Hierloom Baby Clothing

Normally when I think heirloom baby clothing I would think of things like bonnets, christening gowns and hand knit sweaters. However, times are a changin’. While we do have adorable bonnets that were handed down, I’m so happy my mother saved this little dragon t-shirt from my childhood. Does it tell you anything about how I was raised?

That’s right, a green batik dragon. Probably circa 1971 purchased at the Ewing Art Festival in Illinois. It’s actually got me rethinking my big push over the last several months to get rid of all the baby clothes the kids have already grown out of. I hope it’s not too late and I still have a few good pieces I can keep.

Are you keeping anything? Was anything kept for you or if you’ve got them, your children? What was special to you?

Pounded Flower Shirt

Following Jen’s fern printing tutorial and taking a cue from Spring Thinking I pounded out this shirt a couple weeks back. I had a bouquet that was past it’s prime just screaming for me try. Once I had exhausted the viable flowers from the bouquet I was hungry for more. So I raided the herb garden for some chives. I placed a paper towel covered board between the two layers of fabric and more paper towel on top of the flowers and bashed away to my hears content. Boy did my eyes water when I was pounding those chives! I had a lot of fun and even let Seth take a whack. I still want to try ferns but I think other plants in the garden warrant a try as well. Next time I’ll remember to place a towel under the whole thing a lot sooner. Luckily there were no holes but there was a bit of discoloration on the side facing the patio blocks. Oops!

Once all was said and done I actually liked the back of the shirt the best. Also, after washing, the chives held up the best. The flower portion has faded somewhat but not the blades. The Gerbia’s from the bouquet did fade a bit but still are recognizable. I wonder if the result would have been different had I used flowers that were fresher.

And the Winner is….

I used the good old random number generator to come up with a winner for my 100th post giveaway. Drumroll please……………….

Congratulations Shelly!

Shelly has a cute little blog she recently started up. Check it out if you get a chance. I can’t wait to see how it develops. She’s already inspired me to start watering my past-their-prime root vegetables as I love the look of her sweet potato vine.

Thank you to everyone who commented. I appreciated each and every one. It was nice to hear from you and for those of you that also have blogs I really enjoyed taking the time to check out your sites. What a creative group.

I have to admit it was a little nerve racking putting one of my own pieces out there. It’s one thing to put crafty kids stuff out there but it’s another to put one of my own creations up for viewing. Especially one that involves painting. Knitting, no problem – paintings involve teeth chattering. Silly, I know but there it is. So thanks again!

Last Day to Sign Up for the Giveaway!

I forgot to mention in my last post that today is the very last day to sign up for my little giveaway. Come on – give me some comment love. You have no idea how much I like comments and I promise not to use your email address for evil. The most I’ll do with it is reply to your comment. Just leave a comment of any nature on my 100th post to enter the giveaway. It won’t hurt, I promise.

Glitter Cards & Painted Canvas

Now that Father’s Day has come and gone I can post this with out ruining any surprises. I’ve been on a kick to de-emphasize the value we put on material things in our household. This is especially true when it comes to the kids. I think all of their toys scatter about the house pushed me over the edge. In the case of Father’s Day this meant no big store bought gifts for Papa. Something homemade by the kids sounded good and art even better. However, I wanted something more permanent than your average kids painting stuck up with a magnet on the fridge. I finally settle on painting canvases inspired by Jean at The Artful Parent. I bought a two pack of cheap 16×20 stretched canvases for 1/2 off at a discount craft store and set the kids up. However, after watching Eleanor’s reaction to painting with water I thought it best to allow the neighbor girl to paint the 2nd canvas instead of Eleanor. I let them each have a dollop of three different color paints at a time on a paper plate. I’ve finally smartened up about not letting Seth have access to all the paint colors he wants. The paper plate served as a pallet for them to mix colors. This was a suggestion from Seth’s teacher and it worked marvelously.

Then we needed a card to go along with the gift. Seeing a post by Kristen at Pepper Paints for a Weekly Unplugged Project I pulled out some supplies to make glitter cards.

Here’s the how to for our version:

Supplies:

• Cardstock – one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet per card
• Self laminating sheets – one 8 1/2 x 11 sheet per card (or you could easily use contact paper)
• Glue – any old kind will work
• Crayons
• Glitter – For the less coordinated I really liked these little squeeze bottles. I found a packet of 6 colors for $1.99 at a party supply store

Steps, best done out of doors:

1. Let the kids color on one side of the paper. This will be the inside of the card.
2. Cut a self laminating sheet in half and peel the backing off of one.
3. Let the kids sprinkle the sheet with glitter. The beauty is you don’t have to worry about glue and these little squeeze bottles really controlled the amount of glitter poured out. They also took a lot more time for the kids to apply, which in my book is good.
4. Meanwhile fold the card stock in half with the drawing on the inside.
5. Once the kids are satisfied with the glitter distribution, affix the other half of the laminate sheet on top.
6. Then trim down the glitter sheet and glue them to the outside of the card.

The kids, ages 22 months to 5 1/2 yrs in this case, really enjoyed doing this project and it was much more successful then my previous projects with glitter. Interestingly, the 22 month old was the hardest to get to stop. He would have gone for another 15 minutes minimum if he hadn’t been pulled away due to his bedtime. The best part? We were able to pull this off in relative secrecy. Rather unusual for us.

Very 1st Painting Lessons

I’m often impatient waiting for my kids to reach an appropriate stage to do x, y or z. It’s not that I want them to grow up faster, logically I know better. It’s just that I can’t wait to share more of my life with them and to expose them to all the possibilities the world has to offer. So I often go through daily internal struggles over the silliest of things. I feel this way with art, especially painting. I know Eleanor’s not ready to paint, but I am. So here’s my plan: break it down and expose her to one tiny element at a time. So far we’ve played with a variety of papers, touching them, crinkling them, tearing them. I’ve also let her play with dry paint brushes to her hearts content. I make available a variety of sizes to feel, carry and rearrange. At 13 months I now felt she was ready for the next step. Perfect for a warm day, we broke out the paint brushes, “no spill” paint cups and ……. WATER.

The paint brush immediately went into her mouth and then she painted her legs and the sidewalk until the water was nearly gone and the 21 month old neighbor boy decide he needed a turn. I remember Seth “painting” everything in sight when he was about 2. He loved to mimic Paddington in one of his books and paint the chairs with water. Even older kids enjoy painting pictures on the sidewalk, knowing it will soon dry and disappear.

Before the end of the summer I plan on stripping her down and letting her have a go at finger painting. But for now, I’m satisfied.

Greens!

Yeah! My first CSA delivery of the season! Lettuce, swiss chard, dill and a whole lot of spinach.

Can you guess what I had for supper? No peaking at my flickr.

100th Post Giveaway

Miss me? I decided a 100th post deserved some reflection. You know, things like do I want to continue blogging and am I achieving the goals I set out to. In the end the answer is yes and so much more. What I need to do is find a better balance between reading other blogs and keeping up on my own posts. Not to mention flickr. I’m a flickr addict and need to control that a bit more. I’ve been rather surprised at the number of friendships that have resulted from joining this online community. I absolutely love it but I need to keep a grip or I’ll loose site of my original intent of creative motivation.

So, in honor of my 100th post and decision to keep moving forward – a giveaway! It’s not my best work and not my worst but I had fun making it. Ever since I saw Kathy’s post on Art Projects for Kids I was dying to try my hand at this. I love projects that combine digital photos with other media. Who cares if the original project was meant for kids? I want to try several more of these but I’ve decided to give this one away. It’s a digital pic of a float plane getting ready to take off from Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota. I’ve altered/enhanced/added on top of and surrounding the pic with watercolor painting. I’m quite a novice when it comes to watercolor and in fact this is my first real go with watercolor pencils and sticks. So if you’re interested, leave a comment on this post by end of day Tuesday, the 24th of June and I will randomly select a winner. Your comment can be as simple as “pick me!” but what I’d really like to know is what do you want to see more of on this site? Projects, tutorials, kid stuff, recipes… you name it. Alternately, you could let me know what posts I’ve done that you like the most. I’m very intrigued. Let me know.

Crazy – I’ve been interviewed!

Artist Trading Card by Carina (Isn’t it lovely?)

The fabulous Carina of Carina’s Craftblog has seen fit to interview little ol’ me. I feel so honored and utterly amazed that anyone would want to know more about me and why I do what I do in my spare time. If YOU’VE got some spare time click here to pop on over and read the interview. While you’re there take some time to peruse her blog. Here are a few of my Carina favorites:

• Interviews of other bloggers
• Decorated ceramic cup
• Her etsy shop

 PS My next post is my 100th!!! I’m thinking of doing a give-away. Hmmm…. what should I make over the weekend?

 

Butterfly Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

We served these little guys last night accompanied by tomato soup. The youngest got their soup in sippy cups. It never hurts to make the kids food a little unexpected.