We've Moved

Please come see what we've been up to at the NEW (and hopefully vastly improved) Small Hands in the Big World site and tell me what you think. I'd love to hear your feedback.

The new site should load faster, be easier to search, and look better. What do you think? Was it worth the move from Blogger over to WordPress?

Learning WordPress has been much easier than I anticipated and I'm loving all the ways to customize my site. Uploading images doesn't don't seem to slow things down the way it did using Blogger and overall, WordPress appears to be a more sophisticated tool.

One disappointment was that importing my old posts hasn't been easy--they came out all garbled when I used the "automatic" import. However, I am transferring them over individually so everything will be in one place and you'll be able to easily search for projects or entries you may have enjoyed in the past.

Please come on over, take a look, and leave your comments. I love hearing from you and am so curious to get some feedback.

Thank you,
Liz

The Adventures of Art Lady: Kindergartners and Sticks

No, this isn’t a story about sword fights (though I have to admit I was nervous about that happening), it’s a story about making Garden Art Sticks with a group of fifteen 5- and 6-year olds.

I found this idea on this wonderful blog and thought it would be a great project for our Kindergarten class to make for the school's bi-annual auction.

My dear adventurous Mother, affectionately known as Cuckoo Grandma by my children, gathered a bundle of shapely beach sticks already smooth from being tossed in the ocean and sand. Once they were completely dry (let them sit in the dry place a few weeks), I painted them with a couple coats of white acrylic primer. After that, they were ready to cart to the school Art Room and let the kids slather on bright acrylic paints however they desired.

Here is how they looked after the first step:

And here is how they turned out!

The kids did such a great job. They seemed to take extra care since this was something special to raise money for their school. It was a bit messy but everyone did their best and I love how their Art Sticks turned out. Here are a few shots from my lesson that day:

Yes, getting more and more messy but most kids wore aprons

...except for this one

I was concerned that parents would be upset if their kids came home with stained clothes (acrylic paint doesn't wash out). As I was looking through photos from the lesson, I realized it was only my dear boy freely wiping his painted fingers onto shirt and pants... oops

"Look Mom, I put on an apron," after he was done... The ladies still love my little guy--this particular friend likes him so much she painted a spot of his hair blue (and he liked it). Kindergarten rocks.

Something New for the New Year

I only recently learned what a blog hop is and honestly, I'm still kind of figuring it out. So far, it's been a great way to find new projects and new blogs while inviting others to see what we've been up to here. I posted Sara's Fairy Princess Accessories but now it looks like my graphic link is broken. Oh well, I'm learning. Anyhow, take a look, hop around and have fun...

Handmade Holiday Gifts

Spoiler Alert! Grammy and Cuckoo Grandma (my two most faithful readers), stop reading right now if you want to be surprised on Christmas Morning! Your grand-elves and I have been busy crafting this past week.

Handmade often just ends up looking “homemade” or a kind person might say “quaint” when it comes from us. Thank goodness it’s the thought that counts… however, we did find a few things this year that turned out looking pretty darn nice if I do say so myself.

Glittery Pinecones: Loose glitter is something I've been avoiding for years. It always looks so fun and pretty when the kids have used it at preschool but the mess and knowing how glitter sticks to everything had me scared. Well, this is a simple and fun activity and they do turn out sparkly and luminous but at the risk of sounding Grinch-like, I have to say that my fear of glitter was justified. I'm still finding it everywhere. Next time I'll use large grain salt instead -- it looks frosty and pretty and the finished pinecones are not just decorative but also useful as fire starters in a wood stove or fireplace. 

Painted Picture Frames:  Michaels was selling these wonderfully simple unfinished wood frames for $1 each. I bought a dozen for us to use for holiday gifts and another dozen+ for William’s Kindergarten class to decorate on an upcoming art day (maybe we’ll make a Valentine’s Day gift using them). Providing a limited 3-color palette of acrylic paint colors to the kids and letting them loose on the frames resulted in some really fun gifts and they had a great time doing it.

Oil Pastel Artwork:  I could have put photos in the frames but since both lovely Grandmothers already have their homes wallpapered in pictures of the kids, we decided to make art. Oil Pastels were perfect since the frames have no glass and Pastels don’t need them. William had winter in mind with his Icicle image then ended up with an Orca whale on another one (I think he just draws then decides what it is at the end sometimes), and finally he drew a “really tough helicopter that doesn’t even need a person to fly it.” Sara copied the icicle idea in her mind for a couple Pastel pieces then I used a self-portrait that she did earlier this month for her last frame. I can’t get enough of her pictures of herself with wonderfully wild curls atop her head.

Homemade Granola:  One of our advent calendar activities was to make something for the kids’ teachers and bus drivers. Cookies are nice but while mine tend to taste great, they rarely look pretty enough for gift giving. This seemed like a more forgiving recipe to try and what doesn’t look cute in a fun little gingerbread bag? We made a vegan variation of Cynthia Lair’s Maple Butter Nut Granola using coconut oil instead of butter and omitting almonds (better to be safe than sorry with potential allergies). You’ll find her recipe and an accompanying video on her great website. By the way, another gift idea that I highly recommend for anyone interested in kid-friendly healthy whole food cuisine is Cynthia’s cookbook “Feeding the Whole Family.”  Darn, I should have thought of that sooner to give along with the granola. Oh well… maybe next year.

Paper Stars:  Best paper craft yet. I can’t stop making these. The finished product is so beautifully satisfying. Starting with pretty paper helps a lot (even better if it’s already cut into perfect squares for you to work with). I am a little embarrassed to admit how much scrapbooking paper I have in my closet. No, I’m not a scrapbook maker, I’m just a sucker whenever I find it at TJ Maxx for a super good price and I love pretty paper. Finally, now I have something to do with it! I found this idea over at Maya Made but must also give credit to this lovely website for posting such helpful instructions (please read both posts if you decide to do this craft, the tips in Maya’s post such as when to use glue stick versus Elmer’s glue are really helpful). My kindergarten boy was able to do the folding but got a bit frustrated when it came to the cutting and gluing part. My three year old had a harder time with folding but did great with the cutting and glue. These would make gorgeous gifts but sorry, the kids are hoarding them all in their rooms and want to keep them forever.

Costumes:  At the last minute, I got inspired to make Princess Accessories for my girl and a S.W.A.T. Team vest for my boy. They turned out to be the most beloved gifts of the holiday... Sara actually took her fairy wand to preschool this morning. Joy!

Advent Adventures: Homemade Wrapping Paper

The idea is to dip cookie cutters in paint (we used BioColor Red and Colorations Metallic Gold Activity Paint) then transfer those shapes to your paper then Voila! Wrapping Paper. However, if you are three, you may prefer a more hands-on approach.

It all started out being fairly tame. Notice the nice shapes the cookie cutters leave behind...

Then the experiments began... William testing the "movement" of the paint on the plates and Sara started smearing

"Ooooooo, how 'bout I make a print, Mom?"

Happiness

All we need is to put a bow on her! Best present ever...

Advent Adventures: Gingerbread Houses

At the rate we’re building, we’ll soon have an entire gingerbread village. This is one of our favorite holiday activities (it shows up in various forms in the advent calendar—sometimes just us making them, sometimes inviting friends for a play date/party variation).  I love the endless creative opportunities and hands-on process. The kids love enjoy that too but let’s be honest, some activities are really all about the candy…

Trader Joe’s stole my heart this season with their $7.99 Gingerbread House Kit that comes with adorable frosting figures. It is quick to build and wonderfully stable for little hands to dive right in and decorate without waiting for the frosting to harden. Also, this kit provided the best recipe yet for gingerbread house building (whip one egg white until peaks form, add 250 grams powdered sugar until mixed then add some lemon juice and water to achieve a nice thick sticky texture)—I will never go back to my old basic mix!

Some folks might miss the pre-made frosting that comes with some kits but an opportunity to lick the spoon is never missed in this house...

Look at those cuties (the frosting figures too)

So focused

While we're on the subject of Trader Joe’s… can I just tell you how muck I love that store? Let me count the ways with this list of some of our favorites this holiday season…

On the first day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, a fabulous South African Smoke Seasoning Blend (made from mostly paprika, no chemicals, adds a wonderful flavor to veggies or tofu)

On the second day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, Two Gingerbread Houses

On the third day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, tri-color Veggie and Flaxseed Tortilla Chips

On the fourth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, four cans of organic beans (best price anywhere… even though I know that it would be cheaper and more healthy to make them from dried beans… working on doing that more)

On the fifth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, 5 pounds of Juicy Satsuma Mandarins (easy to peel for the kids and oh so juicy and delicious)

On the sixth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, Sesame Honey Cashews (William would eat these by the cup-full if we let him)

On the seventh day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, a 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate Bar with toffee, walnuts and pecans (great stocking stuffer)

On the eighth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, Snap Pea Crisps (this would be Sara's snack of choice any time)

On the ninth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, Organic 9 Grain Whole Wheat Bread (if you don't like your bread to be sweet, this is a great one!)

On the tenth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, all my favorite nuts and seeds at great prices

On the eleventh day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, affordable organic dried cranberries

On the twelveth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, delectable Soy Creamy Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert

OK, so I actually consolidate my trips a bit more than my list suggests... but you get the idea. Much better than partridges in pear trees, don't you think?

The Adventures of Art Lady

This time around (only my second time teaching art in my son’s Kindergarten classroom) we made Oil Pastel Self-Portraits. Much to my surprise there was a substitute teacher so I knew things might get dicey. Thankfully, it was a pretty straightforward lesson.

I showed them the Mona Lisa as a famous example of a portrait then provided mirrors so they could really look at their own features, a pencil to sketch an outline, oil pastels to color the entire page (background too), heavyweight watercolor paper, and q-tips for blending.

Most of the kids dove right in, studying their faces in the mirror then drawing and coloring. One child was only interested in drawing “transformers,” another got a little lost in working with smudgy intense oil pastels for the first time. He covered one sheet of paper with a few patches of color then started on a new one with just black, telling me it was a rainbow. Finally, when everyone was done, this rainbow child refused to let me take his picture home with me so I could frame it for him. “I have like 29 frames at home,” he told me. Yes, this is where the presence of their lovely, calm and authoritative regular teacher would have come in handy…

Anyhow, here are some of the pieces the kids created and let me take home to mount onto construction paper for them. Few of them remembered to do the background work so I took the liberty of painting a light watercolor wash over them to help them look a little more finished (both sides needed to be painted in order to avoid paper curling).

I love the vivid colors on this one -- she really pressed hard to achieve that intensity from the oil pastels

This young lady was extremely detailed all the way down to the Puma logo on her shirt

This little guy didn't want a self-portrait without light sabers

This clever young lady remembered to do a background and also discovered she could blend multiple colors to get her hair just right

and for the grand finale... my darling son decided to do a nude

Art Lady

Eager to get involved in my son’s Kindergarten classroom, I volunteered to be the Art Docent. I had never heard of such a job before it was introduced to me at Parent Orientation but apparently, public schools have come up with this creative approach to filling the Art gap in the elementary school curriculum. At least once a month I’ll schedule a time with his teacher to come in and teach a brief art lesson. There were a couple training sessions and a  beautifully organized binder came home with me, full of creative ideas for classroom art projects.

Considering the season (and wanting something simple), we started with Leaf People using Lois Ehlert’s book “Leaf Man” and this blog post as inspiration and the leaves around us for materials. To prepare for the lesson in William’s classroom, the kids and I wandered around the neighborhood collecting leaves of all shapes and sizes (the ones picked directly from the trees are best—they have the brightest colors and are still nice and pliable to work with). We ended up with big, messy bags full of leaves but once they were sorted and organized, they looked like beautiful art just stacked in their piles ready to be rummaged through by Kindergartners.

I have to admit I was more than a little nervous about heading into a room full of 5 year-olds, they can be a tough crowd… but this kind bunch was gentle with yours truly, Ms. Liz the Art Lady, and the lesson went really well. They arranged their leaves first, used glue stick to secure the leaves, then added googly eyes, signed their names and gave their artwork a title. Some of the kids decided it was a self-portrait and gave it their own name while others came up with friendly names like Earl and Nancy. My personal favorite was the name one creative young man decided his fierce leaf monster:  "Hanny the Alien Beaver."

If you decide to do this project, be sure to press the leaf arrangements and let them dry before posting them... I'm afraid the leaves shriveled up a whole lot more than I realized they would

William decided his Leaf Man should go in a boat

 Along with providing an opportunity to have a lot of fun, I was able to teach them a new word, “Collage,” and introduce the concepts of shape, color, and contrast.

I made a little Leaf Family too -- isn't my Leaf Lady having a good hair day?

Five “Oops” and One Big “Oooo La La!”

Ideas and enthusiasm abound in our house, organization… not so much.

A great example of this unfolded when I tried to copy an incredible melted crayon project I saw on another blog (thank you for illustrating it so beautifully, Meg!) Anyhow, the whole effort was a comedy of errors but it turned out well anyhow. Now that’s my kind of project.

• Step 1:  Secure crayons onto foam core in a somewhat organized fashion. Oops, can’t find my glue gun so tried double stick tape instead. It sort of worked until…
• Step 2:  Turn warm blow dryer onto crayons. Oops, crayons went flying so I tried securing them better with another piece of tape across the top of the crayons (this is actually a double-oops because I wanted to use plain old scotch tape but couldn’t find that either so double-sided had to do).
• Step 3:  Turn blow dryer to hottest setting or the wax won’t melt. Focus on the paper-covered portion of the crayon. Another double oops, crayons still shifted all over the place and blowing on the crayon tips made quite a melted crayon splatter.

But here is our happy ending! Even with all of our little blunders, look at the finished product:

Oooo La La!

William calls it "Colors, Colors All Around Us"

The splatter made an interesting display and my sweet boy was thrilled that his art came out looking so explosive. All in all, this is something we’ll definitely try again. Perhaps I’ll be a little more organized next time.

Nature Craft: Autumn Crowns

In search of uses for droopy golden sunflower petals and fun fall crafts, we just discovered one more reason to love duct tape. Thank you, Maya of the creative and inspiring Maya Made blog for this wonderful idea.

All you need is duct tape, brown paper grocery bags, scissors, and a colorful mix of leaves, flowers, and anything else you’d like to use for embellishments on your crowns.

• Step 1:  Measure the circumference of each queen or king’s noggin. Use that measurement (plus an extra couple inches for the “seam”) to cut a two inch wide strip from the paper bag that will fit around their heads.
• Step 2:  Cut another paper bag strip of the same length, but this time cut one side straight and one side in whatever pattern that you’d like to appear along the top edge of the crown (we did a simple zigzag cut).
• Step 3:  Tear off a piece of duct tape of the same length then lay it down on a flat surface, sticky side up. Attach your plain strip of paper bag at the bottom edge (make sure any printing on the bag faces down) and the shaped strip along the top edge (again with printed bag side down), leaving most of the sticky tape area exposed. This adhesive strip is where you’ll attach all of your beautiful fall adornments to create a glorious crown!

A Max (Where the Wild Things Are) moment for William

Queen Curly Sue. Look closely for the huckleberries (one green and one purple). My silly Sara insisted on using them saying "I put a huckleberry on my crown and people see it and dey say 'look, there a huckleberry on her crown!' Ha ha ha ha ha" 

Nature Craft: Pounded Flower Bookmarks

I know, all good things must come to an end but it was still sad to watch our glorious sunflowers bow down and face earth-ward after just a couple of days of rain. Propping them up seemed futile… more rain is coming. Sure, I could let them just lay there and decay, becoming food for the slugs, squirrels, and birds along the way (and that time will eventually come) but I’m not ready. We only just started enjoying them!

Time to get creative (and time to say thank you to the lovely and talented Rachelle of TinkerLab where I found this idea). If these vertically-challenged beauties aren’t going to stand up straight and behave themselves then look out sunflowers, we are going to appreciate you some other way… and did you notice the title of this post? Things could get a little rough.

• Step 1:  Gather supplies (for two children you’ll need 2 sheets of watercolor paper, 2 pieces of waxed paper, a hole puncher, some ribbon, scissors and two rocks).
• Step 2:  Have your kids find a rock that is bigger than their palm and let them know they’ll be using it as a hammer. Wash that rock… scrub it with a firm brush if your kids choose muddy rocks encrusted in clay as mine did.
• Step 3:  Gather a colorful mix of flower petals (and a couple leaves if you’d like—Sara insisted her beloved mint not get left out of the fun). Show your kids how to do this gently unless you are looking to punish some unruly sunflowers.
• Step 4:  Place a layer of mixed petals onto the watercolor paper.
• Step 5:  Set the waxed paper on top of the flowers.
• Step 6:  Let your little ones hammer away with their rocks. Encourage them to pound all around the whole paper, not just focus on one spot.
• Step 7:  When they’re done, remove the waxed paper and flower petals to reveal colorful, interesting shapes left behind from their work!
• Step 8:   Cut the paper into bookmarks, about 2 inches wide, then punch a hole in the top and loop your ribbon through.

Both kids stayed focused throughout this whole task. Sara's creative addition of mint made a lovely green mark and smelled great in the process.

Voila!

With any luck you’ll have leftover flower materials for more crafty fun… stay tuned.