This is my favorite re-purposed art project. Use your beautiful scraps to turn your journal page into a captivating display of color, words, and texture. Each time you (or the children in your home or classroom) make art, there are always little piles of scraps left over. Learn to love your mess! Paper used for color…
DIY Garden Homes
Here in the northeast, it is finally time for bellies in the grass and fingers in the dirt. It is the season where my children come home from school, but never actually make it into the house. They wander around, finally sinking into the grass with a book or the toys that were played with…
finding fall box: remake
Since today, at around 5:30, marks the first day of autumn, I decided that Chick and I should go on a finding fall search in our backyard while Miss. Mouse naps soundly in her bed upstairs. We found yellow leaves, seed pods, acorns, a gazillion tiny pine cones, and lots of flies and bugs that…
blue (and some handmade storage boxes)
This is the shades of blue mobile. The dowel, which can’t be seen in the picture, is covered with a thick, natural linen. Below are some handmade storage boxes that we are using on our porch to store napkins, candle holders, and whatever else ends up being plopped inside. The boxes were once little kid…
swoop
Her Nest Recycled bits of paper and such on smooth finish Strathmore paper. xo e
composition
A few evenings ago I remade another $1.09 composition notebook. This time, I used a brown paper bag, a page from an old book, and some scraps of paper to cover and decorate it. Along with learning to make my own deodorant and discovering that I have a hidden hair cutting talent which has resulted…
board
This is one of Chick’s wooden board collages. She used origami and tissue papers, buttons, markers, and glue. When she finished, she said, “See Mama – look at how I’m an artist!” And, she is spot on – she is an artist. I think she must have been making collages in the womb. When Chick…
play
The rainy weeks have meant that Chick and I are spending lots of Miss. Mouse’s nap time in the studio. Mostly, we’ve been experimenting with mixed media collage on wooden scrap board. I’ve found all of the board in Tom’s scrap pile and a decent portion of the collage materials are scraps and old trinkets…
tidal
You would think that this piece of coral, which serves as the model for my vertical garland, would have some kind of wistful, summer adventure tale to back it up. But, no – I found it by peeking behind a bush in front of our house. There it was laying along side some other…
hook board
If ever Miss Mouse feels the need to tidy up, she now has her own special place to do so. If ever. I drew and cut the shapes with Chick by my side. She kept me in check by telling me when my designs looked nothing like what they were supposed to look like. This…
vertical
A few days ago, my four year old got her craft on and made this vertical garland. She went digging in the recycle bin for materials (how proud am I?) and decided to use a paper towel tube. After tearing it up into a bunch of medium sized pieces, she decorated them with colored…
tissue paper candle holder : remake
Those dried flower candle holders from a few days ago really are beautiful when lit up at night, but they didn’t satisfy my need for the candlelight and bright color combination I was originally aiming for. So, I tried it again, only this time I used Mod Podge with tissue paper and bits of paper…
dried flower candle holder: remake
Chick and I have been spending time during Miss Mouse’s nap collecting flower petals, rocks, and other backyard treasures. The spring weather seems to be eliciting a new interest in building little homes, roads, baths, and rivers for tiny imaginary creatures (fairies, gnomes, etc.). I find her new play really exciting because it is…
hanging basket tutorial : remake
After staring at the most beautiful cluster of purple and white flowers that are blanketing our front lawn, I thought, “enough is enough,” and I decided then and there that I needed a small place to hang them inside. After some rummaging through the recycle bin, cutting, gluing, tying, and stamping, this little squarish basket…
more story stones
Some birds and dinosaurs have joined the picnic. I was scheduled to have jury duty this morning at 8:00 a.m. sharp, but as I was closing the car door, a court guy leaned outside of the courthouse and told me it is canceled and that I should just go home. Tom was sure that he…
