paint cut paste

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…???

sometimes i love the $1 bins at michael’s. i found a couple of these blank puzzles (various sizes) a while back and forgot they were in the art cabinet… but guess who spotted them this week.

we got out some markers, and N began to draw on the puzzle — immediately (and randomly) decisive that she was making a giraffe picture.

she rode out her morning pancake buzz on designing and coloring this for a while.

when it was finished, i sprayed it with final fixative because i knew the markers would come off all over our hands when playing with the puzzle.

then we broke it all to pieces – N loved this part! we all have innate tendencies for both creation and destruction… this satisfies both.

then we worked to put it back together, and she was impressed with how she could “make such a hard puzzle!”

did you see the artful parent’s 10 simple art activites post this week? [it was jean-ius! if not, you should take a peek - she even offers a printable sheet of ideas to post in your art space as reminders.] it totally inspired me to bust out some q-tips and paint and introduce N to the idea of pointillism!

first, we had a little art lesson from my favorite art history texts (good ol’ gardner and janson) and perused some seurat images.

then i put out a limited palette – magenta, orange, yellow, and cyan. (magenta, yellow, and cyan are the CMYK model of primary colors for ink printing, so they can create most colors when layered.) and our tool: q-tips.

N was excited about this from the beginning and went to work making a starry night sky and moon, and then a car driving on the road.

then she asked for her markers because she wanted to try pointillism with those. good thinking! so she created a beach scene.

this is the piece where N invented "dash-illism" because "dashes are easier"

N has just begun her next marker pointillism masterpiece… i have a feeling she’ll be working on this one a while.

momma got in on the action, too — i found it quite meditative!

try pointillism with q-tips, paintbrushes, markers, eraser tips of pencils, or do-a-dot markers.

what do you dot dot dot with?

i’m so very excited to have a dear friend and one of the most laugh-out-loud funny mom bloggers out there guest blogging here today — the awesome ms. hannah, from to the moon and back, writes here about creating a totally inspiring, whimsical, and heartful piece of art for her son:

sleep has always been a place of hardship, terrible stress and many tears for our almost three year old, j. and quite frankly, for his mom, dad and often little sister, h. it’s just oh-so-hard when your child is struggling with something out of their control; everyone’s control. we’ve been working through and around and in this place for a long time and {hopefully} have learned a bit about how to move forward and beyond. i’ve been visualizing a dream catcher or mobile of sorts that would symbolize the love, strength, and optimism we want to fill our son’s room and his sleepy little head with. i started by explaining my vision to j – a piece of art we could make together to hang in his room that would make him feel safe, remind him how much he is loved and help him through his trying nights. he was beyond excited. it was a rainy day so we geared up and headed out to find inspiration.

we found the perfect sized stick; and with just enough bend in just the right places for the base of a wall hanging. we headed inside to create the artwork and inspiration. without any specific pre-conceived thoughts I dug through our arts and crafts closet and came up with some materials: shrink film, ribbons, watercolors, finger paint, colored pencils.

h is a watercolor girl. she could play among their liquidy goodness for hours. ok, let’s be honest, minutes. like 32 of them, maybe. while she painted, I cut two sheets of the shrink film into smaller pieces to decorate. *the instructions on the shrink film are to use permanent markers – which can be a daunting thought with a 19 m.o. and an almost 3 y.o. but hey, what’s the worst that can happen?

before baking our shrink film I punched a hole in the top of each piece so they would be hang-able later.

watching shrink film bake and contort and form in the oven is just oh so cool. and voila!

h’s water color was just so vivid and great that we decided it should be our focal point. to add some texture I cut the paper into four pieces, punched holes in each and threaded with ribbon. (the ribbons re-used from a friend’s baby shower last weekend.)

j decided he’d like to hang h’s watercolor from the center of the stick and from there we choose ribbons to tie and hang in random order along both sides. (these iridescent ribbons, symbolizing the love and bond our family shares, are from our wedding in 2006 where they were hung all over an apple tree to shimmer and blow in the breeze.)

next we hung our shrink film creations. for this I opted to use fishing line to keep things airy and light. from the baby shower gift I re-used  two leaf shaped pieces of paper; punched holes in them and cut a few more to add.

we simply threaded the large ribbons through the holes in the leaves  to add a “feather” dream catcher effect – but in keeping with our nature theme, of course.

and there you have it. our whimsical, colorful, bad dream squashing, peaceful night evoking, sweet dream mobile.

and so far, so good. j went to sleep with a smile on his face and excitement in his eyes. the journey through parenthood and childhood is so challenging.  in so many ways. acknowledging j’s fears and angst around his sleep and showing him, in this way, that we are here for him and love him and will help him through this {I hope} will be just the boost his little body needs. and a little help from the best sweet dream mobile ever has got to sweeten the pot, no?

thanks for the opportunity to share with you, paintcutpaste fans!

-hannah

thank YOU, hannah, for sharing such a beautiful and meaningful project with all of us! hop on over to hannah’s honest and hilarious blog on motherhood, to the moon and back, to read more from her and “like” her blog on facebook, too!

grandma is in town and brought with her a really cool coloring set for N… metallic markers on black backgrounds with who else? the disney fairies!

nevermind that blank rectangle at the bottom where N already took the markers off.

i’m so not getting paid to endorse a product here, but i’ve always been a sucker for making art on black backgrounds, so that’s the gist of this post.

N said it was magical. something about having colors show up against a dark background is like drawing with light in a nighttime sky. she completed both images that came in this disney fairies shimmer art package.

we went out to lunch later in the day, and i thought to bring along these metallic markers from the set, along with an art journal i have with blank black pages in it. (by the way, you can get the sharpie metallic markers at target and they create the same effect.)

i drew a circle on the page and invited her to create a mandala. she LOVED this directive and really got into it.

mandala artists converse

creating this masterpiece…

for some more on creating mandalas on black paper, check out our blog from last year by clicking here.

so, i let my 3 year old use a sharpie today. yeah, i know they’re not for kids, but she is a drawing FIEND and loves to draw with a regular pencil because she enjoys the black and white contrast. i figured i could show her how to use one of my new retractable ultra-fine point sharpie markers, and she LOVED it. she drew and drew.

my personal favorite media combo to use is sharpie and watercolors, so i put out the paints, and let her paint on her drawings. ah, markers that aren’t water-based don’t run. the joy!

yellow raincoats

true to form, N cranked out some greeting (mostly birthday) cards. (her middle name should have been hallmark. seriously. does the fact that she makes every card that goes out of our house and most of the gifts qualify as child labor?)

for my mom's ("gwee") birthday

i just love these!

she did some other non-card sharpie drawing, too. welcome to my favorite media, little one.

what kid hasn’t transformed a cardboard box into a house or car? well, mine hadn’t until today. we recently got a new water cooler that came in a big box with some extra cardboard padding. just had to recycle some and upcycle the rest into an artsy plaything, of course!

first, N saw the cardboard and asked if she could draw on it with markers. once the markers were in hand, she said she wanted to draw a house on it. a lightbulb appeared above my head (in cartoon world,) and i suggested the cardboard BE the house and she draw all of the things on it that she’d want on the outside of her house. then she went to work on windows and doors, grass and flowers, trees and nests…

when she was finished drawing, i used an x-acto knife to cut out the door. i might have cut out the windows, too, if N hadn’t drawn such cute curtains onto them.

then i taped the two pieces of cardboard together with packaging tape to make them into a square.

N immediately began to bring in the (animal) inhabitants and furnishings.

she set a bunch of animals all around a fireplace, on chairs and benches, and said they were “telling stories and roasting marshmallows.” cozy. she even draped a yellow playsilk over the top of the box to make it seem bright inside, “and to keep out the rain.”

sure, these cardboard creations can get so much more elaborate. i’ve seen beautiful, intricate cardboard houses and birdhouses and furnishings made by others. but for us, this was an impromptu sunday morning thing that just happened simply and organically, just the way i like it. and there’s always room for N’s little house to grow!

this was good for HOURS of play today after it was made… wonder who will move in tomorrow…