Spoonful of Imagination

Add it to a Family for Something Beautiful

How to Embrace Winter’s Warmth

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Discover Cozy Crafting Delights

Embracing winter’s warmth can feel like a contradictory statement, yet it is possible! Want to know a secret of how to help with the winter blues!?  The answer is simple…yet not always easy. Create! Crafting during the winter months is more than just a pastime; it’s a gateway to warmth, creativity, and shared joy.

Three reasons why we should all be creating more right now:

1. Winter crafts bring an extra layer of coziness to our homes. Bonus: if you create something IN your home, you can enjoy it with all the extra time you are inside. I added some black paint to our TV console TODAY, as the picture above shows the final result.

2. From toddlers to adults, everyone can find joy in creating something beautiful. It’s a timeless activity that allows for self-expression fun! Check out my new kit in the shop for those sensory loving young artists.

3. Creating gives opportunities for meaningful connections. Whether it’s a family crafting night or a solo project by the fireplace, these moments foster connections, laughter, and shared memories. My eldest likes to create with pictures and videos. Did he go outside with me today in the negative temps for a photoshoot?? He DID! Running back inside the house was a fun moment. We now have a shared memory of this cold day.

To help make it easier for you to jump into creating, you can check out daily doses of my imagination here or pick up a craft kit for you or your artist in the shop!

In the spirit of sharing and creativity, I’m thrilled to announce that my “You” collection is now available for purchase online!  Maybe there is a reminder you need or one you know a friend needs. I hope the beauty and individuality captured in each piece can inspire and encourage you and your people.

I have been creating more, as I embracing winter’s warmth with all the colors and images in my head coming to life!

My little art room is my current happy place, so I am sure you can expect more creations from me to be listed real soon! Give it a try with me, and create something today!

In it with you!

Erica

Celebrate Earth Day 2023 with your artist!

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I love teamwork. (**stay tuned to later in this post where I share Earth Day Craft kits for $1). In celebrating, Earth Day 2023 we can practice working as a team.

It can sometimes be overwhelming to work with others. We may feel like we get lost in the discussion or like we could handle things better, if we did it on our own. Yet, we have all been there, when the overwhelm and stress sneaks in from trying to tackle something too big solo.

We need one another.

There’s big issues like our planet that we literally can’t take on by ourselves. We need everyone working together as a team to help preserve our earth. This Saturday, April 22 is Earth Day.

Earth Day is an annual celebration that honors the environment and raises awareness of the need to protect the Earth’s natural resources for future generations.

These are all little changes to our habits, if we collectively do together, they can leave a big wake of change. Just imagine the possibilities! One of those above ways may be easier for you than the others. Lean into it!

For me, recycling and reusing trash is one of my favorite ways to give more life to already created objects. We can do so much with tools and resources that come into our home daily-rather than just tossing them out!

One of my favorite materials to recycle into something new are soup cans!

As an art instructor and mom, I know one of the easiest ways to have a conversation with a child, is to have a project that goes along with it.

It opens the door to have a tangible, physical element to refer back to.

Save your cans and use them in a craft with your artist this week to talk about Earth Day 2023!

If you need help, I have some pre-prepped cans with paint + yarn as a kit for just $1 each this week in honor of Earth Day. Snatch up your kits today!

Family Paint Night Activity

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Playing as a family is one of the essential ways to build a connection with one another. Do you know what are some of your favorite ways to play together? For our family, having a family paint night is something we all enjoy. As the kids get older, it might not be what they suggest anymore, but if I do the work to set it all up, they still get into it.

Do you feel like your evenings can be a mash up of running kids to their activities, someone working late, homework, filming projects, school board meetings, and it’s rare to be all home on an evening together? That can’t be just me, right!?

It’s been a bit crazy over here. As I saw a night approaching where we would all be home (and knew we had all been carrying a lot), I wanted to create a fun moment for us to connect, play and recharge together. Here I give you our family paint night!


I love a good collaborative project.

When we all start with the same base shape or project, it’s fun to brainstorm and see the similarities and differences each of us comes up with. This is a fun way to see how each other’s mind thinks, portray individual interests into the project, and see the different styles and techniques emerge. The energy given off is usually lighthearted and playful, as the goal is to just have fun.

This egg garland project allows us to each have our own project, but they will be strung up together. It’s always fun to work towards something as a ‘team’.


The set up is part of the fun for me.

It’s been a while, since I have set up a paint workshop. I had so much fun picking out paint colors and pulling everything together. I have learned that although art can be freeing and messy, we still have a lot of power and control in what supplies we break out.

I choose to use just paint and only certain spring colors of paint. Even though my creative heart thought of glue and sequins. I decided to not break those out, and keep it more simple. As a result, it was…

  1. Less intimidating for artists to decide what they want to do.
  2. Less clean up for me.

Reagan did end up pulling out the black paint. Her creative heart needed it 🙂

Having the set up ready to go is helpful when you are inviting and asking for participation. It makes the start easier and you don’t lose any way-ward artists to distraction while you gather it all together.

The goal is to have fun.

We laughed and painted that night. I know the moods in our house were more uplifting, light-hearted and connected after this playful activity. It was a break in the fast pace of life. We slowed down and did something intentional together. It’s important to remember the goal is to have fun. If we put too much pressure on the results then it becomes stressful and we didn’t need anymore of that.

After all the eggs dried, I strung them up and added some fabric and yarn for extra texture fun. I love looking at it hung up now.

  • I see my Caleb and his forever love of basketball.
  • I see my Jeremiah in his blending and mixing of all kinds of colors to make his “perfect” purple shade.
  • I see my Reagan having a vision and searching up how to paint a jellyfish and bunny.
  • I see my husband putting so much care into his focused pieces, as he slows down from a busy day.
  • I see my simple designs, because I had more fun watching and connecting everyone else.

 

 

 

 

Having a physical piece as part of this night’s memory makes the memory and connection that much stronger. If you haven’t played by a having a paint night with your family recently, I highly recommend it!

If you want to do this project, I may have a few of the kits I created left for sale in our store. It’s worth jumping over to check!

In summary, these are a few tips that help guide our family paint nights. I hope they can help you too!

We had so much painting.

Occasionally, we still reference jokes from that night, as we enjoy our new spring decoration together.

Having this activity right after dinner one night, made for a fun evening. After all the eggs were painted, I used the leftover paint to paint the paper that had been a part of our set up. I painted big swirls and smalls dots, as Matt told me about his day and the kids got going with the rest of their night. Having my hands creating, while talking has always been something I enjoy!

Those scrap papers became their own creation, as you can see below and snatch up in the store as well.

Now, what about you? Will you have a family paint night soon?

Remember, the most important part is to have fun. Protect your table, embrace the process, and watch your artists unplug as you connect together. It will be an experience you tuck away in the long term memories.

If you love this little imagination starter, you might enjoy my list of 30 Ways to Play as well. Enjoy!

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!