Last of the Autumn Leaves
They say the Autumn colours have been better than ever this year. I live in an area with lots of tree-lined avenues, and the sight of the gorgeous colours, particularly when the sun is on them, has found me collecting stacks of leaves with the kids. Having got them all home I then had to decide what we were going to do with them all, so here’s what we did with some of them. You do need a laminator for these activities I’m afraid, but if you don’t have one, they’re not expensive and come in very useful for all kinds of things – not to mention art and craft…
Halloween Shadow Art
This is an idea which I first developed as a kids holiday workshop about 10 years ago or more now. It was very popular at the time, so I thought I would resurrect it here. You can make it as simple or as sophisticated as you like, depending on your inclination and the age of the kids. For young children you will have to supply them with a range of cut-out shapes that they can arrange on the page themselves, and to help with this I have added a range of free halloween motifs of varying complexity below. Just click on the image itself to open it, then right click…
Beach Art
There’s no reason for kids to stop being creative if you go away on holiday. Even if you stay at home the (hopefully) long sunny summer days, and extra time that the summer holidays bring, provide the perfect opportunity to experiment with a bit of land art. Land art is the name given to the practice of creating artwork outdoors using only the natural materials you find around you. For me, land art not only comes from the landscape but also forms part of it, so is never intrusive. At its best, it is both influenced by and gives something back to its environment in a never-ending virtuous circle. It…
Christmas Card Factory
Inspired a few other projects we had seen, me and my 2 boys (aged 5 and 3) sat down to start our Christmas card production line. You can see some of our efforts in the picture above, which displays one card by each of us. You can’t really tell from the photograph, which I’m not terribly pleased with as it doesn’t show the sparkle at all, but we used glitter paint for the trees and some snow, while the decorations were created with glitter glue, acrylic jewels and sequins.
Using Kids Artwork
Today I was having a conversation with an acquaintance about children’s artwork and the service that Artful Kids provides. Many people comment that the finished result makes a good gift idea for grandparents, and she announced on hearing this that she didn’t think her parents would appreciate it because they have ‘proper art’ on their walls. I was genuinely shocked at this attitude, which may or may not have reflected the attitude of her parents, and thought that it was actually quite sad and insulting to children. Why is children’s artwork not considered to be ‘proper art’? Surely it is the way it is presented or regarded that determines how…
