I believe that being creative is something that is learned. I believe that it takes massive amounts of inner confidence to create. I believe it is much easier to listen to whoever is telling you that its not perfect/unique/awesome enough (even if that person is yourself) than to fly the double falcons and push through it.

I am not a great parent. Sometimes I forget to brush my kids teeth. Sometimes I feed them cheetos for dinner. Sometimes I get frustrated and yell. Sometimes I do this all in one day…

But one thing I think I do pretty well is let my kids be creative. My girls would much rather do a project than pretty much anything else. So today I am going to let you in on a few of my secrets to encouraging creativity.

1. Don’t freak out. There have been many a day when I have walked in on Dylan writing on things that she should not be. Lately she is tagging everything with her name. Its adorable and frustrating at the same time. Do you ever get the urge to do a project RIGHTTHISSECONDORYOUAREGOINGTOEXPLODE? I know I do. (Its usually when I improvise and use a butter knife to putty something,  or a roll of tape to measure spacing)  Kids get like that too,  AND they don’t always have the common sense to control it. Now, I am not saying you shouldn’t have rules or set boundaries, because you ABSOLUTELY should. But if mistakes are made,  its ok,  its just stuff. Heck I am sure there is some viral pin all about cleaning crayon off of every surface in your home anyways.

2. Give them the tools they need. Ivie loves to make things out of trash. This girl will save boxes and containers like it is manna in the desert. Her tool of choice is a hot glue gun. So I make sure that there is always hot glue in the house. Dylan LOVES to draw,  and if she cant find paper at a moments notice my walls suffer, so I always try to have paper on hand. If you give them the tools, then the only thing that is limiting them is their own mind.

3. Be creative yourself. There is not a day that goes by that I am not working on something. When my girls see me pushing myself and problem solving, they know that its not always going to turn out perfect the first time, but to keep at it.

4. Encourage Encourage Encourage. I love getting pats on the back for all of my hard work, your kids want that too.

5. Don’t Forget To Enjoy Their Journey. This is one of my FAVORITE videos of Dylan ever. EVER. It was shot about 6 months ago when she was going through her YouTube Monster High Makeover phase. Please enjoy.

The most important thing about fostering creativity is to help your child see that they can be as creative and weird as they want. It is worth the messes friends, pinky promise.

Can you tell I am on a kid friendly project kick? It should last approximately 6 more hours until I am ready for school to start again. If you need more kiddo approved projects check out this post and this post.

What are your favorite kid friendly projects?

The post Do You Mind Mom? I Am Creating Here. 5 Tips To Boost Your Kid’s Creativity appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

This post is all over the place. I am not sure why, but lets just go with it. Consider yourself warned.

When I was sprucing up my patio, I knew I want some kind of funky art. I have been hoarding this Tiki mask for MONTHS. Court was confused and a little, well, nervous, when I told him there was no way on God’s green earth I was selling it at the Hoard Sale. (The actual plan was to paint it and put it in my kitchen, we will see if that ever happens…)

So we have the Tiki mask and the theme of Summer. And for some reason the first thing that I think of when I hear “SUMMER!!!” is Grease. I don’t know why. Its a gift and a treasure, in one John Travolta-Hip Thrusting- Music Filled package.

Here is the internal conversation with Me, Myself, and I (you should know that Myself is the one that thinks through the way readers will react to things. Sometimes Myself is on vacation…like when I write posts like “Craigslist Etiquette is for Suckers” and it makes people feel the need to tell me that I have no morals. But usually she is right here with me.

Me:  Hmmm.. Patio. Decorating. Art. Summer.

I: Don’t forget we have that awesome Tiki Mask

Myself:  Some people commented on FB that the Tiki mask has bad Ju-ju and you shouldn’t put it in your house. Whatever Ju-ju is.

Me:  Well,  maybe we should put it outside.

I:  Maybe it will protect against the feral cats that crap on the lawn? Or the Feral teenagers that keep jacking our stuff.

Myself:  You cant say feral teenagers,  that will anger people. They are children of God, just trying to find their way.

Me:  Focus you two. Sheesh. So we have Tiki. We have summer.

I: Summer lovin,  had me a blast.

Me:  Ohh ohh what if we make it look like the mask is singing?! Such a good idea.

I:  I love that! He could be singing Summer Lovin and have kisses all over his face!

Myself:  Summer Lovin is probably not the best phrase since it promotes teenage sexual behavior, and we already have a wayward teenager issue.

Me:  Dude. No one is going to take it like that.

Myself:  Do you want to end up on a blogger bashing forum? Find something a little bit more appropriate.

I:  How about But, Oh. Those Summer Nights?

Me: Fine with me.

Myself:  It still a little risky, but if people get upset then they need a life. Plus most teenagers nowadays probably haven’t seen Grease. Lets do it.

Now who has said they want to live in my head? Its a bit crowded friends.

Dyl has become the resident watercolor specialist in the Gubler casa. I wish I could take credit for this project but it was 95% her.

I cut the words out with my Silhouette (the font I used is Nova Solid) and stuck them to a scrap piece of 1/8” ply that I had in my garage.

I didn’t want them to be perfectly lined up, so instead of using transfer tape I peeled of each letter and place it individually.

Once I had the letters down I drew a rough circle around them to mark where I wanted the wood painted (you can see it in the picture below) and then I gave Dylan free reign with her watercolors (I know that watercolors are not permanent but it was the loose watery look that I was going for.)

She had so much fun mixing and painting. I love when you get out of the way and give kids permission to let whatever is inside of them to come out.

Then I let Dylan peel of the vinyl. This was probably her favorite part, she was amazed that the letters were still there! I am pretty sure if there was a job just doing this, it would be the most gratifying job in the world.

All dried.

As far as the kissy mask goes, I just free handed lips onto the mask with plain old acrylic craft paint. I did contemplate putting it on my lips and then kissing him but Myself got the better of me.

I hung the board on the house (one of the upsides of Stucco) with small finishing nails in each corner and then hung Mr.. Tiki Man on with a nail. Not a big to do, but it works.

I love that Dylan did this,  I love that it looks so fun, and I love that the Tiki Man is going to scare away all of the feral teenagers. (Sorry Myself, I just had to throw it in there.)

Hope you guys have an amazing Memorial Day!

The post Outdoor Watercolor Tiki Mask Art appeared first on Vintage Revivals.

A few weeks ago I basically ripped my heart out of my chest (Once Upon A Time style) and showed it to you all in my Blog Puberty post. I am SO glad that I did. Apparently the way that I was feeling is the way that A LOT of us feel from time to time. Whether you have a blog or are just in a slump, here are a few things that helped slap me, shake me, and wake me up again. This was my process.

1. Go back and read your blog from the beginning. Yes, it is PAINFULLY obvious that your pictures were horrible,  you were still trying to find your voice, and you have zero comments. BUT you were passionate. THAT is what you need to remember. The passion that made  you start your blog in the first place. The excitement that you had when you couldn’t get your fingers to type fast enough because you had opened the floodgates and your creativity was taking out everything in its path. THAT is what you need to feel again, and you can! And just for fun here is the after picture from the first project I ever posted…

2. Figure out why you are in a slump. Is it stuff going on at home? Have you gained weight from sitting on your computer for hours at a time? Are you comparing yourself to other bloggers? Did you run out of mulah? (These are some of my slumpish reasons, they may or may not be yours.)  Make a list of why you are feeling so awkward. We as women (at least most of the women that I know) want to talk about things over and over and over and don’t necessarily want a solution, we just want validation, we want someone to understand us. Well knock it off. Face it like a man. Figure out why you are comparing yourself, and then STOP IT. Figure out why you have no money (daily thrift store trip much?) and come up with a better solution. And then do it.

3. Get outside your comfort zone. I know,  you are feeling blah. Put on some proverbial pink lipstick and go make new friends! I just got back from ALT and let me tell you,  these people are TALENTED. Now come closer….Let me tell you something else. They are people too. And they just might be feeling the same way that you are.

4. Go find some new blogs and leave wonderful and sincere comments. There are some people that are of the opinion that there is not enough internet to go around. That is complete crap.  Virtually raise your hand if you only read one blog. Now keep your hand up if once you find a great new blog that you connect with, you stop reading the one blog that you previously were obsessed with. I mean, really folks? That DOES NOT happen. Ever.

5. Shut off that DANG computer and make something!!! Like with your hands folks. Set a $10.00 limit and use your creativity to make it amazing!! Want to know what I did with my $10? I bought a cookie and drew on my walls with a Sharpie. And I feel SO much better!!

So these steps are literally the way that I worked through my dark cloud. I finally feel like I am back, and let me tell you how fun it was for a freaky picture loving girl to share these with you.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to vote for VR on the Homies!! They are still going full force and if you love my guts as much as I love yours, I would love it if you clicked over and voted (if you haven’t already!)

The post 5 Tips To Survive Blog Puberty Like A Champion AKA How To Work Through A Creative Slump. appeared first on Vintage Revivals.