The ImaginationBox Blog, creative art projects and printables at your fingertips

Download doodles

31/7/2015

Doodling can be such fun for all age groups, from preschoolers, to teens, parents and grandparents.

I found a really useful website today, where you can print for free, all sorts of patterns and shapes to doodle in - manuscripts, graphs, hexagons, squares, circles, dots.

www.printablepaper.net

Why not print a pack of these free patterns, grab the felt tips and you have an easy travel pack for those much needed quiet moments or when they shout, 'I'm bored mum!'

Here are some ideas that I came up with, I'll be sharing them with kids later!

Join the dots and get geometric

Filling one inch squares with marks and squiggles

Filling squares with pattern

If you like these quick ideas, have a read of another doodletastic blog post,
adventures with a roll of tape and a biro!

If you are a homeschooler or teacher looking for more detailed lesson plans and art lessons, why not visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store?
It's packed with fun, affordable, low prep art activities.

0 Comments

10 Creative Summer Boredom Busters for Kids

31/7/2015

2 Comments

Summertime, and the living is............

Let's face it, pretty hectic if you've got children!

Are you juggling work and childcare this summer, trying not to spend a fortune on activities?
Wondering how to keep your brood and their friends entertained?

Here are 10 simple, creative activities to encourage kids away from screens, and get some fresh air.

They are designed to mix up art and imaginative play to occupy kids for longer.
All of these ideas have been tried and tested on my two children.

I'd love to hear your feedback if you give any of them a go.

1. Build a Native American Teepee Camp

A great group activity.
Download this popular teepee template - both outline and colored versions are available on my website.
They look great topped with feathers and twigs and little lego characters fit well inside :-)

teepee template

2. Festival Time

Dressing up is always fun. A backyard can feel like a festival with a little imagination.
Mine love orchestrating fashion shows at the moment.
Leave an old mirror and some child friendly face paints outside - hilarious outcomes!

3. Decorate a Tree

Wrap some string around a nice old tree trunk - peg up your postcard or bunting masterpieces.
You could introduce a theme, such as ''family', 'beach', 'when I grow up'........
Download blank postcard and bunting templates here.

blank bunting template

blank postcard template

4. Clay Faces

Our kids love to take a little bag of natural clay to the woods.
Press a ball firmly onto the trunk of a tree and let the kids do the rest.
Get foraging on the forest floor for all manner of materials to make a unique piece of outdoor art.

5. Edible Jewelry

A two stage activity - make, then eat !
Small children can thread cheerios, or any cereals or corn snacks with a hole in the middle onto licorice laces if you're happy letting your kids have a sweeter treat.
Older children can thread popcorn onto shirring elastic with a needle.

6. Sand Sculptures

At the beach or in the sandpit - cookie cutters make lovely little sand sculptures

7. Collect and Decorate Pebbles

These pebbles have been 'decopatched' using patterned tissue papers - however, torn magazine cuttings and tissue paper with some pva glue works just as well.
They make great paper weights and little room ornaments.

8. Simple Mask Making

Brown paper bags make a great base for animal masks - combine collage with finding natural materials such as twigs and feathers.

9. Make a Crazy Bug

Give your kids a zip lock bag and send them out and about foraging for interesting natural materials to make a bug.
We used a popsicle/lollipop stick to form the body of this crazy bug - invent your own species, discuss their habitat, are they dangerous, what do they eat?

10. Beach Combing

Ziplock bags are such a great invention.
We collected all these pieces of colored wood, plastic and string on the beautiful West Coast of Ireland a couple of years back - it was really relaxing making modern art pictures on the ground by arranging the shapes and colors - it's true, one man's junk is another man's treasure.

collecting and arranging, beach combing for color and shape

If you enjoy doodling, making, constructing, coloring, click below for more templates and printables

Summer free printables
Free downloads
Travel friendly activities

Which activity are you most likely to try?
I'd love your feedback in the comments below.

If you are a homeschooling parent or teacher looking for fun Back To School Ice Breaker Games and All About me Activities, you might like to browse my creative art lesson / activity packets at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store

Have a great summer :-)

2 Comments

Cookie Cutter Sand Sculptures

16/7/2015

0 Comments

We loved doing this!
Building mini sand sculptures with cookie cutters.

We actually made these on Christmas Day last year, all wrapped up on a solitary beach in the beautiful northeast of England.

We'll take a bigger selection on our summer holiday :-)

Just like a sand castle bucket, place the cookie cutter on the sand (sharp side down) and using damp sand preferably, fill the cutter, pack it down a bit and lift off!

If you are looking for more travel / vacation friendly activities, you'll find lots of ideas and free printables on my 'Art of Travel' page, from flipflops, to postcard and journal templates.

If you'd like to receive my monthly topical newsletter, with family friendly activities and free downloads, please do sign up for my mailing list, I'd love to hear from you!

Have a great summer,
Diane

0 Comments

Image making with squares and circles

15/7/2015

2 Comments

I love old posters and book cover designs.
Do you find yourself getting lost in pinterest when there are other (less fun) things to get done?
The design below, by Bernard Benno Wissing, a Dutch designer, painter, graphic artist and architect caught my eye recently.
I loved the simplicity of the squares and the circles, using just three colours, repeating to make a pattern.

Always keen to turn anything into an art project with my kids, I set about cutting up lots of squares and circles with coloured paper.
We played around with the shapes, and photographed them on my mobile phone before
'destroying' the image and starting again.
After creating a few abstract patterns and a flower - we ended up with a robot!