The Art Box – no box week

 

The Art Box actually did come back out this week… because M was asking for it.  Thank goodness!  But he did so much non-box art this week, that I’ll save the rest for another post.

 

M’s Grandpa turned 76 last week and there was a small party for family.  M asked me that morning who was going to be there, then he proceeded to create a piece of art for each one.  And, amazingly enough, he remembered who was to get which one.  Ever since Valentine’s Day he’s really, really, seriously, been into creating little things for other people.  I LOVE it! :)

 

Most of these were drawings with sparkly pens, but there’s a watercolor painting in there too, and some marker drawings too.

View Full Album

 

Later in the week, we were still playing the “there’s nothing to do” whining game, and I suggested painting.  Like in the old days before the Art Box kind-of-painting. :)  So I put a large piece of freezer paper down, some fun painting utensils, and a plate with paints neatly arranged… and this is what happened:

And I thought he was past the mixing it all together stage!  Apparently not! :)  He had a ton of fun doing this; I have to make sure we do it more often.

He created this masterpiece:

And this one, which is a row of sheep on a hill, or a caterpillar in grass (see the cotton balls along the top?):

Have some children’s artwork you’d like to share?  Link it up below, and make sure to include a link back here in your blog post! 

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – April 12, 2010

 The Art Box stayed pretty much the same this past week as it was the previous week (lazy mama syndrome), with the addition of some stickers and a wooden caboose to go with the train M has been putting together.

M needs a kick in the pants.  Or something.  He has been following me around for the past week saying “what can I do?  Can I watch TV? (no)  I can’t think of anything to dooo… whine, whine, whine.”  I’m pretty fed up with it.  He is suddenly not interested in even looking through his art box, unless it’s as a final resort to tackle the boredom. 

Anyway, this is all just to say what was done here was done only half-heartedly and I’m thinking of taking the art box away for a couple of weeks and simply putting out an art project (open ended, but not entirely child-directed) that he can choose to do or not do.  I am hoping to renew his interest in using his imagination and creativity.  My theory is he’s been sick on and off for the past 2 to 3 weeks and during that time has been allowed to watch too much tv and videos.  They can be a lifesaver sometimes with a sick kid, but they sure can become addictive and stifle the imagination pretty quickly!  I’ll still be doing my Art Box posts, but they may look a bit different for a couple of weeks.

M did enjoy painting his wooden caboose, albeit reluctantly:

 

He colored this coloring page with his sparkly gel pens:I love how close he’s getting to actually staying within the lines.  And I wish you could see how this thing glimmers in the sunlight!

 

M picked out two little pots at Target to move his sprouts into.  We planted some forget-me-not and shamrock seeds a while back and they are doing quite well.  It’s definitely time to move them to larger pots.  He decorated these first with some foam stickers:

Finished product (minus the plants):

 

He drew a picture for Daddy:

Then taped pieces of scrap paper to the back of it:

Then drew one for Mommy:He gave this to me, then very sweetly asked me to be his Valentine. :)  It’s a good thing Mama thinks you’re cute, kiddo!

Have some children’s artwork you’d like to share?  Link it up below, and make sure to include a link back here in your blog post! 

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – April 5, 2010

 
In the Art Box last week:  Easter cardstock shapes, glitter, pom-poms, buttons, markers, paints, glue, glitter pens, foam, watercolor paints, various papers, dot painters, markers.

M saw the glitter right away and was beside himself with joy.  Why does something super-fun have to equal super-messy?   We are still finding glitter everywhere.  I put the Easter shapes on an old pan to lessen the mess (or so I thought), and he started with the glue and glitterized them. :) 
I had included other things that I hoped he would also use to decorate these, but he was only interested in the glitter.  As you can see, one lucky bunny did get a pom-pom tail. :)  I punched holes in these and made a garland for his bedroom door:

I found a pack of small glitter pens in the Target dollar spot a few weeks ago and he loves them.  (I secretly can’t wait till he’s a teenager and I can tell his girlfriends how he loves sparkly, pretty things. Hee hee.)  An added bonus – they are scented!  Mmmm… very yummy!  He made very detailed pictures and every little thing was intentional and had a name.  I’m really finding this drawing phase quite interesting.  There were around 10 papers, all very similar to this one:

And here’s an easel drawing… a spider web!

He loves cutting foam, but he knows tiny pieces of it lying around drive me nuts, so he half-heartedly made these collages:

He found a rock outside one day and had to paint it (it’s on wax paper):

He’s taken to painting pictures from coloring books lately.  I hope this doesn’t mean the end of his free-art paintings that I just adore!  He was very proud of these though:

Halfway through the week I added small trucks and some dinosaurs to his box and he loved using them to make tracks:
Have some children’s artwork you’d like to share?  Link it up below, and make sure to include a link back here in your blog post! 

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – March 29, 2010

As many of you know, we rushed home from our trip to visit my parents and ran right into a bout of pneumonia (which thankfully is getting better), and of course I did not give the Art Box a single thought all week.

However, the week we were in Missouri M did ask to paint. His exact words were, “When can I paint? I haven’t painted in So Long.”

So I knew he had art on his mind and wasn’t surprised when he got out the art box from a couple of weeks ago the very evening we came home (before he was too sick). Here’s what he did in that one sitting…

Marble painting:

Tempera painting (darn it, there was a story that went with this one that I can’t remember!):

Some marker drawing and stamping - this was a song he wrote:

Do-a-Dot painting, “for springtime”:

By the way, to do the very cool marble painting, tape a piece of paper (sturdy construction paper or cardstock if you have it) to a pan with a small piece of double stick tape. M used a baby spoon to put globs of paint on the paper, then placed a marble on each glob (yep, technical term). Then he slowly tilted the pan around and watched the marbles make their tracks. Occasionally he stopped to look at it and decide what else it “needed”:He’s done this before with a golf ball, which, incidentally, made very cool tracks, so when I put marbles and a pan in his art box he knew what the idea was. It’s pretty mess-free, but the first time takes a little guidance so the pan doesn’t get tipped completely over. For a toddler, you could use a shoebox and secure the lid on with a couple of rubber bands, let your child shake it up a bit, then look to see the masterpiece inside!

I can’t wait to see the artwork your kids have made! Link up below. :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – March 22, 2010

 

Whew!  We are home again and slowly getting back to normal.  Our trip to visit my parents began on the 12th and we were back home on the 20th.  My apologies for not responding to emails and comments and those of you who linked up last week… we were cursed with a painfully slow internet connection all week.  I did only what was absolutely necessary online.  Hopefully I will get around to going through a very full inbox sometime this week.  We also brought home some sort of cruddy cold virus, so be patient with me! :)

M colored a lot of pictures for Nama (my mom) and made some collages too, but I just wasn’t up to getting pictures.   I did snap a shot of this cute vase he made:

And this necklace for Auntie M:

Link up your Art Box posts below!

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

The Art Box – March 15, 2010

There’s no photo of the art box this week.  I had *someone* standing beside me waiting, not-very-patiently, for me to fill it up.  It had all the usual stuff, plus some little sparkly gel pens from Target’s dollar spot, and a rock.

The rock was the cause of all the excitement surrounding the filling of the art box.  He found this rock last summer and gave it to me (I know, I’m a lucky girl!), and it’s been sitting on the kitchen windowsill ever since.  Someone (if it was your child, let me know!) made some pet rocks for The Art Box not long ago, and it looked like a lot of fun.  M definitely agreed.

 

Then he made a pretty picture with his gel pens.  You can’t see it very well here, but it’s very sparkly.  And we discovered that each one smells like a fruit!  The yummiest is the purple – it smells like grapes. :)

 

  He painted a picture for Daddy: 

 

One for Mommy that was made with his little spiky balls from Walmart:

 

And one for “all of us” (including M):

We are still enjoying the art box, although some weeks are more interesting than others.  I find that if we have a slow week where he’s not feeling artsy, the following week he more than makes up for it.

If your child did any self-directed art, link it up below!  I love seeing all their creations, and all the great supply ideas you moms come up with!

Have a beautiful day! :)