Spoonful of Imagination

Add it to a Family for Something Beautiful

Wood Slice Valentine Art

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Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. What a great opportunity to either make a little handmade gift (or purchase a little handmade gift) to show someone you love that you care! In this post, I am going to show you how I made some wood slice valentine art, and you can do the same!

I first started with some wood slices I have been drying out in my garage, since the fall. If you saw my big 4-0 birthday celebration, you know what these slices are from!

I love buying samples of my paint colors before I paint a new wall in our house.

It allows me to test the paint, stare at it in all kinds of lighting, and then I reuse that paint on other projects. I used a dark, charcoal gray to be the base coat for these wood slices.

Once the base gray color was dry, I went back and painted a soft pink heart in the middle of each one.

The wood slices were still a little textured so I had to be careful to get my smooth lines. I used a small brush and some craft acrylic paint.

I Made a Lot of Valentine Art Signs

I was in assembly line mode making signs. The reason I created a lot was so I could list them in my shop. Although the signs are really fun Valentines’ gifts or art, they are also a powerful reminder to leave up year round!

If you have one scrap piece of wood, you could do this craft idea too. You can also purchase wood slices at most craft stores.

Painting the hearts was my favorite step, but waiting for them to dry was my least favorite step. I was so excited to stylize them up and get some product shots.

There are so many fun color options you could do with this same idea and simple steps. I think a neon version would be so fun too!

It doesn’t have to be a big expensive gift to say “i love you”. I recently sent my mom a little gift, but she said what meant the most were the words in her card. Think of how you could pair a simple gift like this with a card. That’s a gift with meaning that is sure to be the highlight of your receiver’s day!

If you want one of my hearts, you can pick it up in the shop today!

If you need some encouragement in your journey today, I am here to say…you have a strong heart.

No matter what we go through, there is always hope, ability for change, and endless possibilities. We just have to keep going. Small steps are still steps and movement forward. This heart is a reminder that the world needs what you got.

**If you need more encouragement, I’d love to invite you into my new course, Create More Connection.

What is an easy YES for you??

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Over the weekend, we were headed out on a little family walk.

Taking family walks is one of my favorite things to do together.

It’s a time to unplug, enjoy nature, get a little exercise, and connect. As we were headed out, I turned around and saw Caleb had a camera. He wanted to take pictures of this winter walk. I smiled to myself and only said, “very fun!”

What are things that are an easy yes for you? When you think through a situation or a plan and there is an obvious alteration to it, what is an easy yes?

In my situation, getting off technology, a screen, and devices is part of my heart for these walks. Yet, Caleb had a camera and I allowed it.

One of my family values

As we walked and I thought through why I allowed the camera, it hit me. An easy yes for me is creativity. I will always welcome the creative process.

For example, we can be pulling out of the driveway, running late for something and Reagan asks to run back inside for markers and a notebook….and I stop the car and allow it.

I can have just vacuumed the house and be ok with Reagan pulling out cardboard boxes, hot glue and making all kinds of little shavings on the floor in her creative project.

Jeremiah might ask for chalk markers to use on his chalkboard wall, instead of the messiness of regular chalk, and I add it to my shopping list.

I can have a sewing project out and someone wants to paint and I clear off my whole desk or table to get them started.

Caleb may want to take a camera on a walk to make this reel and in the process give me all these pictures that I have turned into this post, and I am so proud.

The creative process is something I value and always say yes to.

What is an easy yes for you?

Has something come to mind that is an easy yes for you? Here are a few ideas of things that it could be…

  • heart level talks: will you stay up later, if your kids are wanting to talk?
  • healthy food: will you say yes to a snack at any time in the day if it is something healthy?
  • sports: will you sign your kid up for a travel sport and be ok driving and giving weekend time, if it’s keeps your kid doing a sport he/she loves?

When we normally think of family values, honesty, perseverance, responsibility, character, and kindness might be some that you automatically think about. I think there are also others that you might not realize is also a value. If you start thinking about it, and process through how other families treat that same thing, you can begin to see it as a value.

These pictures help me see the world like Caleb does. What caught his eye, the angle he captured it, and even the placement of his subject is interesting to me.

I will always encourage the creative process. It’s a value to me. What is a value to you?

It’s important to know your values

Life is going so quickly, and I think it’s important to know your values so you can treat and honor it as one. Just because it’s important to you, doesn’t mean it is to everyone. So, to get you thinking more about what you may value, think through these questions:

  1. What makes you really happy?
  2. When are you most proud?
  3. What do you spend free time doing?

Maybe you already know what you value and what is an easy yes for you. If you do, I hope this is just an encouragement that it’s good to be YOU, even if you prioritize something others may not treat with the same weight.

If you don’t know what a unique value that you care about may be, I hope it gets you thinking.

Honoring your family values is a form of creating a connection that matters.

**If the idea of forming a deeper connection with those that matter most to you, sounds like something you would be interested in, I’d love to invite you to join my Create More Connection digital course. I will be back to tell more about it soon, but you can enroll today right here!

Vision for 2023 -get those dreams to come to life!

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Happy new year friends! How has this year started for you!? Our family has had quite a bit of sicknesses go through our home, but we are slowly getting in the groove of a new year with routines settling in.

Life goes crazy quick doesn’t it? If we aren’t too careful, other priorities, schedules, sicknesses and shiny new objects (in the form of whatever we are interested in) can pull us off track to take action on our dreams.

Have you created a vision board before to use as a guide for your year?

I have found that adulting and responsibilities can be a lot. Often what is fighting for our attention is not aligned with our goals and dreams. A vision board can be a physical reminder to you of what you really want.

I recently used one of my art journals to be the base for my vision board for 2023.

I thought through what were some things I wanted to achieve this year. If you haven’t created a vision board before, a good place to start is to ask yourself these two questions:

  1. What do you ultimately want for 2023??
  2. How do you want to show up for it??

I incorporated my “word” for the year. I am aiming to RENEW my mind, time and business this year with more truths and systems for this season of my life.

Last year, I had so much change and this year I want to just work intentionally on where we are now. I love to put my vision boards in  one of my messy art journals, so I can flip through the pages and see them all. It’s like my personal diary.

Do you write stuff down?

If this idea of creating a vision board sounds appealing to you, I’d love to invite you to take my FREE digital vision board workshop. By the end of the workshop you will know the answers to:

  • What is a vision board?
  • Why should I use a vision board?
  • How do I make a vision board? What supplies do I use!?
  • Where do I go from here?

Claim your life. I’ll help you with the how, but you do need to know the why-if creating a fulfilling year sounds exciting, choose to say yes to making a plan for it. If I can help, jump over to this workshop, and we will get started. I’ll see you soon!

The Perfect Collaborative Art Party Game

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Do you have an artist who loves to create with friends! It’s my bet that he/she would LOVE this collaborative art party game!

Over the years our art studio was in business, we hosted hundreds of birthday parties. We found that even after the individual projects were done- the artists would want to keep creating. We always had a coloring station, magnets and play-dough available, but we quickly became known for this fun art game that we held at the end of each of our parties.

We would play an art version of i-spy

Have you ever sat in a restaurant or a doctor’s office and needed a way to entertain kids, while they are waiting? I-spy is a classic game and one you have probably turned to in a moment like that.

Kids get into it and have fun-without even realizing you may just be making the most of some idle time. It’s fun. It forms a connection and you learn a lot about how your child thinks, what he/she notices, and enjoy each other’s company in the process.

We would create a recycled art collage to use for our art version of i-spy. If you want to learn more about how we created this collage, you can view the 5 Reasons Why Creating With Trash Matters post or this quick video lesson from Erica.

How to play i-spy as an art game

I always demonstrated a couple of rounds of leading/playing i-spy first. The idea is you call out things you spy, and they can only be on the i-spy board. The importance is to have a creative collage that is full of different items to make a well rounded, entertaining game. A few idea categories to think through and call out as you play…

  • shapes
  • colors
  • item’s uses
  • item’s location
  • funniest

After I did a few rounds, I would let any artists who wanted to think of one to call it out. If everyone was excited to call an “i-spy” item out, we would just take turns going around the table with everyone getting a chance.

We would play this for as long as kids were really interested. Want to see this game in action? I convinced two of my kids to play with me in this video, so we could demonstrate it to you! They are getting a little old for it, but once they were playing, they still had fun!

Paint that i-spy board

When the fun in the i-spy game is winding down, you can breath new life into the game by allowing the artists to paint the board together! We always just gave out the leftover paint from individual projects and each child a brush. We tried to encourage that teamwork happens in art too. They could each start by painting what stood out to them.

It was so fun to watch the artists paint such unusual items. They’d paint in the items, on the items, around the items and get to see how the paint moves, absorbs, and takes to each item.

We use tempera paint, just in case paint gets on clothes, as hands start reaching. I promise you will know the moment the game is ready to end. You simply say, “on the count of 3, it is time to end and then brushes need to be placed down. 1-2-3 brushes down!” and then it’s time to wash hands. Your artists run off laughing and talking about the fun they just had.

It’s not everyday that artists get to paint a bottle cap, straw or broken shell. Let alone do it with friends after talking, studying and playing i-spy with those items. This i-spy game really is the perfect collaborative art party game. From creating the i-spy board to playing with it and then painting it, you breath a lot of extra life, engineering and fun into those recycled materials.

Sometimes the birthday child would want to take his/her collage home and sometimes we would share the picture and kindly toss the piece.

Isn’t that the beautiful thing about the process being the focus of creating and playing in the arts? If the focus is to have fun, play, and learn as you go then there is no pressure to save the final product. It can just be tossed!

I hope this game inspires you to play a creative art game at your next party or artist has a slumber party. If you need a little extra encouragement, check out this 5 minute video demonstrating a game in action. Let me know, if you try this fun!