The Art Box – Jan. 18, 2010

In the Art Box last week: tempera paints (in the pill box), scrapbook scissors (of course!), a jar of foam stickers, glue, regular stickers, a baggie of scrap paper, construction paper, newsprint, paint roller and brushes, also a little wooden crocodile and paints.

M has really enjoyed painting on new surfaces lately – foil, plaster, wood. I bought the wooden crocodile and paints at Michael’s for $1.00. This, of course, was the first thing he wanted to do when he saw his art box. He really concentrated on all the little parts. Then he painted its tummy red. :)

He has a few random pieces of wood (sanded smooth) from Daddy’s stash, and keeps them in with his building blocks. So he went and grabbed one and painted it. :)

Next, he complained because there “isn’t much stuff in here”… I put less in his box on purpose thinking it would spur his creativity a bit more. He did decide to make a collage, something he used to love doing but hasn’t been interested in lately.

Then he painted with the little paint roller – he loves to paint with red and then paint white over it and watch it turn pink: Doesn’t that look like a heart in the center?

We spent some time working on a sticker collage to go with a Bible story (more on that in another post), and had so much fun we brought our enormous jar of foam stickers and our living room looked like this for a while: He really enjoyed these stickers for some reason. Here’s one of many finished sticker collages (I know, it’s really flower-y, ha ha): Note the cow jumping over the moon. ;)

And of course he did some cutting. This kid LOVES to cut with scissors! He told me this was an alligator :)… I can kind of see it. ;)

Link your kids’ art up below! Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – Jan. 11, 2010

 

 In the Art Box last week:  new truck stamps, glitter glue, fun scrapbook scissors (scallop and zig-zag), glitter snowflake stickers, sports stickers, construction paper and newsprint, watercolor paints, scrap paper and fun foam.

M was really into his stamps and stickers this time around and made me several stamp and sticker collages; here’s a couple: 

 

He painted with his watercolors a little bit…

Interestingly, he was not so much into painting last week.  Maybe he was still going through some sort of paint-with-water coloring book withdrawal??  I have a feeling any other kind of painting will not measure up to the paint-with-water book experience for a while.  Grrr…

 

Hands down, his favorite was cutting with my scrapbook scissors (I make sure they aren’t sharp, testing them on my own fingers!).  He cut piles upon piles of paper but was not interested in doing anything with it, except adding to the pile.  His favorite thing to cut?  Fun foam of course!  I have to admit I do enjoy cutting it too – scissors just glide through it, like butter! :)  So, does anyone need a box of teeny-tiny pieces of foam and various other papers?  Anyone?  Or a kid with a goofy smile? :)

Oh wait, I’m keeping him! 

Link up your kid’s self-directed artwork below - I love seeing them!

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – January 4, 2010

No Art Box again this week… lots of family things going on.  We (extended family) tend to celebrate Christmas for a long, long time.  The last get-together is next Sunday; after that I hope to regain my sanity get back to blogging on a regular basis (including comments, my dear, neglected, and patient bloggy-friends).

M also discovered paint-with-water books and that was his “art” of choice, argh. (There are around 40 in this pile – most of which were done within a 2 day period.)

Art around here may never be the same again, sigh.  It was like an addiction – especially the screaming, floor-pounding, raving tantrum when there were no more pictures to paint.  And the insisting that we could run to Target right now (!!) to get some.  Oh, it’s 15 degrees below zero right now?  But why on earth would that be a reason to stay in our warm home if there are no paint-with-water pictures there??

Anyway (see how I always have something to say even when there’s no real post to write?) – I thought I’d put the linky up in case any of you had some art to share. :)  Link up below!

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – Dec. 28, 2009

Well, no picture of the Art Box this week because it didn’t even come out of it’s hiding place once.  Why?  Well, because of the window crayons.  Yep, window crayons that M received at the big aunt/uncle/cousin get together the weekend before Christmas. 

So, here’s a taste of what every. single. window. in my house looked like this week.That’s just one little door.  Why take pictures of every. single. window. in the house if they all look like this?   Just think – 11 upstairs window + 1 mirror all prettied up!  You just run out and buy some window crayons for your little ones now and your house can be pretty like mine. :)

He also worked on his “treasure box” that I surprised him with.  It was on clearance for $1.00 at Michael’s and for some unknown reason looks like a book, a fact that totally escaped M, but that everyone else notices.  He painted it red outside and orange inside…

Then fancied it up with some lovely globs of glitter glue:

He keeps his rocks in it. :)  He’s a boy! (Even despite the glitter glue obsession.)  :)

Let’s see what your little ones created; link up below!

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – Dec. 21, 2009

In the Art Box last week (last two weeks actually): Christmas foam stickers, tempera paint, watercolors, glue, glitter glue, glitter, oil pastels, assorted ribbons, pom-poms, a pinecone, some cotton balls, a wooden toy train engine, various papers, scissors

On a recent trip to Walmart we saw a bunch of cute little wooden vehicles for just 88 cents a piece. I let M pick one and he chose a little train engine (I know, it looks like a bus to me too, but the “expert” says it’s a train engine). Into the art box it went, and it was the first thing he chose to work on. I am planning to go back and get all of them, he loved painting his own train!

(It has a special place on his dresser, and I couldn’t resist getting this shot of it in front of a picture of M and me when he was 12 months old.)

One afternoon, he was very busy cutting paper and gluing it; I wasn’t really paying attention, then realized he was gluing layers and layers of things together… not spread out on one page, but just scraps of paper piled up.

He was exceedingly proud of his little creation:

See the inside? There are cotton balls sandwiched in there along with all kinds of other little treasures. :)

A few weeks ago we made a baby owl using a pinecone and cotton to go with the book Owl Babies. (I should’ve posted about this, but never got around to it.) When M saw a pinecone in his box he decided he wanted to make a Mama owl! He asked me for a beak and some googley eyes, which I happily provided. They were not sticking on so he stuffed pom poms in the pinecone and then glued the eyes to them! He did this completely on his own. I thought it was absolutely genius, but I may be a little biased. ;)

Note the concentrating tongue in this picture:

The finished Mama Owl:

And the back:

I was told the large piece of green foam is her back and the small pieces of green foam are her feet. So, yeah, her feet are in back. I’m totally OK with that and still think he’s brilliant. ;)

For some reason I was feeling a little nutty and put glitter in his box. The kind you shake out all over everything. Everything, meaning EVERYTHING. He will not be getting glitter again any time soon.

Paintings (you knew they were coming, right?)…

With an empty thread spool:

With tempera paints and paintbrushes:

He is definitely going through some sort of single-color-all-over-the-paper phase, not sure what that’s all about…

Here, he was experimenting with the roller. He asked me for some red paint and some white paint and said he was going to “paint the whole paper red, then change it back into regular paper with the white paint”. I tried to keep a straight face and let him go for it. It didn’t quite work out like he hoped. ;)

And lastly, watercolors:

I’d love to see what your little artists have been creating! Link up below!

Have a beautiful day! :)

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The Art Box – December 7, 2009

 
In the art box last week:  chalk and black paper, black “scratch art” ornaments, stickers, cardboard spools (from ribbon), foam Christmas stickers, paint, scissors (regular and scalloped shaped), various papers, feathers, Christmas ribbon, cotton balls, glue, colored pencils.

Over the summer M was really into making collages, but for some reason he just hasn’t been interested lately.  I was happy to see the interest in collages flair up again, briefly, when he saw the pretty gold Christmas ribbon.  He cut it and used the scallop scrapbook scissors to cut some green paper and then, heavy on the glue, put it on black paper with some foam stickers.
Daddy came home while M was finishing this up and M could not be bothered with a kiss.  He said, “I’m decorating for Christmas, Daddy!!” :) 

He was very, very interested in the cardboard ribbon spools, and decided to see what kind of “tracks” they would make.  He asked for a saucer of red and blue paint and got busy: Finished painting: He was super-proud of this one, and it’s fun to see him experiment with things on his own.

Then he cut some paper into very small pieces and wanted to make a rainbow.  There was half a paper plate in the box, so I used that and drew some lines for him.  He got halfway through and stopped:

He really enjoyed the scratch art ornaments I found for him at Michael’s.  He had never done this before and thought it was really cool. :)  These will hang on our tree, when we get around to actually putting it up!

And then, it was back to painting.  That’s my boy.  Have you seen enough of M’s paintings yet?  If so, you’ll want to skip the rest of this, hee hee.  Here we go:
    
Let’s see what your kiddos did!  I love looking at all their fun art. :)  Link up below!
Have a beautiful day! :)