Today the boys and I are going to a birthday party for a little guy whose parents we met in our birthing class. All these babies are turning three! Kind of crazy, you know? Anyway, since I'm on this fun-time bean bag kick, I decided to make the birthday boy some digger-themed beanbags. Doing this makes me kind of nervous in our age of plastic and video games...for a second...but then I realize that if we don't continue gifting handmade toys how will we keep the love going? Anyway, I also think most boys and their parents would appreciate something lying around the house that doesn't hurt when it's thrown at you.
So once I made the bags and the sack I pondered how to make the card. Usually my birthday cards are kind of cute and kind of lame all at the same time because I don't really plan ahead. This time was going to be different! I saw this project over at Red Ted Art (awesome site, btw) a couple of weeks ago and thought it looked really fun. So yesterday during nap time I used some of the time to make a few house/city themed potatoes: geometric shapes with a little detail here or there. (I need to research potato carving, because it's hard with the kitchen utensils I'm using.)
When I broke out the paints, Charley naturally wanted his diggers to paint with, so they came out. Then he demanded a paintbrush, which he was adamant about. I thought all of this was a good sign that he's finding his inner artist, so I played the nurse to his surgeon (possibly mixing metaphors...you get what I mean though).
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| I love how delicately he was holding each stamp. Then he'd set it off to the side. I actually think that for him the activity was painting the potatoes themselves...process over product! |
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| Our first card...before the diggers...this is cute too though I think. I love the different color paints C used. |
I printed a couple of cards to see what they looked like, but then he started painting the paint onto the potatoes rather than dipping them in the paint, and you know what? It's way cooler! I still stamped the image onto the card for him (he wasn't interested in that part), but he was involved! Then he was driving his diggers all around (comme toujours), and I had an epiphany! Wait for it...it's genius...I made *digger* beanbags, and he paints with his *diggers,* so why not have him digger paint the cards? (Remember I'm really sleep deprived if you're thinking this seems obvious, okay?)
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| C did that awesome angled track set all by himself. He has a good eye, don't you think? |
Hopefully we'll have a good response to the gift, but either way, Charley and I were on the same page (and I got my way a tiny bit) so yay! Happy Day!
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