You Belong Here

“You Belong Here” by M.H Clark and Isabella Arsenault with Companion Craft

This is an absolutely dreamy book!  It is one that is perfect for expressing to your little one how much you adore and love them.  I never seem to tire of books that find a new beautiful way to do that.  This book goes through a bunch of animals and objects and mentions how they all belong where they are.  Then, intermittently throughout, it repeats that “you” (your child) belong here with “me” (the parent).  Such a sweet book done so incredibly well.

It contains gorgeous illustrations with a watercolor feel done in muted colors with mostly a dark color palette that lends itself perfectly for a bedtime story.  The text is melodic, slow, and repetitive, also complimenting the bedtime feel.  It’s wonderful.

Click here to purchase “You Belong Here” *affiliate link

Companion Craft

The watercolor style illustrations are so beautiful that I decided a watercolor craft would be lovely paired with this book.  Another aspect of the illustrations that I loved was how the animals were left “uncolored” and remained negative space. The colors all swirl around them, but they remain white and empty.  I find it beautiful.

A similar effect can very simply be achieved with just four art supplies!  That’s right, just four!  They are:

• Watercolors
• Paintbrush
• White Crayon
• Craft Paper

All you have to do is color in a rabbit anywhere on your paper with the white crayon and then paint over it with water colors.  It’s really that simple and the effect is truly magical.  Once you paint over everything with the watercolors the bunny (and anything else you choose to draw with the white crayon beforehand) will magically appear through the water colors.  My little guy was definitely intrigued.  He piled the water colors on the bunny in his picture and it took a bit longer, and didn’t show up quite as well, but it did still work.  I was impressed.

A couple tips:

• Textured craft paper works best because the wax crayon really adheres to it.
• Color in your image with the white crayon as thick as you can.  The wax is what repels the water colors to make it appear through the paint.

We hope that you enjoy this simple craft as much as we did!  I have seen this technique used in so many fun ways.  One that I see often is to fill a paper with random letters in a white crayon to have your child discover when they paint.  Or even write secret messages that magically appear.  The possibilities are endless!

If you give this Beyond the Book activity a try I’d love to hear how it goes! Share it on Instagram using hashtag #beyondthebook (I’m on Instagram as @book.nerd.mommy) or even just comment here with your thoughts. It would make my day! Or to simply save for later pin the image below.