paint cut paste

when i saw this idea on playbased learning’s blog, i thought it would be a fun one for a warm afternoon outside at the easel.

novi and i mixed up some colored water in random spray bottles we found around the house. we just added about 8 drops of food coloring to the water.

we brought the easel out into the sun, and embarked on this charming little endeavor. as the blog (where i got the idea) said, it is a bit difficult for little fingers to work the pump squirters. the trigger squirter (our red paint was in) was a bit easier for novi to control.

novi wished the colors were brighter (next time, liquid watercolors might be in order.) we tried the paint on manilla paper, and it did show up brighter and made a rather cute little scene.

novi was still delighted with the paintings we made, saying “they look like lollipop trees!”

i think the large ones will make for good wrapping paper for all of those summer birthday parties coming up!

this is just the simplest spring thing you can do. paint a flower pot. plant some seeds. watch it grow. (couple this painted pot with a handmade bloom paper mother’s day card, and you’ve got a great gift to give those sweet mommas in your life!)

we went to a birthday party at a local art studio last weekend called celebrate art. one of the activities was to paint a small flower pot. novi got busy painting (with acrylics, i believe?) her pre-gessoed pot with a stylish color-block pattern.

once we were home and the pot was dry, we decided to plant some cosmo seeds in it.

we used my mom’s handy tip to put a flat stone in the bottom of the pot (to help the soil not run out of the hole when watered.)

then novi filled the pot with soil.

we sprinkled on the cosmo seeds.

watered…

and now we just apply more water, sunlight, (music – novi likes to sing to it,) and love and watch the flowers grow!

sometimes we’ve just gotta have free art time… without limits on materials, without “how-to’s,” without specified products. i love these moments when novi just asks for watercolors or markers or colored pencils and goes for it. we’ve been doing a lot of really open, unstructured art time in our home these past coupla weeks. it’s good for the soul. we just stuck to the basics and watched the creativity floooow…

in my art therapy training, we talked about a theorist named mihaly csikszentmihalyi (pronounced “chick-sent-me-high”) who coined an idea called “flow theory.” flow is his term for the emotional state opposite frustration. flow is when you are fully, happily absorbed in an activity, completely satisfied, but not taking on more than you can handle. it is often what happens when an artist becomes absorbed in their work, and notions of time and space fall away. i relish in this creative space, and kids organically go there in their imaginal creative play. when observing a child in this state, you can usually hear all sorts of made-up stories, characters, ideas, plots spewing out – like a peek into the unconscious, coming out without a filter. such an honor to witness.

while “in the flow,” novi has made plenty of tiny paintings that have become and will become cards for friends and family…

novi has also worked on some larger watercolor masterpieces that now adorn her art gallery wall…

"duck eating grass" & "novi in a beret, about to climb a ladder"

by my nature, i’m more at home with the expressive arts than i am with the crafting. imagination plus pigment yields limitless expression!  so let it flow, let it flow, let it floooow…

after making so many wooden easter and springtime friends, novi really wanted to make more out of “clay.” since we don’t have a kiln over here, i busted out the model magic, and she got down to business.

novi made lots of eggs and a caterpillar. i also helped her make the 2 spring chickies you see above, and a bunny.

it took two days for the model magic eggs to dry (they’re dense, even though they’re lightweight.) when they were ready, we painted them with acrylics. we first had a lesson in what-happens-to-each-color-of-the-rainbow-when-mixed-with-white-paint? PASTELS FOR SPRING!

we had a little painting party…

we probably got more paint on our hands than the figures and eggs, but it was all good clean fun.

we loved decorating our home with our new little spring sculptures…

the shed in our backyard has been less-than-attractive since we moved to our new place six months ago. we sort of unpacked our garden things into the shed in a haphazard way, and let them sit there for the winter. spring cleaning and revamping was in order for this shed.

sure, it's not the most glorious structure, but it has potential

i had a vision of turning the shed into a little playhouse for novi, using things we already have and hitting up freecycle and some yard sales.

the vision

after taking everything out of the shed, and cleaning it off, we began to turn it into a fun play space! every play area needs a sign, right? so novi and i painted one together.

novi's background & letters, outlined by mommy in white. bubbles by mommy.

and with a little TLC and a big splash of color, our drab shed took on new life…

a place for play…

(more on this feature tomorrow - stay tuned!)

a place for creating…

art supplies in drawer beside easel

a place for displaying…

a retractable clothesline makes for a nice place for art to hang & dry

a place for collecting…

birdhouses, jars of pinecones, jars of shells...

for storing toys, balls, bubbles, and playthings…

with the addition of novi’s water table, little pool, sprinklers, small picnic table, fairy tent, bikes, and other fun playthings, our backyard will prove to be a fun space to hang out and enjoy in these warmer months…

ah, much better!

i’m almost certain that you’ve seen this eco-chic interior design element out there in the d.i.y. blogosphere… the transformation of a paper towel or toilet paper roll into wall art. (who doesn’t drool over design sponge? adore them.) that’s where i first saw this cute project, and it captured my interest, but it seemed a rather adult art project to me. i always get excited about the idea of using things from our recycling bin!

naturally, i wanted novi to join in the upcycling fun. i mean, this truly is a paint cut paste project (uh… cut, paint, paste) so we tried it out… cutting through cardboard with kid scissors isn’t too much fun, so i cut up two paper towel rolls into little rings that were about an inch wide. i didn’t measure to be exact – i just eye-balled it.

for some odd reason, i figured that i’d spray paint (alone during nap time: spray paint + kids = no way) the rings white. i thought it’d make it more brilliant when she painted them with colors, but honestly it made no difference. skip this step, unless you want your finished product to be white and modern (aka: not a kid craft.)

when the white paint was dry, the fun began. novi chose the paint (we used acrylics) some of the rings lavender and some of them spring green. she had lots of fun painting her hands the rings. she opted to only paint the outsides of the rings (though if you were able to paint the insides, too, the finished product may be more cohesive.)

once the colorful paint dried, we had fun arranging the rings into shapes. i had spray painted a box top white earlier, and novi decided this would be her frame, and she wanted to make a flower inside of it. we glued the rings together in a flower shape, holding them with mini clothespins until they were dry. (any clips will work.) if you’re not doing this with kids, staples may be quicker.

after the leaves and petals had adhered together, novi drizzled the glue generously onto the back of the flower, and i pressed it into her frame. (elmer’s glue dries clear so no worries on the drizzling.) she was excited about the results!

with the remaining “leaves” we decided to glue them together at random to make a cluster. right now it’s just sort of hanging out in novi’s bathroom.

i’m considering doing a natural-colored (no painting involved) version of this for our playroom wall, above novi’s fairy treehouse… if i do, i’ll letcha know!