It’s not often you find art supplies you can also eat, but when you do… it’s sure to be a tasty crafting session! Because of their bright colors, Froot Loops are perfect for art projects. You can pretty much find an excuse to craft with them every time of year. Right now, try creating some autumn-themed pictures with subjects such as trees with changing leaves, pumpkins, maize, or apples.

 

For this project, grab some Froot Loops (and maybe Cheerios, depending on what colors your picture requires), glue, and some sturdy white paper. You’ll want a slightly thicker paper so it can handle the weight of the cereal. To round out your picture, you can also use paint and construction paper.

 

Before you start, take a pencil and create a rough outline of your drawing. If you want to use paint or colored paper, add it to your white paper first before starting with the cereal. Now, sort the colors you’ll need and arrange your Froot Loops on the page before gluing them down. Once they’re all glued, let the whole thing dry.

 

Finally, hang your fabulous picture up and eat the leftover Froot Loops!

  Photo via Putti’s World

 Photo via Musings of Me

 

Bonus! If you want to get a head start for Thanksgiving…

 Photo via Putti’s World

 

You could create one of the ideas shown here or try something new. Work on a batch of Halloween themed Froot Loops drawings this week. What are you going to create with your Froot Loops? Do you have a favorite kind of food to craft with? Or a favorite craft to make with food?

It seems like magazines always find a way to pile up. For some reason, I can never bring myself to just throw them out. Filled with beautiful images, colors, and articles, it feels wrong for them all to end up in the trash. So anytime I can put them to good use with an art project, I jump at the chance! This magazine strip silhouette is a great way to transform your old magazine pages into something creative, personalized, and beautiful!

 

For your silhouette, you can pick an animal, a person, your home state—whatever you want. Just keep in mind the level of intricacy involved in cutting the strips to fit the shape.

 

 Photo via Meaningful Details on Etsy

 

You’ll need some old magazines, scissors, glue, a pencil, an X-acto knife, the shape you want to trace for your silhouette, and something to mount this project on—it can be canvas, cardboard, or poster board.

 

Start by cutting your magazine strips. Tear out any pages that have a lot of color (or just the colors you’re looking for). Don’t worry if it’s a picture of something weird—you won’t be able to see it once it’s cut up. Cut them into thin, straight strips, roughly the same width (the length can and should vary).

 

 Photo via Apples of Gold Set in Silver

 

In pencil, trace the silhouette on your canvas. Then, start gluing down your magazine strips inside. You can trim each piece with your X-acto knife as you glue it down, or you can mark them with a pencil and trim them afterwards.

 

Once your silhouette is all filled in, it’s a good idea to finish it off with a coat or two of mod podge. This will seal down your collage.

 

 Photo via Designed By BH

And that’s it! Let it dry and hang it up. Colorful, customizable, and recycled—this fun project is great for the eyes and the environment. What are your favorite projects with recycled materials? Any other fun ideas for magazines?

The Fourth of July is a highlight of every summer. Barbeques, playing outside, parades—it’s all so much fun—but the best part each year has to be watching fireworks. The gorgeous, sparkling bursts of light are the perfect way to cap off the day’s celebrations for our country.

Get a head start by making your very own fireworks display. You’ll need black (or blue) construction paper, glue (that you can squeeze from a bottle), glitter in multiple colors, and scrap paper.

Photo: Activity Bucket

Put your sheet of construction paper over the scrap paper. Draw a firework design with your glue. If you want to try something different, you can squeeze out a small blob of glue and blow through a straw to spread the glue into a firework shape. Only glue the shapes you want in one color. Now pick your first color and sprinkle the glitter over the glue and slide the excess off onto the scrap paper. Move on to your next color and repeat the process. Before you know it you’ll have a night sky full of gorgeous bursts of color!

Photo: Le Top Blog

 Do you like to watch fireworks every year? What’s your favorite thing about the Fourth of July?

Nothing says warm weather like a nice, cold drink—lemonade, iced tea, iced coffee, fresh juice, even simply water… it’s all delectable when the temperature creeps up. But with that icy refreshment comes wood’s enemy… condensation! When your glass gets moist with little droplets of water, it’s time to grab a coaster.

Here’s a simple, summery craft to create your own coasters. You’ll need lots of popsicle sticks, glue, a paintbrush, and markers or paint (optional). Also some scrap paper is always handy.

Start by grabbing about 12 popsicle sticks. If you’re using markers, color in one side of each stick. Permanent markers will work best for this, but don’t be afraid of washables either (the colors will just be more likely to run). If you’d rather a natural look, just skip this step and leave your sticks naked, so to speak. To paint a design across all the sticks (instead of each individual stick), assemble the coaster first and then start painting.

Photo: Jo-Ann (via Snapguide)

Now, arrange your sticks up so they’re in a straight, even line, colored side facing down—the underside should be facing up. Get your glue and other popsicle sticks. You’re going to glue these down across the assembled row of sticks (perpendicular). How many you glue is up to you—It could be one across the top and one across the bottom, two on each end, or for extra stability you can glue them along the whole thing. See what works for you.

Photo: to Pinterest

Once everything is dry, flip your coaster over so it’s facing right side up. If you left the top blank so you could paint a picture or design across the whole thing, now’s the time to do so! After that dries, you’re ready for the topcoat. Those of you who already used markers or preferred to leave the wood showing, get ready, too!

You can either mix glue and water to create your own sealant, or buy some. Take a paintbrush and paint it over the topside of your coaster. This is important since it will constantly be getting wet when used. If you used washable markers, here is where your colors will run—if so, embrace it! The running colors create a cool, homemade, even tie-dye effect.

Photo: No Time for Flash Cards

Let it dry one final time and you’re done! Try some different techniques and make a whole set of unique coasters. Now you can enjoy nice, cool beverages all summer long with no fear of water rings.

What are your favorite summer drinks to cool off with?

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree… no, not the real ones with pine needles that are reach up to the ceiling! How about the ones made of paper that fit right on a page? This paper tree collage is a perfect rainy day or evening activity during the holiday season.

 

All you need is…. paper! Well, okay… paper, scissors (or a paper cutter if you have one at home), and glue. When it comes to paper, let’s specify. You’ll need a large sheet of white paper for your background and then a variety of paper scraps that include the color green. You could use construction paper, scrapbook paper, leftover wrapping paper… whatever you like!

Cut your green paper into strips of different widths and lengths. Once you have a nice little pile, start stacking them on your white sheet, longest strips on the bottom. The rest can be random and don’t be afraid to mix your patterns and angles. Use a glue stick to adhere them down when you’re ready. If you like, you can cut out some ornaments, a brown tree trunk, and a star from construction paper to decorate your tree. Ta-da!

 

Quick, simple, and pretty! And your entire cleanup consists of sweeping any scraps of extra paper into a recycling bin. Display and enjoy!

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

 

 

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

Hi Scribblers!

Do you find it hard to make crafts with your toddlers? How do you inspire creativity in your preschoolers? At those young ages, arts & crafts is a great way to preserve memories of how little they were. Today, we made this palm pet sheep.

The base of this sheep was made from the outline of a hand. This craft can be great to display on your fridge as a magnet or on your desk to remind you of them throughout the day.

To make this craft, you will need:

-White Foam (or Felt)

-Black Foam

-Googley Eyes

-Glitter

-Rubber Cement

-Glue

 

To start, help your little one trace the outline of their hand and cut out the tracing. Cut off the base of the palm just beneath the thumb.

Draw an outline similar to a cloud for the sheep’s body onto a piece of white foam. The foam piece should be large enough to cover the palm tracing to leave the fingers exposed. Glue the foam body piece to the palm tracing leave just the tips of the fingers exposed.

Decorate the sheep’s body with curly designs using glitter and glue.

Glue the googley eye onto the sheep’s face (the thumb). Add glitter embellishment for the hoofs of the sheep (other four fingers) and the face (thumb) using glitter and glue.

Hang up the little sheep craft for everyone to enjoy!

Hi Scribblers!

Pumpkins are scarce this year due to the strange weather we’ve been having. Just because pumpkins are hard to find, it doesn’t mean you can’t decorate your home!

Check out this cute Thumbkin!

To Make:

1. Draw half inch lines across the width of orange construction paper for the pumpkin.

2. Cut out orange strips.

3. Wrap strips around your thumb.

4. Glue the end of strip to the rolled up piece to close the circle.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have used up all the orange strips.

6. Lay out the circles side by side an arrange them into a pumpkin shape.

7. Glue the circles together.

8. Cut three half inch strips of green construction paper about 4 inches long.

9. Curl an end of each green strip around your pinky (or a pen) to make a tighter curl for the leaves.

10. Glue the three green pieces in between two of the orange circles.

11. Cut a half inch strip out of brown construction paper about 2 inces long.

12. Fold the brown strip in half to make the stem.

13. Glue the unfolded end of the brown strip in between the green strips.

14. Once everything has dried, place your Thumbkin Pumpkin somewhere as a decoration or hang in a window!