DIY
Excited to share with you~ SPRINGTIME OWLETS, recently handcrafted in our 6-10-year-old workshop: STITCH + SEW! Over on our Instagram, we’ll be sharing with Red Ted Art’s @Kidscraft101, as they’re featuring #fabriccrafts for their weekly theme! Anyone can enter, simply tag your weekly themed photo #kidscrafts101 over on Instagram. Then the dream team trio- @redtedart + @babbledabbledo + @incredibusy, along with a special surprise guest, will then judge and announce the winners! This project was definitely a fabric favorite, as each artist designed, constructed, and hand stitched one-of-a-kind soft sculptures. Take a peek at our creature collection of springtime owlets that just hatched in our studio!
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You may have seen on our Instagram, we partnered with 5Point Film Festival while they were on tour in Carbondale, Colorado! The festival ran Thursday-Sunday with an exciting array of inspiring films and community events. 5Point stands for balance, commitment, humility, purpose, and respect. They lineup 4-days of inspiring programming, and gather special guests, athletes, filmmakers, and our community together in one – 800 seat venue! On Saturday, following the Youth Adventure Films (free for 12 and under), we squeezed in some adventurous art making with hundreds of local children! Between the arts + crafts, the much-loved annual ice cream social + community picnic, and all the overflowing inspiration from the outdoor adventure films, you’ll see many beaming smiles! Thank you to all the local families that came out for this festive afternoon! We were honored to be back at 5Point making + creating with young artists! Thank you for inviting us to create LUMMI STICKS with children in our outdoor studio 5Point Film, so great to be back for another year. Take a peek at how we crafted these simple sticks with just three simple steps!
ENROLLING SUMMER + 2016/17 SCHOOL YEAR ART WORKSHOPS:
Excited to announce HANDMAKERY’S online registration for (hands on + mixed media) SUMMER + SCHOOL YEAR 2016/17 ART WORKSHOPS! Early enrollment is encouraged as space is limited! Take a peek into our adventurous + artful workshops for children and upcoming art-filled community happenings! May’s First Friday and Family Block Party are just around the corner, hope you’ll be joining us: Creating In Our Outdoor Art Studio: Summer Lovin’ Style!
Be sure to stay in touch and connect on our Facebook + Instagram + Pinterest!
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Excited to share with you our whimsical + wondrous WALL HANGINGS that were handcrafted in our MODISH MINI MAKERS workshop, making and creating with 6-9 year old artists! You may have seen a few photos of the process in our collection on Instagram! This project was tons of fun! Such an exciting process experimenting with a wide array of materials + supplies and watching it all come together! Do take a peek!
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You may have discovered on Instagram that we recently hosted a summer workshop for 6 – 9 year olds- CRAZie FOR CONTEMPORARY CUCKOO CLOCKS! Beyond excited to jump into this workshop as it has been a project that has been stirring in my mind for quite sometime. Thrilled to see it come to life! As a little girl growing up, one of my great-grandmothers had a beautiful, hand-carved, traditional, wooden cuckoo clock in her tiny home. I remember traveling to my great-grandmother’s Colorado home in the summer for weekend visits with my family. My sister and I were always mesmerized by her cuckoo clock. We were sure to be in the living room at the beginning of every hour to see the chirping bird make its grand entrance and to hear cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo! Definitely a favorite childhood memory that I can still visualize and hear as it was yesterday. Although our workshop’s cuckoo clocks were not mechanical, the children loved every moment of personalizing and piecing them together! Once we were in the midst of our mini-art exhibit at the end of the week, I was reminded of how BIG impressions are made in little + simple childhood days! I hope each of these children walk away with a special memory to hold. I’m thankful for each and everyone of my childhood memories, as they take me back to the heart of who I am today! Take a peek!
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Super excited to share with you our Camper Vans On Canvas created in our workshop with 6-9 year old artists!
Wanderlust inspired + beautiful mixed media artwork + image used with permission via Mae Chevrette.
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Summer is here and we celebrated our kick-off to June with our first summertime CRAFT NIGHT: Under the Stars + In the Studio! Our special summer craft nights are open up to crafters ages 6-9 and we host one of these special evenings each month in our art studio (a great date night parents)! This time around we happened to have all girls jump into fill our workshop, so we hopped on creating a freshly designed + one-of-a-kind + DIY CONTEMPORARY CRAFTY CLUTCH! A very simple project that we were able to just about complete in two hours! We came across these simple + little felt clutches and swooped on a huge stack, knowing they’d be so much fun to embellish with our crafters!
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We are beyond excited to share our simple DIY today: A Modern Macaroni Masterpiece! Today we are coming together with many of our favorite kid + art bloggers all part of the Rockin’ Art Moms to bring you the #themacaronichallenge! Below you’ll find several “over the top and beyond ideas using pasta” to make + create with children! I think you’ll be amazed! You’ll also discover we have an exciting opportunity + giveaway planned and would LOVE for YOU to join us!
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LOVE IS IN THE AIRtist! Happy Valentine’s Day! We hope you have a love-ly day planned with your little lovelies! We are SO excited to give you a peek into our latest workshop HANDMADE WITH LOVE: making + creating for Valentine’s Day! All winterLONG we’ve been dreaming of creating our original + one-of-a-kind “Woodland Valentine’s Box” and now it is here! Oh la la, all the endless possibilities! Enjoy our little + festive + Valentine DIY!
Materials + Supplies + Our Process:
Each artist collected their own woodland + natural treasures in a sweet basket based on a list we had sent home which included:
• stones/river rock • snail shells • acorns • small twigs/driftwood • smaller wood forms • pinecones • dried pods • dried leaves • feathers • moss • more! We encouraged each artist be an observant treasure hunter out on exploration!
• a box + lid with a cut opening on top + paper mache + dictionary pages
• a sheet of moss for the box top + additional moss in varied shades of green
• paint for box top edges
• hot glue + glue gun
• scissors + glue stick + white glue
• repurposed cardboard tubes + paint + brushes + corks
• air dry clay for mushrooms + paint
• empty thread spools + washi tapes for feet
• woodland trees to paint
• tapes + stickers + twine + shiny stars for garland
• decorative paper straws + wire + eye screws + star wire
• miniature vellum envelopes + card for personalized letter
We used repurposed dictionary pages to symbolize “vintage love letters” and to provide one of our favorite elements, text. Both the inside + outside of each box needed to be paper mached. The children loved the paper mache process, working with their hands + getting messy + creating as a community of little owls!
We used repurposed cardboard tubes to create fallen forrest logs and to create little mushroom bases. Tubes were easy to cut, shape, paint and lightweight to glue!
The children loved our collection of sparkly + shiny stars, metallic stars on wire, plus festive Valentine paper straws to create their base for their decorative garland. We found some lovely bottle brush trees to painted pink and used air dry clay to create sweet + little + hand-sculpted mushrooms!
Several low-temp glue guns were brought out so the children could arrange their collected + woodland box top treasures to glue down.
A peek through the woods as this little one heads to detail, just after getting her woodland treasures arranged and glued down.
A few weeks before our workshop began, we had over 100 thread spools donated to our studio. These quickly became the feet on our boxes, with the fabulous addition of washi tapes! Each artist enjoyed creating their own distinct + personalized patterns on all four feet! We were SO excited about this detail, that was just meant to be! We had just the right amount of spool sets for our artists and of course a never ending collection of washi tape. Winding tape on spools provided just the perfect amount of creative coordination for our 6 – 9 year olds as they teamed up to assist one another! The feet were then glued on all fur corners.
A four feet closeup, demonstrating just how this addition gave our Woodland Valentine’s Boxes a raised + pedestal like feel! Definitely a favorite + personalized addition to set this project off!
Minutes before “painting white polkadots began” on the mushroom tops!
Extra long + wooden handled cotton swabs worked as a fabulous + fun tool for the polkadot detail!
Each artist crafted a sweet + handmade garland using white stickers + polkadot stickers + washi tapes + red and white twine + marker, along with a personalized tag with their name for our mini-art exhibit! The variety and individualized designs were so fun!
Detailing + dotting the mushrooms…
A closeup of a woodland forest! Here you can see the opening for letters of love!
We had each of our HANDMAKERY families bring an extra special + handmade + one-of-a-kind card + envelope to our mini-art exhibit + recognition ceremony to gift their artist! It was so special to see each family deliver their handmade Valentine to their little one and watch all the reactions of joy + love + surprise + excitement! Many of the children were surprised their parents were also artists and knew how to make handmade cards from scratch. Most of the families greatly enjoyed the opportunity to create something handmade for their child and this gave them the perfect opportunity!
Another beautiful + handmade card from the heart! This little one was overjoyed by this special Valentine created by her Mom + Dad!
We had discovered teeny tiny vellum envelopes and had the idea of each artist writing a “VALENtiny” to hide in their woodland forrest, to be discovered by their family! This VALENtiny (above) was for a special + much loved Daddy! It was a fabulous night celebrating with all our HANDMAKERY families at our traditional mini-art exhibit + recognition ceremony with the lovely addition of festive cupcakes and punch! A night filled with love + laughter, memories + connection, definitely a day to remember! Follow us on Instagram to see more adventures in our art studio!
FROM THE HEART ART KITS were created in HANDMAKERY FROM THE HEART: making + creating to give with 6 – 9 year olds as a project to learn about making to give. They were then gifted to local children in need, through our local Angel Tree Program over the holiday season! Each artist designed a box and shopped for a collection of art supplies with their families, to create their very own + personalized, FROM THE HEART ART KIT! You could create your kit to gift a loved-one this Valentine’s Day to show your love + appreciation. It’s a gift from the heart that inspires daily + yearlong C-R-E-A-T-I-V-I-T-Y and M-A-K-I-N-G!
Supplies to create a FROM THE HEART ART KIT {BOX}:
- Duct tape or Duck Brand Tape in various colors + patterns. Learn more here about duct vs duck tape!
- Chromebook or laptop boxes with built-in handles
- Sharp scissors
- Measuring system (simple handmade paper guide or ruler or yard stick)
- Partner or an extra set of hands
Our Process:
First decide on your color scheme and overall design plan. Move into cutting duct tape strips using a lot of muscle power to stretch the tape. Cut using the inner part of the scissors, as this surface is the sharpest. Remember to hold your tape tight before cutting and be sure it doesn’t twist. We used a simple handmade paper guide to measure our length for strips, as there were two lengths and this method was much easier for this age group than measuring with a ruler. Each artist teamed with a partner for the entire duct tape process, which made the cutting + lining up + taping manageable and much more fun!
There was lots of excitement over tape selection as we discovered lots of solid + patterned duct tapes in our duct tape quest! Creating their own color schemes + patterns was such an expressive piece to this process! A each artist became a product designer and loved every minute of it! I definitely got the feeling there would be much more experimentation with duct tape in the future with these individuals- they LOVED working with duct tape, especially because it’s so vibrant and beautiful!
General Materials + Supplies to Include {INSIDE}:
- a pair of child scissors (round tip)
- a glue stick + bottle of white glue
- a simple set of watercolors + brush
- a simple set of markers + crayons + colored pencils
- a simple sketchbook + pencil
- any additional art supply you and your child might want to add!
Additional Materials + Supplies You Might Consider Adding:
- glitter glue + glitter + sequins
- yarn + fabric
- pom poms
- stickers
- pipe cleaners + wooden sticks
- clay
- pencil sharpener
- pencil pouch
- washi + assorted tapes
- art books + more!
Each artist in our workshop had our general art supply list and went shopping with their families to fill their box to create a very personalized FROM THE HEART ART KIT!
Two+Two bags are always a lovely + local addition! two+two designs chic reusable bags and bowl covers that are food-safe + eco-friendly. Based outside of Aspen, Colorado this young company is run by two creative Moms with a passion for style, sewing, Mother Earth, and doing what’s best (and cutest) for their little ones. two+two products keep goods + food fresh and uncontaminated with a proprietary lining that is free of lead, BPA and phthalates. The various sizes of eco-friendly reusable bags accommodate any and all packing, organizing and traveling needs. We love having the two+two families “two children” part of HANDMAKERY!
A proud + beaming artist just after she had filled her FROM THE HEART ART KIT and it was ready to travel to a child wishing for new art supplies! Each box was taken to our local Angel Tree Program, where boxes were added into gift bags and gifted! Thank you to the seventeen HANDMAKERY Families that donated art supplies to gift and a BIG thank you to each artist that gave from the heart, something special that they had created on their own! Also a huge thank you to Cresta Stewart and the Carbondale Rotary Club for heading-up + organizing + dedicating tons of time and energy to this fabulous project, that benefited so many local children!
If you are looking for another fabulous idea and an all hands-on art making blog! My art friend, Meri Cherry, has a fabulous post on Art Gift Baskets and What to Put In Them for another take on gifting art supplies which I absolutely LOVE! Let us know if you decide to create one of your very own for a special Valentine! xo
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