GardenMama

.: Valentine's Day Garland :.

  

.: A garland of painted watercolor hearts for Valentine's Day! :.

We have enjoyed a beautiful week full of crafting! Many cheerfully colored hearts have been drawn that now adorn surprise Valentine cards. Today while the snow softly fell we decided it would be a perfect time to set out glass jars full with liquid color!  Shades of red swirled together in the water and onto our papers to make a lovely pink. Yellows paired with red manifested orange and other delicious colors in between!

Today we created lovely watercolor paintings that we cut into heart shapes to fashion a Valentine garland that I will happily leave out not only on Valentine's day but all year long! 

.: A tray full with hearts cut from watercolor paintings :.

.: Taking out thread and tape to create the garland :.

After cutting out the desired number of hearts we took out thread and tape...

.: Setting out the pattern for the garland :.

Then we sequenced the hearts in the pattern we desired for them to be strung together in.

.: Placing thread across each heart and securing with tape :.

After flipping over each heart we set thread across each heart and began taping it in place until we acquired a garland of hearts to the preferred length. 
 

.: Decorating the home in color and with love! :.

Next came the fun part of decorating the house in cheerfully-colored hearts!

.: May your home be full with love! :.

.:Watercolor Star Mobile ~ Tutorial:.

.: Twirling, swirling, magical watercolor star mobile! :.

We enjoyed a great snowstorm over the past few days! As the snow blew in, my family was enjoying the coziness of home while crafting! This watercolor star mobile took us a few days from start to finish, which was just perfect to occupy our time together during the snowstorm!

I am very excited to share with your our process of creating this beautiful mobile!

.: Gorgeous watercolor paintings created by my three little ones for the star mobile! :.

We chose specific color combinations to work with while creating our watercolor paintings.  On the first day we enjoyed painting with orange and yellow and on the next few days we paired blue with green and green with purple.

I find it important to choose good quality watercolor paper. We also enjoy working with tubes of watercolor paint that we add to glass jars with a bit of water.  artist-quality paintbrushes are also important for creating your paintings.  I have found this is an important element to painting, as it signals to the children that this is important work that is respected.

.: Two vintage star cookie-cutters were used as our stencils for this project :.

We selected colored pencils to match the same hues in the painting, so that when we traced the stars there would not be any obvious lines that stood out.

We chose to trace a shape onto the painting so that each star would be uniform for the final part of the project which joins the stars together with glue.

.: Tracing the stars onto the watercolor paper--one part of the process of creating the mobile! :.

.: Beautiful stars dance on the swirling painted papers, soon to become a dreamy mobile! :.

With our painting now full with stars, we began to cut each one out. I truly appreciate projects like these as the process unfolds, we look forward to re-visiting it again each day.

.: Stacks of colorful stars--just waiting for us to create with them! :.

Our stars are now cut and stacked according to our preference!

.: Choosing the first star to begin the garland that will create the mobile! :.

Carefully selecting the perfect star to begin, we sandwiched pairs of stars together with thread in the middle to create the garlands for the mobile!

.: Taking out our supplies - paper stars, gluestick, and thread! :.

.: Covering each star with glue while placing the thread in the middle :.

A gluestick worked very well. We covered two watercolor stars with glue, leaving the thread in the middle.

.: Creating a 'star sandwich' by placing a cover star on top of the bottom star and thread :.

We then placed the two stars together.  Seven stars were threaded on each piece of thread before moving on to the next garland.  Each garland was then tied securely to the underside of a medium-sized Grapevine wreath.  (You could also use an embroidery hoop but I enjoyed the natural addition of the Grapevines!)

.: Dancing, dreamy, floating stars! :.

.: We are so happy with this finished piece! It evokes such peace! :.

This mobile will be placed over my daughter's bed so that she may wish upon a star as she slumbers! I look forward to creating many more watercolor paintings with my children so that we can create a sun-mobile for my youngest son and a moon-mobile for my eldest son with the phases of the moon creating the sequence of the garland!

[Please use caution when placing your mobile near children - never place this mobile over a newborn's bed!]

.: Wishing you a time of creating sacred memories and sacred spaces within your home! :.

.: And The Winner Is... :.

.: With the help of the random number generator I am happy to announce the 2011 calendar and a set of twelve postcards goes to Shannon at motherrhythm.blogspot.com (please email me!) :.

Thank you to both known and new friends alike who have joined together in this space for this thoughtful giveaway!

Thank you Dawn for sharing your creativity in this space and for bringing such sweetness to families through the poetry and drawings you share!

{With the holidays soon approaching, giveaways and interviews are now filling in quickly! For those of you who are interested in an interview and giveaway of your own, please email me at [email protected]}