Get Some Fun Art Inspiration with 500 Kids Art Ideas

January 26, 2017 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

I picked up the book 500 Kids Art Ideas by Gavin Andrews rather at random on a visit to the craft store last summer. I was sure we would need more ideas for getting through the break, and because my daughter and I both love art, I thought this would be fun to look at.

And it is, but it is quite literally an idea book, not an instruction book. It’s a book of photographs of different projects and techniques, such as painting with cotton balls, drawing your house, painting an Expressionist-style portrait or simply playing around with paint (to give a few examples from a random page I opened to). There’s a brief preview of the book at the publisher’s website, linked above.

The ideas cover a wide range of materials and types of projects, including:

felt, fibers and more
made with nature
making art togetehr
mixed media and collage
paint projects
paper and book art
printmaking and stamping
recycled and upcycled
sculpture and 3-D art
sketches and drawings
art and technology

There are also a couple of pages on how to set up a creative space at home.

Flipping through the pages is sure to be inspiring for you and your kids, and it’s kind of nice to know that even if you’re inspired by a project you see here, your project (or your child’s) will be unique because you aren’t following instructions, just using the finished projects here as a jumping off point.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, full color. Published June 2015 by Quarry Books, retail price $24.99.

Have you read?

Easy Pen and Paper Games for Road Trips and Beyond

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

Have you read?

Leave a Reply