I’m so in love with these mini paintings my four-year olds made. Aren’t they beautiful? I found a roll of canvas in my attic. The same roll that I had been lugging around since college!! Yes, it’s true. For more than 20 years that roll has been moving from apartment to apartment and house to…
Process Art
Styrofoam Printing with Kids
Printmaking is a fine art that involves making a “master plate” which you then can use to make multiple images. There are so many ways to print, it’s almost endless! Potato and veggie printing, linoleum printing, mono prints, raised foam printing, bubble wrap printing, yarn printing… basically any object you can find can be used…
Potato Print Garland
There is something about potato stamps that makes me think of my childhood. I’m not even sure I ever did potato stamping, but it’s more the look that the stamping provokes: imperfect, smudgy, and just authentically kid-like. I was hoping my art class students would be into it. And to my eternal relief…they were! How…
Build It! Wooden Towers with Kids
Kids LOVE building wooden towers! Woodworking is such an incredibly satisfying art experience for kids. They don’t often get to work with wood, so when my 4-yr olds came in to art class and saw wood pieces and glue scattered around the table, their faces just lit up. This is actually quite a simple activity with…
The Best of Art Bar 2014
A walk down memory lane. A year of hard work, new beginnings and new friends, a growing family, and dinner on the run! Here we go… DIY 1. painted leaves // 2. good morning chart // 3. bird nests // 4. snowflake garland // 5. cake topper // 6. mother’s day card GARLAND 7. mini felt…
Holiday Art // Christmas Tree Assemblage
These beautiful and original Christmas trees were made by the four-year olds in art class! Aren’t they amazing? They loved learning the word “assemblage”, which is basically like collage except you you do more than just glueing. You can do anything to hold pieces together, like wrapping or weaving or cutting. It involves picking up…
Kid Made: “ISH” Inspired Ornaments
I think we can all agree that kid-made is the best. Kids have a way of making everything seem so artsy and cool, and it’s because they don’t care about the end result. They are simply exploring and experimenting. Which is exactly what makes these “ISH” inspired ornaments so special! Let me explain more…. Today’s…
Gift Guide // Top 10 Basic Art Supplies
I teach art to small children in my house. Every week I set up new art experiences and carefully pick out my materials. I often get asked by moms which materials they should buy to create their own art area at home. This question always gets me excited for two reasons: 1) Maybe I’ve influenced…
Painted Wooden Blocks
When the kids walked into art class last week and saw wooden blocks and paint, they couldn’t believe it! Were they really allowed to paint on them? One little girl told us a story about how she once drew on wooden blocks. She said her mom didn’t get mad. Then they all started to chat…
A Painted Branch // Collaborative Art with Kids
This week for art class I tried something new. Our neighbor cut down some branches and left them on our property. They’d been there a while, actually. We kept thinking they would clean them up. As I was staring at them from the kitchen window Monday morning I thought that I should really make a…
