I’m a huge fan of reusable paint palettes for projects for myself and the Bit — I even save plastic lids for this very purpose. But one problem with them is that you have to clean them. When you have a kid artist at home, both palette and brush can be pretty messy by the end of an art experience. ... Read More »
This week’s Iron Craft challenge had to do with toys, either making a toy or making something with toys. I had actually started this project a while ago but the Bit declared it unfinished and I pulled it back out for this purpose. These are little peg people with matching cups, painted in the colors of the rainbow. They’re for ... Read More »
If you’re a mom with a child who likes to get into the art supplies, get in there and draw or paint or whatever with your kids. Even better, draw or paint something together. When you’re working with a younger kid, you can let of of some of the need to make something “good” or “pretty” and just follow your ... Read More »
Husband is out of town this week, so I’ve been trying to have something special set up for the Bit after school each day to get out of our routine a little bit and make it special instead of sad. The Seuss stuff was one of these. And the next day I tried a playdough invitation on the theme of ... Read More »
The other day — the day before Valentine’s Day, to be precise — the Bit got out her air-dry clay before school. She was making a cake, and she asked me to help. I piled on a few layers for her, and as she worked I made some bigger pieces of clay and decided to cut out hearts with a ... Read More »
After consciously choosing “Create Space” as my intention for January (which will be bleeding over into February because my space isn’t completely created yet) I shuffled my remaining 11 One Little Word cards to determine what I would focus on for the other months. For February I got “Create Art.” The card says Play with colors, materials, subject matter Craft ... Read More »
My sister-in-law is amazingly great at picking presents for the Bit and me. Her job is working with preschools and early childhood education programs, so she knows all the best toys, great books and whatnot to get the Bit, but she also manages to do pretty well picking goodies for me, too. This year, it was all about the art ... Read More »
When I decided to send the Bit to preschool, it was a difficult but really calculated decision. I knew that if I was going to continue working, if I ever wanted to make more of a name for myself or write a book ever again, I was going to need more time to work. I knew, too, that she was ... Read More »
I like to give the grandparents something each year that’s related to the Bit or that she made. Last year everyone got a calendar full of pictures of her, but I just didn’t feel like doing that this year. I thought it would be great to give them each a picture of her, but what to do for frames? Why ... Read More »
Whenever I know the Bit is going to be home for a few days more than normal I try to have some special things planned, especially when I know we’re going to be stuck at home for a while as we were over Thanksgiving. It turned out she got an extra day off because she was sick, so I was ... Read More »
Over the weekend we bought an itty bitty pumpkin at the grocery store. It’s a little early to decorate for Halloween, but pumpkins in their whole form are perfectly appropriate for fall, and they’re cute, so why not? Last year I let the Bit paint a pumpkin, so that’s what she wanted to do again. This morning. After she got ... Read More »
A few months ago we did yet another toddler busy bag swap, and one of the items was a tanagram set with little pictures you’re supposed to try to line up the shapes like. The Bit has never played with it, but she found the shapes the other day when they got knocked off her art supply storage table (things ... Read More »
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