Buds & Blooms Kids' Workshop

Good news - I now offer a private art class for kids!

Buds and Blooms Kids' Workshop
Use your hands and imagination to make paper flowers inspired by Monet's water lilies! Each participant will take home handmade flowers and a gift wrapping kit to use for birthday parties or a special occasion. A perfect activity for parties and groups of budding artists!

Students will receive an introduction to Claude Monet and the Impressionists, then a chance to make projects based on his famous water lilies paintings. Above, G and E show off their versions of the flowers Monet is now famous for.

Can you spot all the collaged lily pads below?

The details:
Buds and Blooms Kids' Workshop
Ages: 7-11
Rates: $25 per student (includes cost of materials)
Location: Greater Pasadena area, in the comfort of your own home
Contact: Charissa at giftedmailbox[at]gmail.com to discuss your private class today!

P contacted me to arrange the first Buds & Blooms Workshop for her daughters and their friends this summer. With a picnic table and tablecloth, she set up a lovely outdoor studio...and the fun began. If this piques your interest, please be in touch! I'm happy to answer any questions.

Wrap Story: Giving Back

This Wrap Story is part of a mini-series, documenting every present I’ve wrapped since the launch of The Gifted Blog. Click here for the whole series!

Having family in a few different states means that we travel by air on a semi-regular basis. In our marriage, one of our least favorite tasks is figuring out how to get to and from the airport. Can anyone else relate? We'll book our tickets and then put off asking for a ride for weeks.

It's a habit we're trying to break. But thankfully, our friends are very good to us. B offered to get us from the airport at the end of our last family vacation. Not only that, she did something I've never had done for me (or thought to do for anyone else!). Waiting in the car with her was a Nalgene full of water, a couple bananas and a container of homemade banana chocolate chip cookies.

That is love.

We'd picked out a pack of lemon coconut curry couscous for B before our departure. Who knew the Iowa City farmer's market had gone so global?

Growing up amongst Japanese-American family and friends, a nice thing to do when returning someone's container (from a potluck or party) was to wash it and put a little something inside for them. I'm not sure if it's a true Japanese tradition or more an Asian-American thing (or maybe it's Presbyterian!). Can any readers confirm from their experience?

I just put the couscous in B's container and topped it with a thank-you and a grocery bag pom-pom I had from a past workshop. Simple and quick, perfect gift wrapping for the jet-lagged but grateful.

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Inspired By: Monkey Gift Bags

This Inspired By post is part of a mini-series on the things and people that inspire my gift wrapping. Inspiration can strike at any time!

These individually screenprinted "snack sacks" are the delightful result of the collaboration between Shay Ometz and Jeff Barfoot. Based in Dallas, their company, bee things, makes screenprinted goodies for kids and adults alike.

Though described as lunch sacks for a special day, I think these would make super gift bags for a kid's birthday party! They'd also be a welcome change from the pinks and blues you usually see at baby showers. Considering that screenprinted art can easily go for $30+ per piece, these strike me as very reasonably priced. For more variations of these whimsical bags (including some for more sophisticated tastes), visit the bee things Etsy shop.

How do you wrap kids' gifts? We have a baby shower this weekend and I'm pondering the same thing.


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Why We Make: Something Beautiful for God

I'm taking a new direction in this series called Why We Make. Over the past year I've been thinking and praying about what it means to love making things (like gift wrapping!) and to follow Jesus. I'm finally making public some of the ideas that have been germinating. I hope these reflections will be jumping-off points for thoughtful discussion among us, no matter your spiritual background.

In a morning prayer time about a year ago, I read this passage and was moved.

The Lord said to Moses: Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me. This is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats' hair, tanned rams' skins, fine leather, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and for the breastpiece. And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them.   Exodus 25:1-8

I was struck by the way God asks the Israelites to make him something beautiful. He wants a place to dwell among them, and it must be beautiful, fragrant, fine. Look at all the specific materials He asks for. God has an aesthetic!

God made the heavens and the earth. He separated light from darkness. He populated the waters of the sea and the dry land with living things. He could easily make himself a place to dwell. But for some reason, he asks them to.

It's not an ultimatum, but a directive for those whose hearts prompted them to give. I like imagining the people with the supplies mentioned being prompted to give. Oh, I have crimson yarn. I can give the spices to make the incense smell sweet.

I read the passage and have so many questions. What does it mean now to make a place where God can dwell among us? What does it mean to not just make something beautiful, but to make something beautiful for God? God came to earth as a humble baby, born in a barn. What was He communicating with such lavish building materials for this sanctuary?

{Image by Ashley R. Good}

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From The Gifted Blog Flickr Pool

I wanted to highlight some additions to The Gifted Blog Flickr pool, the space for readers to show off their gift wrapping! First, this beautiful necklace and butterfly box by silverkeys. Yes, she made both the necklace and the box! You can read more about it and many other gifts here on her lovely blog.

Here is one from my sister. She wrapped Japanese cherry blossom candies in a clear bag, with tiny paper cut-outs adorning the ribbon on top. Cute! When I asked, she said she cut the little cherry blossoms out while watching TV.

Have a gift you're proud of wrapping? Snap a photo and submit it today! For those of you who aren't Flickr-savvy, e-mail the photo to me at giftedmailbox[at]gmail.com. I would love to see it!

To add your images or simply see more, find all the photos in The Gifted Blog Flickr pool here!

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