Glitter Makes Everything Creative

One of the upsides of not having any serious DIY crafting talent is letting Ladybug Girl in on the creativity.  I really wish I had more patience and fine motor skills, but if I did I would probably be too much of a perfectionist to do projects with my daughter.

This way I can relax and still model the importance of expressing yourself and being creative.  My mama mentor for this is Jean of The Artful Parent and her insightful article about how parents influence the way their children approach art.

This is our story.

One Christmas I was about to throw away the very faded metal welcome sign that hung outside our gate for two holiday seasons.  I don't have a picture of this though - I rarely have the planning skills to do "before" pictures to write about.  The important part is what comes next.

I set up a project station for a longer-term project to refurbish the sign together one-step-at-a-time:  

I realized that the materials couldn't get simpler than poster paint and glitter!  Seriously. You want some fancy Christmas decor?  That's all you need and you can makeover anything.

She was five years old here and I wanted a chance for her doing nearly everything herself.

Strengthening her fingers and gaining control of squeezing paint

Brushing on a thick layer of paint

The best part!  Sprinkling glitter while the paint is still wet.

All glittered and fancy:

Time to write something in the middle to replace the old "welcome" letters.  If you look closely above you can still see the faint lettering.

I suggested she practice on a spare paper first.
But here you can see I set up an easy access cup with glue upside down and a tube of glitter

Figuring out the way the glue bottle opens is tricky for a lefty

 We did this over four to five separate days.  There's no forcing here, or else it stops being fun.

 A few days later she applied a clear coat of polyurethane with a large brush:

And here it is hanging outside our front gate:

The sun will fade it eventually but it will be meaningful while it lasts

 I hope doing such "big" projects together gives her a boost of confidence and a sense of contribution to a creative home.  As for me, I'm happy to let imperfect, un-instagram-worthy experiments be displayed at home.   
After all there's more than one way to be creative, you just have to find your own expression.
For both mama and child!