goods and heroes

nature's playground

I know I have been doing a lot of nature-related posts of late. Part of it is a pure no-brainer, seeing how we endured an impressively long winter. Part of it is because I think we are all just naturally curious and kinetic and prone to happiness when we are out of doors and so that's what's really going on in our world. But I think we also owe a sincere nod of thanks to this book.

First of all, you need to know that there are hundreds of so-called "Nature Crafts" books out there that are just crap. I have been so dismayed over the years, buying this one that sounded so right and another that sounded compelling. They'd arrive and I'd be completely, utterly underwhelmed.  So I stopped buying them, ages ago. And so when I read a positive review of Nature's Playground I was like, yeah right. But for some reason, I decided to check it out from the library.

Not to gush, but it is just so, so good. In many ways it is a riff on Andy Goldsworthy for kids. It's all about working with natural materials in an elemental but honest way that children (and adults) will actually be drawn in by. For example, I was flipping through it, digging a few projects when Sam asked what I was reading. I showed him the book and he sort of shrugged. The next day (this was in early February, very much still winter here) I found him on the little blue couch curled up with, not a comic book or Harry Potter but this book.

Since then he has curled up with it to explore things we can make and do (and I have since bought a used copy on Amazon). And because of it we have made bow and arrows (with help from friends) and Fairy Houses/Gnome Huts, moss people and more. 

It has helped me with work a bit too. Just this past week I used the book as inspiration for a workshop I was co-presenting at with friends from Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance and North Park Village Nature Center. The workshop was all about "Loose Parts" and unstructured play and encouraging children (and their parents) to play with sticks, seeds, rocks, water and other open-ended natural materials. One of things I showed the participants in my little station was how easy it is to collect a few materials (even in an urban environment) and make what the book calls a "magic carpet."  You can make one practically anywhere, on any surface and in every season. All you need is items from nature and a flat space to display and play with them. It's as simple as that.

There are still many projects in the book I am hoping to try. Weaving with green grasses and freezing plants in ice and making mobiles out of them come to mind. And I bet Sam will curl up with the book again very soon and help me decide what the next project ought to be. It might be the writing poems in mud with a very big stick or it might be something that will take me completely by surprise. Who knows? I certainly don't and that's exactly what I like about it all.The book and of course, just nature in general!

eraser rubber stamps

I have a rubber stamp collection that is bordering on the obscene . . . and of all them only one is a stamp that I made myself. (It is a Catalpa leaf and I am proud of it and use it every now and again.) So this spring I am planning on going through the boxes of stamps (yes, plural) and keeping the ones that I use over and over again and setting aside the ones I hardly ever use to sell at the big Old Irving Garage Sale (at Sarah's house) in May.

That said . . . I am really digging this tutorial over at Geninne's Art Blog on how to make your own stamps out of simple rubber erasers.

In fact, I am just loving her blog in general. It's so refreshing to find a new blog, especially one that is about doing thoughtful paper crafts and provides simple and affordable gift ideas. How fun to make customized sticky pads?

And I have often thought that those plain Kraft paper Moleskine journals could be gussied up or personalized a bit to make sweet gifts--see hers in the lower left part of the picture below. Just put a little stamp in the lower right-hand corner and there you go. 

And of course, making your own wrapping paper by repeating a stamp is so charming and fun and easy.

I often use rubber stamps to make custom labels and gift tags. It's going to be fun to try them out in a new context. I will try this eraser action out. If it isn't too difficult, maybe I can host a crafty night (or crafternoon) where some friends can come together and we each make one. And then maybe play Bingo. Or watch the Andy Goldsworthy doc. Or make Joseph Cornell-inspired shadow boxes . . . can you tell I am craving doing something creative in a more collective setting? 

Oh well, back to reality, time to put Ben to bed. We are all going to the Oriental Institute tomorrow to do some research about Egypt for Sam's big presentation in May. We are even bringing along the video camera . . . so maybe we will have some video to share with you all. Or at least some still images of mummies. Hey, maybe I can take a stab at making a mummy rubber stamp? Hmmmmm.

looming

It's been a great week for learning new things and getting to create and explore. On Thursday a few friends and former co-workers gathered up at North Park Village Nature Center. Our challenge was to try and construct a simple loom out of buckthorn (an invasive tree that is all over the Nature Center) and jute. If you want to get a sense of what we were attempting to make, check out this clip on YouTube. (Minus the charming British accents.) Note well that I just found this video tonight while posting and no one involved had any real clue what exactly we were really making other than the fact that involved, well, buckthorn and jute.

I had made a loom like this when I did a week-long course up at The Clearing a few years back. I remember it being a fabulous hands-on activity for our large group that truly required team-work. At the Clearing we put cut grasses and other tall, thin plants in the loom and created a completely natural "mat" that doubled as a nicely textured wall hanging. Typical for me, I was so enjoying the process of making the loom back then that I never took notes. (So I couldn't recreate it it from memory, which has been fuzzy at best since having wee ones.) But just recently, in a funny 1950s book called, simply, "Nature Crafts" I found this write-up on Grass Mat Looms. Eureka! I made a copy, snail-mailed it up to my friend Sean at the Nature Center and asked via a sticky note (aren't I old-school?)  "Do you think we could try this sometime?"

Sean, being the kind of person who always seems to be up for trying something out, said yes and proceeded to line up a date and also began cutting buckthorn. He asked a few friends as did I and the next thing you know there were half a dozen of us there at the Nature Center on Thursday ready to construct a loom.  The one challenge we faced was that thing you can never, ever control: the weather. It had been raining on and off all day and was raining lightly but we didn't let that stop us.

We headed out and began pounding the buckthorn stakes into the soggy ground. Instead of using a hammer, Sean had us use a buckthorn mallet. And why not, right? We hammered a total of nine stakes into the ground (two at the top and seven at the bottom end) and then got busy knotting and lashing wood together with the jute.I have fallen in love with the word "lashing" it is a very compelling and good-sounding word.

I'd say the one skill we all seemed to be lacking in (except Sean of course) was knot tying. And tying knots in the rain with super large work gloves is even trickier. But he showed us a variety of knots (a notching knot was one) and we slowly made progress with the base of the loom as well as the "shuttle" which is the thing you move back and forth to make the mat.

Here's Molly checking on the knots and the tension . . .

So we as a group built the loom with lots of joking about knot tying and how insanely satisfying it can be to just whack a stick or a couple of sticks with a large mallet. I don't know, but the easy banter that happens when you are trying to make something collectively and you are all there because you really want to be was quite satisfying in itself. And we were all set to start laying plant material on the jute and moving the shuttle-thing back and forth to take ourselves into the final phase of the project   . . . and then can you guess what happened? Yep. The skies opened up. I mean torrential rains with lots of lightning for added drama. (It actually rained so hard and for such a long time that our entire street was flooded later that day and when I returned from looming. had trouble finding "high ground" to park on.) So we had to go inside. And yet, our loom is done, it is sitting patiently at the Nature Center waiting for us to return and start putting it to use. It might have to be very patient. Maple tapping at the Nature Center is almost in full swing and spring gets so gonzo for people connected to outdoor happenings and events and education. But we all agreed we would re-group to make the mat. I mean, what's the point of making a loom if you don't use it to create something? (Maybe it's just knowing you now know how to make it?) Either way, I promise to post photos of the second half of the project.

boxed origami valentines

Valentines for Sam's classmates were due to be dropped off at school last week, on February 4th.  Can you believe it, I mean, talk about early? We got the letter reminding us about the whole process and the timeline the second week of January. I don't know that we even had our Christmas tree down yet. But to be fair to Sam's school, now that we are on our third year of this Valentine action, I sort of understand the early deadline. Sort of. I think they want to give each child time to stuff their own Valentines into the 24 bags and so if you do 2-3 kids a day, well, you do the math.  Have you ever watched a 3 year-old stuff anything into anything? It's like watching an amoeba sort the mail . . or a USPS employee sort the mail. But at least the three year-old has the goofy smile and the sense of wonder. But it isn't something you can rush. (Sam's class has 3-6 year-olds so there is a very wide range of motor skills!)

Happily (to me, anyway) we are gently encouraged to make our own Valentines. Sam has always been on board for this, although the last two years he wanted to include cartoon or action figures. Last year it was Scooby Doo stickers on wax paper/melted crayon hearts (Martha meets Hanna/Barbera!) and the year prior it was Spiderman and Superman on . . . um, I can't remember.

This year we started with one simple challenge: how could we use the extra Binth card boxes we have laying around and make them a part of the Valentines? Sam knew immediately that he wanted to draw or write on the bottom/inside of the box and he wanted to include a little piece of candy. I had suggested that we make some sort of paper Valentine and glue it to the bottom side of the box and Sam completely checked me. "Mom, no one wants their Valentine glued down, you won't to be able to pick it up and hold it and keep it." He was totally right, I mean, what the heck was I thinking?

I then looked into paper Valentines, found templates for old-fashioned ones, but they didn't seem like something Sam would go for and then I remembered, origami! I searched for an origami heart and found lots of options. Ultimately we chose this fold as it has a little pocket/pouch on the front, perfect for tucking in a little piece of candy.

So once we had our vision in place, we turned it into a family project. Ted made the paper hearts as he is our in-house Origami Sensei. It took several tries, as it did with the Birthday Shuriken, but he finally figured it out. (Oh and for the record, these technically are not origami as you have to use little pieces of tape to hold the back spine and these are slightly different than the link I provided. The fold we ended up with is very close to an origami frog fold, believe it or not.) 

Then we got out the Binth boxes and a silver Sharpie. Sam started writing "Love, Sam" on the bottom of the box and experimenting with letter sizing . . .

and the playful and sometimes emphatic nature of the exclamation point. (!!!) It got to the point where the insignias with the most exclamation points were for his dearest friends. "This one is for Vincent" he said as he snuck the 18th exclamation point at the very end.

Sam glued a little felt heart on the back of the box, above his salutation. (These were the sort of cheesiest part of the project, but Sam liked sticking them and they added a little punch of color in the box. I bought them at Michael's next to all those foam craft supplies that completely make me cringe.
Well, sometimes you can't be a craft snob and this was one of those times.

I bought some Japanese gummy hearts at the Vietnamese grocery store down on Broadway. I am sure they are just teeming with corn syrup but heck, it is Valentines Day, right?

I tucked them into the hearts and then Sam tucked the hearts in the box. It was a nice assembly line. We did 12 boxes one night and the remaining 12 the following night.

Then Sam punched out a circle on pink paper and I wrote the child's name. I should have let Sam give this a go, but he said his hand was tired. We glued a circle to each box.

Hey, Naomi there got quite a few exclamation points . . . hmmmm. Anyhow, then Sam put the lid on each box and I tied a little purple string around it. I would say that this was probably a little over the top and not necessary but you know how I adore tying string around things.

Anyhow, it was a fun little project. And I liked how we did it together. (Except for Ben, but we kept him happy with his own blank Binth box and a big stack of those felt hearts. Another reason to not be a craft snob.) Oh and if any of you would like a few Binth boxes for a craft project of your own, give me a holler, seeing how I have a case in the closet. And there are 6 days 'till Valentines Day, you've got plenty of time! For crafty fun and lots of love. (!!!!!!!!)

binth shadow box

All right, watch out, I am going to get a little crafty on you here. Just know I am doing it as a hardworking public servant for the fine folks of the city of Chicago. You see, I have been trying to come up with some sort of craft for the kids who attend my November Lurie Garden "seeds" workshop. I was given the challenge of coming up with something that connects the actual seeds/seed heads in the garden rather than just some random store-bought seeds. I was coming up quite blank and then I remembered an art project I'd seen in a magazine last winter, it was making a very simple piece of art by mounting a dried flower or seed head on card stock and framing it. So when Ted and I were on an IKEA run a few weeks back, I checked out these all wooden shadow boxes they have but they were too deep, I think the flower would sort of get lost in the depth, and they were $3 each. Not expensive but not cheap either if you have 25 kids. But I wasn't ready to give up.

I did know that my friends over at Binth had a stash of their beautiful silk-screened cards that they were not using for a variety of reasons (discontinued, color not quite right on a certain run, etc.) and they were smart enough not to just chuck them in the trash or even in the recycling. If I could score some of that gorgeous card stock . . . that would be perfect for mounting the seeds. So I asked Linnea over at Binth and she said, "Come on over!" Sometime between setting up the time to pick up the cards I realized that a simple small cardboard gift box (think bracelet or necklace size) would be the perfect frame or box for the mounted seeds. So I checked out the options and found a variety of sizes over at XpedX, a wholesale paper store that also sells to mere individuals like myself.

I made it over to Binth last week and Linnea pulled out two boxes filled to the gills with amazing cards. And then she asked the understandable question, "So Bonnie, what exactly do you think you'll do with these?" And so I told her my idea, of mounting them on the card stock and then putting that in a small box to make a shadow box or frame of sorts. "I just need to go buy some little boxes and then I will see how it goes." Linnea's eyes lit up. "Little boxes? Do you need little boxes?" And then she walked away and came back with a very large cardboard box filled with, you guessed it, little cardboard boxes. "We're not using these anymore and we don't know what to do with them. But we didn't want to just get rid of them." I almost kissed her, I was that close. I did sort of squeal. Talk about a win-win, eh? And for all this wonderful paper product bounty, all Linnea asked is that I send her a shot of some of the final products. So we loaded up the boxes in the beater Volvo and I schlepped them to work and they sat there for about a week until finally, on Wednesday I decided to bring some of the supplies home and give it a go. And so here we go.

I had a small stash of seed heads and acorns that I had collected from the Lurie Garden.

I had my Binth boxes in really dreamy pale blue and yummy chocolate brown.

I had my stack of Binth cards in all sorts of colors and patterns.

And I had my glue. Because you can't get crafty without glue, "Tacky Glue" no less.

I picked a tri-fold card with a botanical and bunny motif going on and I tore one-third of the card off. I glued it into the bottom portion of the box.

(Oh and just so you know, I really was doing this all on our funny striped carpet in the sun room. I am sure it would be more appropriate to be doing it at a table with a flat clean surface and all that, but sitting on the floor of the sunny sun room seemed like a really fine place to be.)

I then picked out the peony seed cluster, which I have been rather enamored with ever since scoring it, and glued it onto the paper. And here we have it.

I think it came out pretty nicely. I still need to play around a bit with using other art materials (like paint or markers) and maybe even doing art on top of the Binth graphics or just simply painting the bottom part of the box. but I think this project has legs. And I also like how it is gender-neutral, there are lots of strong non-girly graphics in the Binth paper stash (heck, the " Offspring" line has cool aliens and monsters that Jarek drew) and the box colors are perfect. So lots of big love and thanks to the fine folks over at Binth! They made my job easier, saved me money and running around and most important of all, made my job a little more creative and satisfying. Plus, I think the kids are gonna dig this project. 

a simple nature book

Hey there, happy Saturday. I just got back from the Swedish Museum where I took part in a special family program they were having to help connect families with nature in the city. I led the group on a kid-focused, very urban nature walk, and you know, for the most part, I think the kids were into it. We checked out trees and bark and saw quite a few butterflies and a robin. And I taught them the insect song which is a riff on the "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" tune. On the sidewalk. In front of passersby. Welp, one can't really be too worried about one's own dorkiness while engaging a slew of 3, 4 and 5 year-olds on the head, thorax and abdomen of an insect. And besides, when you have them in front of you, wagging their little thoraxes like nobody's business and singin' along, what do you have to worry about? Not much, that's for certain. It's actually more about joy and wonder than anything else.

We also made nature books as part of the activities. I had prepped a couple the other day so there would be examples on the tables where they'd be assembling them. These have a very simple twig and rubberband "binding." My friend Emily taught me how to make them when she worked with me on the Nature Oasis program at the Chicago Park District. They were a big hit and she always kept all the materials prepped and ready to go in one of our supply drawers, they work well with a small group on a rainy day, or with a larger crowd at a public event.

Anyhow, I thought I'd share a how-to with you, should you be feeling crafty anytime soon. These are great for birthday parties or making a memory book for a vacation and you could easily make them into small photo books. Sam's birthday is in a few months and it might be fun to make these at the party and let each child decorate the cover with, oh, I don't know . . . Ninja stickers or something.

First I cut 8.5 x 11 inch paper in half (horizontally) so that I had 4.25 x 5.5 inch pieces of paper. I used scrap book paper and other pieces of paper I found piled up in my paper drawer. You can use any sort of paper, even pages from beat up old children's books or glossy magazine covers.

I then cut white paper for the inside pages and then I cut Kraft paper cover stock for the back cover of the book. The back ends of legal pads and cereal boxes make for great back covers, so save those if you've got them and re-purpose them for these books.

Stack your cover page, your inside pages and the back cover and then hole punch two holes, about 3 inches apart on the left side of your book. I did mine by hand hole punch but a more industrial puncher like you find at the office would be easier if you are doing multiple books or a big stack of paper.

Then I grabbed a rubber band and looped it through the top hole.

Then I stuck a twig through that top rubberband loop. Oh wait, not everybody has a stack of twigs sitting around (like, um, I do) so make sure you go collect a thin, small twig before you start.

Bring the rubber band down from the top loop (at the back of the book) and poke it back out through the bottom hole. Insert the stick in this bottom loop.

Now you have your book!

If you want to embellish it, you can put a sticker or card or something on the cover. I chose a Loteria card from my stash of stickers and whatnot. I thought the green popped nicely on the big, fat polka dots.

Oh, I almost forgot, I also decided to put a little library card-style pocket on the inner back cover, in case you want to tuck something in there. I got these at Constructive Playthings up in Skokie.

And sure enough, today when we were on our walk, a little boy named Riley showed me his "super cool pocket" in his book and how he was using it to hide his "super special Ginkgo leaf" he'd found on the sidewalk.

So I'd say, mission accomplished.

make a photo book

I still am in major camera limbo. (Moving toward getting the damn thing repaired entails going back to Circuit City to get a copy of my receipt so that I can then mail it with my camera off to Canon for them to "diagnose" it--Hey, I'll save you hard working Canon techies some time and money: it ain't working.) Anyhow, I am just going to channel all of this angst into some positive! happy! enthusiastic! energy and show you all a super great, hyper-simple project for making a 4 x 6 journal out of two of your favorite photos, some recycled paper and some glue. If you're like me and you have 6-15 boxes of photos perched quietly in a closet somewhere, then you can just go pluck a few out and get started. Just don't pull a Ted and sit there and start to re-organize them chronologically or by theme or geographic significance whatever (sorry, Ted, you actually haven't done that in a rather long time, heck, maybe you're even due an epic photo organizing blitz). Because then you won't have time to make a nifty little photo journal to give to your Mama or your girlfriend or whomever.

The tutorial for this is over at Photojojo. Make sure you watch the video, because she constructs it in "real" time (of sorts) and is so calm and straightforward in her presentation. I am telling you, after watching this I was ready to grab the materials and get busy. Only it was getting way too late at night and I thought I'd better catch some ZZZ's before getting glue under my fingernails. But now I am ready. Are you ready? I just bet you are. Enjoy.

doll house part deux

Hey, a quick addition to the DIY dollhouse post from the other day . . . it looks like the folks over at Cookie mag have a pretty straightfoward tutorial (with templates and everything) on how to make a dollhouse/condo/bachelor pad just like the fancy-pants one featured on Apartment Therapy. Link to it here. They even make theirs out of foam core. You don't have to, you know. You can stick with good old cardboard. But if you do have some foam core hiding behind your desk or door at work, bring it home and have fun. Even if you don't make a doll house, have fun. Clonk your feet up on the coffee table, read your little one a book (or have the little one read you a really good story) make the Panda eat the cake alone in the kitchen and wait for Batman to come gallantly swishing through the living room door. Or something like that.

good thinking

Check this out, this Mom saw this "modern" design dollhouse over on Apartment Therapy, but wasn't so impressed with its $145 price tag. So she figured out a way to make her own version for her daughter, using old cardboard and color pages from magazines.  I think it's brilliant.

I think we could definitely do some sort of riff on this that Sam would love, we certainly have the cardboard and many magazines to choose from. We could maybe even use pages from old comics and Lego catalogues to make Batman's groovy Gotham pad or a Power Ranger penthouse. Or go jungle-themed and just make a monkey house. (We spent at least an hour in the Monkey House at the Zoo on Sunday and so now Sam has monkeys on the brain. Big time. We even made an invention yesterday to transform him into a Swamp Monkey.) If we do put some sort of abode together, I'll be sure and share photos. That is, if Sam hasn't turned into a monkey. 

art at the table

When we were moving into the our new condo, my girlfriend Suzanna totally nailed it when it came to making predictions about how certain rooms would be used. "The sun room is nice but I have a feeling Sammy is going to be spending a lot of time in the dining room doing different projects. With you in the kitchen making meals and washing dishes, he'll want to be near you. Plus, kids are just drawn to tables to work on things like Legos and Play-doh or whatever." 

She was completely right on. The dining room has actually become two rooms: the place to sit and eat and the place to sit and do arts and crafts. Sometimes simultaneously. The charming old Irish table that my father bought for us when we lived in Denver has been the place to squish through home-made gloopy slime.

And to check out Where's Waldo? for sketching inspiration.

It's also the place to smoosh Model Magic into alien shapes and construct Sponge Bob Lego scenarios. It's a nice place for doing mazes and even shouting out goofy Mad Libs. Tonight Ted went and found the Ed Emberly books I'd scored for a quarter a piece (!!!) at the thrift store last year--he and Sam were working on drawing weird faces.

They were having a rocking good time. Even if in this case Sam was telling Ted how he ought to draw a square-headed monster.

Ben is in on the "art in the dining room" act as well. Only he likes to sit just under the dining room table. And he enjoys chewing on the art supplies as much as he likes testing them out.

So I am loving that the dining room has become a hub for such creative, non-computerized activity. But the downside is that the dining room, which is already hurting for sufficient storage options for dining-related items (like my rather large linen situation and all of our platters and pitchers and fancy glassware) is now exploding with artsy-crafty stuff. I think there's hope in sight. I am all over this post over at Artful Parent. It's an interview with Amanda Soule of the SouleMama blog (who has a new book out, called The Creative Family). In the interview she talks all about . . . how to live happily with your dining room doubling as your children's art space! Whattyaknow! The trick, she so aptly points out, is to store all your materials in cupboards with doors that shut. (I know this might be a no-brainer but I just sometimes need someone else to tell me the really obvious things.)  You put the stuff neatly away and behind doors so you don't have to look at all the crap and feel like your dining room is being slowly taken over by some charismatic but slovenly artist. Even a charismatic three-foot tall artist.  So now we are in the market for a cupboard or cupboards. Until we find them, we'll keep the supplies jammed up on the crappy old bookshelf. Because proper storage or not, it's nothing shy of wonderful to peek out from the kitchen and see all three of my boys gathered around the table making monsters (or chewing on crayons).