I received a comment the other day and thought it would make a great post:

“…I have a 4 year old boy who has shown great interest in drawing and painting. Several people have suggested we pursue his love of art. This may be a question for your mom but I figured I would start at the source. Can you recommend some starting points for us. I am creative but I can’t draw. I want to develop this talent but would love suggestions. I will be homeschooling him so I have time to pour into this skill….Thank you. -Amy”

Dear Amy,

It is so encouraging to find families who want to develop the gifts God has given them! The Creator of the universe made us in His image, and through our lives of creativity and honoring Him we glorify Him.

There isn’t any one formula that works for everyone, but there are some ideas that my parents implemented in my childhood that really made an impact. Looking back, I am very thankful for their gracious approach to letting us discover and create a lot on our own. Here’s a peek into what my childhood looked like:

I spent a short amount of time in a public school (kindergarten and half of first grade) and my teachers’ main concerns were that I drew on my assignment papers! They made sure mom knew about this “problem”. I even got in trouble once for not drawing braids on my Thanksgiving Indian like everyone else.

Once we were homeschooling we had all the time in the world to be curious, adventurous and creative. Emily and I spent much of our time reading (or looking at) books, playing, and (mostly me) drawing pictures. Our parents knew the value of keeping our young minds busy and learning through creative outlets, so plenty of crafting materials were always on hand. Mom and Dad gave us a few rules:

• 1) Whenever we were watching a movie or Mom was reading to us, we had to keep our hands busy
• 2) Whenever we had free time to play, it had to be “constructive free time”, not mindless video games or senseless movies, and…
• 3) We always had to clean up our mess after we were done creating.

~

By the time I was 9, and Emily 7, Mom had introduced us to basic sewing, embroidery, and crocheting, as well as watercolors and colored pencils. She had us keep each of our supplies in shoe boxes; one for embroidery, one for crochet…(Click here for a great post on art boxes!). When Mom would read aloud to us, or Dad was leading family devotions, we would pull out our little crochet project or paper and pencils.

Our encouraging parents made sure we had a few art supplies always within reach. It was a good combination of encouragement and creative support. The force that pulled all of these resources together was being inspired. One of my largest sources of inspiration has always come from books.

From the time when we were wee little girls, we have been going to the library. We would come home loaded with books on our favorite animals, crafts, countries we wanted to travel to, fairy tales, art, and especially children’s books with illustrations we couldn’t resist. The best thing of all, we were encouraged to spend lots of “quiet time” with books.

Being allowed to sit and look at books for hours nurtured my love for reading, learning and art. Through this appreciation I was able to learn a bit more on my own. Once Mom got a DickBlick catalog for me, I discovered a whole new host of art books. I wrote down a handful of titles and authors I wanted to check out at the library or find through inter-library loan.

In the world of books I can pursue and learn about my interests, whether they be acrylics, wood burning, cake decorating, caring for animals, sewing historical costumes, oil painting or watercolors.

This is where my greatest developments have sprung from; knowing what inspires me, and knowing how to learn. Mom and Dad gave me these resources by wisely teaching, guiding and protecting me wherever we were.

This is where I’d encourage parents: a healthy dose of fresh air, books, crafting materials, “constructive free time”, encouragement and prayer, all within a guided and structured schedule.

God bless you on your journey!

This is week 2 of Simply Vintagegirl’s A Homemade Christmas! Come and join us as we post weekly on gifts from the heart and hand!

Every year we go to our Granny’s on Christmas day to visit with family, eat a lot of chili and dessert, and exchange gifts. One year I made a clothe doll for my cousin, and another for a friend (her birthday was soon after Christmas). They, too, have felt clothing, but their hair was sewn-on mohair, and their faces were simply embroidered.

This is the hand-sewn doll I made for my friend:

This is my little cousin with the doll I made for her:

I have quite a few other clothe dolls, mostly 6 inches tall and under. I’ll show some more pictures of one I made with a cotton dress named Jubilee:

There are also some little bunny friends, the one in blue made from a similar pattern:

Mr. Bunny, Mirabel, and Little Miss Bunny:

Close-up of Jubilee:

Back of Jubilee’s dress:

And all the under-pinnings, too!

Jubilee’s dress was a real challenge, simply because I had to invent a pattern for it all by myself. And then I lost it! So if I make any more I’ll have to do that all over again.This doll here is about 2 inches tall. If you want to make one, I recommend starting with a pattern no less than 6 inches tall. Hand-sewing takes more time, but it feels so rewarding once they’re done.

This is the general idea I go by when making a pattern. It is hard to make your own perfect pattern without trial and error, but you learn a lot in the process.

The most important thing to do while sewing is to sew extra reinforcing seams along the more vulnerable parts. This, too, takes more time, but it is a real tragedy when they start to unravel. Trust me.

Sew extra around the tips of the arms and legs, at the under arms and between legs, and at the neck. Also trim around major concave and convex curves.

This is how I sew on their fuzzy hair. I usually start in the middle of the head and work outwards, just sewing on loop after loop in a spiraled path on the back of the head:

A finished doll, or even a kit would be a great gift for extra girl time!

My sister has had the brilliant idea of starting a meme on Homemade gifts for Christmas. The sweet and economical blessing of giving one’s time as well as something meaningful to someone you love has always held a special place in all of our hearts. Emily is now hosting a weekly series of posts and Mr. Linkys where we all can gather and share past gifts, current projects, and ideas for future gifts that have come from our hearts as well as our hands.

“A Homemade Christmas” is beginning today over at Emily’s blog, SimplyVintagegirl.com. Come on over and join us as we rediscover the joy of handmade Christmas gifts!

Today my AHC is on some things I have made in the past. I have found that these little people are very fun to make, and even though they took a little time, they were well worth the effort. The tallest one here is just over three inches. The patterns came from a book I got through inter-library loan awhile back: Felt Wee Folk, by Sally Mavor.

Sally Mavor’s books are so inspirational! Check some of them out from your library, or get them through inter-library loan. The bodies are made from from pipe cleaners wrapped with embroidery floss, wooden beads for the heads, and acorn caps for their hats! She recommends using reall wool felt for the clothing, and wool roving for the hair - but I have gotten away with using regular felt and fuzzy yarn for their clothing and hair just fine. Only the most basic sewing and embroidery skills are needed.

These make great gifts for sisters, cousins, mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and young girlfriends. You could sew little traveling bags or build shoe box houses to keep them safe in, or make a kit to share with sisters or dear cousins.

The sky is the limit!