Reclaiming the joy of art class

Remember art class? That sacred time of day during your elementary school existence wherein you got to hang out with your coolest teacher. Remember her/him? My art teacher was named Miss Blum, and she was always wearing a vest. Yours probably was too. And remember how this very cool teacher would lead you and all of your peers in an art project? And she/he would walk around the room inspecting everyone's work, and there was literally nothing you could do wrong. You could paper mache your text book to your face, and your art teacher would say, "What ingenuity!" You could draw the most lifelike, defiant penis on the face of the earth, and she would remark, "Oh, what a strangely beautiful mushroom!"

It was the most affirming time of your life. Admit it.

Recently I've been getting nostalgic for the joy of art class. Rare is the time in my life when I engross myself in an art project because I am not, by trade, an artist. That is, I am not a painter, a sculptor, a calligrapher, an Etsy store owner, or anything of that sort. Sometimes life calls upon me to make certain things -- a card for a friend, a pie chart of my expenses, a tent for my cat to retreat within -- but when there is no reason to create a work of art, I feel pretty silly doing so.

But tonight, in a fit of boredom, I decided to buck that negative feeling and just afford myself some creativity time. I channeled Miss Blum and just started creating for the sake of creating. My husband, Daniel, joined in too. I played with a set of pastels that I've been meaning to try out while he doodled in a notebook. Here he is showing off his drawing of a dog:

Nailed it, Daniel! 

This is what I ended up creating using the pastels. I had the wrong tools, and I couldn't remember what carrot leaves looked like, so no judgements!

That's grapes, a carrot, a banana, and a lime, respectively

Midway through, we decided it would be a good idea to make art specifically for each other. Daniel made this for me because, you know, he's a creative GENIUS:

And I made him this because, you know, it's true:

We will probably make a weekly thing out of this, so get excited. Miss Blum would be so proud.

What crafts/art projects have you been making lately? 

Tell me so I can steal all of your ideas!