The Artful Parent

Beaded Garden Ornaments

2012-06-01T06:45:00-04:00

We were on a roll with our beads and pipecleaners the other day when we made our beaded bubble wands, so we just kept stringing beads to make these garden ornaments. This is a project that has been in the back of my mind for a few years now, ever since I saw similar beaded garden ornaments for sale through the Gardener's Supply Company catalog (although they don't seem to be available anymore).

We made the garden ornaments much the way we started out with the bubble wands—with a pipecleaner twisted around one end of a wooden dowel.

As we filled the pipecleaner lengths with beads, we just twisted on another pipecleaner and kept going. Once we had five or six beaded pipecleaners on the end of a dowel, I used a little hot glue from the glue gun to ensure that they stayed in place.

Maia made one, I made one, and Daphne filled two and a half pipecleaners with beads before moving on. Pretty good for a toddler.

I used wire to wrap the beaded ornament "handles" to garden poles (I used a bit of hot glue, too, but it was hard and useless by the time I made it to the backyard). If I had thought ahead about this aspect of the ornaments, I probably would have done it a little more elegantly. Perhaps stuck the dowel into the hollow center of the bamboo pole or added the beaded wires directly to the pole.

Who knows? Maybe I would have done it the same way. It worked pretty well as it was, especially as a kid craft project.

These are the same poles that were holding up our garden wish flags, by the way. Now they are just a tad fancier.

I especially love how the beads glow in the sunlight!

We've planted Heavenly Blue morning glories at the base of each pole to twine up and add their beautiful blossoms to this part of the garden. In fact, I've planted vines in several places in the hopes of creating more vertical elements to the garden. And Maia has done her bit by planting sunflowers by the handful. I'm so curious to see what it will all look like in a couple of months!

Einstein on Imagination

2012-05-31T09:33:58-04:00

I love this quote! Now the question is, how can we help our children (and ourselves) learn this lesson?

Painted Birdhouses

2012-05-28T19:06:18-04:00

I've been admiring colorfully painted birdhouses on pinterest and in catalogs and imagining how lovely they would be in our own garden. We have a few birdhouses, and most, if not all, of them attract nesting birds each year, but they are not colorful birdhouses. Sigh. So silly, right, to think that a coat of paint would make such a difference?

But when I saw plain wood birdhouses on sale at A.C. Moore for 30% off their normal $7.99 price, I jumped at the opportunity to paint our own.

We started with three the plain wooden birdhouses and jelly jars of liquid watercolor paint. Liquid watercolors stain wood so beautifully (we've used it for a variety of wood art projects) that it was an easy decision to use them for the birdhouses.

We all worked on our birdhouses on a sunny, warm afternoon after school. Maia painted carefully and thoroughly.

Daphne painted exuberantly.

I love how the liquid watercolors soak into the wood like a vibrant wood stain.

As soon as we had three painted birdhouses lined up on the patio table, the girls ran up the steps to swing and do acrobatics. Maia has been practising her cartwheels in the backyard. She also likes to jump from the swing set mid-swing, then immediately move into a modified handstand. I sometimes often wonder how quiet, bookish me gave birth to this agile energy bomb of a child.

The first three colorful birdhouses were followed by another four this weekend as the whole family sat around the patio table and painted together. And while I initially planned to either mount them along the back fence or perch them atop poles, we set each on top of the trellis posts as a sort of bird-lovers finial instead. The trellis is still rather bare (the climbing plants I added are taking their sweet time) but the birdhouses add color and whimsy, which I like.

Here's the view through the patio gate.

Two notes:

To protect the wood and the paint color, I added a layer of Mod Podge to the birdhouses after painting. Update: Apparently I should have used acrylic varnish instead of Mod Podge, as Mod Podge gets gummy when exposed to wet/rain. I will add a coat of acrylic varnish over the Mod Podge and hope that does the trick. Thanks for your comments!
I haven't actually mounted the birdhouses properly yet, but am thinking of using either simple u brackets (and a dowel) or mailbox brackets.

I've seen birds go into two of the birdhouses already, carrying twigs in their beaks, so my worries that they were too bright or too close to the patio were unfounded. We have a few plain birdhouses in the farther corners of the yard for the shy birds and these colorful abodes on the patio for those more comfortable with people and pizzazz.

We'd better mount them ASAP though as the birds are already moving in!

Note: I am a Discount School Supply affiliate and the links (to DSS) in this post are affiliate links. If you follow a link and place a purchase, I will receive a small percentage of the sales price from Discount School Supply and will send you virtual hugs.

Make Beaded Bubble Wands

2012-05-25T06:18:00-04:00

We made some gorgeous beaded bubble wands yesterday! As a DIY project, this didn't take much in the way of materials—simply pipecleaners, beads, and wooden dowels (although popsicle sticks or natural sticks from the backyard would work, too).

We had the pipecleaners and dowels on hand already and the beads were on sale at A.C. Moore for about $1.50 a bag of assorted shapes and colors which I thought was a great score. I may have to go back and get more...

I don't usually do this, but I tested a few variations of the beaded bubble wands first before introducing the activity to the kids. The wand on the left, with the beaded handle, is what I had planned for us to do. I found the idea via Pinterest, of course. I was inspired by both a blog post by Kleas and by a Flickr photo by ladylucente.

Unfortunately the wire I bought was too thick or the beads I chose had holes that were too small to fit easily over a doubled up strand of my wire (I managed to force them on for this wand but it wasn't easy and I didn't think the kids would be able to manage it with a smile on their faces). So... I quickly came up with a plan B (beaded wire for the circle of the wand) and a plan C (pipecleaner for the circle of the wand).

I tested each with some bubble solution to see which head made the best bubbles. The best was the simple pipecleaner head! Followed closely by the beaded head. The plain wire strand was a rather distant third place. Good to know.

We ended up stringing beads along pipecleaners to make the bubble wand heads. I was too attached to the idea of beautiful beaded bubble wands to settle for the plain jane pipecleaners.

This was a wonderful fine motor control activity for Daphne, by the way!

The finished wands are lovely. The pipecleaners are twisted around the dowel ends, but I added a bit of hot glue from the glue gun to make sure they stayed in place.

We took the wands out to the garden with a bowl of bubble solution.

And blew bubbles! (Daphne insisted on using the one wire wand and managed to get a few bubbles out of it.)

Here you can see the gussied up pipecleaner wand (we added beads to the top of the handle with hot glue) make lots of great bubbles.

And one of the many extra big bubbles made with one of the beaded wands.

Ah... What would summer be without bubbles?

Edible Art! Grape + Toothpick Sculptures

2012-05-23T06:22:00-04:00

This was the kids' after school snack yesterday.

A grape and toothpick sculpture to make, briefly admire, and then eat. It was the perfect combination of delicious and engaging.

Oh, and healthy.

We started with a bowl full of grapes and a box of toothpicks.

These grape and toothpick sculptures are much the same as the marshmallow and toothpick sculptures and the soap and toothpick sculptures that we've tried in the past, but much easier and better.

Grapes are perfect for this activity. Really. Perfect.

And I wish I had thought of the idea myself, but I didn't. I came across a passing mention of grape and toothpick sculptures by Rachel of handmade charlotte in the Hand in Hand book and immediately knew we had to try them at the earliest possible opportunity.

Whereas marshmallows were a bit too soft and sticky to work with even when stale (not to mention the sugar content if your kids eat them while working) and the soap bits were tricky (a bit too brittle), grapes are ideal. They hold their shape well, are sturdy, and yet are easily pierced by the toothpicks.

Maia and I built toothpick sculptures while Daphne mostly just used her toothpicks to transfer grapes to her eager little mouth.

We all had fun. And then we pulled apart our sculptures and ate every last grape.

I suppose we could have let them dry into raisin + toothpick sculptures, and maybe we'll try that twist someday, but we were hungry.

So, I'm telling ya. Forget about the marshmallow sculptures. Grapes and toothpicks are where it's at.

Besides, this version is perfect for summer.

33 Nature Art, Crafts & Play Ideas for Kids

2012-05-21T08:04:54-04:00

With warm weather here and summer vacation around the corner, I thought I'd post a round up of nature arts and crafts (and some that are simply play). Here are 33 artful ideas for celebrating and exploring nature with kids that are especially good for summertime. I had fun going through my archives to come up with this list to share with you. And it was a great reminder for me of ideas to try again soon, too!

P.S. Click on the thumbnails below to go to the full posts.

A Fancy Braid

2012-05-18T11:26:52-04:00

Maia has been asking for a fancy braided hairdo and we finally had the time to create one after a bath last weekend. She surprised me with her patience as I spiraled a french braid around her head.

If I half thought she might use her upswept hair as the excuse for a day of princess pretend play, though, I was mistaken.

She admired her hair in the mirror for a minute, then quickly tugged out the braids, saying they were itchy.

Oh well.

At least now I know I won't be begged to create complicated hairdos regularly.

Our weekend plans include a birthday party, a ballet recital, some science experiments (by special request), and hopefully lots of time in the garden. Maia wants to plant sunflowers in her garden plot and I want to work on a sorely neglected corner of the garden. Thank goodness it's supposed to be sunny and beautiful!

Wishing you a happy weekend!

Raspberry Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

2012-05-17T10:54:04-04:00

I'm a bit obsessed right now. With raspberries, lemon zest, and cream cheese. All wrapped up in a delicious and addictive coffee cake. Perfect for breakfast, second breakfast (um, should I admit to a third breakfast?), after-school snack, and dessert.

I've been baking and tweaking this raspberry lemon cream cheese coffee cake three times in the past week.

It was so good. And it just kept getting better.

It all started with this coffee cake by Pinch of Yum (my new favorite cooking blog!).

I loved the flavors in her recipe but wanted a coffee cake that was lighter and fresher. I wanted fresh raspberries rather than the jam. And I really wanted some lemon with my raspberries and cream cheese.

And so began my week of tweaking (and eating). All in the name of getting it just right.

To make the coffee cake just a bit healthier, I used white wheat flour instead of all purpose flour and yogurt in place of sour cream. I also added more baking powder to make the coffee cake lighter. And lemon zest and juice, just because it pairs with raspberries so well, bringing out the fresh, light flavor I wanted.

The hardest part was letting the coffee cake(s) cool.

But it was so worth it.

Here's the recipe, in case you'd like to bring some raspberry coffee cake goodness into your life. (And if you tweak and bake three coffee cakes in the space of a week and come up with an even better version, please share!)

Raspberry Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

(Here's the printable recipe.)

INGREDIENTS

For Coffee Cake

2 1/4 cups white wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
Zest from 2 lemons
3/4 cup butter
½ cup ground or finely chopped almonds (optional)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1 egg
1 - 1 ½ cups fresh or frozen raspberries

Cream Cheese Filling

8 ounces softened cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 egg

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10 inch springform pan.
Mix flour, sugar, lemon zest in a food processor. Add butter, cut into ½ inch pieces, to the flour. Pulse until the butter /flour mixture is crumbly.
Reserve 1 cup of the crumbs for topping. Add ground almonds to topping crumbs (optional).
Dump remaining crumbs into a large bowl and add baking powder, baking soda, salt, yogurt, and 1 egg. Mix until mostly smooth. Gently fold in the raspberries. Use spatula or hands to spread batter over bottom of springform pan.
Beat softened cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, and lemon juice until smooth. Pour over the batter in the pan. Sprinkle reserved crumbs on top.
Bake for 1 hour. Test doneness by inserting a toothpick.
Let cool completely.

A Chalkboard Masterpiece

2012-05-15T06:26:00-04:00

Daphne is really coming into her own as an artist. At two and a half, she's no longer simply joining in on her sister's art activities or engaging in those that I initiate, but rather taking the lead more and more.

I'm sure you know how happy that makes me!

Yesterday, while I was rearranging and cleaning the living room in preparation for the photoshoot for the cover of my book (yay!), Daphne created a chalkboard masterpiece.

As a prelude, she dumped our chalk out of the little bucket that hangs on a hook next to the chalkboard. It's a mix of the Melissa & Doug triangular chalk that we usually buy for indoor use and some super vibrant chalk (more like chalk pastels than chalkboard chalk, really) that I ordered from Stubby Pencil Studio a while back.

She climbed up onto the chest that holds my grandma's fancy china and began drawing.

By the way, see that tricycle t-shirt? It's one I made for Maia when she was that age and I was crazy into freezer paper stenciling.

Once Daphne drew all she could from the chest, she requested the step ladder.

And finally, she asked me to lift her up to reach the very top of the chalkboard for some double-fisted drawing.

By the end, Daphne was covered with chalk, but she was very pleased with herself and her drawing (which the little sweetheart said was for me).

Flower Stained Glass

2012-05-14T06:02:00-04:00

We brought a bit of the garden inside a few days ago, making another flower stained glass window—this time for the kitchen door. As before we used flower petals and contact paper. Super easy! And flowery beautiful, of course.

Sometimes we like our bouquets two dimensional.

I also like how it provides a level of privacy yet lets in more light than a curtain to our otherwise windowless kitchen.

I had this set up as a simple after school project to do with Maia and Daphne.

Normally, I would let Maia and Daphne run around the garden picking flowers for something like this. They both love taking a basket and scissors and gathering flowers.

This time, though, I was in the mood to wander the garden and pick and choose myself and so had everything set up by the time Daphne woke up from her nap and Maia was home from school: vases with a variety of flowers and leaves as well as contact paper cut to size.

While last time I had cut the contact paper into small sections for the individual panes of glass we have on the front door, this time we used two large sheets of contact paper. The window on the kitchen door looks like it has individual panes, but the visual dividers are actually sandwiched between two pieces of glass, providing one large expanse of glass to cover.

As before, we used individual flower petals and leaves rather than full flowers. This allows the stained glass to lie flat and also (usually) preserves the flowers better. While they dry and fade in color over time, they are less likely to grow moldy than if the bulkier, full flowers were used.

Here's the contact paper with the flower petals and leaves just before I attached it to the window. And yes, I stuck the contact paper directly to the window. (It comes off easily when it's time to remove it.)

I love our new kitchen door.

I dream of a kitchen that looks out over a backyard so I can cook while watching the kids play outside or pause while washing dishes to gaze out at flowers and birds and butterflies.

For now, my flower stained glass window will have to do.