The Artful Parent

Marker holders and felt boards in my etsy shop

I've added a few new things to my etsy shop (update: etsy shop now closed) including marker holders, portable felt boards (with felt pieces), and some more shirts. I'm excited about branching out a bit into children's art related items and may make art smocks as well soon.

Here is one of the marker holders.

Goldilocks and Three Bears on a portable felt board...

with accompanying bowls of porridge, chairs, and beds to act out the whole story. There's also a dinosaur felt board set and an Autumn tree felt board set.

And my favorite new shirt -- a little birdie on a white floral fabric applique. I'm still in love with how the fabric paint interacts with the white on white fabrics!! By the way, I recently added sections to my shop to make it easier to find what you are looking for. Look in the upper right hand corner of the screen (in etsy) and you'll see my items divided by girl, boy, women, baby, art & play, etc.

Maia's pumpkin and some powerballs

Maia has her own little pumpkin which now sits on our nature table. We scratched her name into it while it was still green per Sharon Lovejoy's instructions in her wonderful Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots. As Sharon said, the scratches scarred over and the letters grew with the pumpkin. Unfortunately the pumpkins didn't grow much at all (I'm not a very reliable waterer). Oh well. Maybe we'll try pumpkins again next year.

Just so you know, Maia was making faces into the camera before and after this shot. She rarely looks this angelic!

Also, I made these oat and peanut butter powerballs from a recipe in Wondertime and Maia's been gobbling them up. They are no-cook and very easy, although a little too sweet. I think I'll probably use less honey next time and also use extra nuts and dried fruit rather than the chocolate chips. Although we might have a mutiny over the chocolate...

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Just wanted to show you some new felt pieces I made this week. These were for a friend, but I may need to make Maia a set as well. I also made three bowls of porridge, three chairs, and three beds so the whole story can be acted out on the felt board!

I used Wonder Under fusible webbing to attach the fabric clothes. And a permanent marker for the face details and Goldilocks' shoes. For the bear faces, I added circles of the fusible webbing for the nose area since I'd been told they are easier to draw on than the felt itself. It was, but for tiny little details like this it probably wasn't necessary.

Wall pockets for art supplies

This is a wall pocket (three actually) that we purchased at Ikea on my first ever trip there this August. I'm in love with Ikea! It's probably a good thing that the closest one is several hours away. We bought Maia's bed there, too, (the purpose of the trip) and a cute little crescent moon lamp/night light that we have yet to hang on her wall.

Anyway, this wall pocket is great for holding kiddo art supplies. I like that it keeps the contents visible but organized. Right now we have crayons in one pocket, stickers in one, and homemade notebooks in another (using this marbled paper and Amy Karol's sewing machine binding idea with construction paper and glue instead of cram cream tape).

My camera is going wiggy on me. See the lines through the photo? Ugh!

Catching the light with melted crayons

We made suncatchers with crayon shavings earlier this week. Out of all the suncatchers we make, these are my favorite. We've made them a few times, both with the art group and by ourselves. And I remember making them as a child as well.

If you haven't tried them, here's the how-to: They are so easy! 1.) Grate crayons on a cheese grater. Maia likes to separate the colors into different small bowls. 2.) Set a sheet of wax paper on the table. I fold it over ahead of time, then unfold it. 3.) Instruct your child to sprinkle the crayon shavings on one side of the wax paper. 4.) Fold over. 5.) Set the wax paper/crayon shavings sandwich in between pieces of newsprint or other paper. 6.) Iron on low until the crayon melts. 7.) Hang in the window.

With Maia, I do the grating and the ironing, she does the sorting and the sprinkling/arranging. An older child could do the entire process themselves, of course.

I wish I had taken these photos in a different window without the screen behind, but I'm feeling too lazy to re-take the pictures. I still think they are beautiful though. Sometimes we cut them into shapes (hearts, stars, circles). Sometimes we make frames for them out of colored construction paper. Sometimes we just hang them in the window as is.

An Autumn tree for the felt board

I cut out some felt pieces for Maia's new felt board yesterday. I thought I'd start with something seasonal so made a tree, some fall leaves, and a jack-o-lantern.

I have so many ideas (many borrowed) for other felt pieces: a farm scene, storyboards, the alphabet, numbers, games, build-your-own-flowers, dress-up dolls, animals and their homes, under the sea, and, of course, other seasonal and holiday scenes.

I'm doing a little jig!

What does the parent who is super interested in art and the developmental stages of art wait for and look for in her young child's drawings? Realism! And it happened! I feel like I've been so patient (and yet not patient at the same time!). I haven't encouraged her to draw anything specific or even named things in her drawings. (NOTE: Maia has often named things in her drawings herself.)

And I've loved, LOVED her abstract art! And I still do of course. But, Oh, I am in love with this little drawing of hers.

She took my hand to show me something she drew at the easel, and I have to admit I didn't even notice the person until I asked her to tell me about her drawing.

She pointed and said, "well, here's the smiley [the green line], here are eyes, here are the eyebrows, here is the forehead, here is the hair, here are the arms [on either side of the mouth], and here are the legs."

Amazing!

I think it's interesting that she didn't enclose the face/body in a circle and I haven't noticed any mandalas yet. But I imagine those will come, too.

A Time to Keep and other good books

So here's the post I meant to write on Friday, then this weekend, but am not getting around to until now. The "guess the book" posts were probably a bit of a tease without the follow-up post about the actual books. Better late than never though, I suppose.

A Time to Keep: The Tasha Tudor Book of Holidays was one of my favorite books as a child. My mom gave Maia a copy for her birthday, so now I can share it with her (and re-read it myself!). With a spread for each month, it covers all sorts of holidays, traditions, and seasons.

And, as you can see, the illustrations are wonderfully detailed. Like with many good books, I have wished many times that I could crawl into the pages and participate in making apple cider, dancing around the new year's eve bonfire, and holding hands around the Christmas tree.

The most magical, though, is the birthday party in the woods with the cake floating down the river. I love Tasha Tudor's illustrations and her world!

Completely unrelated, except for the fact that they are also books we are currently enjoying, are Leo Lionni's Fish is Fish and On My Beach are Many Pebbles.

Fish is Fish is about a friendship between a fish and a tadpole. The tadpole grows into a frog and leaves the pond, returning later to tell the fish about all the wonderful things he has seen in the world. As the frog tells him about birds the fish pictures fish with wings. Cows are fish with legs and horns, etc. He desperately wants to see the amazing world that the frog sees, but after an attempt (and a rescue), realizes he's happy where he is.

On My Beach There Are Many Pebbles is just amazing. It is short on text but full of fanciful illustrations to feast on and talk about. The illustrations are in black and white, but are very engaging nonetheless. I have to admit that I probably like this book more than Maia. I don't think she fully appreciates it yet.

What books are you reading and enjoying?

Guess the book III

Just one more:

Guess the book II

Here's another one: