Look, look! My kids' art book is going on a blog tour! It's zipping around the country and the world, visiting the homes (both virtual and physical) of some of my favorite bloggers. I have to admit that I'm a tad envious, as I would LOVE to come along with my book and visit with these bloggers in person.
Would you like to follow along on this tour? There will be sneak peeks into The Artful Parent book, interviews, kids' art activities, reviews, and giveaways! Here's a list of the participating bloggers and their tour dates:
This is Wren. She's been busy crafting and creating with her mom, getting ready for Easter and for spring. See the artful bunny ears, the tissue paper nest, and the Easter egg suncatcher? Those are all ideas from The Artful SpringeBook!
I LOVED that Ashlea, Wren's mom and Be Squirrely blogger, shared this photo on my facebook page! If you are doing activities with your kids from any of my books (or from my blog!), then please feel free to share a photo on The Artful Parent facebook page. It would make so happy to see photos of these ideas in action!
P.S. Don't have the Spring crafts eBook yet, but want your own copy?
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Maia surprised us yesterday afternoon with this St. Patrick's day poster, complete with a rainbow drawing, a pot of gold, and a couple of four leaf clovers. It's now hanging next to her big rainbow painting in the living room (don't double rainbows mean good luck?).
This has been a week of creating a vision board and I thought I'd share a bit about the process. This one is an accordion-fold vision board that I can fold up as a book and take with me (when I travel, for example) or stand up in my office to look at and be inspired by when I'm home. I LOVE this new format!
This wasn't going to be a vision board week. It was going to be a catch up on my to-do list week. A taxes week (ugh!). And a clean the house week.
But the kids were both sick.I was sick. And the taxes definitely didn't want to be done (I asked politely).
Maia and I baked a nest cake over the weekend, ostensibly to celebrate Daphne's half birthday (three and a half!), which is tomorrow. But, really, we were just looking for a good excuse to try out our nest cake idea.
The nest is a lemon bundt cake, the eggs are made out of ice cream, and the bird is a special Maia-drawn addition.
We are big into nests right now. We have a couple (pretend ones) on our spring nature table. And I included recipes for both nest cookies and a pretzel nest snack in my spring crafts eBook.
The Artful Spring is 109 pages packed full of great spring activities and recipes. You can learn more and see sample pages here. I have received much wonderful feedback about my seasonal craft eBook series, but this one is my best yet (in my not so humble opinion...)!
How to get your free eBook:
Order The Artful Parent book anytime before the official release date of April 9th and then send me an e-mail to ArtfulBook@Aweber.com with the name of the bookstore and the order number and/or receipt number and I'll give you the eBook right away.
(If you have already preordered, this offer applies to you too!)
In case you're wondering if this is the sort of thing a blogger might write about in the excitement of early use and then abandon, this has definitely not been the case. Both the love affair and the wheel are still going strong.
Calling all young artists! CHARM IT! is hosting their "What Charms You?" Design-A-Charm contest for kids. Children can use their imaginations to draw anything they like with the possibility that it might be turned into a charm that they (or anyone!) can wear on a charm bracelet or necklace.
Please welcome my blog sponsors for the month of March! Some are new and many are longtime sponsors. They all help make this blog possible and I am very grateful for their support. I hope you will take a moment to visit their sites and see what they have to offer.
These businesses can be a great resource for artful families like yours and mine. And I have decided to try something different with this month's sponsor welcome. I'm highlighting one of each of their products in the image above and including a link to it beside the business listed below.
After much deliberation (years!), I have decided to teach my daughters specific drawing skills using Mona Brookes' book, Drawing with Children, and the Monart method, as a guide.
I have long thought that drawing should and would just evolve naturally in kids, and that teaching specific skills might stunt their growth and creativity. But I've been changing my mind about this more and more over the last couple of years.
