2013 - Here we go!

Happy New year to all my readers! Belated I know, but January must be one of the busiest months of the year in my home - yours too? New Year and school holiday activities, then preparation for Back to School, followed by Big One's birthday (on the first day of School!), and Back to Work for me. So as you can tell, it's been pretty darn hair-raising over here :). To add to all that, Little One started at a new School this year. So that's my catch-up news and now onto a new year of Love and Lollipops. I hope you'll stay reading and join me on this happy ride.

To start the year off...remember Adam's Art Spot? I haven't posted one of these for awhile, so here's one of Adam's (a.k.a. Big One) holiday activities. Created and thought out by him.

Instructions:

Take some recycled cardboard and stick white paper to it. Draw some fun men or characters onto the paper and cut them out. Then take a paper clip and stick it to the back of the pictures. You then need attach some string to something high, like a curtain rail or a lamp on a shelf, and attach the other end to a lower item, like a toy basket, creating a zip-line. Now place your paper-clipped character onto the string and watch him zip all the way down.

 

Have fun! 

PS. Linking this to For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars

Adam's Art Spot : Bendy Cardboard Characters

Adam's Art Spot is my oldest son's space here on the blog to share his often quirky art and craft ideas.

I haven't shared an Adam's Art Spot for ages, so I'm really happy to do so today.

Not much explanation is required. The cardboard used to create these little characters are from our recycling box - mainly empty biscuit, tea or cereal boxes. The best part is that after creating these, you can play with them :).

 Cool hey?

Adam's Art Spot : Superhero Softies

This is Adam's (a.k.a Big One) spot for sharing some of his creative ideas. He needed my help with this one, so the handiwork was done by me.

The request was for superhero soft toys, so the suitable candidates were picked and we set to work!  We decided on a design for the masks, drew it onto craft foam (after measuring our superhero's faces) and then cut them out. I then used elastic from some old birthday party hats to tie the masks on. (I used a toothpick to pierce the hole on the side of each mask.) String would also work just as well as elastic and would probably be easier to use. I found the elastic to be finicky.

For the capes, I cut out a very basic long triangular shape from felt and tied it around each toy's neck with string. Once again using a toothpick to make the hole in the felt. 

And there you go...Superhero Softies! I think they are so cute and it got me thinking about how easy it would be to revamp some old soft toys and give them a new look. Have you ever revamped a soft toy? If you have, please do share. I would love to hear about it.

If you enjoyed this post and would like to see more of Adam's super ideas, you can do so here.

PS. I'm linking this to two amazing blog parties, Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 and Tot Tuesdays at My Delicious Ambiguity.

Adam's Art Spot : Flip-O-Ramas

I recently posted about Tony Buzan's book, Brain Child, and promised to share some more tidbits from it. Adam's Art Spot has given me the perfect opportunity to tell you a little about a brain principle called "mimicry" or good old-fashioned "copying". Tony Buzan has an interesting perspective on this and speaks of how "copying" has become associated with "cheating" and is therefore frowned upon. The brain, he says, "is designed to learn by copying" and "parents will notice that the baby is the the greatest 'copying' machine ever invented." Isn't that so true? Our babies copy everything we do... language, gestures, noises, expressions, actions...and they do it with "dazzling precision and accuracy".

I got to thinking about how we accept that a baby and tot will copy us and learn in the process, yet as our children grow older we can inadvertently discourage them from copying, for the reason cited above. Yet, this is surely the very best way to learn! So I am going to encourage Big One to "copy" and be inspired by art, books, TV, characters, ideas! Tony Buzan says to encourage copying and then to add one's own interpretation.

So how does this all tie in to Adam's Art Spot? Well, Adam has been bringing home Captain Underpants books from the school library for quite some time now. If you are familiar with these books, you will know that they have pages in the books called "Flip-O-Ramas". Two very similar pictures are drawn a page apart and the reader is encouraged to flip the page back and forth as quickly as he can to create the effect of a moving picture.  I noticed Adam drawing up a storm in some old recycled books that I had given him and discovered that he was creating his own "Flip-O-Ramas"! Some mimicry at it's creative best!

It's difficult to see the effect by looking at these photographs, but I must tell you, that when you flip the pages quickly, that little guy sure looks like he's swimming!

Adam's Art Spot : Glove Puppets

Adam's Art Spot is Big One's space to share his wonderful art and craft ideas. This idea was inspired by Eric Carle's book, "Little Cloud" and by some wonderful Beleduc puppets that he saw at a toy exhibition we attended. 

After reading the book, Big One suggested that we make a cloud puppet using a hand glove and some cotton wool. So I purchased blue gloves (I was very pleased to find blue ones) and cotton balls. He then stuck the balls onto the glove using craft glue and allowed it to dry. As you can see, it made a very sweet cloud puppet, which he modeled so nicely. I then decided to make a little one for little brother, using a blue baby sock. Unfortunately he would not oblige by modeling his.

This idea has inspired some more hand puppets in our house, which I'll share with you in an up-and-coming post.

PS. I have linked this to StArt @ A Mommy's Adventures.

Adam's Art Spot : Pizza Base Art

I have a crazy creative boy living in my house, who LOVES art and crafts and tackles them with speed and gusto! Needless to say he has many great ideas of his own. In fact, my ideas are often left by the way side and replaced with his. I must say that managing his enthusiasm and my little one at the same time, makes for very messy, high energy, disaster management art sessions. But I do it - 'cause I know it's good for them!

I previously promised to share some of my son's super art ideas, so I have decided to make this a regular feature.  So I hope you enjoy this, the first of "Adam's Art Spot".

Now I'm sure that these are not all original ideas, in that Adam may have seen the idea on TV, or in a book, or at School. I, however, am choosing to give him full credit for them, seen as he always tends to put his own spin on art. As for this idea, he claims he just got this idea from his brain! Who am I to argue! So these lovely plates are painted polystyrene pizza bases. Painted and then using the back of the paintbrush, while the paint is still wet, he has drawn his family. I'm the green one, Dad red, and Adam and his baby brother in yellow! I think these make rather attractive and modern wall art!

Now you may know of "Art Attack." I only know the books, having never seen a TV program or a DVD. My son and I can both highly recommend the Art Attack website. It is jam packed with very cool ideas. I must mention that the crafts are definitely geared towards an older child and there are not many girly crafts, but lots of fun crafts for boys.

Till Adam's next attack, I hope you are inspired!

PS. I linked this to:

Show and Tell @ ABC and 123 

Kiddos Create @ Mama Jenn  

Craft Schooling Sunday @ Creative Jewish Mom