I love the simplicity of an egg shape - oval and a bit fatter at the bottom - and there are so many ways to colour, doodle, paint, collage, draw, splat, splodge, and print patterns and shapes on them!

download a simple old egg shape here and let your imagination take over!

Here are some ideas that we tried below - my favourite was the bubble wrap printing.
Cut several egg shapes from stiff card and peg them up for instant Easter Egg bunting.

Mother's Day is celebrated on several different dates around the world. 
The UK celebration is Sunday March 15th.
'Toucan Box' have designed this funny reminder, so mums can leave some hints around the house to make sure they aren't forgotten!........

Download your free printable door hanger here
Toucan Box delivers themed art packs direct to your home - 
"Ignite your child's imagination with toucanBox. Each box is a brand new adventure, bursting with all the materials you need to make incredibly crafty projects, and delivered straight to your door. It's never been easier to make the time with your children count."

Easter time is a great opportunity to get creative with your kids - let's have closer look at that simple egg shape (and some other ideas, like chicks and bunnies) and see what we can do with it!

2. Dancing Eggs!
Find an an old cardboard box, as tall as your child if possible. Cut out an egg shape, along with an oval face shape to peep through.
We covered ours in white paper and used oil pastels to decorate it. I took this idea to school when my daughter was 4 years old - the whole class of 30 kids had great fun dancing around as giant eggs and then they had their photos taken, to make Easter cards  - a great activity that you can take outdoors and burn off some energy with too!

3. Modern Art 'hidden' Easter Egg
Children of all ages can enjoy exploring colour and shape with this downloadable doodle art. Try crayons, pastels, felt tips, water colours, collage, scraps of coloured paper or fabric to achieve different effects. Printable worksheets can be downloaded here

Here are some more ideas available for download, on the Easter page

Have fun and have a great Easter! 

Please do comment or share this post if you think your friends might like my ideas, I always welcome any feedback or suggestions.

You can also scroll to the bottom of this page and sign up for my creative ideas newsletter, if you would like to receive similar family friendly seasonal ideas straight to your inbox,

Hope to see you again soon, 
Diane

I bought a pack of six marbling inks and a few inking trays for under £10 (around 15$) as I wanted to experiment with this process in a hospital setting where I run creative activities with young people.

I hadn't done this since I was a child and loved the instant result!

Just add a cm or so of water, add droplets of ink, leave them to swish around, blow them or drag with a cocktail stick and you're ready to marble.

Lay some thick cartridge paper on the water surface and it literally lifts the inky pattern off the water.

I'd like to research into some techniques for next time.

Here are some of our first attempts, I'm going to do it with my kids at the weekend - can't wait!

UK folk, have you watched the first 2 gripping episodes of The Big Painting Challenge, on BBC1, Sunday 6pm?
We’ve marked this time slot as our family picnic tea date time, to tune in and watch my talented artist friend Alison Stafford taking part.
You can follow her journey, as she documents it on her blog

I was so excited to hear that Alison had made it through the rounds to be one of 10 out of 6000 applicants taking part in this new series! From 1987-90 we studied fashion and textiles together at what was then, The Manchester Polytechnic.

Many years later, back in touch via facebook, I saw a portrait that Alison had painted of her young daughter posted on her page – it really touched me deeply and I knew she had to paint my children, who were around 5 and 3 years old at the time – here's what she came up with - they are still in pride of place in our family room – awesome!

Kids love art and getting messy don’t they?!
I run creative workshops, with both adults and children, in schools, hospitals and all manner of community settings – it always amazes me that children are so naturally experimental and free to express themselves – and so many of us grown ups have lost that ability and have become tentative, self critical and nervous around creative expression – is that because we were once told we were ‘no good at art”?

Everyone can be creative and the younger we start – the better!
So how can we adults....parents, teachers, family friends..... encourage kids to get painting?

Here are some ideas and suggestions that I've picked up along the way……

What kind of painting can I do with my kids?
 - anything is the answer!
Babies love painting with food - try puree on a tray
Finger painting, hand prints, foot prints
Dabbing, printing – cotton balls, buds, sponges, potatoes, wooden blocks
Stippling with big brushes
Rollers
Paint outdoors, make paintbrushes with twigs, dip tennis balls in paint and bounce them off paper!
They love mixing it all til it goes beautifully gooey brown……

Handy tips.....
It will get messy – use washable paints, plastic table cloths aprons, wipes at hand

Even better, go outside if you can - tape a big sheet of paper to the patio

Encourage mark making, experimentation, colour mixing

Art doesn’t have to look like anything, it can be a random series of abstract marks.
Paint simple squares and circles

Have fun, join in - kids love it when their parents get stuck in - turn off your inner critic
and allow yourself to play.

Don’t ask your child – 'What is it ?' 
Instead, say 'Tell me about your painting'.

Exhibit the finished artwork somewhere special at home - such a self esteem booster for kids.


And back to The Big Painting Challenge 
Best of luck Alison, who wraps this blog post up very neatly, by saying,

"I hope you enjoyed watching the programme. I have played my part in it if it has given people the impetus to have a go and to know that anyone can paint - you just have to keep practising! I am!" 


Here's a selection of our family painting experiments over the last few years, hope you enjoy them and why not give it a go yourself?

Take a look round my site for more family friendly activities, or sign up for The Imagination Box newsletter for seasonal creative activities direct to your inbox, scroll to the bottom of the page or email me

Make contact with Alison to follow her blog, or commission her here:
www.alisonstafford.com

One thing I love about working on The Imagination Box, is making contact with folk around the world who are just as passionate about kids and creativity as I am.

My path crossed recently with The Cardboard Guys on twitter with our shared use of the word 'Imagination'.

Their kids imagination furniture captivated my interest immediately - a fun, functional, environmentally friendly, recycled cardboard table and chair!

Just make it, decorate it and use it.

I'd quite like an adult size one please!

The Cardboard Guys have recently launched a kickstarter campaign to help get their product to market. Fancy supporting them?

Best of luck guys!
Diane