I always imagine myself to be the Martha Stewart of my family. Except that really, I never have time, inclination or mad skillz to pull any of it off. What I really do is clip pages from MS Living and other magazines, file them neatly away (or shove them in folders) and rarely complete a crafty task. So when Julene Montgomery of Be Crafty sent me a sample craft, I was stoked. Cute craft, items already assembled in handy paper bag, shipped straight to my doorstep and easy to make with my kid. Watch out, Martha, Missy’s on your ass now.
OK, there are so many reasons to get this cool art project in a can: birthday, holiday present, or as a big sibling gift.
Eye Can Art began in Seattle, Washington as the brainchild of three professionals and moms. From the site: Each Eye Can Art kit provides a kid-tested project to delight your child’s imagination, and includes enough materials to experiment. Developed by professional art educators, Eye Can Art replaces the predictable craft kit with a journey of creative exploration based on the fundamentals of visual learning. Make dramatic-looking collograph printed images, multiple-layered drawings on melted wax, and Japanese-style brush paintings.
All kits provide high quality, washable, non-toxic art materials; enough to do the projects multiple times. The easy-to-follow instruction booklets provide clear steps to follow, suggest ideas to further explore, and show the work of professional artists who use the same techniques in their own work. Each kit comes packaged in a reusable, easy-to-carry container. Designed by artists with years of experience helping kids and adults explore together.
I think Teri Dimalanta has super powers. Not only does she have kids, but she also co-runs Kukunest, my favorite organic bedding line. She must have been three people in her last life because she has yet another line to wow us with, giddy giddy. Turns out Dimalanta is an investment analyst turned craftaholic mom. She is most giddy when sewing, painting, designing and making stuff. It was as if turning into a mom 4 years ago ignited the inner artist and crafter.
What inspired these handmade felt creations for little girls’ pretty little melons? The desperate need to tame her new daughter’s unwieldy mohawk with something cool, quirky, and fun. Equally important to creating adorable designs is making the clips functional and safe. These clips are intricately handcrafted with a snap clip sewn securely inside. They are designed to stay on, even on baby fine hair.
giddy giddy’s inventive line of handmade felt barrettes and felt pouches pouches had me at “Hello”. Too bad my girl refuses to wear barrettes because I’d have her decked out in these every day.
When Micky threw Kara’s third birthday party, she set up a few different easy things set up for the kids to do outside. One of her little outposts was a big white sheet hung on their back fence. She left out a bunch of squirt bottles filled with (mostly) water and washable paint and let the kids go hog wild squirting paint, Jackson Pollack style all over the sheet. Since it was washable paint, the sheet was easily cleaned as were the children. Micky soaked the sheet first, I’m not sure if she soaked her daughter. Of course by the end of the party all the kids were squirting each other instead of the sheet, but that’s all part of the fun.
She got the squirt bottles at Michael’s and just used Crayola washable paint.
I’m a big fan of Elmer’s. Love your glue, Elmer. What’s not to love? It’s sticky, it sticks things together, you can pour a lot of it all over your hand and try to peel it off in one go. Hours of fun with a bottle of glue. So when I saw that they had a line of really cool paint pens, I jumped at ‘em. Elmer’s Paintastics come in a set of five “pens” with paint brush tops. The washable, water color paint is already inside, so all you have to do is squeeze to activate and voila, paint oozes from the attached brush and a water color masterpiece is born.
Only, they didn’t really work. In fact, I was so irritated by our Paintastics, I think they should be renamed “Pain in the Ass Sticks.”
