Creativity Corner: Art in the Sky.

I have always been mesmerized by clouds.  
Before I became aware that lying on my back in prickly grass would result in dirty clothes or bugs-in-hair, I would gaze for hours up at the sky.  The cloud-object game has been around forever, but to my 5-year-old, it was a completely new phenomenon.
Our recent cloud-gazing adventure was a wonderful activity and I really enjoyed sharing it with her!

Springtime is one of the best times to hunt for clouds.  I took Maddy on the front porch so we would be slightly shielded from the sun, but we also had a great view of the open sky.  This activity would also make a great field trip--literally, to a field! Or a park. At any rate, we headed to the front steps armed with several sheets of blue construction paper, a few white crayons and white pencils, and our best seeing eyes.

At first we simply sat on the porch and talked about what we saw.  The sky was so blue and the clouds were perfectly white and fluffy... it was easy to get started.  In the beginning, Maddy described the clouds without much creativity:  A bush.  A ball.  A splotch.  I tried to offer suggestions to help her use her imagination to SEE things differently and she quickly got the hang of it.  Once she figured out how to play, she couldn't get her pencil to paper quickly enough, and she was loving it! 

This activity was so interactive.  We talked about how the clouds change so quickly and why.  We also talked about our amazing Creator who makes each cloud unique and beautiful.  Why aren't all clouds the same size and shape? Why do we have clouds at all?  It was fun to see her really thinking and trying to take it all in.

**Artist Bonus**

If your child is older and interested in art, another idea would be to let them do a Contour Drawing of the clouds.  This is basically an outline of the cloud itself without filling the inside.  Another great exercise for any budding artist is Blind Contour Drawing which is a contour drawing that is done by only looking at the cloud and not looking down at the paper.  This will really work your child's fine motor skills and enhance their ability to process what is going on in their eyes and brain and eventually transferred onto the paper. Blind contour drawing is always a great way to practice drawing no matter what the object! 

Have fun with this--I enjoyed listening to all 3 kids pointing out cloud shapes all the way home from school today.  Look up at the sky, you won't be disappointed!

God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.

~Martin Luther 

Classic Crafts: Sponge Paint a Leafy Tree!

Saturday mornings have officially turned into a crafty-painting time for us; it is the perfect day to make a mess with all our papers and paints.

I recently came across this little project in a magazine and although it is nothing completely new or original, my kids had a blast and they turned out really cute. Hopefully you will get a chance to let your little ones make this colorful painting to decorate your home this Fall!

First, gather a few basic supplies:

• card stock or heavy paper (2 pieces per child)
• a sponge
• paints (fall colors--red, orange, yellow, brown, etc.)

While you are gathering supplies, give your child a whole piece of card stock and tell her to draw the trunk of a tree.  The trunk should take up most of the bottom of the page with branches spreading into the top half.  In the meantime, take another piece of card stock and draw a cartoon tree-top on the top half.  This will be your stencil.  If you are terrified of drawing your own tree trunk or tree foliage on top, here is a template.

Cut your "tree top" from the paper as your stencil.

Once you have cut out the center of your "tree foliage" and your kids have finished drawing the trunk (and anything else they want to add) then you are ready to paint.

Place the template directly over the paper.  I taped ours to the table to keep it from moving around.  Next take an old sponge (or carpet squares) and squeeze the paint onto a plate or large surface so they have plenty of room to dip. Remind them not to mix sponges--use one sponge per color or else everything will mix and be a big mess.

This is the fun part! Watch your kids create original designs inside the stencil.  I enjoyed seeing how different the trees looked even though they had the same template, sponges and colors.

Once they are finished with their work of art, simply remove the stencil, stand back and admire!  I love how these turned out, the kids had a blast and continued doing other sponge projects long after they finished their trees. 

Imagination Booster: Leaf Art

If you're outside enjoying enjoying Autumn today, you may want to bring a few leaves back inside for a fun and easy art project.

We found some favorites, laid them out on a white paper, and then gazed at them for a bit. You have to tap your cloud-watching skills to see what animal or object each leaf resembles.

Glue them down when you know what they are, then use pens and thin markers to turn them into those imaginary friends.

Little sister's imagination is remarkably similar to big brother's!
Nature art is the best!

Chilly Saturday Morning Paint Fest.

This morning we woke up with a sleepy, crabby little guy.  Normally we like to take it easy on Saturday mornings since our daddy typically has to work.  After a relaxing breakfast and some fussy-kid pampering, I gave in to the big kids' request for setting up the paints. 
We have had a cool snap in the weather, so while we wait for the sun to warm us up, the kids have been happily painting away at the kitchen table for most of the morning.  Sometimes I tell myself it is such a pain to get out the paints, but honestly the "big mess" is always worth it in the end!

I love the creativity of kids. They found one of our baby board books and went to work copying the images and words on their pages to create their own animal pages. We are going to put some of the favorite pieces into their "All About Me" books.

This is only a fraction of all the pages they have completed so far today!

If you are looking for a fun activity for your kiddies on these chilly Fall mornings, break out the paints and hand them a board book for educational references photos.  What a great exercise in painting, fine-motor skills, reading practice, and art!

Speaking of ART, be sure to enter our "Decorate your Mask" contest going on NOW. So far, your chances of winning are REALLY good!  Decorate a mask and enter your photo on Facebook to win an amazing original necklace! OR let your child decorate a mask to win a $10 Hobby Lobby gift card! The contest ends on October 26th. Check out the details here! Let your little artists go to work today!

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." Edward Degas

All About Me: Seeing!

Shamefully I admit that I waited until today to start our "All About Me" books from Kylee's great post back in May!  It all started here.


This week I am going to start a book with my 4-year old daughter, as a way to incorporate some pre-school learning and bonding time! Kylee has all the details displayed on the blog if you want to know how to get started.  I am also working on some printables in case you are looking for some uniformity in your book, or if your child is not writing yet.


Today we are going to work on the first page of our "All About Me" book, which will include a self-portrait.  Some kids enjoy drawing more than others, but even if your child is not a budding artist, this is a great opportunity to help him/her learn about seeing and observation.  So, as we launch our 5 Senses week, encourage your child to observe and see as much as possible during this exercise.  


If you have time to head to your library or if you already have this book on hand, Brown Bear Brown Bear, What do you see? by Eric Carle is a very appropriate book for this project.  This adorable book will boost their creative thinking and help your child focus on understanding what it means to SEE.  Plus it's just a great book.


The first page of our "All About Me" book will look like this.  If you want to print your own, go here!  I have several other printables started and will continue posting them throughout this week:

To get started, I set up a mirror at the table.  Unfortunately I could only find a gigantic full-length mirror--a smaller one would have been better!  I encouraged my daughter to draw what she was seeing.  Kids tend to draw portraits based on a stick figure image in their mind as opposed to what they are actually seeing. For this project, I really wanted her to SEE her eyes, nose, mouth, hair and encouraged her to describe what she was seeing as she drew.  I would also encourage them to start with a pencil, but then use LOTS of color for the finishing touches. 

This is also a great time to introduce basic size and proportion to your child.  While she is drawing, ask her simple questions:  Are your eyes bigger or smaller than your mouth? Is daddy's face bigger or smaller than the baby's face?  This will help your child SEE, as opposed to drawing only from imagination, although drawing solely from the imagination is also a wonderful activity!

Next she drew a lovely portrait of our family! This printable is here.

The first two pages of her "All About Me" book are finished!  Next, I will hole-punch and place them in the binder.

**More Mud:
If you want to take SEEING to the next level, take your kid(s) outside and inspire them to really SEE!  Have them pick out several things, then observe them closely.

Ex. A mushroom!

My daughter asked to go get a magnifying glass. It really helped us see even more closely!

Ex. Observe all the textures in bark on a tree!

After we finished observing outside, we came back inside to finish our next page in the "All About Me" book. This page is all about seeing!  Have your child draw, describe in writing, paste or tape objects (a leaf, a blade of grass) onto this page. If you want to print this page, go here.

**In addition to all the learning that goes along with SEEING, this is also an opportunity to discuss the wonders of our created world.  Take the time to ask a few questions: Look at the details in this bark, leaf, mushroom.  Could you make that? Isn't it amazing? Suggested references are Genesis 1:1, Psalm 104:24-25, Colossians 1:15-16, Job 26:7-9, 11-14.  

Enjoy a fun time of observation with your child making your "All About Me" book this week!

A Shout-Out to Shrinky Dinks!

I ♥ Shrinky Dinks. 

All weekend my husband made fun of me for talking about Shrinky Dinks nonstop--he thought I was making them up until we found them at AC Moore. The name is great! And the possibilities with this product are left entirely to the limits of your own imagination! Yes, it is hard to believe there is actually a product named Shrinky Dinks, but I assure you, that is what they are called. Here is the website!!!


Several weeks ago I stumbled across a neat charm bracelet on Pinterest that someone made by scanning in books and printing them on Shrinky Dink paper. I had never thought to do that before, so my mind started going crazy. My first idea was to create a "family album" using pictures of your child and loved ones to make a charm bracelet.

~~Shrinky Dink Charms Take 1!~~

Here are the supplies you will need: 

• I found this film at AC Moore --  Shrink Film and comes in a packet of 6 sheets 11 X 8.5.
• Please note the frowny face I inserted here. I thought my photo charm bracelet was award-winningly original.. evidently not. There was a photo of such a bracelet directly on the packaging--another notch down on the wall of creativity for me!

Here is how our first photo project went down.  I did not sand the film (even though the packaging recommended it.) It needs to be sanded.  
I also did not purchase the extra special printing ink that is made for this particular film. I don't think I would purchase the special ink unless I was really planning to go Pro with Shrinky Dinking. For now, I'll stick to amateur level.

At any rate, my normal printer ink never quite stuck to the film, resulting in a wet and tacky surface after shrinking :(

The little charms were so cute, I was bummed that they would not completely dry.  We moved on to Shrinky Dinks, take 2!

~~Take 2!~~

This time around, I sanded the film. Aah, much better. The film was more receptive to pencil, colored pencil, and marker. Hooray.  

Next, I printed out her name, traced it and colored it in. I also did a little "cartoon" of her face by tracing a large image.  Then I cut the letters leaving a little room around the edges.

In the meantime my daughter carefully drew and colored some special charms for herself!
You will need to have a hole punch to make the holes for your necklace rope or wire! Give yourself a little room at the top and place the punch where you want a small hole.

•  To bake your Shrinky Dink Charms, preheat the oven to 300° or slightly warmer depending on your oven.  Place your "charms" on a baking sheet--the directions tell you to use wax paper, but I have had great luck placing them directly onto the sheet.
• Wait until the charms curl slightly, then flatten back down.  Once they are flat, about 1/2 the size and much thicker, you can pull them out. It takes about 3 minutes.
• Let them cool and if you need to flatten them a little more, use the tip of a spatula.

You can see how big they are here. If you want them smaller, just make smaller letters and pictures!

Here she is wearing her necklace. I ended up using some of my bead "hardware" to finish this up, but running a  stretchy Pony Bead string or fishing line through the center holes will make most kids happy! We will add more beads and glam to our necklace on another day.

We had a fun time. There is something magical and exciting about peering through the oven door, waiting to see how your artwork will change.  I will most likely be posting on Shrinky Dinks again, in the meantime I'd love to hear about some of your own experiments... and mishaps!!!

Giveaway! Set of Four Original OIL PAINTINGS!

It's giveaway time. 

Are you looking for some fresh artwork for your nursery or toy room? Do you know someone who would enjoy receiving the gift of original art for his or her child? Look no further! Here is your opportunity to score 4 colorful 8 X 10 framed paintings that will easily match any kid-friendly room.  


These paintings are on 8 X 10 canvas board and are framed in white. The frames can quickly be removed and painted to compliment the colors in any room. 

*These paintings were completed (by me) just before the birth of my first son to compliment his "pond" themed nursery.

Here’s how to enter!

1.) Leave a comment below. You can simply say, "Today is a fantastic day!" Anything will work.

2.) For another entry, become a fan of The Mud Pie Makers on Facebook. If you are already a fan, post a comment under this link on our wall.


3.) For a 3rd entry, spread the word about The Mud Pie Makers to your friends.  Suggest they join us on Facebook! Once they have joined, have them tag your name in a post on our Facebook wall. Your friend will also receive an entry. 


4.)  For one final entry, tweet this giveaway or post it on your Facebook page! 

*This giveaway is open to residents of the United States only and ends on Friday, July 8th. I will post the winner on Saturday morning, July 9th. Thanks and Good luck!