create (with kids): nature art

Oh dear, it's been one of those weeks. A week during which I'm convinced I flushed my Nikon battery. It was being stored it in my back pocket to keep it out of little hands, instead of running to my camera and putting it in right away (ahem). At least it was in said back pocket before I took a quick stop at the restroom, after which it was nowhere to be found. And now that our daily kid count is at four with the addition of two friends, whom I'll introduce shortly, the chance to run out and pick another up has been pretty slim. In the interim I picked up my old handy digital point & shoot to capture our life- without realizing that the memory card wasn't fully inserted (double ahem). So there you have it, a week of technological shortcomings and one tired Mama from running after the two large kids, and crawling after the two littlest ones. But I shall prevail, and share not one- but two!- crafts with you after the brief absence.

This has been the greatest influence on us right now, our garden. Its lettuce fills our bowls- and our neighbor's mailboxes- and we've been watching its quiet transformation. Lots of lettuce, swiss chard, some cabbage, a few happy zucchini starts popping up and...

flowers! This particular one, of course, did not come from a seed. 

This is our new friend Renyah! Her little brother & Billy are both nine months- and napping at the same time during the morning. Allowing us ladies some artsy time together, including making some flowers. First you take a tongue depressor and glue a flattened cupcake liner to the top of it. Then you rumble up small bits of tissue paper and glue them onto the center, like Renyah is doing above.

You might want to stop and pretend, at this juncture, that your flower is alive. Creating a high, shrilly voice for your flower and having it sing silly songs is greatly recommended.

Then glue on a few leaves then your flower is ready to enjoy You might even want to "plant" it in a pot to give to someone. Just don't water it! (wink).

This second craft was inspired by the circular piece of cardboard. It was used as packing for something that was shipped to us, and I knew they would come in handy- so I added them to my pile. As shared before, once an Art teacher, always an Art teacher.

I traced them, then cut out a circle of contact paper for each that was a bit larger than the cardboard circle- I wanted to have allowance for any sticks or large objects that might find their way into the collage. I peeled off their backing, then taped them each, sticky-side up, on a clipboard. Each lady got a clip-board and they set off in the backyard to add treasures to their contact paper.

Finally, we placed the contact paper on top of our circles. I trimmed off the extra contact paper from around the edges, then used a needle & thread to create a hanging tie from the top. I think they're a nice way to bring a little bit of summer, which seems to pass so quickly, inside to enjoy.

Nature books that we're currently reading...

"Peter Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter

"The Root Children" by Sibyelle Von Olfers

"Seasons" by Anne Crausaz

"Bee and Me" by Elle J. Mcguinness and Heather Brown

"The Very Quiet Cricket" by Eric Carle