Our Crafty Christmas Presents pt1 - Shell Shadow Boxes
We have put together a bunch of small art pieces out of crafts the Things have done, and will be including these in our boxes of presents going out to family and friends.
Shell Shadow Boxes
I mentioned previously that we collected a ton of land snail shells since we moved to Utah and had fun painting on them.
As the kiddos painted shells we tossed them in a container when they were dry with the vague idea of doing some kind of larger craft project with them some day. Well, that day has come :)
The shadow box frames are from the dollar store. The things love to paint with watercolors on paper and have generated stacks of abstract compositions - we cut out sections to use as the background in the frame, choosing sections of painting with colors that complement the shells. I think these actually turned out really cool.
The Things were not particularly careful to totally cover the shells with paint, so sections of white shell show through in places. This just added more complexity and depth to the final product IMO.
I am obviously biased but I think these will make pretty good gifts. Usually giving art made by a two year old and a four year old as a present would be... cute at best, but I think the whole is more than the sum of the parts in this case. There is some real artistic beauty IMO. What do you think?
These would make pretty cool gifts, created by all of you guys and all. Great to involve the kids in something artistic and creative rather than simply buying stuff. You guys probably had a lot of fun creating them and I'm sure those who receive them will be grateful.
I'm absolutely loving the green ones.
I share your opinion on all accounts: very merry gifts, with added depth for the frottage technique (dab not spread) and I would put them up with the best of art. @onnovocks and I had a huge debate over dinner recently, about whether Pininfarina is a (very talented) car designer or an artist (as if one outdoes the other), but in this case I don't think we'd argue: the Things are Artists with a capital A by my (superior of course - not going to lose this argument too!) definition of art: you can't do anything with it and you don't have to understand it even, but it WILL show you something if you look at it long enough.
.
They did come out beautifully and I think the recipients will be happy to add them to their home decor.
Very nice, I created something similar to this a few years ago :) https://dksartwork.com/star-shells-1/
What a great family project.@carlgnash, I think your little ones show some real talent and patience. The shadow boxes are really pretty and will definitely make awesome gifts. I always preferred homemade gifts especially from my children. I have boxes of these treasures, I save everything, and my "kids" have "kids of their own now.😃
They are amazing! Given us a good idea for something to do with our little one.
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here