What are your feelings on candy canes? Come wintertime, they’re just all over the place. While they make lovely seasonal decorations, they often lead a lonely existence. Sure, every so often, someone will eat one, but that’s it. As a stand-alone snack, they’re fine, but imagine how yummy they’d be with some tasty partners in crime!

 

These adorable sled snacks from Gluesticks and Planning with Kids make a perfect treat for the kids… whether it’s for a party or just hanging at home. All you need are mini candy canes, some chocolate frosting, mini Milky Way bars, and Teddy Grahams.

 

Cut your Milky Way in half and use the chocolate frosting to adhere it to two candy canes for the sled. Then stick a Teddy Graham in between the chocolate bar halves for the driver. That’s all it takes!

 

Mmm… chocolate and peppermint that’s as tasty as it is adorable. Now, there’s a winning combination. On your marks. Get set. GO!

 

photo via Gluesticks

Happy Greeting Card Season! Time to grab the address book and stamps and spread the well wishes to our loved ones. Of course there’s the classic route of vacation photos or professional portraits, but those can get a bit pricey. Why not make a card that’s cute, creative, personalized, and easy on the wallet?

 

To make these adorable ornament cards, you’ll need some cardstock and paper, a black marker, an assortment of colorful buttons, glue, and some optional rhinestones.

 

On a piece of paper (cut it in half and fit two to a page), draw several ornament strings and bows with your black marker (You can also purchase a string and bow stamp, but a marker works just as well!). Then glue buttons below the strings as ornaments. If you feel like adding a little sparkle, you can glue rhinestones on top of a few of the buttons. Then just add a little message and glue the paper to a folded sheet of cardstock.

 

Aren’t these precious? For another fabulous homemade card idea, check out our post over at Scribbleshop. You can also frame them for simple holiday decorations. Christmas cards don’t have to be fancy or expensive to make a splash… just heartfelt and creative!

 

Photo via Michelle Philippi

 

Photo via J. Day Designs

Photo via Splitcoast Stampers

 

 

Thanksgiving was great this year (as always)!  Loads of family, friends, food, laughter and then double gobble more of it!  The next day my family and I all went for a stroll through the park to digest our feast and we found all these fallen leaves on the ground.  I thought the branches would’ve been bare by now, but no, not yet!  We got lucky.  The fallen leaves looked like feathers to me so we had an idea to make them into Turkeys!

We glued on some googley eyes to make them extra silly, but I’m sure you can come up with something just as good without them. Oh, maybe a nut fallen from the tree?  What do you think?

I know Halloween just passed, but since I was on this kick of transforming fallen objects into artwork when I saw the stick I thought of a broom.  Put a flying lady on it and you have a witch!  What do you think a stick could turn into?  Anything is possible!  Please share with Scribble Blog your fallen object creations.

Thank you Thanksgiving for the fun, family, and more crafty ideas : )  Gobble.

Scribble Town (ST): Hi Nate!  We have been friends now for a very long time now and have been following your work and want to make sure all the Scribblers are aware of your stories, colors, and art.  Please introduce yourself for us!

Nate Williams (NW): I am a Brooklyn, New York based collage artist, architect and researcher. In my free time I enjoy playing music for people to dance to. I love to travel around the world and learn about how different people live and have fun. My work has been focused on translating and transforming the arts of Africans in the Americas. I enjoy observing the ways people create their visual art, dance their dances, sing their songs, and tell their stories. I learn from these ideas and try to combine them in my ar(t)chitectural collages. I try to create artwork that tells several stories in one visual song, like a DJ might connect different songs for people to dance to.

ST: Where are you and what are you up to these days?

NW: I spend my time working at my office, creating new art work, and showing my work in small galleries and museums. Currently, my collage “Nightmares H(a)unt” is on display in the group exhibition “Dia del Los Muertos; SACRED MEMORIES: Contemporary and Cross Cultural Expressions of the Day of the Dead” presented by El Pueblo in Los Angeles, and am preparing for an upcoming show in New York.

ST: What is your favorite place to create?

NW: My favorite workspace is at home, in Brooklyn, New York. I love to create moving back and forth between the length of my living room floor and my draft board in my mini home office; while spinning music on my turntables. I’ve started many collages on planes, in hotels, even in New York subways, but my apartment will always be my favorite place to create because I like to have both my music and my books close at hand when I create.

ST: Anyone in particular that has inspired you or inspires you now?

NW: I am inspired by being raised in a diverse, multi-cultural, multi-national family immersed in the arts in many forms from visual, to rhythmic movement, in dance or sport; lyricism, in poetry as well as in story-telling.

I have too many inspirations… Junot Diaz’s stories,  Andrew Dosunmu’s photography, DJ Rich Medina’s music, Phyllis Galembo’s photography, Malik Sidibe’s photography, Jean Michel Basquiat’s artwork, Ndong  Essinga’s music, and Gee’s Bend quilts…But I think I’m most inspired by Romare Bearden’s mixed media collages. His artwork tells stories about his life and his travels using pieces of paper and cloths, paints and pencils.

Although I am still developing my artistic process, I’ve been inspired by curator, creator, semiotician, Arlene Tucker’s Translation is Dialogue series; which has allowed me a new space to consolidate and express my interests in the arts and cultural research in mix media collage.

ST: When did you start making art and how did it begin?  Was there anybody in your life encouraging you, if so who?

NW: I’ve always been making art. I believe I completed my first mural when I was 4 years old. My parents were supportive, though they would have preferred that I painted on paper instead of my bedroom wall. My most inspirational instructor was my school art teacher, Richard Marcucci, who was both an artist and DJ.

ST: What do you hope to communicate with your art?

NW: I aspire to sample, layer, and rhythmically repeat ar(t)chitectural ideas about culture and space; people and place; in new ways that still document and archive. I hope that the stories in my artwork change/evolve with each collage series. I hope to communicate our distinct languages in ways that show that we, regardless of our backgrounds, are interconnected.

ST: Do you have a craft, piece of art, or art technique you can share with our Scribblers for them to make at home?  (you can send picture of this)

NW: I usually start new collages by spreading a long roll of paper the length of the room. I then layer different images, objects, paints, and finally pencil lines to tell a story.

ST: Thank you for taking the time and please let us know of your future shows and projects!  And for the Scribblers, we’d love to hear what stories and thoughts come to mind when you see Nate’s artwork.  For example, why do you think the lady below is so happy and smiley?  I think it’s because she just danced her heart out!  With love!

For more information on Nate Williams please go to http://nate-art.com/

Happy Thanksgiving Scribblers!

What a beautiful day for a parade and for sharing time with friends and family.

I thought that you would enjoy these fun and easy activities to keep your little Scribblers busy while you are preparing for the festivities.

Scribble your own Thanksgiving placemat with our downloadable coloring page.  Click on the image to download and print.

Your kids will enjoy making this turkey headband.  It’s easy too. You’ll need some colorful construction paper, scissors and glue.  Cut, glue and assemble and enjoy!

Here’s a coloring page that’s sure to delight, get those crayons and markers out and get scribbly!!

Wishing you a happy day and a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Gobble, Gobble!!!

Warm Regards,

Andi

Chief Scribbler

Turkey Day is just around the corner! And how better to celebrate than with the mascot of Thanksgiving… the turkey! Here’s a fun, colorful, collage-tastic craft from A Girl and Glue Gun that just you or the whole family can enjoy!

 

Grab a stack of magazines, some cardstock (plain paper will also do the job), scissors, and glue.

 

On a white piece of paper, draw a simple outline of a turkey. Cut squares of cardstock and give some to each family member and let them pick a color (or a few) to be in charge of. You can make a color theme like autumn or rainbow.

 

Now everybody start cutting out magazine clips in their colors and cover the cardstock in them. Once all the squares are covered, cut them into the shape of feathers and one for the turkey’s body. Glue them down—start with feathers so they’re behind the body. You can use the cardstock scraps for details like feet, a beak, a wattle, and eyes.

 

And you’re all done—right in time for Thanksgiving. Now, no matter what you’re serving on Thursday, you’ll have the most stylish turkey on the block!

 

Photos via A Girl and a Glue Gun

Thanksgiving already?? WOW…How quickly the year has flown by!

It’s that time again and I’m busy planning for all the festivities.  One of the highlights for me is always the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  The parade has such great energy and has a way of inspiring me.

The balloons are my absolute favorite!  I look forward to seeing them every year and this year there will be three new balloons debuting at the parade!!  Each of these balloons take about a year to create.  The balloons have taken their test flight and are ready to fly in the 86th Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.  The festivities begin next Thursday morning at 9:00 am.

Sometime ago, while watching the parade I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to make a Thanksgiving Parade Scribble mat, so…I contacted the Macy’s buyer, drew a sketch for him and voila, the buyer purchased Scribble mats to help promote the parade.

In addition to the fabulous balloons the parade lineup will include floats, cheerleaders and dancers, clowns,  marching bands from all over the country and celebrity performers too!!  What a line up.  And of course there’s Santa in his sleigh!

Which is your favorite part of the parade?  Have you ever watched the parade and been inspired to create something?  Why not try it while watching the parade this year or while preparing for Thanksgiving dinner and share your creations with us.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Scribbling!!!

 

 

 

October may be the time for spooky, scary monsters, but once Halloween is over, why not take a look at other kinds of creatures?  Monsters can also be colorful, adorable, slimy, goofy, or funny. They can also be made with just some paint and a straw!

 

These cute and kooky critters are fun to create and just as simple! They’re a great opportunity to play with color, character, and creativity! You’ll need white paper, paint, straws, construction paper, googley eyes (optional), and glue.

Use a straw to blow the paint on the paper, creating the body and arms and legs (remember there can be more than two of each!). You can put small blobs of a few colors on the paper to see how they interact and add more dimension to your monster.

 

Then it’s time to create the faces! You can use construction paper or even googley eyes… whatever you want! Just glue them where you want the face to be. You can also add accessories or scenes around your monster! Remember—all these add-ons are how you showcase your monsters’ personalities.

 

Go wild! See just how crazy you can make your monsters. If you give this a try, take a moment and share your finished results with us! We’d love to see some one-of-a-kind kooky creatures.

Photo via smART Class

 

Photo via Raising Sparks

Tucked into the northern corner of the Catskills is a village called Tannersville, sometimes referred to as the painted village.

The stores, restaurants and b­uildings along Main Street are sporting a very colorful look.  A local artist and painter, Elena Patterson conceived and carried out the town wide Paint Projectwith efforts of the Hunter Foundation and with the help of corporate sponsors and local residents. Downtown buildings were transformed into dramatic paint schemes of bright colors with decorative signs and shutters.  Some of the buildings even have cartoon pictures painted on the shutters.

Thinking of this colorful town reminded me of a drawing I did a while back for a product I created called Scribble mats.

 

I hope you will enjoy using your favorite colorsand get creative with our On the town coloring  page. Just, download the image, print and get scribbly.

Have you created a colorful work of art that you would like to share?  Please send in your artwork and tell us what inspired you to create it.  Perhaps we will feature it  on Scribbleblog.

Happy Scribbling!

Hi Scribblers,

It’s been quite the week here in NYC.  Hurricane Sandy came in with such tremendous force, I don’t think anyone was prepared for the damage and devastation she left in her path. Our building was evacuated and our lobby filled up with water and could have passed for an Olympic sized swimming pool.   We still are without power or heat. Transportation has been difficult and we haven’t been able to get to the office, so I’ve been scribbling up a storm this week.

I thought I would share this opportunity with you.  The Fowler Arts Collective is putting out a call for art for their upcoming December exhibition. They are asking artists, writers, and designers to send postcard sized works in any medium.  I was inspired to create “Stormy Rays”.  I’m going to color it and send it to them.

Your postcards can be priced at $20, $30, $40, or $50. The artist will gets 50% if the work sells… (woohoo!)  This is a great activity for you to do with your little ones. You can send as many postcards as you want. The more the merrier!

Please have a look at their website for full details of how you can submit your art.

So get your pencils, markers, paints etc. out and start scribbling.

We would love to see your creations.  Please share them with us and if you know of any events that our readers may be interested in, please share them with us too.

Happy Scribbling!!

All my best,

Andi