paint cut paste

every year, i wrap our holiday gifts in natural kraft paper, which makes them sort of like a blank canvas for whatever ribbons and adornment we select. this year, i’m thinking butcher twine and these wonderful handmade tree tags.

i saw this idea on pinterest (of course because i live on there! wth?!) and had to try it out! i’m always the chick who’s pocketing paint chips at the hardware store, so that part was easy. i have a large stash of buttons and ribbon, and a glue gun, so we were set to go. N was excited to cut the paint chips into triangles together, and was a huge help in doing so.

after she cut these lovely green ombre triangles, i hot glued a loop of ribbon under a button to the top of each one. N instructed me NOT to put a brown trunk on each one, so we left the trees as they were.

they turned out to be so cute! now i just need to get the actual GIFTS made!

paint chips are so naturally amazing — in what sorts of artistic ways have you used paint chips?

autumn is upon us next week… tis the season of harvesting the fruits of our labor. when we’re lucky, summer “labor” looks like a long walk on the beach. if you’ve got a lot of beach booty laying around, this could be a simple fun one for you and your littles.

our summer vacation to carova, north carolina, left us with plenty of beautiful shells with natural holes in them. perfect for jewelry, garland, and ornaments!

we set a few larger shells and some ribbon scraps aside with the intention of creating keepsakes for 12 of our family members (5 households) who shared this trip together.

first, i wrote “carova 2011″ on the inside of each shell with a sharpie.

then N got to work painting the shells with one of my favorite glimmery paint additives called “make it shimmer.”

this paint gives such a lovely mostly-silver, somewhat-pearly glisten to anything it touches. N applied it directly to our shells, but as a paint additive, it is meant to be mixed into plain paint to heighten it to shimmery loveliness.

once the shells were dry, we added colorful ribbon scraps from our stash.

while this project has roots in summer, it extends through the winter holidays. we are excited to give these to our family to display on their christmas trees or in their homes whenever they’d like.

it’s a fun memento from a sweet summer vacation. (surprise family – these will be coming your way before the holiday season! )

…i believe you can get me through the nii-iiight… you guessed it! we created a dreamcatcher, and surprise: it’s WAY easier than i thought it would be! i wrote a guest post about our dreamweaving experience on allstate’s good hands community, so be sure to click over to check it out.

the weaving always looked kinda complex to me, but it so isn’t.

to clarify, it isn’t simple enough for my 4 year old to do herself, but she certainly assisted in choosing the branch from the yard to use for the loop…

and in choosing the colors and materials that held the energy she wanted in her bedroom.

check out our guest post on the good hands community to see a how-to and to find out why a dreamcatcher can be an empowering art idea for children.

sweet dreams!

as spring has just sprung, i’ve had nests on my mind. we’ve often done spring crafts involving nests and birds, but one of my favorite nesting projects is one that was done while N was still in utero, in the fall of 2006. a handful of my dearest friends created this nest with me and my husband at our blessingway ceremony. the nest still graces my daughter’s bedroom today.

as i’ve blogged about just a bit, a mother’s blessing ceremony or blessingway ceremony can be done in addition to or in lieu of a baby shower. the intention behind a blessing ceremony is to honor the mom-to-be (and/or the dad-to-be!) as they cross the threshold into parenthood.

three of my girlfriends from our art therapy graduate program and one of our closest guy friends held a two-day long ceremony such for us, during which we did several art and pampering rituals they planned — seven different rituals, to be exact. one of which was the blessing nest. we began by each meditating on the baby who was about to come into the world (N!) and the blessings we have for her life.

then we selected from a collection of beautiful ribbons and thin strips of lovely papers, and wrote our blessings on them with glittery pens.

we read the blessings aloud to each other, and to the little one listening from my belly.

my beautiful friend sharing one of her blessings

my friends had purchased a lovely twig nest, which she brought for us to weave our blessings through. (of course, you could create your own nest from local sticks, twigs, and twine.)

we had a wonderful time threading the ribbons and papers between the twigs, using a glue gun to secure their positions, while talking about this little person who was about to come into the world.

we added some green moss into the bed of the nest, to later hold the precious stones, rocks, and hand-painted (by N) eggs it now carries.

this beautiful nest is one of the most special keepsakes from my pregnancy, and it is infused with so much love for N from dear, sweet friends and from her mommy and daddy.

i knew it was only a matter of time before we made one of these. we’re big fans of snowglobes over here. this is a new one my sister gave us this year as a gift. lovely, huh?

i’ve sort of been intimidated by the whole snow globe thing — what with eggshells and different oils inside in all of those instructions i see online. then i decided it didn’t need to be all that complex. we had all four things in our home that we needed, lucky for us, as N has quite a bad cold right now and we can’t really run to the store. we gathered up a clear jar, glitter, polymer clay (sculpey), and a plastic trinket for inside. oh, and water! just water.

we opened the jar and put a ball of the sculpey clay on the inside of the lid. N chose a plastic cinderella from her sandtray toys outside to put inside of the snow globe. okay, so it’s not christmasy… but she can display it year round in her bedroom. we stuck the cinderella securely into the clay.

then we sprinkled lots of glitter and some tiny shiny confetti into the jar.

N filled the jar with water. (yes, our sink got glittered.)

(nevermind the tea cup and egg pan from breakfast)

then i put hot glue around the top edge of the jar and screwed the lid on. this seals the jar from leaking.

we let it dry for a bit…

and voila! cinderella (all fancied up with a blue sash for the ball) was enjoying a blizzard of fancy sparkles!

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…