Saturday, July 18, 2009

Creative Log Jam

Tsk, tsk on me. Wag your finger at me, shake your head, cast that look of disappointment my way....go ahead......I can take it......I hope! My own head is shaking and I've rolled eyes at myself so many times that I thought I was on Disney's Tea Cup ride. I have several projects started, many more crashing around in my head, and yet they are not done. I seem to be in a creative log jam of sorts. Finally, I have just told myself that I need to come back and chat with you (are you still here??) and hopefully, I can clear some of those logs out (maybe use some of them to light a fire....or at least some sparks!).

While I have not been nurturing my own creativity directly, I have been indirectly while sitting with my kidlets encouraging their creative spirits. Not having anything ready to share of my own today, I thought I might share some of my youngest's craftiness!

Little hands held their very first glue stick to create this! My Princess loves using my old decorative scissors, cutting away at every drawing and colored page, always leaving behind colorful confetti that has fallen at her cute little toes. She picked some different colored cardstock, cut the shapes out herself (I showed her how to turn the paper as she cut.......her eyes opened wide as a whole new world of crafty cutting shared its secrets), and we sat down together to decide what shapes worked best for what. The only thing I cut was the straight edge of the bottom of the grass. That was also the only thing I glued down as I demonstrated how to use the glue stick. What tickled was watching the wheels in her head turn as she continued to make new discoveries...with the tip of her little tongue stuck out the whole time. I personally cannot stand glue sticks as I don't like the glue on my hands (Elmer's glue, yes...paints and ink, yes....glue sticks, not so much). My son uses Duck adhesive for the same reason. But, oh my, my daughter, my Princess, luuuuuvvvvsssss her glue stick!

You may have to look closely to see these.....lean in (or click the pic). Do you see Disney's Aristocats? Both of my kidlets love to have coloring pages printed out. There are so many free online resources that it is easy to provide a vast variety of different characters and scenes for them to color, cut, and entertain themselves with. Asking me for a 'printout' is pretty much a daily request.

Earlier this month, my Princess (my knickname for her....she tells me that she is my Angel Froggy Princess, but that can get a little long :>) colored an Aristocats printout and then asked me to cut them out for her. She spent the rest of the day playing with them with as much gusto as she would a three dimensional stuffed animal. And just before she had to go to bed, she carefully layed them out on the floor, gingerly placed one of her brothers blankets on top of them, leaving their heads out (they had to breathe, you know), sang them "Part of Your World" in her very best Arial voice and then said, "Night-night!".

The colored kitties were then forgotten for a bit....until glue stick day. After she pieced together her sunny day piece, I told her to go for it, use as much glue as she wanted and make a collage out of all the scraps that remained. And of course, she did! Out of the corner of her eye she spied Berlioz and ran to him, greeting her abandoned friend. Absolutely pleased as a pickle in a vinegar bath with some minced garlic to play with, she promptly searched out the rest of her two dimensional kitties. And each one found a home on her collage. The smile on her face when she was done is one that I am going to treasure for years to come.

Its feels really good to 'chat' with you again. I hope you're still out there and I hope to not disappear again! So I'm off to take another log off of this creative log jam, put it on the fire and see what I might be able to play with tonight. Hope you are in the middle of a wonderful weekend!

15 comments:

  1. Oh Karen!
    This was so fun to read... Don't you adore being a mother??? I can read it in your voice!
    LOVE your shared story of the day... of your princess and prince and how they create...
    Adorable.. I can see that itty bitty tongue sticking out!
    Priceless...
    You are a Queen... :)

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  2. Every time I come by you have exponentially more followers, so I'm pretty sure you are GOLDEN, Kare! These juicy bits of burgeoning artist's work are just the perfect offering to the blog of the cutest mom and her "kidlets"around! Love these! Very cute and very sweet and so well told! I'm pretty sure we'd flock to you if you were writing about the sunset! Blog on, SWEETHEART: we'll be here waiting!

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  3. I love it! Crafty mom's everywhere are nodding their heads and cheering you on. You are shaping the creative minds of the craft world's future...don't worry, blog land will still be here when you get back. In the mean time, help the princess tuck her glue stick in until new characters arrive :)

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  4. Hi, Karen! What a great story! Definitely some art pieces worth saving! :-)

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  5. It's heartwarming to read stories of a mum so obviously enamored by spending time with little ones, and sharing quality time together. Your children are very lucky- You are making tomorrow's memories. Love it!

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  6. !! Your little one is showing signs of being a great paper crafter!!
    :)

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  7. awww. fun story, it reminded me that my 10 year old princess was once in love with all things disney. fortunately she is still a loving caring little girl but has moved on to real people shows and not cartoons. thanks for the read. hope your creative juices start flowing soon for you again.

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  8. So sweet!! Thanks so much for sharing. I'm nearly 30 and starting to daydream about this sort of thing!

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  9. That is so cute. I just love that you encourage their creativity. I've personally always thought that everyone is creative, you just have to practice.

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  10. Hi Karen! I´m sorry to hear about your logs! Strangly, that is just how I´m feeling after my holidays, I just can not get anything together! My ideas are just swimming in my head, getting nowhere...

    I loved to hear about your little darlings! So much fun! I don´t have any kids myself, but some of them drop by the house from time to time when their parents are visiting. Just last week a two year old, a four year old and a five year old. I took all my punches, my decorative scissors (which is still new to me..) and my color pencils and covered the kitchen table in A3 papers and some colored left over papers as well. I also let them borrow my little Xyron... They had so much fun! Only problem is that the next time they come visiting, I´ll probably have to do it all over again... :-)

    Siri

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  11. what a precious post- just awesome. xOxO

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  12. Not are you a creative genius, but you are a word wizard as well! Loved the way you shared this story from beginning to end! And you little princess is certainly following in her mommy's footsteps...what a little budding artist she is! Hope you were able to unjam the logs and get some of those ideas onto paper...can't WAIT to see!!!!

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  13. Super cute stories! I imagine it is a great feeling to see your daughter enjoy crafting. Great to hear from you. I too have been a little absent from my blog so I will not cast judgements :)

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  14. Wow Karen ,these are fab creations. What a fab mom you are.
    You are obviously a very talented family!
    Love Sarita xx

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  15. This is the most delightful blog post I've read in a while. What a beautiful story about how you share your creative journey with your children. I remember those print and color sheets and glue sticks. ahhhhh

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