Kid Tested; Kid Approved

 If you have been keeping up with my projects, you will remember that Jodi from My Miniature Madness  enlisted the help of 14 miniaturists to test her new line of kitchen utensils and accessories. I've written about the pieces that I finished and I send Jodi my assessment of the pieces that I finished--you can find them in the previous post.(click)

I had to set aside the review project to hold my greeting card workshops for my DAR chapter to get Veterans Day cards made and sent to the veteran residents at the Cheyenne, WY, VA nursing home, something that we have done as a national DAR Service to America   for the last few years. The Veterans Day cards carry messages of gratitude and appreciation to these special men and women for their service  our country. 

I'm now working on the holiday greeting cards that we will send to them. In addition I've set a goal to send 100 handmade cards to Card for Soldiers located in Michigan. The director of that program, a veteran herself, receives thousands of handmade greeting cards from across the USA that she ships to American military serving all over the world. Click Here for the link to her website and you will also find her on Facebook if you would like to make and send greeting cards to her. She really does amazing work and there is such a need to support our American military.

So. The mini studio has been dormant for several days, until 10 year old granddaughter Lily decided that she needed to spend a couple nights with us last week. The child is a bundle of energy, constantly wanting to do things. So we went swimming one afternoon, and she made her special made from scratch blueberry with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast one morning. She tried to teach Brody some manners and attended her homeschooling lessons via her iPhone with her mom and sisters. 

While I worked on cutting card embellishments on the Cricut, she decorated a reindeer with glitter and other embellishments, the second day she decided that she wanted to work on the dollhouse. Not really in the mood to take on that project, I finally gave her some of Jodi's pieces to paint. 

I had already decided that I would put some of the pieces in the first kitchen I did when I renovated the Blue Farm House Now Pink. I love that kitchen that began my passion for dollhouse miniatures. I gave Lily the very tiny measuring cup set to work on. "Gee, Grandma, these are really little," she said as she began painting them. I asked her what color and she answered, "silver," like the ones she uses at home. 

She caught on very quickly to hold the tiny cup in the clamp tweezers and did an excellent job painting the tiny pieces.

With the measuring cups finished, I gave her the spice rack to paint. Since it was going in the farmhouse kitchen that is basically red and white, she painted the pieces white, then added the red accents.

It was very tedious work. Since the pieces had been primed, the acrylic craft paint went on smoothly with a fine point brush.

Lily has a steady hand and a good eye. When it came time to paint the tiny drawers and containers, I had her paint only the fronts, leaving the sides and bottoms unpainted because I worried that a layer of paint would alter the size of the pieces enough so that wouldn't fit in the tiny shelf.

Adding the red to knobs was tediously tiny, so she used a tooth pick to dot the red paint on the micro-min knobs then use a speck of white to even out the blotches.

By now, her patience was wearing away and she was getting tired.

Good times with grandchildren always come to an end and it was to time to take them home. I loved sharing this time with her and I'm sure that she will have sweet memories.

I finished the spice rack this evening and set it in the farmhouse kitchen.

I was right. The little drawers fit quite snuggly in place and I doubt that I'll be taking them out. The spice rack turned out just as I wanted.

The Lady of the House loves the new bakeware and new mixer that arrived just in time for her holiday baking. 

To the adults who wish to purchase theses pieces for their children to paint there are always some cautions.

Age appropriate: Lily is 10 and enjoys crafting, including leather tooling. I would rate her as an experienced crafter since her mother and sisters do a lot of leather work, sewing, cooking and baking. She too does a lot of baking--she makes excellent pies and Danish, so she is disciplined and takes her craft seriously, be it baking or making little things.

Product safety: Children should work with non toxic craft paints and products--water soluble, so no fancy spray paints or finishes that have noxious fumes or cause skin irritations. The final results may not be as perfect as an adult might like, but that's replaced with the pleasure and joy of teaching children how to create and make and do "dollhouse stuff" or any craft or art project. I've always been a firm believer that children need art and music and dance--all ways of healthy self expression.

Patience: We have let go of the need for perfection and just let the children enjoy the moment. I found that Lily eagerly begins a project, but the painting was so intense that I think she grew weary and needed to be done. And that was okay. 

It should go without saying, however, these tiny pieces present a choking hazard, so adults must closely supervise young children and keep really little ones away from these easily swallowed pieces. Ten year olds or 5th graders probably have the maturity and dexterity paint these tiny pieces, but still require supervision. Of course, it all depends on the individual child and if the adult wants to share the experience. 

Again so much appreciation and thanks for Jodi's generosity to share her passion to involve her followers in the process of making minis. I'm happy to report that her 3-D printed kitchen accessories are kid tested and kid approved. 💕

Thanks for visiting.