[arts and crafts corner]

We've been doing a lot of drawing and painting around here. Little A is getting older and is more capable and willing to really learn how to draw and Little O is just over the moon to do whatever his brother is doing (and of course loves getting his hands on any sort of messy, colorful, creative substance - and doing it in your undies...well, does life get any better for a 2 year old?). Because of this we decided to get a family annual pass to the LACMA this year. After attending for the first time (thanks to Tim Burton!), I knew right away that we needed to bring along a pad of paper and pencils for the Littles to soak it all up (Little A drew his first Jack Skellington interpretation on a museum brochure and I was over the moon).

I've been wanting to create some sort of art/drawing carrying case of sorts for the littles for sometime now and after this recent museum trip, I knew it was time.

I thought it would be fun if Little A had some sort of ownership involved with the carrying case so I had him paint black circles onto linen that I would then use as the outside of the portfolio.

I will confess that he did lose interest in this after a bit so I helped fill in a few spaces. This then got him right back into it and grabbing the brush back out of my hand for him to finish up.

I then proceeded to sew the portfolio carrying using this new "custom" fabric.

I pretty much just made everything up as I went along (so there are a few rough patches here and there) trying to accommodate all the needs of sketching and painting on the go.

We made a pocket on the left hand side for his pad of paper and another large pocket on the right to hold any drawing/activity books he might be interested in at the moment.

Then on top of that right hand large pocket I created several little pockets for his colored pencils (his preferred medium at the moment) and a set of watercolors.

He really loves it and has taken to drawing several items from his step-by-step drawing book (a score for 50 cents at a school fair!).

And now that we are off on our annual June and July road trips to see family and friends this little portfolio has really come in handy.

If you want to make one yourself, I'll be posting instructions when I share Little O's art portfolio with all of you, so stay tuned!

Hope you are enjoying your first month of summer and, for those of you in the states, are gearing up for a great 4th of July!