The bag had a sparkly sheer outer layer over a paper-like inner layer with the green ribbons pin a casing to make it a draw-string bag.  It picked up the colors in a remnant of another stitching project, so I decided to have some fun and see what I could put together.

I first cut two sides of the bag to get a flat piece and cut off the draw-string top so that everything would be the same thickness.  Over that I layered pieces of my other stitching project.  (One of several I've done where I layered scraps of Maria Testa's hand-dyed silk over a commercial print and then added lots of embroidery.)  I cut the remnant into several pieces to make them fit and create a pleasing arrangement.  Next I cut up the draw-string ribbon and layered that on as well.

At that point I still had the draw-string part of the bag left.  I didn't want to waste any of that shiny fabric, so I pulled out the stitching that created the channel and held the shiny fabric to the papery backing.  I pressed the outer layer and cut it up into small rectangles and layered them on as well.  To my delight,  the shiny spots on the reverse side were silver, not gold, adding an extra bit of pizzazz.
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Once I completed my arrangement, I basted all the bits together and began to stitch.  First I added words on the ribbons...
"Sometimes you have to go a little crazy
Just start and see what happens
​You ask if I am having fun...I hope it's obvious"

Tyler doesn't like to get his hands messy so this was a good project for him.  He liked choosing paint colors and using the brayer to spread them. Of course he always wanted to use more than one color.  Sonja was very good in not censuring any of his choices, just explaining what color would result.  So he'd be rolling away saying "I'm making purple."

He also took great delight in choosing from the leaves I'd brought for making designs. (Here in Virginia there are lots of evergreens and other plants that still have their leaves, so we had a very good variety available even now in November.) He was good at helping to smooth out the papers and his joy at seeing the results is still warming my heart today.  We heard him say "Wow" often yesterday.  At every stage he just dove right in.

I'm sure Sonja would agree that it adds a whole new dimension to share something you love with a new generation and to have them respond with such delight.  He was expressing out loud all the feelings that we were also having as we went through the same processes.

Making art with others is something I have missed since our move.  Though I have joined a couple of art centers/galleries here, the focus is really on exhibiting rather than making art. Our previous art home, Western Avenue Studios, provided a unique experience of creating art as part of a community  that can't really be replaced.  That said, making art with your family is a different kind of awesome, irreplaceable experience that I am so grateful to have.

When your grandson covers his gelatin plate with paintbrush marks and says "Look I'm making paw prints...what a great idea!"  it just doesn't get any better.  Especially when you've made some papers and fabrics of your own that you're pretty delighted with ...