i’m so psyched to be guest blogging today over at chalk in my pocket! (thanks, regina!) i’ve shared a project that’s great for earth day — it involves a nature walk, painting leaves, printmaking, and beautifying our backyard. go check out how we made our leaf print garden flags!
happy earth day tomorrow, everyone! how do you celebrate our planet?
i’ve seen sooo many cute ideas this season for ways of expressing thanks in a natural and artsy way! who else but the artful parent would present such a cute and clever idea as thanksgiving leaf garland? we had to try it!
first, N and i wandered around the neighborhood trying to find colorful leaves — somewhat of a tall order in these parts of the bay area. (one of the things i miss about the east coast!) we did manage to find some beauties. we got out the big books (art books, of course) and got read to press them.
we placed them in between the books for 24 hours to flatten.
the next day, we had so much fun writing on the leaves with metallic markers all of the things we are thankful for. tip: if you want to preserve the suppleness and color of the leaves, apply 1-2 coats of mod podge to each side after they’ve been pressed, and in this case, after you write on them. i’ll likely post a demo of this process soon.
N came up with lots of things she is thankful for, and we also made some leaves that were just cute designs and patterns.
she loved the leaves when they were finished!
i found a brown satin ribbon in my stash, and hot-glued the leaf stems to the back of the ribbon.
i realize it might be more legible against a plain wall, but i cannot resist hanging the garland in a sunny window in our home.
thankfulness for our two cats
i’m a sucker for the way light filters through beautiful colored leaves (and colorful artwork, for that matter!)
i also would love to try this awesome gratitude tree that i saw on playful learning – maybe next year! count your blessings this thanksgiving!
does your little one gather thousands of leaves and twigs every time s/he’s outside? mine does! from nature walks to playgrounds to the preschool sandbox, N is constantly in search of treasures. when i saw the framework for this idea on moment to moment, i thought it would make a sweet storage space for seasonal findings.
i like how on moment to moment, the kids made beaded strands and various things to add to their fairy loom (which we’ll likely do later,) but mostly i wanted to make one where we could store natural objects… a fairy loom for all seasons! first, we needed a sturdy stick in the shape of the letter Y. last week we went on a nature walk with gwee, and hunted for said stick with no luck. we did find plenty of leaves and things, so N saved the things she gathered in anticipation of making a fairy loom.
over the weekend on a hike with her daddy, N found the perfect Y shaped stick for her loom. it was a bit bigger than i’d imagined it being (i was envisioning a 1-2 foot stick) but it turned out to be perfect.
N and i chose some variegated ribbon to thread the loom. you could use any ribbon, yarn, twine, or string you like. i wound the ribbon around the forked part of the stick. in hindsight, i should have created a loop around each side of the branch on each pass to make the weaving tighter. eh, next time.
weaving ribbon in a figure 8 pattern
we wove the found objects into it… leaves, feathers, pine needles with tiny pinecones on them, lavender, flowers, etc. N said “over, under, over, under…” as she wove.
when it was finished, N was so enthralled with it. she asked with wonder, “do you think a fairy would land on this?” (i think she’s hoping for tinkerbell to visit her, like in the new tink movie that just came out.)
we brought it into the house and put it in the corner of our den, kind of near the seasonal altar (though not in this photo.) it seems like a good place to store some of the little beautiful treats that N brings inside for us, and perhaps we’ll string some beads and shells to add to it, as well. i’m excited for the leaves to turn reds and oranges and yellows so we can add them to the loom — the color change happens later (and less vibrantly than i’m used to) in the bay area.
the loom can be cleaned out and redesigned with each season. i also think smaller (and bigger!) ones would be pretty hung from trees, hung on porches, or placed around the yard… oooo…
with the autumn equinox just behind us, my thoughts are turning to colorful leaves and acorn hunts! i thought it might be a nice time to revisit the artistic endeavors that last fall brought in our home. click on the names below to see the complete tutorial for each:
and one of my favorites… autumn leaf garland!
we did a lot of fun halloween crafts last year, too… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. for now, enjoy the refreshing air, pinecones, bright leaves, and acorn treasures the season brings! crisp, fresh autumn art coming soon! stay tuned!
woah, it’s been a while, eh? sorry for the lapse in blogging. last week was busy with tying up loose ends of the summer, cleaning out for autumn, and getting my art therapy practice up and running (woot!) and while i was doing these things, i went through the art cabinet and found something i bought back in the spring, and we never used this summer – oops.
if it says "crayola" on it, does it count as an art project? 
well, sure it’s the day after labor day, but it stays good and warm here through the end of october, and the kit said that it’s only for planting in summer 2010, so i figured we’d better get germinating! i mean, it is still technically summer for a couple more weeks after all.
watering the soil pellets to watch them expand
this crayola flower kit is so step-by-step easy that it’s not all that exciting for a 3 year old to do, honestly. i think N would have preferred to get more messy like when we planted seeds in pots in the loose soil. regardless, who can turn away a sunflower garden?
planting seeds
we created a little greenhouse in our kitchen plant window, and in 1-2 weeks we should have some sprouts! just in time for… uh, fall? oh well.
and check out that adorable fairy there on the left by one of my favorite etsy artists, mamakopp! it’s perfect for the flowers N brings in for me from her adventures in the yard. stay tuned or some seriously colorful fun to come this week…
we'll keep you posted on the sunflower harvest!
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:
let your imagination run with it and string it up on the wall!
what a perfect thing to do on these sunny summer days – make your own nature photos with sun art paper
on saturday, N had a friend over to play. i tasked them with finding interesting looking natural objects in our backyard. they mostly gathered leaves and flowers.
then we went into the shade and pulled out a couple sheets of our sun art paper. (i bought three sizes of it from amazon over the winter, when i was daydreaming of sunny days ahead. this time we used the 5″x7″ paper.) we arranged the leaves and flowers on the paper before going into the sun.
next we put a clear acrylic sheet (comes with the paper) over the objects. this holds down your things so they don’t blow away in the wind or move around while exposure is happening. each sun art paper kit comes with just one, but if you want to do more than one at a time, raid your picture frame stash (especially the cheap plastic ones) and borrow some more from those. we left the paper in the sun for just 3-5 minutes (until it turns a very light blue.)
next we put the papers into a tub of water for one minute. because we wanted out images to turn out a deeper shade of blue, i added a few drops of lemon juice to the water (like it said to on the package.)
we repeated the process with more leaves and flowers… and some bubble wands, too!
after the prints have soaked for a minute, let them dry on a towel. (once completely dry, you can press them in a book for a day or so to make sure they are flat.)
the girls had fun watching how their pictures turned out, but mostly they were psyched just to run around with their popsicles. (perhaps the reason the package of sun art paper says for ages 6+)
these beautiful natural prints would make lovely cards, but i think i will frame this batch in a series to display in our home.
