Growing up in the 1970s meant decorating for Halloween was simple. My mom and I would scoop slimy seeds out of a pumpkin, and I would try (unsuccessfully) to carve a straight set of angular features into the hard orange flesh without slicing off my fingertips.
Artist trading cards (or ATCs) are little works of art designed to spread happiness and joy.
The movement isn’t new. Swiss artist M. Vänçi Stirnemann initiated the project in 1997 and since then, thousands of people from around the world have created and traded ATCs online and at in-person events.
The rules for decorating artist trading cards are few. In essence, as long as the size is 2 ½” x 3” (64 mm × 89 mm), anything goes.
I am - blank spaces on my to-do lists, calendars, and notebooks are often decorated with arrows, swirls, stick figures, and cubes. It’s an involuntary act that’s been with me since my early days in the classroom – tracing lines on my desk – while I desperately tried to concentrate on the material delivered by my teachers.
Paige didn’t go to my school, but we rode on the same school bus and we shared a bus stop. Paige didn’t have a home-haircut. She went to a salon and smelled of hairspray. Paige didn’t wear t-shirts and jeans. She wore blouses and slacks. Paige didn’t have a pool that had to be deflated and dismantled at the end of the summer. She had an in-ground, indoor swimming spa.
A few years ago when I was throwing around the idea of homeschooling my daughter, I had a discussion with a friend of mine over coffee and goldfish crackers while our kids played with wooden trains. I explained that one of my fears about teaching my child at home was that she might grow up to be “strange” and “awkward”, to which my friend remarked, “Oh, so you were homeschooled?"
When the weather outside is delightful, it's no time to craft inside.
Instead, invite (or shove) your kids out the door and encourage them to get creative with natural - readily available - materials.
Here are five ideas to get you (and them) started.
STICK SCULPTURE
Sticks, fallen leaves, wildflowers, stones, grass and the odd found object (in our case, a scrap piece of wood left over from a construction project), can be combined to make fabulous temporary sculptures on the lawn.
I lost a lot of hair while breastfeeding my daughter.
The phenomenon wasn’t a result of hormonal changes, but was instead a direct consequence of my baby’s chubby and persistent hands regularly grasping onto any and all strands of hair within her reach.
Had I known then about nursing necklaces, I would have saved myself a lot of pain (and hair product).
My daughter ran up to me with a plastic zip bag containing a wet snake of a t-shirt, tied with elastic bands and dripping with rainbow colours. She had just attended a tie-dye class at our local library and was beaming at the thought of donning her newly created top.
Stapled to the bag was a clear set of instructions that – if followed – would result in the project retaining its vibrancy. The shirt had been dyed using food colouring, so obeying the directions was essential.
I had no trouble with step one, and left the shirt in bag for eight hours.
When my daughter was just a few weeks old, I carefully placed her pudgy hand in a puddle of paint before smushing it gently onto a piece of paper. I planned to do the same thing, year after year, until she turned eighteen. But that - along with my goal of yearly photo books - went right out the window somewhere around year two.
Still, I love handprint crafts because they - like my first clumsy attempt - serve as a permanent record of just how small my daughter once was.
You can give a dad a necktie; you can give a dad a mug. You can give a dad a hammer; you can give a dad a hug.
Or, you can give a dad a little something different.
This year my daughter and I conspired to come up with an out of the ordinary Father’s Day gift and it didn’t take long for me to convince her that painting a pair of his shoes was the best idea ever.
Deciding which pair to embellish was a no-brainer.
Before the Internet, parents didn’t save their kids’ artwork. I know this to be true because I asked people.
Case in point, all that remains of my many (many) childhood creations is a folded sheet of manila paper depicting a tree in four seasons, a crayon drawing of my mother wearing a triangle-shaped dress, a stapled construction paper booklet filled with dinosaur pictures, a Grade one primary printing workbook, and a highly inaccurate 3rd grade science fair project about Monarch butterflies.
If you are a parent, you are probably familiar with one of Albert Einstein’s lesser-known theories: The smaller the kid, the larger the pile of art they will produce.
From early crayon scribbles and reams of sticker-covered computer paper, to colourful splats of paint and remarkably strong renditions of dogs… kids make art. Lots and lots of art.
The question is, what to do with all the creative output?
One answer involves using state-of-the-art technology to archive all the fabulous handiworks your children make at home, at school and at camp.
There was a time when I thought it was a good idea to expose kids to art. But I’ve had an epiphany and I see now that art is the devil’s work.
So hear me now and listen to me later. You should not - under any circumstances - let your kids participate in art making activities. The time to act is now.
You’ve just created something spectacular. Maybe it’s a delicious cheddar soufflé, or perhaps a lovely drawing of the African violet that finally bloomed in your kitchen. Or maybe you wrote a clever rhyme about your neighbour’s Bichon Frise.
Now visualize this...
After sharing your creation with your partner, your child, or your neighbour, he or she says, "Great job!" and promptly shoves it into a drawer. Or worse, sneaks it into the recycle bin.
Every once in a while, I lose my mind. And then I buy glitter.
I never know what will trigger the purchase. Sometimes it’s hearing an old Cyndi Lauper song at the grocery store while I’m picking up string cheese. Other times it’s the inconceivable absence of coffee cream in a friend’s refrigerator. Mostly, it’s amnesia, brought on by lack of sleep. And Pinterest.
When my daughter was younger, decorating at Easter consisted of me boiling a few eggs and letting my kiddo cover them with stickers, or paint them with washable watercolours. Later on, I broke out the glue and tissue paper. More recently, we've been experimenting with traditional dye baths, which are the most fun because when else can you stick your hands into multiple containers filled with colourful concoctions?
Whether you're thinking about starting seeds for an outdoor garden, a mini-garden for your window ledge, or a container garden for your patio, you will need lots (and lots) of pots. And while it's true that you could use containers you pick up - as is - from the garden centre, decorating and personalizing your own vessels can be so much more rewarding. And fun... especially for children.
Let's face it, sometimes you just need a break. And when you do, it's nice to have some ideas up your sleeve that don't involve a lot of prep work.
Here are five creative arts and crafts activities kids can do on their own (depending on age, of course). Best of all, the materials are inexpensive and easily accessible. In fact, most can be found at your neighbourhood dollar store.
