she’s been keeping it simple over here for a coupla days now… just doing basic line drawings with a pencil and some scrap paper i keep in a bin on her art desk.

while novi draws, she always narrates what is going on in the picture and what the characters are saying, in different voices and such.it’s fascinating to watch.

i will share a few (of the stack that’s collecting) of her little scenes – so fun!

festival with bounce-house, daddy with cotton candy, novi with balloons, and mommy with her camera (what else would i have?)

walrus jumping rope while a bird brings her (easter) eggs to a nest

novi feeding our cats their dinner bowls, but the cats are mad (see wagging tail) because a yeti has caught a person in a lasso

L to R: bird with a present, ant, spider climbing tree trunk to his web, bee, butterfly, flowers

she even made a little birthday card for our cat, bean, who turned 9 on sunday… just one day before novi turned 3.5 years old this past monday, the 26th – (yes, those half-birthdays are a big deal, right?)

she wrote the message and drew a picture of herself playing with bean with the laser cat toy

the other night she began to add some color to a few line drawings she did, using her crayons. i am really into this artistic development going on over here!

our cat, bean, giving iridessa (the light-talent fairy) a rainbow tube

so for this one, i’m willing to bet you’ve got all the materials you need!

we received this alex fantastic spinner as a gift a while back, and i just pulled it out for the first time today. this is a great set – it comes with the hand-powered (kid-powered!) spinner machine, papers, cards, and red, yellow, green, and blue paint in squirty tubes.

i realize that this could totally be a great DIY activity, deeming the product absolutely unnecessary, and i say go for it if you’re a person who has a salad spinner to spare, some empty squirty bottles, and some tempra or acrylic paints (that you may want to water down a bit.) but i am not a person with a spare salad spinner (or even a salad spinner at all) unfortunately. therefore, this was a fun gift to receive for myself novi.

we both had a great time! mostly, i hand-powered the machine while she squirted the paint wherever she wanted…. though we took turns a couple of times where she powered the spinner and i squirted the colors.

talk about multitasking - i spun with one hand, photographed with the other

there were many little ooooohs and aaaaahs each time the spinner stopped and novi saw her creation.

each of them lovely bursting rainbows!

surely, in her generation, she is likely to draw with pixels of light moreso than we ever did as kids. i mean, litebrite is as close as we came to light pictures, right?

i am a fan of digital art, myself. and it’s so fun to have novi ask me if she can write and draw on my phone. we did a post on this same thing a little over a year ago, so i figured it was time to revisit this medium.

she loves picking her own colors and trying to create little scenes. the ones shown here are made my a free iphone app called scribble lite.

we also like colortilt. what are your favorite artsy iphone apps? comment (by clicking top left) to let us know! i’m always looking for a good free download.

we have already done pink & green mama’s wooden mermaid clothespin dolls that are featured in the booklet, and they were a huge hit over here! these little sea maidens continue to provide hours of playtime enjoyment.

remember these? they're in the book!

novi and i looked through the great instructional photos illustrating each super-inventive exercise in pink & green mama’s booklet. novi picked one that she wanted to try out today (and she graciously said we can save the other 11 art activities in the book for tomorrow. we’re gonna be busy over here!) this afternoon we experimented with bubble wrap ocean printing!

we followed pink & green mama’s very clear instructions to paint the bubble wrap on the bumpy side with washable acrylic paint. novi chose many shades of blues, greens, and purple and decided to apply it in a stripey pattern.

after novi painted the bubble wrap, she pressed it onto cardstock. (you can use any paper thick enough to hold up to acrylic paint.) it made the greatest bubbly ocean!

pink & green mama gives detailed instructions for making your own very clever ocean-themed stamps (while recycling!) to press onto the scene; however, this time novi preferred to paint the sea creatures herself instead of printmaking. she was inspired by a trip we took to the monterey bay aquarium over the weekend – such beautiful exhibits! i have to share at least one photo with you!

gorgeous sea nettles!

novi got down to business, painting away with the acrylics and chatting about all kinds of sea animals she saw at the aquarium. this art lesson booklet is so timely — such an enriching addition to our summer fun!

we were able to make three pages of prints with just one coat of paint in the bubble wrap. each one was a bit lighter than the one before, but that made for great subtle backgrounds for the paintings.

(yep, one of them involves a girl and her dog snorkeling...?)

pink & green mama has done it again – crafty excellence! this activity book is chocked full of oceanic fun like this! i highly recommend it to any parent or teacher out there who makes art with kids ages 3-9. the instructions are clear and concise, the photos are fabulous, each of the 12 activities includes a supply list, and all templates are printable.

GIVEAWAY ENDED JULY 23RD, 2010:

to WIN A FREE COPY of these wonderful art lesson plans, leave a COMMENT HERE by clicking “comments” to the upper left. you’ll have 3 chances to enter the drawing:

1. for your first comment, state your most vivid art memory from your own childhood.
2. “like” paintcutpaste.com on facebook and leave a comment stating that you now “like” us (or that you have liked us all along. aw, thanks!)
3. link to this blog entry on your blog and leave a third comment showing us the link to where you mentioned it.

leave your comments BEFORE MIDNIGHT EST FRIDAY, JULY 23RD. at that time, i will draw the winner based on a random number. please also include your email address in the body of the comments so that pink & green mama can send you a copy of this awesome book when you win! GOOD LUCK TO ALL!

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patty walsh (#23) is the winner of pink & green mama’s ocean fun art camp lesson plans pdf booklet. CONGRATS, patty! it’s an awesome book – enjoy! her comment was:

My most vivid art memory as a child would have to be when I was about 4. I remember going in to my Mom’s make up and mixing water with eye shadows to make paint. I remember having such a good time, I don’t even think my Mom got mad. It really was a great experience!

there were sand drawings…

no one is a stranger to the magic of a sandcastle…uh, or a sand alligator. novi and her daddy loved making this creature together!

novi took her time creating and adding to this rock/driftwood/sand man.

i collected shells, sea glass, and flat, smooth stones for painting – ever the beachcomber, i am. best art supply store there is!

there was plenty of kite-flying in the mix, as well.

novi collected driftwood on the walk back up to the car.

"mommy, i think i'm going to build a house out of this when we get home."

let’s see what else transpires from our day at the beach…