Friday, March 18, 2011

Arts and Crafts: Sticker Mosaics

Once again we're back to the arts and crafts.  Yesterday's project was something fun, something that was really picked up with my middle child in mind.  Being that he's almost four, it's hard to figure out what kinds of crafts will be fun for him, but not so incredibly messy that I'll have a headache from all the clean up.  Thankfully, the craft store came in handy, and not even something planned, just something my daughter and I happened to stumble upon.

My son had his first real craft project of his own.  It was a sticker mosaic kit for kids just his age.  Each of the mosaic cards had pictures of animals.  I let him pick out his first one and we were off.  These kits are fairly simple.  They have foam stickers in different colors and shapes.  All my son had to do was match up the shape and color outline and place the right sticker on it.  It seems easy enough, right?  But it came with it's own moments of frustration until he got it.  My son's got this great habit of saying "I can't know it" when you ask him something he doesn't feel like telling you.  It meant the early on portion was a little frustrating.

Soon enough he got it and we were off.  He was telling me all the colors and all the shapes like a pro!  Of course, with only three shapes (circle, square, and triangle) it wasn't too much of a challenge, but with all the shapes and colors combined with the ability to put the shape in the right orientation on the right spot, he had a lot going on.  It took him a while to do the first one, but for a kid his age, he virtually sped through it!  It seemed like we were done in no time!  Of course, I know my daughter would have gotten through it faster, but he did pretty good for his age!

Much to my surprise, he turned out to have much more patience than I expected!  As soon as he was done with the first one (he chose the bird), he wanted to jump right in and do the second!  Who am I to resist a kid who's on a roll?  Of course, we got right to it!

Now, I have to admit, jumping right into another one was a bad idea.  Even though he's almost four, he doesn't have infinite patience.  He tends to get bored and a little chaotic.  He doesn't pay the most attention to what he's doing.  As a result, I got a bit frustrated by the time we were a third of the way through and I voted we take a break.  Besides, it was after dinner and getting late.  I figured there was every chance he wasn't going to finish it, but he was rather insistent.  He wanted to do it!  He went and played again and then came back refreshed!  I was a little afraid he'd want to finish them all in one night!  Of course, by the time he was done he needed to get ready for bed, so I managed to luck out on that one.  He had to wait and finish them another day!  Hopefully he'll give it a couple days before he picks it up again because I don't want to run out of things to do!  Those craft kits aren't super expensive, but they can add up quickly when you're blowing through them so fast!  Maybe tomorrow we'll be on to some play-doh or something.

So my daughter wouldn't get left out, I got her one as well, though I'm not so much of a fan of the ones for older kids.  I'd rather get the stuff to make a real mosaic.  Even so, she found the one she considered perfect, a sticker mosaic of a mermaid.  If you feel you may die of shock at the price on Amazon, they were actually much cheaper at the craft store, less than half the price.  The ones they have for the older kids use numbers matched to an image of the stickers on the box.  It's actually a pretty good set-up, so it wasn't too bad.  Most importantly, my daughter loved doing it.  She sat and worked on it with my partner, which she liked even better because he's not often able to be involved in our homeschooling efforts.  She's really big on having everyone involved when we're doing homeschooling, whether it's family, friends, house-mates, guests, or even a friend crashing on our couch for a few days.  It doesn't matter who they are, if they're a part of her life and happen to be around when we're working on something she wants them to be involved.  She particularly likes sitting down and coloring in her coloring book with my partner.  While I was pregnant with the littlest, she and my partner colored pictures for me from her book that they put up on either side of the bed, talk about one loved mama!

Once all the mosaics were finished they each got to put them up in the house.  Since all the kits come with little stick-on hangers, we were able to put them up with no more than a tack.  Originally the plan was that they were going to put them up in their rooms, but that plan went out the window when my son finished his and the baby was sleeping in his room.  He was very determined that his mosaic would go up right away, just like his sister's.  He was so determined that when he finished the bird he found just the right place for it, in our living room next to the door.

I have to admit, I felt a little bad when my daughter saw us hanging up my older son's mosaic.  She poked her head out of her room, where here mosaic was put up prominently in the entry way.  She then asked, "Is his mosaic in the living room and mine's not because his is more awesome than mine?"  We explained to her the situation and why we couldn't put her brother's in his room and she seemed pretty satisfied.  She was extra proud of herself when my partner told her that her brother has a whole bunch of them to put around all over, but she's only got one, which makes it extra special.  Hers was also glittery and has a whole lot more stickers, which makes it extra awesome.  On top of that, it's in just the right spot that everyone who comes in the room can see it just as they walk in.  What better way could she have to show off to all of her friends?  Honestly, what I didn't tell her was that I loved where hers is hanging because I think the beautiful girlish style to it is a perfect accent to her room and maybe we need to think about getting her some more really feminine stuff for her room.  We're not going to paint or anything, so we might as well give her a really pretty decorations in her room to make it feminine in there.  She's growing up fast too, so letting her have a little bit of style to her room, some of her own artwork, and maybe a nice lamp or something will help her room have less of a barren look and prevent it from looking too much like a little kid's room.    As much as I don't want to embrace the idea of her growing up, it's nice to see her growing up and developing her own sense of style.

I have to say, looking at the pictures it almost looks like no one has any fun during craft time at our house!  You always see pictures of families smiling and laughing while doing crafts together.  I've come to realize that's not true, but I understand why they like to portray it that way.  I can't imagine pictures of kids and adults paying rapt attention to what they're doing inspires people to buy their products, even though it's definitely incentive for me!  Something about seeing kids sitting quietly and concentrating seems like an inspiration in itself!  At least they're quiet, busy, and working their whole brain to come up with an end result!  I have to admit, I like seeing that look of attention and concentration on my kids' faces more than I like see them smile, not because I don't like seeing them happy.  I do!  I guess I just can't explain how much joy it brings me to see them doing something they can be so thoroughly involved in.  Their smiles are beautiful, but I find a whole different beauty in seeing them so focused and intent on what they're doing.


So, they now all have their mosaics up, decorating the home.  There's a mermaid in my daughter's room, a kitty in the kitchen, and a bird welcoming our guests to our living room.  It's nice to have their artwork displayed.  It's nice to be able to show off some of what they've done.  I never imagined enjoying that kind of art up on my walls, but here I am!  I can't wait to have more all over the house!  My son has three more mosaics to do.  Then we've got a set of magnets for them to paint.  Those will likely go up on the refrigerator.  The link isn't for the exact product, but we got a generic craft store brand  I got some stained glass window hanging projects for them to do and put up in the windows.  This isn't the same set, but they're the same kind of fill and bake kind of set, same brand too.  Ours are just singles as supposed to sets and were exceedingly cheap at the craft store.  We ended up picking up one of each.  It's going to be a challenge with an almost four-year-old in the mix, but I think we can handle it!  My windows need decorating!  I'm really looking forward to all the various arts and crafts projects I can get going around here.  There are so many options!  I think once we're a bit more settled and my daughter has some privacy in her room we might have to work on some things she can make to decorate her room!  I'm getting excited already!

2 comments:

  1. Have you looked at Oriental Trading for projects? They have some fun stuff, they often have stuff on sale/clearance and the prices are not too bad.

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  2. I hadn't put much thought into it. We haven't been getting the catalog, so I haven't had them on my mind. I'll definitely have to hit their website though!

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