Reusing toddler paintings

My kids have a sweet easel which they use love and abuse.

 I am happy to provide water, paper and new watercolors etc on occasion. 

And because I was a born and raised saver I like to use things to their fullest extent. So when we've appreciated a painting long enough it goes into the re-use phase. 

 I like to use their random paintings because most often at the ages 2-4 they are quite lovely color washes. I hand them scraps of card stock and then later use them to make greeting cards, or cut up their work to use on bag toppers or other crafts. 

We use the large paintings as wrapping paper etc. 

My mother in law showed us how to make crafty 3-D flowers. They kids enjoyed it a lot. However, flowers in nature aren't perfect and I don't have those scalloped dye cuts but I do have little hands that are learning to use scissors so on occasion I have set them to work cutting circles with those fancy pattern scissors.

I then have them arrange their circle-ish shapes in order of size and have them select graduating sizes. 

At least 4. I poke a hole in them all and they put a brad through. 

They crumple them up and then open it back up.

Pretty.

They usually do a few of these and then go on to another project and I save their circles and flowers for when I want to embellish something. 

I also ready their easel with new paper and card stock for the next time they get a hankering to paint. Which I hope is soon because I need more card stock color washes for cards. :)

We both win. They get to practice cutting and sorting and fine motor. I get to reuse their art and pass the pretty along. 

Summer's end: The End

We are now deep into school with Olea. It got kinda crazy there at the end.
But here is how we finished it out.

WEDNESDAY
Today we worked on a collaborative watercolor. Since we have very different ideas and skill levels I am glad we picked up Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzburg at the library Monday. Here is a fun read along.

Olea was very concerned with Zurich's painting style juxtaposed with hers on the same piece of paper. She totally chilled after we read the book and I took the board the water color was taped to and turned it and it started dripping all over itself thanks to Nev's awesome wash job.

What made this special to Olea was being able to use my watercolors and not their crayola washable water color. After they had had their fill of painting (well they probably could have kept going till it was all mud, but we do have to move on at some point) they got to sprinkle it with salt and place pieces of saran wrap on it. We also sprinkled some of the glitter that Nev dumped out last week that didn't get cleaned up.

Let it dry. Peel off saran wrap. Scrape off salt.

Hoping we didn't loose too much glitter. Stay Tuned....

THURSDAY

Olea has been dying to make something with the ceramic clay. I have been re-hydrating some remnants from our last build. So I gathered them around while Nev was napping and Olea made a dish and Zurich a bowl.

It's hard for me to make anything with the kids because they either want to help on mine or need help with theirs. So I was surprisingly happy with the little whale toothbrush stand. I thought for fun I would try to make a shuttle. I didn't think it would work for use but tried to make it for it anyway. Then as I was cleaning up Zurich had a desperate desire for a spaceship. So I tried to hurry and put one together on a cork we had for use as a piggy bank.

Then let them dry for two weeks up high on the cupboards.

FRIDAY
I got a very fine tipped Radiograph pen and the watercolor and gathered the kids around and asked them what they saw and then I drew in the outlines and details they described.

Here are some details of it:


I love it! I need a frame! :)

Outing with Olea

Olea earned an outing with Mom this past month. I had my reservations about how it would go since we've been on rocky terms for the last while. I have been irritated with her lack of gratitude as of late and her disrespect for others. However, this was something we both really needed for our relationship so we went.

We went to Mimi's Cafe for Dinner. Olea was excited about the bathroom sinks being gold. And she liked drinking her rootbeer and Strawberry smoothie together.


She had earned a free book from Barnes and Noble for reading 8 books. It was a huge struggle to get her to read 8 books. Her interest in reading (and I'd say her reading level) has significantly decreased in the last months since school let out. So with that considered we looked at the selection she had, I read her all the titles and she chose a book. I let her sit and look at a few books in the children's section before we rushed out to our next appt. She was enthralled with a book called Castles and Knights. As we left I was emotional (because I just am) that we had finally earned that book, accomplished a goal, worked at it together, and there was some tangible reward for her.

Afterward we drove to Color me Mine and Olea deliberated for a long time about which ceramic to choose. She finally settled on a Belle Princess bank and I choose a spoon rest. I was quite a way through painting mine and looked over at Olea who had been diligently painting away but who had made very little progress. She was using a TINY brush. So I cajoled her into using a bigger brush and we started making progress. I helped her do her multiple layers of glaze, and lift off places she accidentally put paint. She wanted to do the lips but asked me to help her with the eyes. She did a lovely job and really wanted to take it home but I told her we needed to leave them there so they could make it shiny.



We did actually remember to pick them up and it was such a fun thing I realized I needed to use my kiln. Just get busy and learn it. So this weekend while picking up Olea's Art I and my Mother in law went to Patty's Ceramics and picked up some things to paint and test the kiln and get things started. I was so impressed with how helpful and informative they were. Patty answered questions and gave me a test cone and I got mini kiln 101 lesson. Having my mom there was really great since she asked questions I didn't know to ask and the company was nice, since it was a lot of driving in a hot no ac car. It was very fulfilling and I am excited to give the kiln a test fire and then break out the paints and let the kids do something. I also stopped by Heindselman's to pick up Tatting thread and was thrilled that they have expanded their selection of Tatting supplies. I had to really rein myself in. Even I find it silly how excited I get about thread now days. :)

Olea and I had a good outing and it solidified in my mind that this is a phase we are working through. I need to make more effort on my part to acknowledge the good she is and lift my eyebrows and smile at her more. She is a fabulous, good, talented little girl and just needs more time one on one with Mommy. It is hard to do that with other little children who make messes of the things Olea and I like to do together but I am the only one who can provide her that.

The winner is...

ok I cheated.
hmm, well, not really. But I hoped Gina would win because I had something specially for her. SO I'm not really sure how that's cheating but anyway...
The lovely Gina will be receiving a humorous piece of bathroom art... because we do need to decorate our bathrooms but what do we put in them?
Bathrooms! of course.

Since Gina lives in a all girls domain it is labeled appropriately.
I admit it's small. It's the same size I put in my bathroom though and it's original art.
It's charcoal relief on bristol paper for those of you who know what that means.

For those of you who missed the little give away, I'm sneaky like that. Pay attention.

In other "news" I have been unable to find a plain yellow or gold tshirt Zurich's size so I made do with one he had by turning it inside out measuring out and using fabric markers to make it black. Zurich will be Charlie Brown this year. I did it with a Zurich on my lap... so it's well, the way it is.