Contact Paper Collages and more fun outdoors.

Today is a school day for Sunny, and I have no children so will therefore be working, not crafting or having other mom fun. boo! (Is it ok that I secretly relish these days? Just me and the cats and my coffee and the clickety clickety clickety of my craptop?)... So today's post will be retroactive.

Aside: Last night I dreamed of putting out wildfires with my old neighborhood friends in Pleasantdale (yes that is where I grew up- eerily fantastic, eh?) Shelby, Amanda, Danny, Megan, all of you were there! Anyway I woke up and realized it was probably due to my wearing to bed the same sweater I wore to a bonfire gathering at Stacy and Heidi's last weekend, the woodfire smell triggering both memories and alarm bells. Nutso. Anyhoodle, this reminded me to mention that if you can remember, is really cool to ask your kids immediately upon waking what they dreamed of. Often they will remember and recall cool visions and stories their little heads would otherwise have soon forgotten. I will never forget the first time Sunny came clambering into my warm morning blanket burrito to tell me about her first dream. "Mommy I had a blue bird in my hand and it flewed away!"

So, today's post is handy for very little children because it is easy for small hands and extremely low mess or fuss. (Muss is not a word. I just refuse.)

Lay a sheet of contact paper sticky side up on a small table, taping down the corners. Provide your child with colorful scraps of paper, bits of nature like leaves and flowers, dry pasta or anything else small and light. Let them go nuts arranging the small items on the sticky paper. Most things can be lifted and placed again and again. My daughter loved this beginning age 1 and still does. We used this method to learn our shapes too, and how you can arrange them together to make pictures (how some squares and rectangles can make a house, or 3 circles make a snowman, etc.) The same sheet can be used and reused until no longer sticky, then you can start all over again. I used to keep a sheet taped low on our refrigerator and a basket of media in the kitchen for times when Sunny wanted to be with me while cooking or cleaning in there. She was entertained and I was rewarded with an ever-changing work of art on my fridge!

Following are some pictures from a year ago when I took Sunny and Nora to their favorite neighborhood park to play and collect bits of nature, then we came home and made nature collages.


Play, play, play.


snack, snack, snack.


gather, gather, gather.


create, create, create!


repeat, repeat, repeat to hearts' content.


And here's one of wee Sunny in front of her fridge collage installation.