The Joy of Making Art Comes Alive When You Create with Children

Creativity blooms across generations in this heartwarming episode recorded while traveling in Seattle with my granddaughters Jojo (5) and Franny (7). Surrounded by the Pacific Northwest's lush plant life and buzzing insects, we embark on a ladybug-themed art project that captures the magic of making art with children.

Armed with watercolor paints and paper, we create vibrantly unconventional ladybugs – Jojo opts for a royal purple while Franny chooses sunny yellow. Throughout our painting session, we share delightful conversations about bugs, art preferences, and even a traditional ladybug nursery rhyme from my childhood. The girls offer their unique perspectives, with Franny confidently informing me that ladybugs eat raisins, showcasing the wonderful imagination that children bring to creative sessions.

The project evolves beyond simple painting as we transform our two-dimensional artwork into pop-up creations. Using scissors, glue sticks, and folded paper, we engineer our ladybugs to stand up on their painted leaves and flowers. The process becomes a lesson in spatial awareness, fine motor skills, and problem-solving disguised as play. All the while, the natural conversation flows between us reveals glimpses into their lives – from video games to face painting adventures from previous visits.

This episode serves as a reminder of art's power to connect across ages. Whether you're a parent, grandparent, teacher, or creative adult with children in your life, I hope this inspires you to sit down for a simple crafting session with the young people you care about. The masterpieces you'll treasure most aren't the physical creations but the memories and bonds strengthened through creative collaboration. Why not gather some basic art supplies and create your own "buggy" adventure today?

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Jojo and Franny
• 0:35 Setting Up Our Ladybug Art Project
• 2:16 Painting Colorful Ladybugs
• 8:26 Adding Wings and Leaves
• 15:02 Assembling 3D Ladybug Creations
• 21:20 Finishing Our Projects Together

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hey everyone, welcome back to Brutally Made. We are on the road and I get to do my podcast this week with my granddaughters. This is Jojo Say hi, jojo. And this is Franny Say hi, franny. So we are in Seattle and there are all kinds of beautiful plants here and there's also all kinds of bugs, and my girls said their favorite bug today will be a ladybug. And so we are going to do a ladybug drawing painting. We're going to cut it out, we're going to put it on a leaf, aren't we, jojo? All right. So we have our paper and we have pencils and we also have watercolor. So, frankie, show them your watercolor pen, franny's pen filled with water already, and they're going to paint in all of the outside of the body, not the black dots, red, right or orange. What color is your ladybug gonna be, jojo? Oh, purple ladybug. And then, after they paint in, they're going to paint their leaf, and then we're going to put wings on it and it's going to move. Fran, what color is your ladybug going to be? Yellow, all right, and I'm going to do one too. So we are going to paint our ladybugs.

Speaker 1: 1:40

First, go ahead and use your paintbrush, fran. Pick out your color yellow, jojo, do you find your purple yet? No, let's see if I can help you. Let's see, look which purple Do you like? This color purple Right here, I like that one. This one right here, this one, okay, so that color purple is right here. So take your brush and paint. Open your brush, pull that top up. There we go, squeeze it and get the water. Put the paint on. Now paint your ladybug, that's okay. Yeah, go ahead. It's okay, just wipe, go ahead, it's okay, just wipe it off over here. Clean off the brush until your yellow starts showing up. Okay, just like, clean off, like, right there. Yeah, get that green off of there. It must have been green in that brush. Huh, yep, there you go, you're getting it, and just keep squeezing as you put some paint on that paper. Good job, how's it coming, jojo? Oh, that's so good. Oh, I like that color too. Jojo, I'll give you another yellow too, fran, we have all these the Via watercolors, and so these are all kinds of yellows. Try this yellow, franny. It looks like it's orange, but when you put it on the paper it's yellow. And squeeze your pen. When you push, squeeze the pen to squeeze the water out. There you go, there you go and now put it on. Now, try painting your ladybug that color. Hey, isn't that pretty? Yeah, that's a good color.

Speaker 1: 3:27

Jojo, did you catch ladybugs? Yeah, I caught one in Animal Crossing. You did you caught one in Animal Crossing? Is Animal Crossing a game? Yeah, is it a hard game to play? No, no, grandma is going to paint a red ladybug.

Speaker 1: 3:45

A normal ladybug Is A normal ladybug. Is that a normal ladybug? I don't know. I don't know ladybugs very well. I have seen an orange ladybug before. You've seen an orange ladybug before. That's pretty. That was real. It was real. Oh, my goodness, that is so cool. Ladybugs are so pretty. Did you know? There is this poem called Ladybug Ladybug, fly away home. Your house is on fire and your children are alone. That was a nursery rhyme when I was a little girl. I think ladybugs have a scent. They smell like buggy, like earth. Have you ever smelled? Ladybugs have a scent? They smell like buggy, like earth. Have you ever smelled ladybugs before? No, no, maybe grandma's just being really silly. How's your purple coming? Jodi has antennas on hers already. Oh, my goodness, so good. I like it so good. I like it so pretty. Squeeze your pen to get water out if you need more water. Oh, I like that pretty purple. Yes, we're going to put some darker color red on here with mine. Just using some paper, I got my red on guys. What do you think Is that okay? Yeah, oh, fran, yeah, squeeze like this, squeeze side to my side. Oh, yep, right up there, right up in here, there we go. Good job, that'll get more of that coming out. And try to make cute ladybugs. Oh you go. Good job, that'll get more of that coming out. Oh, that's super cute, joe, and love it so cute. I'm gonna put some dots on mine now see if I can get some that look a little dark. Oh my gosh, jody, I want you to hold your paper up to the camera so everybody can see how pretty it looks. Look what she's doing, jodi, how old are you? I'm five, five. And look how well you're drawing, brandy, how old are you? Seven, seven. Oh my gosh, you've got all these beautiful yellows, all the colors. You girls, you make me so happy. I love that. You love art. We do a lot of art when I visit, don't we? We try to make all kinds of things. I used to make your costumes when you were going for Halloween. So much fun. I love it. I like it too. I'm glad you like it too. What's your favorite kind of art to make? Do you like clay? Do you like to paint? What do you like, jodi? I like toys, the toys. Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of fun to play with some toys. You've always liked blocks and building things. So cute. Okay, let's see here Getting some ladybug. Anton is going like Jodi's got. I'm trying. Well, that looks like a real baby. I'm trying, joe, that's a beautiful blue. Squeeze your pen like this side to side. When you squeeze these, the water come out and it lets you get lots of color from your paper paint onto your brush and then it smooths out. There you go, look, grandpa, they're on the podcast and they're painting ladybugs. Yes, can you believe it? And then, when you're ready, we're gonna get all the greens and we're going to paint all kinds of leaves. Franny, the other day we painted your face because you wanted leaves on your face and that was so much fun. And, jodi, we painted a butterfly on yours. It was so pretty, it was pink and purple. I wish Franny could have one that was a butterfly that had plants on it. We could do that. Grandma can paint your face again. Butterfly with plants. And no, franny, oh Franny, you want Franny to do plants and a butterfly. Yeah, Franny, she's picking out your next face paint. What do you think I have to say? Slow, it's slow. Charging, it must be fast charging. I don't know, I don't know. Grandpa, oh, my goodness sakes, that is beautiful, fran. Okay, can you pick one of your greens and start painting some leaves? We'll do a couple leaves and some stems. Do you think ladybugs eat leaves? No, no, they just like to sit on them. Yeah, it's just their little perch. They eat raisins. They eat raisins. I didn't know that. What? Oh, my goodness, raisins. I didn't know that. What? Oh my goodness Jody, your dots look so good, fran, can we hold up your ladybugs over here and see, look how good this turns out? Oh, keep going paint stories. We're gonna cut the leaves out, we're gonna put them under the ladybug. We're gonna make a little bit of like a pop-up card with it. That's what you wanted, isn't it Jodi? Yes, you said that so sweet. And then I'm going to try to get a little bit of light blue and I want to do some little tiny wings, some little tiny wings that are very transparent. We'll see if I can make them transparent. Oh, it's working a little bit better there. Yes, good job girls. Ladybug, ladybug. There's one wing. Grandpa, could you hand me the scissors please whenever you get a second. This is a great project for sure. Keep squeezing your pen if you need more water out. Do you need some more green for your leaves? Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze water. Okay, squeeze water. Let's go like this big squeeze the sides. There we go, it's coming out. There we go. All right, ready, all right. So now I have leaves and wings and a big old ladybug. So now I'm gonna cut mine out while the girls are still painting theirs, and so just cutting around what I colored. So cute. You think he's fuzzy? Oh, so good, brandy, do you like watching podcasts? I don't really watch them. Do you watch YouTube channels and watch the kiddos make things or play games? Yeah, no, so it's just going to be you watching us on our podcast, right, yep, yep, that'll be cool. Do you know that people all over the world listen to Grandma's podcast? No, all over the place In other countries. It's so cool to see how many people like to talk about and listen to art, and they tune in. And so you're going to inspire them to create something so cool. Oh, my goodness, how are they coming along, girls? Tell me when you're ready to cut them out. I'm working on my wings now and then I'm going to cut the leaves out, and I think I'm going to need the tape or the glue stick. Grandpa, you may need to help me with that too. Let's see. Oh friend, so good, you ready to cut out? Yeah, would you like the scissors? I think I'll get the red ones. Yep, get the red scissors and bring the glue sticks and the tape, please. Okay, all right, fran's grabbing those materials for us. Jodi, it looks so pretty. It should be a yellow thing of tape. Is it over there? I'll look for it. If it's not, I may have buried it with a bunch of other stuff over there. And this leaf. Now we've got all this extra paper, but we're going to use that as all of the pieces to help things stick up. So I've got all this extra paper, but we're going to cut strips and we're going to fold these like squares Mine, I want mine to be a flower under it. Oh, I like that idea of a flower under it. Make your flower out of paint and we'll cut it off and make sure that it fits it. And so you're going to take those little pieces of paper and you're going to make little tiny triangles or squares to help things stick up. So we're going to take our glue stick and we're going to glue those boxes together and then those are going to get glued to the leaves and then the leaves get glued to one another and then the button gets glued on. So we got all kinds of layers. I got my bug and it's going to get glued to the little perch here. So it's on the leaf, and then I'm going to take my little wing and I'm going to glue that on and you can take the paper and curl it on the edge of your table so it looks like it's moving. Okay, there's one minute, it'll work now, and then I can put this leaf back here, like there's another one for the ladybug to sit on, like there's another one for the ladybug to sit on. And now you got a three dimensional ladybug on a leaf. What do you think? You ready to put yours on your flower? You ready to cut yours out on your leaf? Uh-oh, someone's glue stick, it fell. So there's Grandma's leaf and her ladybug and you can put them on your table or your nightstand. But you can curl paper and make it look like it's flying so cute. Fran, let me know if I can help you set up your little squares to hook it on. Okay, I'm making your little square to help glue it onto your leaf. See, just fold it in a bunch of different panels and then you glue it to itself, so you make a little mounting square. So good, dodie, are you ready to cut? Look at those beautiful flowers. Let's hold it up so everybody can see. Look what she did. That's beautiful. Do you want Grandma to help you cut it out? Okay, I will help you cut it out and then you can help stick it together. How about that? Oh my gosh, it's so pretty. I love your flower. That was such a great idea. Oh my gosh, franny's got her bug cut out and now she's getting ready to do her leaves and her wings. Oh my gosh, so cute. Look at that. So many petals. I love the color of this flower too. Oh my goodness gracious. All right, I got a couple more petals left. Couple more, all right. You want to hold your flower for me? All right, there's your flower. Look at that so good. Okay, now I'm going to cut your cute little buggy out. Oh my goodness, here he comes, here he is. Oh, it looks so good. All those little furballs. Look, you did such a great job. Oh, my goodness sakes, jodi, was this fun? Did you like making your little ladybug? Yeah, do you think you'll name him? Will he have a name? No, no, that's all right, doesn't need one, does he? Just around his antenna? Right, I gotta cut underneath the other antenna too. Hold on one second, this one too. All right, his little head I'm gonna get. And we got all these little. Look how cute his little feet are. Oh, my goodness sakes, let me get this part cut right here. Oh, jodie, lord, that's okay. We'll make another leaf. We've got plenty of paper. You ready to put it together, jojo? Okay, so let's see, we have to make a box. So let's cut this straight, and then we'll cut this one straight, and then Grandma's going to fold it One, two, three, four Right here, hon, underneath there. Fold it one, two, three, four right here underneath that. And so now we're gonna make a box and we're gonna glue it together so we can make it. The bug stand up off of the flower, right, right, jojo, all right. So now we're gonna put the little glue here and then we're gonna put this part here. And now we've made a little box, all right? And so now we're going to put this box on JoJo's flower and we're gonna rub it on the table so it stays flat. So, jojo, where do you want your bug to sit on your flower? Do you want it like right here? You think Okay. So we're gonna put JoJo's box. Do you want your bug to sit on your flower? Do you want it like right here? You think Okay. So we're going to put JoJo's box for her flower here. And then the buggy. Let's see the little buggy, and we're going to make sure that the buggy's little tiny head's all up there. Look how cute. Oh, my goodness. Like right here, okay. So now we're going to put some glue on the back of the buggy. So glue on the back of the buggy, and we're gonna put our finger in that box and we're gonna press the buggy on the paper box we made so it sticks up off of the flower. And look, jojo's buggy is on her flower. There you go. Look, jojo, show everybody your beautiful buggy and flower. Yay, you did it. It's so pretty. Now Franny is making oh, let's pick it up. Here we go. Oh, that was the first box. That one's good. This one's good, it's all together. Jodi got hers done. And Franny's making a. This one's good, it's all together. Jodi got hers done. Franny's making a big, big leaf. So you'll get to see Franny's big leaf here. She's got her buggy all cut out. Look how cute Her buggy's cut out too. Oh, fran, you got your leaf, or you got your wings cut out. Would you like Grandma to put them on your bug? Sure, okay, so we're gonna put one wingie, one wingie on. We got one wingie on and we're going to do another wingie on Righty, look at that. So JoJo's wingies are all the way around hers with the beautiful purple, and Franny did little cute blue wingies. They're such cool bugs. And Franny's doing her leaf right now with this beautiful green. Oh my gosh, fran, it looks so good. I love the little leaf too. We'll put both leaves on. How about that? Okay, alright, so I'm going to work on the little box that's going to go with Franny's bug. She's getting ready to cut her big leaf out right now. Jojo, what do you think of your sister's bug? Do you like it. They're making a plan. They're whispering, holly, they're whispering. Did you hear it? I didn't hear it. Yay, I didn't. It was loud. I'm surprised I did not hear it. Did you hear her Grandpa? I did not. I did not hear it. Did you hear her grandpa? I did not hear her what she said. And then franny's got this cute little green leaf. But look, fran, hold your big leaf up so everybody can see. Look at the big leaf she made. Okay, fran, here's the box. So we're going to put this on the big leaf. Where do you want your bug to sit on your big leaf? Um, right here. Okay, so now we're going to take her box and we're going to put it on the big leaf and then we're going to put some glue on the back of her buggy and it's going to go on the big leaf and you just press, press, press and then do you want this little leaf anywhere? Do you want the little leaf to kind of come off, something like right here? Yeah, probably, I like that too. So then we're gonna take her cute little leaf and we're going to put it coming off the big leaf. And now, hold yours up. She made her bug on her big leaf. Okay, girls, let's hold our bugs up and show everybody. We made buggies. Dejo, turn it around to the camera. Yay, come over here so we can see you. Thanks for joining us. We hope you're making your buggies too. Bye, tell everybody bye. Stay brutally made Bye.