Stick Art

Sticks! They are scattered in our yard, on the sidewalk and all over the park. At first glance, a stick doesn't look too special, but upon further examination, a stick can be pretty unique. And if you use your creativity and imagination, a stick can even have magical powers. This week, we collected some pretty ordinary sticks from the park and then transformed them into magical sticks with the help of some paint, glitter pens and fancy patterned tape. You can pretty much use any art supplies to make a magic stick, you just have to believe.

Empty Box Art

This weekend my daughter found an old gift box laying around the house and she had the idea to make it into art. So our challenge for the week began! We collected various supplies from around the house including other empty, dusty old boxes, tissue paper, stickers, markers, glue, buttons, etc. We embellished these forgotten items into very colorful, reinvented creations. I love this project because it shows that everything around us has the potential to be more beautiful, we just have to have the vision to create it.

Giftwrap Art

This weekend was my husband's birthday. The kids picked out a couple of very thoughtful gifts (toys and candy) that they just knew Dad would love! Instead of buying yet another roll of gift wrap at Target, we decided to wrap these gifts with plain white paper and then draw our own designs to create original gift wrap art. It was such fun and I think this will become a new tradition in our house. I tried to talk the kids into using Kraft paper instead of white, but Elliott insisted the markers and crayons would look prettier on white. This challenge was inspired by @poeticfoodie - an amazingly talented artist/mom/designer/cook. Check out her blog at poeticfood.com

Simple supply list for this challenge: gifts for any occasion, paper, markers and crayons.

Lemonade Craft

Ah...summer! With a few 80 degree days in a row, this weekend finally felt like summer in Chicago. We tried to drink plenty of water, but we also mixed in a few glasses of our favorite summer refreshment - lemonade. For this week's challenge we created our own 'glasses' of this tasty beverage. This was a fun, easy challenge and the final products were so colorful and bright, we hung them up in our playroom for decoration.

Simple supply list: colored construction paper, scissors, white paint, a sponge (cut into small squares), glue and straws.

Pasta Necklaces

At our house pasta is on the menu almost every Sunday night. It has been a family tradition since I was a little girl. We make a big pot of sauce every couple of weeks and then freeze the extra to use for the next few Sundays. I am still trying to perfect my Grandma's secret recipe - it just never seems to taste as good as hers no matter how many batches I make. I have a feeling there's a few ingredients that have been left off the official 'recipe.'

This weekend we decided to get creative with the pasta before we cooked it. We painted the dry pasta (Elliott and Will chose mini rigatoni and mini wagon wheels) on day one and then strung our colorful necklaces on day two. We had a lot of fun with this and the kids were excited to wear their creations around the neighborhood.

Simple supply list for this challenge: dry pasta, Crayola Washable paints, paint brushes, and twine.

Birthday Art

My Grandma Terry (aka Theresa, Tre, Mag, Grandma Maggie, GiGi) is an amazing woman and recently turned 90 years old. 90! Even at 90, she is sharp as a tack, continues to cook the best spaghetti sauce in the world and watches every single Yankee game of the season. That's at least 180 games. Next weekend, my family is getting together to celebrate her birthday and we have been busy preparing for this special celebration. Today we did a simple art project that will become part of our gift to GiGi. We cut out the numbers 9 and 0 out of thick card stock and decorated the numbers to create a very festive 90. This idea works for any age - from 1 all the way up. You can make the numbers any size and decorate them with any art supplies you have handy. Will chose glitter pens and dot markers - his favorite medium at the moment :) and Elliott chose a combination of tissue paper squares, glitter pens and markers. She declared it a "mixed media!" The finished product can become a birthday card, a party decoration or even a photo prop. Hope you enjoy this challenge and are inspired to try it for the next birthday on your list.

Farmer's Market Art

My daughter and I went to the Evanston Farmer's Market on Saturday morning and we found the fresh fruits and vegetables so colorful and beautiful that they inspired us to paint them! In season at the moment were strawberries, cherries, carrots, asparagus, green onions and more but with our paintings we took the liberty to include other fruits and vegetables. I hope this challenge inspires anyone who reads this to visit their local market and paint or draw their favorites. I grew up in a small town in Ohio and we would literally pull over and buy corn from the local farmers just blocks from our home. Delicious! 

Note: My son did not wish to go to the farmer's market with us or paint fruits and vegetables, but he did paint a whole series of rainbows with dot markers instead. See below for one of his delightful creations. 

Simple supply list for this challenge: water color paints, water color paper, paint brushes

Popsicle Stick Art

Well, this challenge didn't produce the most beautiful artwork, but Elliott and Will sure enjoyed eating the popsicles to provide the key supply - popsicle sticks. We each glued three sticks together to make these silly snakes and then we painted simple patterns to give them each a unique 'skin.' This was a pretty simple project and then we moved on to homemade Father's Day cards! Elliott and Will both have such a special bond with their Dad and I was so happy to see them put such thought and care into these cards. As a starting point, I asked them both to draw some of the things they like to do best with their dad.

Here's the simple supply list for the snakes: Popsicle sticks, craft glue or hot glue, Crayola washable paints, paintbrushes, and cardboard.

Homemade Play Dough

Who likes old, dried up play dough? Not my kids. And that's the only kind we found the last time we opened up our crumbly stash. So for this week's challenge, we decided to make a batch of homemade! It turned out nice and squishy and we were able to customize the colors and add a bit of sparkle. We let the dough sit out for a few hours before creating some fun little sculpture art. We used a couple cookie cutters and various play dough tools. The dough is supposed to last up to six months, so this batch should provide many more hours of entertainment :)

Here is the recipe we followed:
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup salt
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
Food coloring
Saucepan
1 cup flour (we added a little extra)

Combine water, oil, salt, and cream of tartar in a saucepan and heat until warm. Remove from heat and add flour. Stir, then knead until smooth. Divide and add food coloring. Store in Ziploc containers.

Sunflower Painting

It was only 45 degrees this weekend here in the Chicago area. 45 degrees. And it's almost June! We were in need of a bit of sunshine, so we decided to paint some happy sunflowers. A dear friend of mine, Caroline, inspired this challenge. CK - thank you for your enthusiasm for this blog and thank you (and Crafty Morning) for sharing this idea with us. This project was simple enough for my three year old son, Will, to truly enjoy. He is not always as enthusiastic as his sister about our art projects, so I was so proud of him and his creation! I also realized he needs a haircut :) 

Here is the supply list for this challenge: white paper, Crayola Washable Paints, cotton swabs, paint brushes, forks.

Ice Cream Art

My first job as a teenager was scooping ice cream at an adorable family owned ice cream stand called the Hartville Ice Cream Shack. On busy nights we would answer the phone and say "The Shack's where it's at!" And on many nights that was the truth - it was probably one of the busiest businesses in town. Families and Little League baseball teams would be lined up for a mile waiting for our delicious scoops. 

I love supporting our local ice cream shoppe and we made our first visit of the season this weekend. My daughter Elliott was especially excited about her first cone of the year and she asked if our next art project could be drawing ice cream cones. Um...yes! Extra sprinkles please!

Supply list: White paper, Markers, glitter pens, glitter, glue.

Leaf Fish

After one of the longest winters in history, the weather is finally starting to improve here in Chicago. We are spending as much time as possible outside and on one of our trips to the park this weekend we collected some leaves to use for this project. I must admit crisp, autumn leaves would have been better for this one, but we did our best with the lush, green leaves we found.

On day one we painted the leaves white. We let them dry overnight and then added color to create the fish designs. My three year old son, Will, was not super into this project :) so his sister helped him out a bit. Tip: To keep the leaves flat, put them under a couple of heavy books overnight.

Another bonus of the improving weather is that we were able to paint out on our porch - my favorite room in the house!

The supply list for this project is pretty simple: Leaves, Crayola Washable Kid's Paint, Paintbrushes