art

I ran across these creative and super cute hand-drawn bookmarks on We Wilsons, home of fabulously crafty folks who make wonderful stuffed animals. Love the stuffies, LOVE the bookmarks also! Click here to go to the post where you can download the templates yourself! Wouldn’t this be great for your kids, given that they’re back in school and probably have a ton of books to read? Get off the boob tube, guys! Wow, I wonder if your kids know what a boob tube is. I feel old.

I blogged about Knock Off Wood back in March (read the post here,) a really wonderfully empowering make-it-yourself site where Ana White creates building plans with supply lists for furniture inspired by retailers like Pottery Barn for your home and yard. Yes, even YOU can build a Farmhouse Bed, Apothecary Cabinet , a changing table, or even the very bed my son sleeps in every night, a fort bed…although his really is from IKEA.

The first thing I made inspired by Ana’s site was the clip art rails, a really easy project that you can do in a couple of hours, and get your child in on the action. My version of the rail was a bit simpler than hers, mostly because I’m just lazy.

Materials needed:

Inexpensive pine craft boards, 1.25” by 4”, from any home improvement store
Clothes pins, about 8 per board
Hot glue gun
Paint for the boards and clothespins

First things first, paint the boards with at least 2 coats of paint and let dry.

My little artist

I set up a painting station for Nate with a couple of dozen clips and several washable paint colors, and let him paint the whole clip instead of taking them apart. You know I’m all about easy and fun haphazard art! I let them dry over night, then took my favorite ones and evenly spaced 8 of them along each board and glued them down on each board with the hot glue, alternating the clip’s directions.

Finished and hung

Aaron screwed the two rails onto the wall in Nate’s room one afternoon while he and I were out, and put up a bunch of Nate’s artwork from school and friends. Nate walked in the room and just LOVED it! I love how even the way we display his artwork is touched by his sweet hands.

Pretty blue, painted by my sugar pie

I’m telling you guys, this is so easy…go out to the store this weekend to get the supplies and by Sunday you’ll have a great way to display your little Picasso’s works of art not only in their rooms, but in the hallway or dining room of your home. It makes kids so proud to see their handiwork displayed with love by you!

I am really digging wreaths at the moment, and I always dig anything that Alisa Burke comes up with. She posted a tutorial for this leafy wreath that you could hang on your door any season, but you could make it specifically for spring with pastel colored leaves or fall with oranges, reds and browns.

She used a product called sticky back canvas from the Claudine Hellmuth Studio line available at Michaels to create the leaves for the wreath. I’ve never used it before and it sounds awesome, but you could do the same with a heavier cotton fabric and craft paints.

If you like the leaf stamps Alisa used here, you can also purchase them from her Etsy store, very reasonably priced I might add!

I love surfing the blogosphere…I can’t remember how I discovered Made by Joel but I’m so glad I did. Joel Henriques is a dad to 2 and a very creative soul…check out his art and sketches. And I love, love, love the paper city he created, as well as the vehicles and helicopter. What little one wouldn’t love to color and play with this city and the people?

Here’s another outdoor craft for your kids as we begin the long days of summer…aluminium foil toadstools! Share with them the folklore of a fairy ring and then go to Filth Wizardry for the step by step instructions on how your kids can make their own lawn fairy rings with these hand painted foil toadstools. Maybe you will have some fairies come out to play!

Photo from one of Donna's workshops to be taught at Scrapbook Corner

If I could  ask God for a favor, just a small request….I would ask for one-tenth of the talent, imagination, motivation, skill and/or life force of Donna Downey.

Never heard of her? If you are not a scrapbook maven or rafter, I’m not surprised. But if you scrap or craft, no doubt you’ve seen her column in Simply Scrapbooks, been uber-inspired by her blog, or sat in awe while looking through her galleries and shops on website.

Donna is the type of scrapper/crafter I yearn to be: a true mixed media artist, manipulating paper, paint, ink and photos into albums, 3-D art and whatever else pops into that wonderful head of hers. I know I’m talented on some levels, but this lady takes the cake.

Well, anyway, the reason why I’m telling you this is because DONNA IS GOING TO BE IN LITTLE ROCK!!!!! Ahhhhh!!!!

She will be at Scrapbook Corner April 30-May 1 to teach four different workshops. You can see workshop descriptions and photos on their blog. Deadline to sign up for the classes is April 15. I hope to see some of you there!

From the Eric Carle blog

I have always loved Eric Carle. I’m not being trivial…since I was a little girl, like 4 or 5, I’ve loved The Hungry Caterpillar and his other books for their vibrant color and wonderful texture that is trademark Carle.

Click on the photo to read his post about everyday art and making a mess.

Wonder what was on my mind?

Months ago, when I knew I was going to be blogging some sort of crafty bit for LRM, I was listening to NPR when this little bit about children’s book author Mo Willems’  (Don’t Let Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny) crusade to get adults to draw came on the air. Here’s part of the piece-

One of the biggest reasons children stop drawing is that they see that adults don’t do it, Willems says. When he goes into classrooms, he says, teachers often ask him to get the kids to draw. But when he does, many of the teachers don’t participate. “Well, now the kids realize that this is just a baby activity,” he says.

(more…)

My Pollock-in-training's handiwork

I don’t know about you, but I get REALLY excited about my kiddo’s artwork. I study the washable-paint swirls, looking for the makings of an artsistic genius lurking in those messy masterpieces.

I hate to part with anything he’s colored/painted/drawn, so when the pile was so high that the husband began to drop hints like, “Is that really necessary?” I had to come up with a new idea.

He does the majority of his painting on an art easel with a roll of paper, so most of his art ends up measuring 18  by 20 inches. That is just enough paper to wrap a box!

So I took all of his loose artwork and rolled them together, and put them with my rolls of wrapping paper. When I use one for a gift, I try to center the top of the box on a colorful part of the paper for maximum impact. I don’t add any ribbons or bows, and either write the child’s name on the box or attach a gift tag.

I love this idea threefold: it goes along with my 3 R’s obsession, it showcases my budding Signac at work, and allows me to continue to hoard. What more could I want?