Spontaneous Pinecone Art

We have lots of art supplies in our house. The bottom of a hutch in our kitchen is dedicated to the basics–paper, markers, crayons, stickers, pipe cleaners, glue sticks, craft sticks, and so on. Old lunch boxes on top of our fridge contain small items like buttons and beads.  Chalk and paint live in the basement where the girls’ easels are.

Really, though, it doesn’t take much to make a great art project.

Some pinecones and some glitter glue will do the trick.

It took a little concentration, and some extra effort to squeeze the glitter glue, but this activity kept my girls occupied for about 45 minutes.

Even the littlest hands could do it.

The pinecones were lovely, and the girls were proud.

The best thing about this project? It was their idea. They found the supplies, and they made it happen. I just watched.

I think that by making art projects a regular, accessible part of a child’s life, her creativity will be spontaneous and natural. By letting art be a process, my girls can be absorbed by creating for as long as they like. Sure, sometimes we do planned projects, where the goal is to make a certain end product. But more often, the joy of planning their projects or just seeing what unfolds when they combine different media is up to my kids.

My job is just to keep the cabinets and easels well stocked!