If you’re in the Bay Area this weekend, please visit us at our first ever Art Pantry pop-up shop. Remember all of our awesome kids art supplies and crafty gifts? They will all be on sale now that we have cleared out the warehouse. Most items will be 50% off retail prices.
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Rebecca Picker is a mother of 3, performer, costume designer, and founder of Studio Sprout, a children’s art studio and discovery garden in Santa Cruz, California. Rebecca and I have been friends since first meeting in college at UC Santa Cruz. When we re-connected at a college reunion a few years ago, she was super excited to hear about how I had started a toddler art studio out of my back cottage. This got her thinking…
With a little encouragement from me and a lot of talent and drive on her part, she too was able to start a successful children’s art studio at home. I recently spent a morning at her art studio enjoying her amazing program and finding out a little more about how she managed to follow her passions and create a fulfilling business as a stay at home mom.
It’s almost springtime, my favorite time of year. The sun is lingering around a little longer these days and delicate flower blossoms are popping up along the branches of our bare trees. As we begin to plan for our spring garden projects, I’m also thinking of ways to bring our art activities outdoors. One artful garden project that we love to do is make seed bombs. Seed bombs are small masses of clay, mixed with soil and seeds that will grow in any plot of land with a little water and sun. They are often used as a guerrilla gardening tactic to bring beauty to barren, abandoned city lots. Just toss them on top, no digging necessary!
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For the month of October, We’ll be embarking on a super fun, “invitations to create” challenge. This simply means setting up a few art materials in an interesting way and inviting your child to create. It’s easier than you’d think!
The challenge is to do this daily for 30 days to see how it improves your child’s relationship to art materials and to the creative process (and it will!)
The hard part is coming up with variations of art supplies to help your child think out of the box and engage with the materials in new ways. That’s where we come in! During the challenge, we’ll send out weekly ideas, along with extra tips and useful information. We also encourage you to share photos and support each other on our Facebook page.
Dear friends,
I first want to thank you all for your continued support throughout the many forms this work has taken. Many of you first found this blog through The Littlest Birds Studio. As the business grew, it eventually morphed into the Make+Believe studio, blog, and shop.
As we prepare to launch the new Art Pantry website, we decided to hold a focus group for a few local mamas to get some feedback. With Valentines day coming up, we had the perfect excuse to get everyone’s creative juices flowing.
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Hello! This cutie is part of the reason I’ve been an absentee blogger recently. I have also been hard at work revamping my online shop. The new site will be much more user friendly and totally awesome! Another big change that has occurred over the summer is the sale of my children’s art studio. Being a stay at home mom, running a studio, and running an online shop was spreading me too thin. I made the tough but exciting decision to sell the studio to Jhaya Warmington, the incredible teacher who worked for me.
Karuna continues to take art class and loved making these butterfly wings in her garden art workshop!
Now I can finally breath, play with my kids, and focus on creating a great online shopping experience for your children’s creative needs.
We have come to the end of the school year and are excited to showcase the children’s work and the various explorations that they have encountered in art class throughout the year. The last time I attempted an art show was two years ago when the studio was in my back yard. Boy, have these classes come a long way! Not only have the projects evolved, but we now have two awesome teachers, Jhaya and Kory, who have brought their passion and skills to the table. And of course we are now located at the amazing GROW Art & Garden Education Center, the perfect backdrop for this colorful exhibition.
Below are some pics from the show.It will be up for one more week if you’re in the area and want to check it out!
Wacky object paintings, tape resist, treasure hunt collage, spin and golf ball painting:
Sand prints, collaborative watercolor/ink, collaborative plaster relief sculptures:
Collaborative pour painting:
These are two of the 5 printmaking boards… we sure do make a lot of prints!
Watercolor paintings, handmade paper:
Self portrait drawing and clay sculpture:
Skateboard shelves with foam sculptures on top:
Foam sculptures, toddler clay work:
Collaborative plaster relief sculptures:
After checking out the show, everyone hung out in the garden and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We had food, a few creative activities and a gorgeous space to run and play.
Thanks for a wonderful year and hope to see you this summer!
