Fire Engines et al

Hope over here

 Reciclando en la Escuela

You'll find lots of fun craft activities for kids

Reduce-Reuse-Recycle!

A Cardboard Kingdom

I fell in love with the original, if you remember, but I'm sure lilla a's cardboard design will provide just as many hours of fun. Why not print out her templates and help your children make and decorate their own? Something for a rainy day perhaps?

(Have a look at her beautiful Easter animal garlands too).

Enjoy!

First Steps #4

Don't you just love these photos? Hazel Terry's personality shines through in all of them. They speak volumes, I think.

Hazel is an artist and art educator, passionate about art, craft and design. Her blog The art room plant is one of my daily reads.  Quite frankly, it's one of the nicest, most creative sites I know, jam-packed with her own work, craft activities for children of all ages, 

Violet

 Yesterday's painted Easter Eggs

Decorating the walls for Freya's 6th birthday party last week

and a continous stream of amazing art from all disciplines. I really don't know where she finds so many gems.

Joanne Liu

Unity Coombes

Nathalie Niebach

Georg Cevales

 Her blog is wonderful, give yourself 5 minutes, or maybe an hour, to look through some of her recent posts. If you like art you'll love the art room plant, it's a visual treasure box, a magical place - I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Quick! Quick!

 André da Loba

Christmas is fast approaching and so is the final date for submitting your toilet roll art to Mr Spoqui (31 Dec).

I've shown these entries to Miles, 5, (excluding André da Loba's work) and he's putting some ideas on paper as I type!  Why not join in? It's amazing what you can do with a bit of cardboard, colour and imagination...

  Look what people have made so far:

Amba

Luciana

Amba

Inspired? I hope so!

You might like to check out Mr Spoqui's latest Family Magazine too.

Snow Painting

I love this!

Hazel's been snow painting again - why not try it with your kids, weather permitting!

Tilly the Elephant and her Friends

Ohh! I've had my eyes on these for a long time!

Fideli Sundqvist's limited edition paper animals will soon be for sale over here along with her beautiful Christmas plates. I just know Miles and Savannah will enjoy making these!

Acorn Chains

I love these acorn garlands made my Maya and her little girl

What did I say earlier? Scissors and paper, that's all you need!

Back to Basics

I could spend hours looking for unusual games and toys to share

I like original finds

But I for one know that kids are perfectly happy with the basics.

Give them a few pieces of coloured paper and a pair of scissors and let their imagination do the rest

Love Giddy Giddy's triangles! 

Toys from Trash

Cyclist - made from an old camembert box, cardboard, wool and wire

Happy Earth Day!

I'd like to start the day by showing you some toys made by Atelier des Enfants , a wonderful children's art workshop/blog in Paris.

Handmade Balancing Toy

Handmade Colour Wheel

As I pointed out here, toys do not have to be expensive or elaborate, a bit of imagination suffices to bring a smile to any child's face. Odile and Junko's creations were crafted from everyday, easy-to-find objects and were all inspired by Arvind Gupta's amazing Toys From Trash site.

Paper House

Bird of Peace

Fold Out Human Body Systems

The Toys from Trash gallery is choc-full of craft activities for you and your kids. Simple paper engineering, beginner's biology, amazing astronomy, magic maths... the list is long , promising hours of educational fun and above all, teaching children the vital importance of those three special R's - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

MakeDo

I know three kids who would love to get their hands on a MakeDo set!

Take three simple parts – a connector, a hinge and a construction tool- a supply of materials such as cardboard, plastic and fabric and a great dose of imagination et voilà...a whole new world of creativity!

Reduce, reuse, recycle - that's our motto!

WATCH the video - you'll love it.

Check out the MakeDo site for more information and details of local and international stockists.

Via Babycinno Kids

Children's artwork #4 - le bonheur!

Remember this post about happiness? I think it'll be in my top 5 for years to come (especially the video!). Well, my little Miles (4 1/2) has made my week with his latest art project. They've been working on Tolstoy's Giant Turnip folktale at school and each child has made a gorgeous handstamped book. A turnip I shall treasure forever...

1 big brown cow

2 porky pigs

6 yellow canaries

Autumn leaves

Enjoy these beautiful Aboriginal-like Autumn leaves handpainted by Geninne. What a great craft activity for you to do with your kids! We usually make garlands from dried plane tree leaves sprayed silver and gold. These would look stunning as folk-inspired Christmas decorations.
Fly over to Geninne's wonderful etsy store for more nature-inspired treasures and visit her on Flickr here.

*Just received my copy of Uppercase magazine's new autumn issue and there's a gorgeous feature on Geninne's work, creative space and home.