paint cut paste

my daughter is a girl who dreams vividly. she has told me her dreams upon waking ever since her second birthday, always so colorful, odd, and fascinating! usually pleasant or funny, sometimes scary and dark. because dreams have been a big part of her life and our talks, we decided to make a dream pillow.

especially being a therapist, i am a person who feels that it is important to confront dream content — dreams are paths that lead to our unconscious world. dreams are a safe place to explore that which is potentially scary or dangerous. for this reason, i don’t find scary dreams to be unhealthy for a child to have, rather they are often essential for the child’s psyche to process information. however, all of us parents know that being afraid of the dark and/or having nightmares can be really horrible for a child. we do wish novi “sweet dreams” when she goes to sleep, and we always hope that she has a peaceful night. it is in that spirit that we decided to make the dream pillow — for a peaceful slumber and to usher novi into her own fanciful dreamworld each night.

we had a lot of rectangles of fabric leftover from the food flags we made. novi has been asking to paint on them, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity. we set up our fabric paints, and i taped two rectangles of fabric to her art board.

then i wrote a list while novi dictated the things she would like to see in her dreams: “mommy and daddy, owls, birds, flowers, trees, ladybugs…” after the list, we made a plan to put the images of the three of us on one side of the pillow, and a nature scene on the other side that would incorporate the other items.

novi did a great job painting all of the things from her list onto the fabric. she had so much fun with it. we even painted on stamps to stamp her name onto one side of the pillow, and used a bird stamp for the bird image on the nature side of the pillow. novi noted that the nature side of the pillow reminded her of our backyard, where we always have birds, we have a tall tree with an owl statue under it, and colorful porchulaca flowers.

that magenta guy on the branch is an owl, and there is a ladybug climbing the tree.

i hung the fabric to dry outside in the play house.

after it was dry, i ironed it on the backside, against a rag, to set the paint. then i hand-washed it in the sink with our natural detergent. (you could probably throw it in your washing machine, but i didn’t because these rectangles of linen had frayed ends so i didn’t want them to unravel.)

next we picked some lavender from our backyard to stuff into the pillow, as lavender is known to be an herb that helps with relaxation and peaceful sleeping. we used a few of the stems which were already dry for the pillow, and we hung the rest of the lavender harvest to dry to make sachets and such in the future. (you could also include chamomile, mugwort, valerian, or catnip, if you wanted other sleep-inducing herbs, but not all of those smell pleasant and you should research all herbs before using on or near your child.)

as a family, novi, her dad, and i wrote our dreamtime wishes for novi onto soft, handmade paper with sparkly and colorful pens. for example, i included “sparkly sunshine magic” and “hugs and kisses” on a couple of mine. two of novi’s said “owls” and “mom novi dad.” craig wrote “magical powers” and “exploring new places” as part of his wishes for her. we included these inside of the dream pillow, to infuse it with good intentions.

we also put a small amethyst stone inside of the pillow, as amethyst is said to have a calming and protective energy that makes is good for any type of dream work. it helps overcome insomnia and/or nightmares, and may help one to awaken refreshed and energized.

stuffing

i sewed up three sides of the pillow on my sewing machine, and then novi stuffed the goodies inside. i chose to keep the frayed edges visible on the outside to give it a natural feel, rather than sewing the painted sides facing each other and inverting the fabric. you could do it either way.

once it was all sewn up, we brought it into novi’s room before naptime. she was sooo excited about it and loves the smell of the dried lavender!

as novi knows this isn’t the sort of pillow she will lay on or even cuddle with, she chose to keep it on her headboard, right beside a little guy i made for her out of some of her old baby clothes. that way she can smell the pillow before going to sleep, as well as sleep knowing it’s right above her head. and speaking of old baby clothes, this project can be done with any fabric or any old clothes you may have. think about upcycling some of those old onesies with cute patterns. you can even skip the fabric painting step and focus on the idea of making this into a great sleep talisman or medicine bag.

while we’re on the topic of sending your children off to sleep in a peaceful way, and infusing their dreams with a little magic, i would like to recommend a wonderful bedtime book that a friend recently told me about, called starbright–meditations for children. it has amazing ideas for talking your child through soothing visualizations before they drift off to sleep. click on the cover image below to learn more about this book or to order it.

this is just the first of many dream-related art projects to come – stay tuned! sweet lavender dreams to you and yours!

i recently chanced upon this inspirational photo of these lovely sticks by an artist named ginette lapalme.

ginette's sticks

we had some sticks and driftwood hanging around our backyard, just waiting to become art materials… and i’d been thinking on it for a few days. i’m also reading a book on the shamanic tradition of holding council, which involves a talking piece – usually a stick. i’ve been dreaming about finding and embellishing a talking stick for my family and also for my work with clients. then blamo! – this picture finds me. the internet is so cool like that – providing serendipitous encounters and answers. anyway, the fire was lit under me, so i showed novi the photo to share the fire, and we gathered up our things: sticks, acrylics, brushes, palette, water jar, rag.

perhaps sticks we had won’t necessarily become future talking sticks, but i set out without that intention – just wanting to enjoy art for art’s sake and the fun of painting whimsical stripes and such on a natural canvas. while i worked on a big stick, novi had so much fun with the smaller ones.

she talked all the while about how she’d never done this before, and how she loves all of the new art ideas i come up with for us to do — how sweet to hear! (incidentally, she told me i am the best artist in alaska… which was flattering and all, but we’ve never even been there. ) it was a playful art-making session.

when working with natural materials, i like to (and this may get too woo-woo for some of you, but bear with me) have a dialog with the stick, rock, shell, etc. about what it would like to become. i feel like nature’s form really can dictate the lines, shapes, and colors, if we mindfully engage with it, observe, listen, and trust our instincts about the artistic choice we are making. i did this as i worked on painting my sticks, and i introduced this concept to novi as we painted. children are such absolute naturals when it comes to creating such a dialog, storyline, conversation – they are not self-conscious and are so genuinely connected to nature, so it comes easily. as adults, we have often lost that ability, and work to reclaim it.

novi's "ocean sparkle" stick

besides having tons of fun together, the visual results were magical.

the collection (sticks and stones)

my "heart chakra" driftwood

novi was proud of hers!

we decided to use embroidery thread to attach a feather to one of novi’s sticks.

and the most magical aftermath of all…

our artist hands

novi was on my lap while i was at the computer yesterday. (typical.) i was doing a google search for a random rug i’m trying to find that’s been out of stock for far too long to find it. [humph.] anyway, kandinsky’s circle painting happened to come up in the search, and novi was attracted to it immediately when she saw it. “ooooh, let’s make that!” she said.

wassily kandinsky, colour study: squares with concentric circles

to begin, i used a thick, black sharpie to draw circles onto a piece of thick drawing paper (we we’re out of watercolor paper) and then i gridded them off into boxes. this gave novi some framework in which to paint, though it isn’t a necessary step. in hindsight, it would have been awesome to use watersoluble crayons (easily one of my favorite media ev-ar!!!) or watercolor pencils for these guidelines. even using pastels or crayons would be cool because they’re colorful and resist the watercolors.

i offered her pans of watercolors, matte and metallic, just for fun. i showed her how to make concentric circles with the brush, and she was off and running with it on her own. (oooh, six mandalas…)

after she finished the first piece, she wanted to draw her own circles with the sharpie and paint them in, which she did.

this one reminds me of murano glass.

while she was doing that, i drew some concentric circles with the marker on another page. after she finished painting, she said she wanted to color those with crayons.

she was so proud of the resulting pieces!

such lovely bubbles of mixed-media color – she loved our pollock painting, and here’s another masterpiece a la the late greats.

after novi’s nap (yes, we’re still napping over here at 3.5 and i’m milking it!) she asked if we could paint… but with a sly look in her eye. i said, “sure! whatcha wanna paint?” she said, “i want YOU to paint…” so i was like, “um, what do you have in mind?” she offered, “my fingernails and toenails!”

sometimes we do pedicures, where her toes have to match mommy’s…

"cute as a button"

"full of life"

"chinchilly"

she loves the silly names of the polishes we use. i only use the brands zoya, essie, and sparitual on her nails because those are safe for pregnant women, and if it’s not safe during pregnancy, it shouldn’t be safe for kids or adults any other time, no? green beauty is beautiful, so we stick to these brands. (zoya makes a great nail polish remover, too!) plus, the names are fun!

we’ve only painted novi’s fingernails once. i mean, i can barely keep my fingernails painted with all the art we do around here. but i indulged her today. she chose “shorty pants” for her hands.

"shorty pants"

then she chose both “lilacism” and “mint candy apple” for her toes.

can you tell they're alternating?

now i think we’ll actually go make a painting!

on a recent trip to colorado to visit my dear fellow art therapist friends, they reminded me of a fun little activity that i used to do when i was a little girl – scratch drawings! as a kid, i loved the magic of revealing a rainbow under a dark, black veil. i thought novi might appreciate this, too.

i thought i remembered painting thick paper with watercolor, coloring over it with thick black crayon, and scratching… but perhaps not. my art therapist friend (and momma) was doing this with her 3 year old and reminded me that you can color with crayons or pastels, and then put a thick coat of acrylic paint over the whole page to scratch through. so we gathered our materials (thick paper, crayons, acrylic black paint) and began…

novi and i both covered a page with patches of tons of colors… i got a blister from doing this!

then we painted over the entire lovely page with black acrylic paint.

we let it dry overnight. once it was dry, we got out a few scratching tools – a wooden skewer, a paperclip, a tack, and a nail. not all of them were cool for young kids, but novi seemed to do well and was careful with all of them. whew!

novi drawing with a nail. (bad mommy?)

we scratched and scratched to reveal fun pictures… “nighttime scenes!” as novi excited called them.

you know me and cutting things out and putting them on colorful papers as borders. (yeah, i did that again. maybe for cards?)

novi and i tried this new (to us) clay out called paperclay that i got from my boyfriend, dick blick. (i heart dick blick.)

i love the texture of this stuff! it’s non-toxic, smooth and easy to mold, and it air-dries within 1-3 days without getting all cracked and dried out. (you can also expedite the drying process of it by baking it.) we had fun playing with it and squishing it around for a while (and novi thought it smelled like glue… uh, has she been sniffing glue?)

novi wanted to make some animals out of the paperclay, naturally.

carving details into her cat's face

she asked me to make a dragon for her, and she created a cat and a small turtle.

we took a long weekend vacation, and when we returned, the clay was dry, of course. we had a good time painting it with tempera paints. (you can also use acrylic paint or markers to color the paint.)

after the three animals were painted, novi wanted to use the extra paint to paint each of their portraits!

i thought that was such a sweet idea… say cheese, animal friends!

we’re definitely going to do more sculpting with paperclay soon! (gosh, i wish i got paid for these reviews/endorsements! oh well… it’s all for art’s sake, right?)