmaking. (you can dip them in the paint, but we went this route so we wouldn’t waste any paint by leaving it in a dipping pan.)

we chose different colors for each of the different pieces of produce, and pressed them firmly onto the linen, toward the bottom of each rectangle. (this is to leave room for a pocket at the top for the rope to go through to hang them later.)

it was so much fun to see the colorful shapes emerge on the fabric.

we let them dry all afternoon, while we admired our work.

the next day, i pinned and sewed each flag across the top to make a pocket for a rope to go through.

sadly, i was impressed with my ability to do this. i am NOT a sewer.

alphamom’s blog said you could use fabric glue instead to create the loop for the rope, but i used this as an opportunity to practice using the sewing machine my dear friend gave me before she moved to bali. (i mean, this was the next best thing if i couldn’t move there with her, right? wow, this is becoming an eat, pray, love post in a coupla ways.)

i got some nice rope at the hardware store for 14 cents per foot. after putting the rope through the loop at the top, we were super-pleased with the results.

the banner/flags/garland is now hanging in our kitchen window… where else?

during the printmaking process, we got a little overzealous about the fact that cauliflower makes cute little trees, so we made an extra banner of all of the “tiny trees” we printed.

more ideas:

• i got word that there’s a shipment of starfruit coming in tomorrow to a local grocer, so you just may see some star bunting in our future, after all… it’ll be more on the aquatic-colored starfish side of things than fourth of july though.
• another thing i’d love to do with all of our extra lined rectangles is to do some leaf printing on them like the artful parent shows here.
• you can also print letters to spell out a word or name.
• it would be great to do a different child’s handprint on each piece of fabric, say for a school class banner (think: teacher appreciation) or to give to a grandparent who has several grandkids, or for yourself, (if you have enough little hands and feet in your house to make a decent length garland of your own kids’ paws.)
• printed fabric squares make for lovely garland, flags, pockets to sew onto aprons, book-covers, etc, etc, etc…

let your imagination run with it and string it up on the wall!

it is easy being green! who couldn’t use another reusable canvas bag – for groceries, target runs, library books, the farmer’s market, playdates, dance class, etc.? we decided to customize some springy totes for N’s preschool teachers and dance teacher in honor of teacher appreciation week!

i bought a 3-pack of tote bags from michael’s for $9 (individual bags for $4.) they’re a nice 13″ size for carrying lots of things! i also got three colors of non-toxic fabric paint for about $1.40 each. (they sell assorted color sets for more money, but i thought i needed a larger amount of just three colors.)

then we got down to business… i used a sponge brush to paint the fabric paint onto N’s hand. then she pressed her handprints (reapplying paint in between) on the bags in a radial fashion.

these made pretty flower petals. then she used a sturdy paintbrush to paint a center on each flower (in a different color) and a stem with leaf on each one.

you could personalize further by writing or stamping a person’s name on each tote, but we liked them as is. just let them dry for 4 hours, and you’re good to bag up your stuff!

these made great gifts for N’s teachers, (along with these custom gift tags drawn & written by N.) the bags would also work nicely for mother’s day or a reusable gift bag to fill with goodies when celebrating a birthday, bridal/baby shower, or any spring/summer event!

and if you like N’s shirt, it could be yours… click here!