Artsy craftsy home stuff

I got a lamination machine about a month ago, used it for make-your-own placemat favors for A's birthday, and am now busting at the seams with other arts and crafts ideas. A lot of them center around artwork for A's room. Or life. Well, okay her life is about contained by what is in her room.

And all the toys in the living room.

But what is missing, is artwork. I want there to be some stuff that goes along with the Lithuanian songs and stories she is learning. Because while there are pages and pages of links for Peter Rabbit, Velveteen Rabbit, Goodnight Moon and other English kids books, as well as English nursery rhymes, there are pretty slim pickings when it comes to the Two Roosters (chickens, goats, a fly a mosquito and a mill all make an appearance here - they have yet to meet Nabisco), and I Planted A Clover (on a hill, it sprouted, it grew, it bloomed, I picked it, all on that hill, folks).

The clover song is the current favorite for bed time, after the lights are out. And I'd like there to be some reminders of this once she is older.

My first thought was to illustrate (or collage the hell out of) a laminated page book, with the song lyrics. Sure, it could be a plain paper book, but (1) it would get ripped to shreds, and (2) my laminator requires me to mention it by name in 76% of all craft project proposals I have in my head.

So then, after I made the requisite lamination pitch, I've been considering stamping or (due to a great connection I just met, who is also Lithuanian, 50 feet down the street from me) linocut type illustrations for a book or a piece of art to hang on the wall. Think old fashioned, heavy lines, each character is different colors.

Like from this Etsy shop: WindsparrowStudio

And now I'm also getting excited about the idea of making shadow boxes for some of the songs. The first step in this direction was this Etsy shop, theaterclouds, with its photographs of shadowbox type settings. (You could laminate them, of course). Cool already, but she offers different version of each done with different lighting conditions.

 Of course, I'm not going to be setting up my own photography studio, so making a real shadowbox is going to have to be enough. And I'm thinking of starting with just empty tissue or shoe boxes. To try out the idea. I see 5 hills, each with some lifestage of that clover taking shape already.

Yeah. At least in my mind.