Crafty Clay

February 16, 2010

There is an art studio near us in an outdoor mall...you know where you can make and/or paint a piece of pottery. I have walked by the window a bizzilion times and admired the beautiful pieces saying to myself I will take my girlie there when she is "old enough"...when will that be exactly? She fancies herself as a pretty crafty girl who can do it herself thank you very much! She'll see them show how to do a craft on Sprout and immediately set out to make what they just did. I'll admit I can be a bit too involved if this craft involves costly supplies, but most of the ones from Sprout I let her have at it on her own. BUT, the art studio is a bit more costly so I have been waiting for the "right age."

Today at Walmart my hubby found a big tub of Crayola Air Dry Clay on clearance and suggested we let her have some fun with that first. I found some craft ideas online that helped give us some ideas too. I found a good use for the thousand tiger paw shells we picked on Sanibel Island last year, rounded up a bunch of buttons, toothpicks and a plastic bottle.

My girlie having just made her first snowman last week decided to make a clay snowman! Then we tried to recreate a ring holder dish like her daddy made when he was a little guy. And finally she wanted to make a vase. The Crayola site suggested using a bottle to shape it, which my girlie only agreed to after her attempts at doing it herself were not fairing well. We pushed some buttons in the vase to decorate it...my favorite is a button I didn't remember having which went to a suit I wore on our honeymoon! We are going to let daddy figure out how to cut away the excess bottle and tomorrow we'll have some fun painting them.

We still have a BUNCH of clay in the bucket for lots more crafts! This was a great way to get creative on a budget! While these may not be as perfect as the pieces in the art studio they mean much more to me. I also love the idea of having these items around for years to come...I use the ring holder my husband made as a little boy!

This post is part of Mom Tried It's Try & Tell Tuesday...check out the other great ideas posted there!