We ordered pizza last night for dinner and as I was about to recycle the boxes this morning I remembered a pizza box easel idea I saw in Maryann Kohl's book, First Art. Basically, you tape down the ends of the box to create a table top easel, tape on a piece of paper, and let your kiddo paint. We have a regular easel too, but this table top easel takes up much less room when being used, collapses when you're done, and is free!

I found a tutorial here. They painted on the inside of the box so that the flaps could catch drips, but Audrey was painting the tape, the table, and her hands during this project, so it didn't really make a difference that we painted on the outside instead.

Here is Audrey painting away.

Erika and Audrey both enjoy painting, but with the weather so warm it's been hard to keep them inside. So, we moved the easel outside! Erika started out painting our street, but ended up painting a few "pages" for her book about "the whole world". After Antarctica, Austria (inspired by The Sound of Music) and Australia, she got distracted by the dirt, her bike, and storytelling. Audrey lasted for only a few squiggles before running off to chase a cat. This nice weather is still new and I didn't expect much more from their attention, but I see a lot of outdoor art in our future.

Weeks ago this post at The Artful Parent made we want dye all the pasta in our house. I resisted the urge until I saw Fiori pasta at the store last week. This pasta is flower shaped and just right for this flower hungry time of year.

I put a few drops of food coloring and a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol in a plastic container with the pasta, put the lid on and shook until it was evenly dyed. Then I laid it out on some wax paper to dry. It was dry in the time it took us to make sandwiches for lunch and eat them.

When I was a kid I remember making landscapes with my mom using seeds and beans glued on to paper. We made hills, trees, and always a house. Maybe we only did this once or twice, but it stands out in my mind as a strong memory. So, I outlined some shapes that Erika wanted in her landscape: a tree, a sun, a cloud, flowers, dirt, and, of course, a flower fairy and a stage. Then I applied glue and she stuck Fiori pasta and we talked and worked. What was great about this project was that it required her to place the pasta down one by one. She stayed really focused and told stories about the pasta pieces as she worked. These two are talking to each other, she would say, and these are running away.

Audrey liked the dyed pasta too, as you can see from this week's 'moment' below. She sat and strung this stuff for a very long time, with her little tongue stuck half out in concentration.

Tomorrow is the Spring Equinox, and also the Iranian New Year, or Norooz. This welcoming of Spring and celebration of rebirth are celebrated with two weeks of festivities. The Haft Sin is a table set up with various symbolic items and today, as Erika and I were setting this table up, I realized that we hadn't decorated any eggs. We set to work on these eggs with art tissue paper and water.



I put the hard boiled eggs in an old egg carton and the girls wet them with water and a paintbrush and applied small pieces of the tissue paper.



We left them to dry, went out to play, and ended up with these wonderful eggs when we came in! Don't they kind of look tye-dyed?

I was inspired after looking through a few books by MaryAnn Kohl that we checked out from the library this week. Erika doesn't really like to get messy, so this project really forced her out of her comfort zone. First, I took three small plastic bowls and put some glue, food coloring, and glitter in each one. Not sure why I chose food coloring, which turned our hands green and blue- washable paint would have worked just as well I think. We used yarn, toulle, and feathers to dip in the glue and stick on a piece of matte board.

Erika's hesitation quickly evaporated and she was more interested in squishing the glue in her hands than in the collage. I put a few wet paper towels in a bowl for her to wipe her hands off whenever she wanted and that helped a lot. This idea is so simple and so useful for this age, but it had never occurred to me. MaryAnn Kohl has lots of other great ideas in First Art and Preschool Art.

Erika filled her sticker chart and earned a visit to the Dollar store yesterday where she bought a Barbie-like doll whose legs are always falling off. The bribe has worked (for now) and I hope she learned a lesson about self control.

While at the Dollar store I picked up some foam letters to make stamps like the ones over at Craft Projects . I didn't have wooden blocks, so we just dove right in and used the letters as is. It was a little messy, but we think messy is good! As you can see, Erika's newly developed ability to write letters trumped her desire to use the stamps, but I think we'll be using these letter stamps again in the future. I did the alphabet (above) and hung it in Audrey's room. As she walked into her room her eyes lit up and she said, "ooh-la-la!", proving that the simplest activity can provide plenty of joy.





*This entry was written as part of the "Mom's 30 Minute Challenge"

We paint a lot around here. I am definitely an advocate of process over product so today, along with the usual paintbrushes, I gave Erika a plastic fork, a plastic mesh bag (the kind that onions or lemons come in), and a spoon. Eventually, she was up to her elbows in paint and had a blast. Here is the result:

On the third Sunday of every month The Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit has a free Family Day where kids can work on various art forms that highlight their current exhibitions. I don't know how this passed by me for the last three years, but it was so great! Today's activities were collaging with old National Geographic magazines and making stuffed animals out of disembodied stuffed animal parts. I know, rad, right? Erika found a National Geographic from 1969 that was all about the first manned landing on the moon. She has been really interested in space lately, so this was perfect for her.



This was her other masterpiece. It needs no explanation.



Audrey loved the collaging (mostly the glue sticks) and the overhead projector where you could put together faces (see above). I can't wait to see what they have in store for us next month.

Today Erika requested that we make these stained glass suncatchers. We did them a few months ago (inspired by The Artful Parent), but this time Audrey was awake and joined us. It was a beautiful sunny day today and they looked awesome in the windows, though this picture doesn't really show the sun coming through.