Spoonful of Imagination

Add it to a Family for Something Beautiful

How to Support your Teen’s Creative Endeavors

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Watching my kids create has always been something I love. Before they could even hold a paintbrush, I was letting them play with paint. We would smash a footprint on something and I would turn into something else. We have all turned a handprint into a turkey around Thanksgiving at some point in our lives. As our kids grow and their interests change, their creative process may change. Teen’s will experiment in new creative endeavors, and I believe it is just as important to be present in these efforts, as we were when they were young. We can support our teen’s creative endeavors!

It may look different in the how we support.

When kids are young, some simple ways to encourage their creative efforts may look like…

  • Listen to their stories
  • Hang up their art
  • Watch the amount of screen time they consume
  • Make boredom possible, so they have to tap into their imagination
  • Provide supplies from paper and drawing materials to blocks or legos
  • Plan a project with steps
  • Get them outside to explore the woods and dirt
  • Be present in showing and demonstrating.

When our kids were younger, I had these frames that I could easily switch art out of. It was a constant changing museum in our home.

As they began to grow, they would have their own projects and ideas.

Once they start dreaming up their own ideas, you begin to become a little more of a questionnaire than the one leading the charge. Asking lots of questions gets them processing. Not all their ideas will work, but by asking questions and letting them start to play with an idea, allows your child to figure out on their own if something will work or not. That is embracing the process and letting them grow as confident decision makers.

I will never forget how Caleb painted a cityscape at our studio. It led into us hosting several cityscape sign workshops. He even lead one! Letting his idea develop into something that then inspired other artists and peers was pretty special.

I have to believe that supporting his creative endeavors at this new stage helped encourage him to keep experimenting and doing art.

We all remember when we started feeling like our art wasn’t good enough.

Do you remember that moment that you stopped creating for the process and fun of bringing an idea to life? You started creating and working towards a finished product only if you knew it would be amazing and it would be useful? So many stop creating because of the pressure they feel in creating and lose the freedom to tinker, learn, make mistakes, develop and take a risk.

One of our jobs as parents is to keep encouraging the process and supporting their creative endeavors as they grow.

As Caleb has grown, his love for basketball and shoes has only grown as well. He started drawing shoes, designing shoes, filming shoes and even painting his own custom shoes.

What began as an interest slowly grew into a hobby, and now it is a full blown business.

As Caleb’s dedication to this interest grew, we saw him investing time and his own money into it. Those are all signs that this is something that really matters to him.

My encouragement to you is to not necessarily buy the next piece of equipment the minute an idea is born from your growing teen, but keep asking questions and grow in the interest as they do.

We helped loft Caleb’s bed, so he would have more work space. It didn’t happen over night, but one step at a time.

Caleb says on his website, “I did my first custom a couple of years ago and loved doing it. Back then I had a cheap battery powered airbrush and a couple of colors. I’ve been working hard to upgrade my skills and my gear to professional grade tools. Every sneaker is an exciting new opportunity and I’d love to create some for you. Hit me up on the contact page or check out my Instagram.”

I still love to watch this kid of mine create.

Now, it’s not as much of me setting up a creative project and inviting him in. It’s more of me wandering to his room and watching him do it. The how we support our teen’s creative endeavors can change, but not the why.

A lot of the ways you support your young artists still matters as they grow.

Let them hang their art. Be present in the journey and listen to the stories. There are new ways to encourage their creative endeavors as well. My two biggest encouragements would be one, help invest in the equipment if you can. It can be lofting a bed, sharing your computer and camera, or even buying a stencil machine and spray gun. You can always get creative in how you give it. For example, wrap it up as part of their birthday present. Caleb got one of his paint guns as a Christmas present one year. 

Find a way to connect your interests together.

It’s important that your teen feels supported in their creative endeavors to feel the freedom to keep developing. The second way I think it is important to encourage your artist is to combine your interests and theirs together. Find it. It might not be obvious at first. That’s ok, keep looking. My latest way to connect Caleb’s interests and mine is taking the pictures he took of his shoe designs and turning them into greeting cards.

I have been on this greeting card creation journey, and what a fun way to connect his art with mine for a new card design. Not everyone may want a pair of custom shoes, but they may know someone who is a shoe fanatic and would appreciate a fun card so I listed them in my store.

We can support our teen’s creative endeavors.

The heart behind encouraging your artist, growing teen, and child is that you want them to believe that their ideas matter and the world needs what they got. Maybe those interests turn into a job someday, like they did for Caleb. We just don’t know, but the beautiful impact of embracing this creative journey together is you grow a deeper connection with someone who matters most to you.

I am going to be sharing more ways to connect with yourself and those you love most real soon. If you are interested in learning more, join my newsletter today so you are the first to hear about it! 

Why Writing Greeting Cards Still Matters

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Do you love receiving snail mail? Like an actual fun piece of mail delivered to your mail box? We all get junk mail. That alone gets so annoying that I have moments that I wish all the mail would go away. Instead, I let that junk mail build up on my counter, before I do a deep purge. That I am guilty of! But, you know what gets opened up right away!? Any piece of mail that seems fun, personalized, and meaningful. This thought has gotten me to actually start writing greeting cards.

Greeting cards are an intentional act.

I have always loved making them, but I am leaning in to sending them more too. Connection to others matters. It breathes passion and fulfillment in us and our relationships. Yet, we often lose it from busyness, anxiety, responsibilities, and work. Can you relate?

One way to create a deeper connection with those you care about (especially those who live further from you) is to send greeting cards. It’s a powerful, meaningful way to say I was thinking of you and YOU Matter!

I’ve been on a mission to write 3-5 greeting cards every week this year. We need more happy mail. Through this new card writing habit, I’ve noticed a few things:

What a gift that we can use our time and words to encourage others!

It’s a crazy beautiful thing that it also builds into us!

New habits can be hard to start, so pausing to see progress and the good that is happening is so powerful. Would you like to join me in this mission to send more love and encouragement out? I’ve made a list of 26 prompts to get you started. 

Pick one prompt to write to several people in a week or pick a different prompt per a day to use for different people. The way you use this list is up to you! 

Fill out the simple form by clicking the button above, and we will give you the PDF download right away! 

Don’t stress that this is another thing to do.

Just add it as an option instead of scrolling on social media or sending a text. This is intentional, meaningful, and investing into relationships that you care about.

I do love making my cards.

If you don’t love making your cards, you could pick some up in my store or so many other wonderful places. The actual card is fun and special to receive, but what really matters is what you write on the inside.

Let me encourage you to be intentional with your words and to build into others! We are all fragile and going through something. What a powerful way to show someone you care about that you see them and they matter.

Send a greeting card today!

Imagine the Possibilities with me!

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Imagine the possibilities with me for a minute! What is a way you LOVED to create as a kid?

  • Love playing outside and building forts with sticks and mud pies?
  • Come alive cutting and gluing paper?
  • Enjoy the heck out of painting free and big?
  • Play with blocks or legos for hours?
  • Was rearranging or redecorating your room the normal?

Chances are the way you enjoyed creating as a kid you will still enjoy today!

I know for me, growing up in a family of nine kids there were always DIY projects going on.

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about how expensive raising nine kids must have been for my parents. As my kids grow, it feels like it just keeps getting more expensive. Our oldest is learning to drive, and we all remember when we first caught wind of a brand we liked. Not just any pair of shoes always works anymore. I know my parents had to be thrifty to make our world work because I was so blessed and never went without. Being resourceful has been modeled for me.

I remember when my parents expanded our house. With nine kids, we outgrow the size house we had. The addition brought saw dust and scrap wood components to our lives. To this day, I still enjoy working with scraps.

Art doesn’t have to be expensive. We all have little things that we can reuse. For me, wood scraps has always been something I used, so to this day, I save them. The texture, possibilities of small pieces, and options of several things coming together to make something new is something I have always loved. Wood is a great material for all of those things to happen in the creative process.

Now, it’s no secret that I love to create in LOTS of ways. But, for many of us the ways we created as young kids can still be enjoyed years later or maybe the way we choose to create changes as we change.

Do you remember how you love to create? Has it changed?

Let me encourage you to imagine the possibilities.

Imagine trying that childhood creative process again that you loved so many years ago. Or, if you know of a new way you love to create imagine how you would feel if you took thirty minutes to do that activity this week?

We both know that your heart, mind, and soul will be better for that time of being FREE and using your hands.

I miss encouraging others in their creative process. It’s been a year, since we decided to close our art studio. So, as I was playing with some wood scraps, I dreamed up a kit with a lesson that I could share with all of you. If you need an extra nudge to get creative and imagine the possibilities, join me for this LIVE class one week from today. I will walk you through using these wood scraps to create a playful wood mobile. There will be a replay video, so if you miss the live. You can watch the tutorial replay back at a more convenient time.

Snatch up your kit to let me encourage YOU and your creative process. We will paint. Playing with order and design will definitely happen. Yarn will be wrapped. Of course, we will celebrate options and diversity. It will be so fun!

My hope for those that snatch up this creative kit (and for you on your creative journey) is that after playing with new materials and tools you feel a little more empowered in believing in yourself, knowing you can make good decisions, and trusting that how you think matters.

The creative process is a window into what’s going on inside us.

We find that inner discovery in playing, and pulling out of the expected. Keep playing. Keep creating. You never out grow the need to create.

 

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!