A few months ago, we visited our friend Sara from Handmade by Sara Kim. Sara is known for her beautiful & intricate paper flowers. The details she puts into making these will make you believe it's an actual real one! I was SO excited when Sara was interested in doing a career day with Emma! Emma had the best time cutting, gluing and creating these paper flowers. Thank you Sara for hanging out with us and allowing us to see behind the scenes on how to run your amazing business!
I worked as a preschool teacher for a while before having kids. Being introduced to Reggio Emilia while I attended college, I learned the importance of finding different ways for kids to express themselves. For me, I knew art was a great way for Emma to express herself, so that's where it all started. There were so many times when I knew an activity would get messy but I trusted the process and let her be and she always created something amazing in the end. It's not easy to give up control in these areas and I too struggle with this but knowing that Emma benefits so much in these activities makes it so worth it.
Now back from our small tangent ~ Emma has been painting weekly already, so this made it a fairly easy process to put this art gallery themed birthday together. For the painting gallery, I introduced Emma to a different medium and had her paint with Sumi Ink on canvas. During this time, she is free to paint whatever she wants. I usually ask her questions about what she’s painting and that's how we come up with a story along with her artwork. Whenever she loses track of what she’s doing, I remind her of what she's working on and she usually regains her focus to finish off her artwork. It's amazing to see and hear what she comes up with. I love seeing her image come to life when she explains her story to me.
For the photography portion of the gallery, we showcased all of Emma’s photos she took by herself! She used her very own Holga Digital to take the photos on our daily walks. There are days when she goes on a hiatus and some days where she'll barely touch her camera, but most times she loves to take photos of random things wherever we go. It's a fun little camera because you get to build up excitement to see what photos you took only after uploading them to your computer. It's really so neat to see the world behind her lens.
For the color portion of the gallery, we've been using primary colors and discovering what colors come together when you mix them. She absolutely enjoys this activity because she loves getting messy haha!
For the nature portion of the gallery, I just laminated her treasures she found on our daily walks. I had her spread out her findings onto the plastic sheets and I laminated it. I loved how it turned out because each piece is unique and is exactly how Emma placed them.
I definitely want to give a shoutout to my generous friends who've inspired me and contributed their amazing talents for this party! My kind friend Genie from E2 Beauty let us use her space for the party! My amazing sister-in-law Hanna did all the florals and decorated the balloon garland. My sweet friend Tesia actually made the amazing balloon garland and provided her photo booth for the party. (Who knew these kids would be so obsessed with taking photos?!) Lastly, my beautiful friend Danni provided the decals that really brought the gallery theme all together! Special thanks to my brother Eric and husband David for helping with setting up the event!
This was definitely a special day for not only Emma but for all our friends and family that made it out. Hope you enjoy the photos!
