Dino Love

It's not the first time we've decorated our toy animals here, but it's definitely a first to have made dinosaur armor. We opened the art supply drawer, dug through the recycle bin, and let it fly. We became lost in time, much like the book Dinotopia, which continued to inspire some of our fun. E paged through it for ideas and was intrigued by an illustration showing a metal wrapped dinosaur scale. Foil with felt hot glued to the back works great for armor base material and "wrapping". Dinotopia is incredibly imaginative! It's one of the reasons we need books like this (inspiring books = words+illustrations+ideas). This project launched into others -- still out on the table. Still FLYIN'!

Spur of the Moment Circus

This little project just sort of came out of nowhere. E wanted to make a circus or something. I don't quite remember. The next thing we were doing was running downstairs to the craft cupboard. I was pulling out ribbons, tape, scissors, sparkle felt squares and different kinds of paper. I pulled Dinotopia off the shelf and talked to E about using some of the lovely pictures from this book as inspiration for decorating his prehistoric mammals and dinosaurs. I just hang onto little times like this because they are what I love to do. They keep me inspired for days to come. I have a bin of recycled packaging items that we pull from, to make "whatever" we need. Having a child like E, helps me take care of my creative side.