Heart Art | Parenting OC

Art Therapy OC collages of kid art — *(Photo Courtesy of Art Therapy OC)*

In this month of love, create art and craft as a family to enhance self-love, self-care and unity.

February is the perfect month to craft something from the heart.

Creating art not only helps with self-care, but also with self-love. The art validates the uniqueness of an individual, which increases a sense of accomplishment and feeling of positive self-worth.

Here are some crafty, creative and fun festive art ideas to do with loved ones, or on your own, on Valentine’s Day or any time of the year.

I like to call this first activity “self-love sweet-treat jars.” These make cute unique lovely Valentine’s gifts and keepsakes, too. After creating the jar, it can be filled with candy hearts or any of your favorite holiday treats, trinkets, love notes, etc. A glass candy jar with a lid, or a glass or plastic mason jar, is preferred as you will decorate by drawing or painting the outside with either paint pens, acrylic or enamel paints. If you do not have such items on-hand, you can just skip to step two, which is the decorations. I like to use stickers, gems, pom-poms (use glue or double-sided tape to stick on), paint, ribbons, and paper/markers to write the notes. It’s up to you and your creativity. Another twist to this activity is using it as a self-love jar, where, with markers, you write positive affirmations or attributes you love about yourself — or do both. Fill up the jar with your favorite treats and candies, like lollipops and conversation hearts. These statements can be anything you like about yourself or loved ones. On Valentine’s Day, or anytime you feel like it, you can read your positive affirmations to give yourself a boost of self-love and positivity. Filling your jar with conversation hearts that you read is fun and “sweet” too! One of the benefits of this activity is that you can constantly add positive affirmations and self-loving statements to the jar over time, anytime. This activity is great because it can be completed by people of all ages. This is a great gift idea, as well, because you can create a loving jar for your loved one, including your thoughts and feelings about why you love them, and can continue adding love notes to the jar beyond the holiday.

Another awesome therapeutic self-love activity is from my workshop “You Are a Masterpiece Self-Love Portrait,” which is perfect for Valentine’s Day because you can artistically express all the things you love about yourself through a creative, colorful self-portrait. For this, you can either trace your body outline with help from a loved one for a life-sized work of art, or draw an outline of your full self-portrait outline on a regular piece of drawing paper. Next, you will write with a marker all the things you love about yourself with “I am” positive affirmations, starting with at least five. After writing all over the inside of the outline, you will then use either oil pastels, crayons or colored pencils to make it look like your very own self-portrait from head to toe.

The possibilities of crafts and art activities for Valentine’s Day are endless — from “self-care, soothing, succulent Valentine’s wreaths” to “mindful, meditative mosaics” clay heart bowls to “heARTs of hope” draw and paint, family/friendship collaborative canvases and endless “crafty creative centering” activities.

You can also make Valentine’s/New Year dreamcatchers. Dream big, be inspired and may all your dreams come true. Creating a dreamcatcher is a therapeutic art activity, which is a mindful, stress-reducing, calming, centering arts-and-crafts activity. This is a great art project for this new, fresh season of love and new year. The spiritual meaning of dreamcatchers is surrounded by peace and good energy. It represents protection, clear minds, wisdom and good luck. It reflects positive energy and aids in neutralizing negative energy, whether you are awake or asleep. Having a dreamcatcher in your room offers a sense of tranquility and calmness. It provides pleasant energy during the day and at night when sleeping. Dreamcatchers are traditionally meant to be gifted, which makes this a great gift for a loved one, or even better yet, make one together while talking about dreams and goals in the new year. There are endless ways to make a wide variety of different dreamcatchers.

Join me at my studio, where you can explore endless works of art. Happy new year and you are loved!

Diana Shabtai, Psy.D., ATR-BC (“Miss Dee”) created Art Therapy OC in 2012 as a place to explore the world of art, its creative possibilities and therapeutic benefits for healthier living.