Make It Monday: Fun with Paper

Making things is something that I do to keep myself moving forward. I make lots of things - crocheted things, painted things, music things, and paper things. Some of the things that I make are just for me, but others are for my clients. This is a post about making paper things for my clients.

My fun with paper often starts with an idea for a therapeutic music experience. I have a rule that I have to come up with six different things to do with a material or instrument or visual aid before I can store it in my cabinets in my music therapy room. This rule keeps me from jamming things into every single corner of my workspace (because I would DEFINITELY be doing that if I didn't have my rule...). So, in order to keep something, I have to figure out ways to use the something with my clients.

I like making things with paper because the end result is not very expensive to produce. The time that I take to make something is time for self-care - I find paper crafting to be very relaxing. I can also just crumple or tear something up if it doesn't turn out the way I want it to. I have also learned to take pictures and make templates so I can replicate the visual aids if the first version gets destroyed or well-used or crumpled or whatever. I've also found some shortcuts to help me with making things over the years.

Now, if you are someone who has never made something out of paper, you can get started with very few materials. You need some paper, I recommend some cardstock as well, a pencil, an eraser (you will REALLY want an eraser, believe me), a ruler, scissors, and a marker to get started. If you want to get fancy later, add more markers, different types of paper, and stickers! If you want to be really fancy, get a paper trimmer, paper punches in different sizes, corner rounders, lots of pens and markers, and patterned papers in all weights. In the picture above, you can see some of the basics that I keep around when I am making things. There are file folders, some paper, some visual aids, my paper cutters, Velcro, and my laminator. In addition, I ALWAYS have snacks nearby to keep my energy up...yeah, that's the reason for the cookies...

When I make things for my clients, I have several different considerations. The first is, of course, if the TME or the visual aid will support my desired outcomes for each specific client. If I don't have a reason (or six reasons) to use something, then why bother making it? Secondly, I consider whether I want to sell this to others. If so, I design all of the pictures and visual aid elements from scratch. If not, I use clip art or digital images to make the visual aid. Most of the time, I make my own art because I figure that someone out there might also benefit from my ideas. I also like to draw, so it works well for me. Sometimes I use file folder books or bulletin board borders for different projects. Using other tools makes the process go a bit faster than drawing and coloring pictures of trucks and fire engines myself, so I often use those other materials (with the understanding that I cannot copyright the images or sell them as my own).

My favorite things to make for my music therapy clinic are file folder activities. (Some of you are thinking, "Well, of course. We hear this all the time," and you are right.) I like file folder activities because of the storage considerations. If I am making something that is contained within a file folder, it takes up very little space in my box or bag or in my cabinet. Also, there are lots of things that you can fit into a file folder. I make lots of file folder activities for my clients. I make games, song illustrations, sequencing tasks, symbol identification tasks, and puzzles. I have musical Mad-Lib folders. I have ukulele chord chart folders. You name it, I can probably put it in a folder.

Keeping things the size of a file folder activity also allows me to have consistent storage for everything. I don't know about you, but I find it difficult to store posters of different sizes in my space. They are more difficult to transport from place to place as well. So, if everything is a consistent size, I don't have to worry so much about storage. It is easy if everything is the same size.

Okay, okay. Time to move away from my fascination with file folder activities and back to the real world.

If you are interested, you can see many of my file folder visual aids on the website. If you want to know more, let me know in the comments section here or send me an email through the website.

I encourage everyone to try making something, especially something with paper.

Happy making, music therapists!