From me to you: Four Valentine's Day Heart Projects

With February just around the corner, it is time to start thinking about bright colors, quirky little hearts, and sweet scribbled messages.  In New England, where everything is frozen and white, the bright colors of Valentine's Day is a nice thing to look forward to.

These are four of my favorite heart projects that I've created and featured over the years.  

1. Heart Magnets

2. Sew-A-Heart

3. Rings and Things

4. Conversation LOVE Rocks  (as in, Love Rocks! and You Rock! etc., etc..)

Have fun with these, my friends!  You have my heart(s).

xoxo emily

On Your Page: Journal Prompt

Read your old stuff

This morning, I discovered one of my old sketchbooks.  When I first grabbed it from the row of books, I flipped through the pages quickly, and my work rhythm was swaying me to wedge it back into its bookshelf home. I was trying to manage my time well.  But, a list of words caught my eye, and then I found a menu for a party, and a page of potential titles for my next book, and a design sketch for my new website (which is still in the works).  I found a hundred old, awesome things, and I was lost in my old sketchbook for a long time.  There was so much good thinking, musing, and sketching!  It is a reminder that looking at old journals and notebooks is SUPER important because I wanted myself to find this stuff.  I recorded it because I thought it was interesting. When I put it on a page, it allowed me to breathe easier because I didn't have to hold onto it anymore. I preserved it for future me to find.

Why not have a conversation with the past you? Read an old journal. Thumb through an old notebook or class notes from your favorite class.

Above is an old paint swatch, pasted into my current journal along with word associations written in pencil. And, below is an old design sketch for my website.

Inspire yourself.

On Your Page: Journal Prompt

My Second Book

I'm thrilled to announce that my second book will be published sometime in 2016 by Storey Publishing!  The contract is signed, and now my work mornings, evenings, and weekends will be packed with book writing concentration (and, also, cookies, tea, and naps).

This book is another arts in education book with a focus on the connection between literacy and art.  It is based on one of the workshops I teach, which empowers kids to harness their creative voices.  The peeps at Storey Publishing are lovely and talented and smart; they were a joy to work with when I wrote Show Me a Story, and I'm extra excited to begin a new project with them.  I'm also working with SUPER agent Kate McKean, which is making everything so easy. 

I'll be sharing glimpses of my art and writing process in this space and on Instagram and Facebook in the weeks to come.

Hooray! 

Happy first week of December, friends.

Emily 

On My Page

On My Page

Creative Toolbox - Cereal Box Board

Cereal box board is one of my favorite art materials in the whole wide world.  I mostly love to use it as my canvas.  It is great for sculpture and building things, which is often how my children use it, but I love to draw and paint onto the gorgeous, muted brown backdrop.

It makes colors pop.  Once you start deconstructing boxes, you'll notice that the insides of boxes are all different shades of brown -- some are more orange-y, some more tan, some a true kraft paper color.   They are all wonderful.

My tip for you is to find a nice sturdy bin, like an old milk crate or a canvas pop-up from IKEA, and store flattened cereal, tissue, what-have-you boxes inside.  When you are in need, you can just dig in.

This is a photo of my very unglamorous bin of flattened boxes (mixed with other recycled papers).  It doesn't have to be pretty, friends.

I made Francine on cereal box board in honor of Halloween:

Happy spooky Halloween night to you and your people! PSA: Beware of wandering elephants.

xo emily

Creative Toolbox: Wood

Today's creative tool is wood.  So simple, right?  It can bought or found, raw or finished, milled or fresh from the woods.  Pay attention to interesting shapes and textures as you walk through the woods, and watch for bags of scrap wood on deep discount at your hardware store.  It is a thrifty, and often beautiful, way to be creative and experimental. 

You can:
paint on wood
collage on wood
glue random things onto wood, like fabric

You can also make:
a hookboard out of wood
Story Blocks, a project from Show Me a Story
Altered Twigs and Driftwood

The possibilities are endless, really.  Just search Pinterest for wood + fabric or wood + felt or wood + paint.  You get the idea. 
 

Keep in mind that painting on wood can be a very different feeling than painting on canvas or paper.  It is porous and often textured, which means that your paintbrush needs to adjust for the bumps and ridges.

Happy hunting for wood!

Creative Toolbox: The Clipboard

Today's featured creative tool is a clipboard.  These handy hard surfaces make writing and drawing on-the-go a breeze.  Somehow, the purposefulness of the clip always makes me feel really clear that I am doing important, creative work.  Clip blank note cards or a stack of blank pieces of paper onto the board and give it to yourself or child as an invitation to write notes, draw, or doodle. 

A small clipboard is super affordable, but you can also find them in thrift stores or when family and friends have desk/office clean-outs.  You might even find 5+ in the office clean-out scenario (cough, cough).  I do love the plain, mute background of the standard masonite board because it makes colorful artwork pop.

My children like to display their work on clipboards.  In doing so, they become portable frames for showcasing the work they are most proud of.

I love to cozy up with a board on the couch, and then I can bring my drawing to my studio table for some finishing touches.  The visibility of the boards help me to keep my works in progress truly  works in progress.

You'll most likely find clipboards if you wander through your local office supply shop. Or, you can find them here (this is an Amazon Affiliate link).

Related:
I liked reading Austin Kleon's take on clipboards.
These DIY rustic clipboards on A Beautiful Mess.

A Summer Kids' Craft: Nature Bundles

While we were away on our vacation, the children invented a Nature Bundles game where they found lots of different tiny bits of nature and packaged them up with gorgeous, natural wrapping.

Each one was unique and interesting, and each had a story to go along with it.  Some were spells, some remedies, and some extremely thought-out gifts.

Like, this one, which had a note explaining what each part of the bundle represented in me:

2 shiny leaves because you are also shiny
Unripened holly because it grows together like our family
Pine because it grows wild like you
Pink flowers because it is unique like you
2 sea shell pieces because they are to make your roads to home
Yellow flowers because they are bright like you
Wheat because it stands tall like you
Four pebbles because YOU ROCK

Did I almost die because of how much I loved it? Yes. 

Why not send your children off into the backyard, woods, wherever in search of bits of nature to wrap up in small packages.  It is just the kind of freestyle play that leads to imaginative storytelling play.

If you take photographs, will you share with me?

Follow Red Bird Crafts on Facebook for lots of posts and creative ideas for art&story.

Have fun!

Spring Story Stones

Spring is finally in full force in our Massachusetts valley, which means my family has been in search-for-signs-of spring mode. In the past, we've collected our signs of spring, traced our signs of spring, and made non-dominant drawings of our signs of spring. This year I decided we should make spring Story Stones!

First, find signs of spring! It is easy enough to close your eyes and image some, and this is fine, but I think it really helps if you go out searching.  You'll maybe surprise yourself?  I chose robin's egg (we found one in our yard!), magnolia blossom (my favorite backyard tree), maple keys (or helicopter seeds), and a cherished spring sprout. I don't think I would have remembered the magnolia blossom if I hadn't been outside mindfully observing. Once you've gathered stones and given them a quick rinse, use a pencil to draw spring shapes.

Use acrylic paint to fill in the pencil lines and allow plenty of dry time.

Display your stones in the center of a table or give stones as little token of friendship.  They would make nice end-of-year gifts for teachers and friends!

Story + Art Tip:  Consider using a thin Sharpie marker to write words on the back of each stone.  A poem, haiku, two word pairing, or even one simple word.

Have Fun!

This weekend!

To my  NYC friends, I'll be leading Show Me a Story crafts at two lovely spots and I'd love to see you there.   

Saturday (1/19) at 2:00:  I'll be making Story Disks at Play Kids toy store in Brooklyn.

Sunday (1/20) 2:00-4:00:  I'll be leading my Memory Card craft at the Children's Museum of Manhattan.  It would be so, so wonderful and fun to see you there!  

What a nice week it has been in! We had bright sun, sweet grapefruit, and an official snow day where the children made a snowman, snow fort, and drank large cups of hot chocolate. Our weather turned from sunny and warm to cold and snowy quite quickly.

 Sunny!

 Snowy!

This guy has been waving to our neighbors all week.  That is me in the doorway. The photograph was taken at 2:ish and I was still in my pajamas.  Success!

Happy weekend! 

xo e

sick week.

 

My poor daughter has been feverish and coughing since Sunday, which has meant our week has been slow and filled with tea, soup, books, movies, and crafts.  Each morning find her way to my studio and to sit in the sunlight and make art.  These are some of her creations. 

* A jar of confetti
* A stack of painted spools (featured on Everyday Fun -- my blog for Family Fun Magazine)
* A set of craft stick puppets
* A moment where measuring tape was important
* Her workspace (Used padded mailers make great art mats for painting)

Cross your fingers for a cool forehead this evening.

xox emily    

birds + watercolor

My youngest loves to paint and draw, but she sometimes feels stuck when it comes to choosing a subject.  It's not that she doesn't love to doodle and experiment with color; she'll do that for hours.  It's just that sometimes, she will tell me that she really wants to draw "somebody cute," but she isn't quite sure how to get where she wants to go.

This is when field guides, picture dictionaries, and picture books (we love vintage Golden Books!) are wonderful resources.  I keep a little shelf of books with interesting, beautiful, or inspiring pictures and photographs for this purpose. (We do also use Peterson's Field Guide to identify our backyard winged friends).

When doing representational drawings with young children, I like to remind them to be creative with their interpretations.  The pictures and books should be guides and all of the quirks and uniqueness in our artwork is what makes it beautiful.

My mouse was so very proud of her friendly, yellow bird who likes to say "HI."

Hi!

xo emily

p.s. I have big, big blog news coming later in the week.  For realz.

word.

We're still knee deep in website design, which means that I daydream about graphics and design in the shower, on walks, on line at the post office.  These little speech bubbles came to me while I was pondering a clever way to announce the N E W S  in my new space.  I'm still not sure if it will appear in the final cut, but it's all good because the speech bubble stamp WINS! (it is really fun)

I've been writing happy notes on them and tucking them away for children to find.  My two like to write messages in the bubbles and then tape them onto magazine pages and photographs on our wall.  I'll post a photo of some of their clever speech bubble graffiti later in the week.

   For now, a little how to summary:  Use a carving tool to carve a speech bubble out of a rubber eraser or carving blocks.  Dip into stamp ink and press firmly on paper.  Once dry, use an art marker or fine point pen to write messages. 

This is a creative way for children to experiment with written communication in a fun, low pressure format.  And, hey, teachers -- use these to send positive messages to your students on their papers or in cubbies.  Sweet speech bubbles make people smile.

xo e