paint cut paste

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.

on a warm spring day in the backyard, N made up a game that she simply called “interesting things.” it’s really just a natural treasure hunt… but it made for quite the beautiful nature collage.

we took turns hunting for “interesting things” in our backyard. she made up a rule that we could not pick anything – it had to already be on the ground. each time we found something, we had to “place it gently on the board. gently, gently…”

we had to hide our eyes while the other one found an object and placed it on the board. then we had to look at the board to try to figure out what was new each time, which got harder as we gathered more things.

i just loved this kid-initiated activity – and it resulted in a lovely nature collage installation, however temporary it may be. (at least photos aren’t!)

our collaborative masterpiece with mother nature

i recently posted a poll on the paintcutpaste.com facebook fan page (hello sweet fans! thank you for your support!!!) about what your child’s favorite art material is. my comment was that N’s favs are watercolors and crayons. what was i thinking?! most of the art done in my house is so very temporary… it’s on the MAGNA-DOODLE!

sun, person, flowers (36 months)

she adores this thing – has ever since she was about 18 months old, i recall. she has worn out the pens on at least three of them so far. by that, i mean that she draws so much with it that the coating comes off the tip of the pen and it starts to scratch the drawing surface.

"just a guy" (32 months)

i find that documenting and keeping record of N’s magna-doodle art has allowed me to really see her chronological artistic development. because it is the simplest graphic medium – black lines on a grayish-white surface – i am able to really pay attention to how her lines and forms progress without a whole lot of variables. we leave N’s out on the coffee table at all times in our house, and often that’s where she can be found. sure, the art is meant to change and move and grow and be erased and redrawn, but i encourage parents and caregivers out there to maybe take photos every week or every month over time to really witness the beauty of your child’s visual language unfolding over time. so fascinating!

some of the first people she drew (31 months)

a person, 5 weeks later (32.5 months)

a person with features, holding flower, duck, sun, cloud, groundline, and text; 3.5 months later (36 months)

i also enjoy how N tells stories while drawing on the magna-doodle. it is fun to sit and listen to her creative process unfold, as she is still young enough that her internal dialog is expressed verbally. (oh how i’ll miss hearing that as she grows older!) some of the fun magna-doodle stories have been:

"this astronaut is flying with the birds!" (33 months)

"the mommy sun is feeding pomegranates to her baby suns" (32 months)

my personal fav: the day the "balloon boy" story broke, we told N about it and this was her depiction of what happened (32 months)

another fun piece of magna-doodling is how N is using it to practice writing her letters alllll the time. she makes up words quite a bit by stringing letters together on the screen and asking me what she spelled.

the amazing graduate school i attended to study transpersonal art therapy, naropa university, was buddhist-oriented. i consider myself somewhat buddhish; however, one of the many areas where i fall short of  the whole buddhist philosophy is how to handle the transient nature of a magna-doodle image. i just can’t let go of these masterpieces that N creates. thus the obsessive photographing of this little fischer price toy, and entire web photo albums dedicated to her magna-doodle pieces on our private family site.

happy doodling!

N received her first digital camera from her aunt kim and uncle john for christmas this year. photography is one of my favorite art forms, and lately N has been following suit by miming a camera when she wants to take a picture of something. thus, her christmas gift.

N's vtech kidizoom camera

while the resolution isn’t the greatest on these toddler-proof cameras, they make for amazing works of art! i love the abstract ethereal quality of some of N’s very first images, taken over the holidays.

i also love to see through her lens… the choices she makes as to what is important to her in her environment.

the black bear rug at my mom's house fascinates her

her first game - candyland

no doubt, we’ll be incorporating N’s photography into many of our future creative endeavors. say cheese!

one of my closest friends has a daughter who is turning two this weekend… but she lives states and time zones away from us. so, unfortunately we can’t attend her fabulous birthday party. the toddler’s momma told me that the party theme, per her kiddo’s request, is ORANGE! orange EVERYTHING! they’re going to have orange decorations, the guests all have to wear orange, and they’ll dine on orange sherbet & vanilla ice cream cake, mac & cheese, and other orange goodies. they’ll be bobbing for oranges and throwing orange and white water balloons. what an awesome birthday theme idea, right?!

N and i decided that if we couldn’t attend the party, we’d get into the orange spirit from afar… so i initiated a scavenger hunt whereby N had to find (and mommy could photograph) everything orange she could spy. we looked all over the house: in cabinets, pantries, drawers, toy bins, etc. we walked around our yard and our neighborhood. we walked to a local farmer’s produce stand and went to our grocery store. i snapped away with my nikon d40. (older kids can perhaps do the photography part themselves.)

after my little color-hunter was sound asleep and (undoubtedly) dreaming orange dreams, i photoshopped the images together into a zesty grid with a dorky little message on top for the birthday girl. here are the citrus fruits of our labor:

this grid will go to the birthday girl, but if you’re just doing this for fun, you could create a grid to print and frame for your child’s bedroom, playroom, or bathroom. you could print the photos to make a collage or photo book. you could just keep them in your computer and let the photos cycle as your screensaver that your child will see and remember each time they’re sitting on your lap at your desk. there are so many creative things you can do with the finished product. i should mention that it gave my daughter a huuuge smile to see the grid when it was complete, so that sense of accomplishment and things coming full circle can be important for a little one to witness.

for those of you with toddlers, i should remark that this kept me and my 2.5-year-old daughter busy for about two or three hours (including our walk and trip to the grocery store) and she remained focused and into it. sweet! you don’t have to hunt for colors, as anything goes in a scavenger hunt, but colors are a fun and eye-catching i-spy sort of thing to do with a very young child. go forth, hunt it, and shoot it! (but only with your camera!)