Turning Trash into Treasure

 Please excuse my pic heavy post.  

A huge reason I keep a blog is to share what our life was like together at this time.

A memory keeper for my girl and husband.

It's amazing what tragedy teaches you, and I don't want to overlook one picture that meant something to me.  So please excuse the excess of pictures :)

As a former art teacher (and one with a VERY SMALL BUDGET), you learn how to use and manipulate everyday items into extraordinary pieces of art.  That's what artists do.  

Art is a process of taking the everyday ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary. 

Art challenges us to see things differently...

Some artists challenge us to look at what we think is "trash" and see it as a treasure.  

Isn't that what Jesus, the greatest artist of all, does to us?

 He takes our ugliness... our trash... and turns it into treasure... turns us into treasure to bring honor and glory to Him.

On our "Recycler" day, Mother Goose Time (MGT), challenged kids with an Invitation to Create using recyclable materials... basically trash. 

MGT sent this picture of a fish sculpture made completely out of recyclable materials.  The Invitation was to create whatever the child wanted from recyclable materials as well.  The invitation was not to make a fish... but to focus on the material- the recyclables.  

 Unfortunately, in my small town, we don't have a recycling plant, but as a former hoarder teacher, I have definitely kept a few containers and "trash"-like items for the sake of using them again.  

   

Sweet Pea was enamored with the picture of the fish.  She studied it carefully first and we kind of played Search and Find:

"Can you find the green watering can?"  That's what she is pointing to in the above picture.

Then it was time to investigate our recyclables. 

   

She practiced some fine motor skills like tearing paper and foil.

Sweet Pea studied textures, such as scrunching the foil and touching the cotton balls.  After exploring our materials, I gave her a heavy piece of watercolor paper (to hold up against the materials) and glue.  I am really glad I had her explore the materials first before giving her glue and paper.  She's way into glue right now, so if I put that out, she would have never paid attention to the recyclable materials, which was the whole point! 

Sweet Pea loves to place little blobs of glue everywhere and then place things on the glue.  Much of her work ends up with bumps from unused glue blobs, but that is perfectly fine and makes her work hers. 

Having fun with some tulle I had stashed in a closet.

She saw this cow mask in the middle of making her artwork and just had to put it on :)  I love how the light glows behind her... does it get any cuter!?! (I know I am biased...)

Adding finishing touches with a brown marker while wearing a cow crown. 

Sweet Pea's finished masterpiece. 

All made from trash... 

That I will truly treasure.

If you want to learn more about our adventures using Mother Goose Time, be sure to check them out here.