Hello and belated happy new year!

It's been far too long since I last updated this blog - amongst my numerous NY Resolutions is one to get to grips with blogging and tweeting on a regular basis. I guess it's just a matter of getting myself into a regular routine......any tips are much appreciated!

Christmas at home was manic but fab - my little ones are 4 and 5 (she was 6 at Christmas too) so they are such a great age to really appreciate the magic of it all. And Christmas at ARTventurers was also great - our Christmas sessions were full of fun, glitter and sparkle and some fantastic creations were made!

Looking forward to 2012 my plan for ARTventurers is to hopefully increase the number of Little ARTventurers classes (for 18 months to 5 years) over the course of the year and to also do more work with schools and nurseries, delivering themed art and craft sessions and ceramics courses. I've also really been enjoying the party side of the business - it's such a pleasure to be asked to provide the activities for someone's special day and we've had great fun doing it! Our Pirates and Princess and Build a Bear parties have been especially popular this year.

In the meantime, our Thursday morning is class is on the move - from Washington Arts Centre to Whitburn Parish Hall. As most of our attendees were travelling some distance to the arts centre anyway it seemed more sensible to move the location of the class and the Parish Hall provides a larger space for lots of creative fun! I like to ensure that our classes are fun and interactive with space to move around, create and play - if we've been making rockets we need some space to whizz them around the room! We hope to continue to use the Arts Centre space though for other holiday sessions during the year - our Little Potters class there last summer was a great success.

Half term is not too far around the corner and our school holiday sessions are always very popular. This half term is Monster Messy Madness! We'll be running sessions on Tues 14th Feb at Ashbrooke and Thursday 16th at Whitburn - sessions suitable for age 18months to 7 years (approx). We'll be making paper bag monsters, string painting, modelling and more! To book a space either call 07775911990 or email us mail@artventurers.co.uk

Here's to a happy, healthy and creative 2012 for us all!

Fiona x

Autumn Crafts!

Last week at Little ARTventurers our theme was "Autumn" - I am a huge fan of autumn crafts and our kitchen is already covered in them!

I asked all of the children to collect some autumn leaves and bring them to the session - we then tipped them all out into the middle of our circle and the kids loved showing each other the leaves that they'd brought and rustling them around.

Then we created some autumn art using some of our leaves......

We made Autumn Tree collages - this was great fun! I'd drawn a tree trunk outline on a large piece of coloured card for each child and had also pre-cut some tissue paper leaves in autumny colours. The children had loads of fun gluing and sticking the leaves they'd collected onto the tree together with the tissue paper leaves, they looked fantastic. Lots of glue was needed and we pressed each leaf down well to make sure it was stuck down (I use glue sticks in my session as they are so easy for the littlest children to grip hold of and use but PVA might work best). We finished with a good old sprinkle of gold glitter!

We also used our leaves for leaf printing. I've done this activity many times before but it isn't always the most succesful, especially for toddlers. This time I revised my technique and we made the prints using rolling pins which was lots of fun and worked really well. We painted the leaves first them places them flat down on the paper. We then popped a piece of newspaper over the top and then rolled over the top with a rolling pin - then peeled the leaves off to reveal the prints. Like I said, the prints came out really well......

We also made scarecrows on sticks (very cute!) - a really simple activity but took a bit of prep. Basically I cut out all of the pieces - the scarecrow head, jacket, hands and drew the face on. The children then stuck it together and added texture through the buttons and hair (I found adding a hat made him too top heavy and floppy). And then we stuck the scarecrows onto sticks. The children really seemed to love them - we ended the session with a game of Musical Scarecrows!

I also run a Saturday art club for older children and I found it tricky to find autumn crafts that weren't going to be too "babyish" for them. However one autumn activity that did go down well with them was doing some linear autumn leaf drawings. I had pre cut some leaf shapes which they drew round on a large piece of paper (or they could just draw their own leaf shapes) - making the outline in thick black marker. They then drew in the veins of the leaf using the marker, taking the lines right to the edge of the leaf to divide it up into different sections. I then asked them to use lines and patterns (no shading) to fill in each section of the leaves. Some of them did find this quite challenging - thinking of different combinations of colour, lines and pattern to fill each space. We finished the pictures by drawing energy lines around the leaves themselves. I think the finished results look great, really effective!!







Long time no blog!

I've been quite neglectful of this blog of late - running the business on a day to day basis while juggling it with family life is quite a challenge in itself!

The ARTventurers summer classes went really well and I can't believe that we're already on the countdown to half term! We've got some great Spooky Halloween sessions lined up for October half term - on the Tuesday at Ashbrooke and the Thursday at Washington Arts Centre. Think pop up ghosts, creepy spiders, big black bats and eyeball painting.....it's going to be lots of creative (and sometimes messy!) fun! And if you're coming along to one of the sessions please feel free to come along in Spooky fancy dress (I will be!!)

Talking of Washington Arts Centre, I'm thrilled that we're going to be running a weekly Little ARTventurers class there from November. This will be in addition to our Tuesday class at Ashbrooke. The centre is such a vibrant, creative space in the heart of the community and it's great to be part of it in a small way. The Little Potters course there over the summer was a huge success and I also hope to run some more sessions for older children (6+) there in the run up to Christmas so watch this space!

Some of the handprint tiles created at the Little Potters summer sessions - fab work!

ARTventurers Autumn Newsletter

ARTventurers Autumn

Newsletter

Spooky Halloween Craft Party!

We’ve got some fantastic spooky crafts planned for our half term sessions – pumpkin lanterns, creepy spiders, witches and ghosts and lots more! Pre booking essential, £6 per child including all materials and refreshments for the little ones. Suitable for ages 18m-7yrs.

Tues 25^th Oct – St Johns, Ashbrooke

Thurs 27^th Oct – Washington Arts Centre

Little ARTventurers

We’ve had a great couple of weeks so far this term exploring and creating with our “Space” and “Bugs” themed sessions. Coming up – “Under the Sea”, “All about Me”, “Autumn”, “Crunchy, Scrunchy Textures” and lots more!. Little ARTventurers is suitable for children aged 18 months plus – painting, collage, modeling, sensory activities and lots more.

NEW WASHINGTON CLASS!

We’re delighted to be launching a new Little ARTventurers class at Washington Arts Centre on Thursday mornings after half term. It’s a fantastic venue and we really enjoyed running our Little Potters course there over the summer. Little ARTventurers is suitable for pre school age children from 18 months upwards. To book a place contact Fiona - mail@artventurers.co.uk. Sessions are £4.85 per child including materials and refreshments, sibling discount available. We also hope to run some pottery painting activities for children aged 6+ in the run up to Christmas – register your interest now!

Christmas Crafts!

Christmas is a fantastic time of year for childrens art and craft activities – what better excuse for lots of glitter and sparkle?!

Our Christmas craft holiday sessions will be taking place w/c 19^th December in Ashbrooke, Washington and Roker – places are already filling up so book your space now! Suitable for children 18months – 7 years.

Weekend Sessions

 If you can’t make our weekday sessions don’t forget we also run weekend sessions – our Saturday morning Diddy Art club suitable for 4-11 yrs runs at Hawthorn Arts in South Shields and we also run  occasional workshop sessions on Sundays at the Seaburn centre. Watch out for Spooky Crafts on Sun 23^rd Oct and Christmas Crafts on Sun 27^th November!

Birthday parties

Looking to do something a little bit different for your little one’s party? Our creative birthday packages are great fun for age 2-12 years. Themes such as Glitter and Sparkle or Pirates, activities like pottery painting or teddy bear making….let us host the activities and then clean up the mess too!

www.artventurers.co.uk

07775911990 mail@artventurers.co.uk



The Very Hungry Caterpillar week!

This week at ARTventurers we've been running some Very Hungry Caterpillar sessions - inspired by the Eric Carle classic!

So what have we been up to? Well, we've been making paper plate suns, fantastic Hungry Caterpillar hats, butterfly puppets, collage fruits and trying butterfly painting as well as making some delicious looking lollipop bookmarks! Then at circle time we used the things that we made to tell the story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar - it was great fun! I love to get the children using and interacting with the things that they've created during the classes rather than them just getting stuck on the fridge, it's a great way to get them inspired and thinking creatively and I'm sure that the book has been read and read over this week at home!



Making our paper plate suns

I think that the buttefly puppet was the most popular activity this week. Here's how we made them -

You'll need - a butterfly shape cut out from stiff card, glue, some collage materials (we used tissue paper and sequins as well as squares of coloured paper), a wooden stick or lolly stick, some sellotape.

We decorated our card shapes with the collage materials (the more colourful the better), of course remembering that buttefly wings are always symmetrical! We attached some tissue paper streamers to the bottom of our butterflies and then attached them to the sticks with sellotape - they were then ready to be fluttered around the room!

Butterfly puppet making!

Next week we're going On Safari - can't wait!!

Summer Holiday fun!

Phew - it's been a busy week for ARTventurers, the first full week of our summer holiday schedule!

Tuesday and Thursday mornings we ran our Little ARTventurers summer fun sessions for children up to 6 years old at Ashbrooke and Roker. Both sessions were fantastic - we made pirate hats, parrots and telescopes, tiaras and wands, got mummy/daddy/gran to draw round us and made life size pirates and princesses and we also tried loot rubbing! Great and very very glittery - the life size drawings were especially popular! I love to do activities like that where the kids can get down on the floor and really get stuck into what they're doing, moving around their artwork - it makes for great creativity.

On Tuesday the Sunderland Echo came to visit the session to take some photos - always tricky to get toddlers to stay still for more than 2 seconds, especially when they're full on engaged with what they're doing but hopefully we've got some great action shots which sum up exactly what ARTventurers is all about - having lots of fun experimenting and creating! The article should be in the paper later this week - watch out for us (and me with a face covered in glitter no doubt!). I'm really pleased that the Echo is supporting us as a local business, having publicity like that really helps spread the word.

Wednesday also saw the first week of our Little Potters course at Washington Arts Centre where we worked with clay to make some handstamped coasters and also tried out different pottery painting techniques on a breakfast mug. Really looking forward to seeing how they've turned out when they come out of the kiln - will try and post some pics!

Tomorrow is a day off with my little ones (fruit picking hopefully) then the weekend is a busy one with two things booked in for Sunday. Sunday morning we're running a craft workshop at the Makers Market at the Seaburn Centre (fabric painting and keyrings) - come along and say hi and treat yourself to some gorgeous handmade goodies. Then later in the day we're off to run some activities at the Leighton Cook family fun day at Quayside Exchange, Sunderland. Leighton is a little local lad - just 4 years old, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma June 2010, four days after his 3rd birthday.

Leighton's family and friends have set up a fund to raise the £50,000 they need to raise to send Leighton to Germany is to increase his chances of survival from 30% to 50%. Leightons story is such a heartbreaking cause and I'm just pleased that there is a small something that I can do to help with their fundraising efforts. Please take a minute to pop over to Leightons page to show your support and to see if there is anything that you could do to help them reach their target. http://www.facebook.com/TeamLeighton?sk=wall#!/TeamLeighton?sk=info Thank you!! Next week's holiday sessions - The Very Hungry Caterpillar! Caterpillar hats, butterfly puppets..... it's going to be tons of fun!

Hot hot hot - warm weather activities for the garden! Part 1

It's so warm here at the minute - who knows how long it will last but we're all making the most of it by opening those doors and windows and letting the summer in! We've got the paddling pool and water slide out already this morning (and it's only twenty to ten!) but when they get bored with that it's a good opportunity to try out some outdoor art and craft activities that we might not have space for in the house (or just not want to do in the house!!!)

Here's some ideas you might want to try.......

Ice cube painting

My kids LOVE doing this - it's great for all ages but takes a wee bit of pre planning. Make some ice cube painting sticks - you can either do this by using ice lolly moulds or alternatively ice cube trays and toothpicks/lollysticks. Make up the ice cubes/lollies by pouring paint in and then freezing overnight. You can use normal non toxic liquid paint or try watercolours mixed with water. Then when frozen the kids can have great fun using the lollies/ice cubes to paint pictures - make sure the paper you use is quite thick. Just remember to remind the kids that the lollies aren't for eating!

Life size self portraits

Fab activity for on the lawn! Get a large roll of paper (wallpaper is great for this) or stick a few sheets together. Get your child to lie down and then draw round them and cut the shape out. They can then paint the figure, make a collage person......

Football painting

In a previous blog post I talked about bouncy ball painting - this is a super sized version! Get a large piece of paper and a tray of paint. Roll the football through the paint then have fun kicking it around the paper (best to do this barefoot!). If you're not too precious about garden toys you could try scooter painting or even space hopper painting using the same theory - but thick card or even board will work best.

Painting with water

This is one for the teeniest tots - give them a bucket of water and a paintbrush and set them off to "paint" the fence, the patio....keeps them entertained for hours and is a good way of mastering holding a paintbrush, a fun way of learning to draw shapes etc.

Den building and decorating

All kids love building dens - easy enough to do with chairs and a couple of sheets. Then they can spend many happy hours decorating then den and getting really creative designing bunting, keep out signs, pictures to decorate the den....!

Hope this might give you a few ideas to be getting on with - my ice cube paints are now frozen so off we go...!

Why do we have music at our pre school sessions?

At our Little ARTventurers art and craft classes for pre schoolers we always round the session off with a well deserved snack and a drink and a noisy sing along  joined by Arty the Bear!

For me it’s an integral part of the class structure – the kids absolutely love it, it's part of the routine of the weekly classes and it got me thinking again about the importance of music for babies, toddlers and pre schoolers.

So why is group singing and music making so important for young children?

-         It’s a sociable activity – it stimulates a basic desire to join in and interact with others

-         Music encourages self expression  and self confidence

-         Engaging with music encourages children to develop gross and fine motor skills and coordination – moving and dancing in time to the music and using instruments to tap and shake

-   Sing a longs are great fun!

One of the most fun sing a longs was when we ran a carnival themed session and the children made their own musical shakers as well as party hats and pasta jewellery - they then had loads of fun  using their shakers during singing time! One for this coming term again I think.....:)

And don't forget our Teddy Bears Picnic party on Tuesday 26th July when we'll be teaming up with Music Bugs to run a jam packed session of teddy bear art and craft activities, biscuit decorating and a fab and noisy Music Bugs session! Session is to take place at St Andrews Church, Roker, Sunderland and places are limited so must be pre booked! check out our website http://www.artventurers.co.uk/ for more details!

All About Me Collage Craft Activity - for all ages!

I first used this craft as part of an “All About Me” themed session where we also made a fingerpainted house and created some fantastic self portraits on the painting table!

It's really simple idea and craft but very often the most simple ideas are the best!

It was such a popular craft for younger children that it’s one I’ve taken out and about again and again. Kids love to make their whole family so it’s worth printing out quite a few extra templates – and it’s a craft that can be used as a great learning tool for colours, families and body parts as well as exploring different textures. Older kids can also use it as a scissor practice exercise!

This is what you’ll need

Stiff a4 card

Glue

Pens or crayons

A box of different materials – fabric, card, papers,wool, tissue……..

Firstly, print out the A4 template below onto card – like I say it’s a good idea to print out a few! You should hopefully be able to copy and paste this template and then resize it if needed - if not then you can download templates elsewhere or just draw your own person!

Let your child get creative with the template, materials and glue – dress it, colour it in, add hair (or not!).

You can either leave the person as he/she is on the card – or try cutting it out to make a cardboard doll!

Brum brum beep beep - Transport crafts Part 1!

My 3 year old Isaac loves anything with wheels so here’s a couple of my favourite car themed art and craft activities –

Car Painting

We love to get a huge piece of paper down on the floor, a plate full of paint and some toys cars, trains, diggers – whatever you’ve got in the toy box! Drive through the paint and them vroom vroom around the paper leaving paint tracks behind! Great fun and makes fab and funky patterns, especially if you use lots of different colours. This activity works especially well with a group of kids!

Bubble car craft (for ages 12 months +)

Kids love this cute bubble car craft - it works well for a wide age range as they can put as much detail into it as they like so it's a craft activity I often do for something like a family fun day when I know there'll be lots of different ages along to join in.

Basically all you need is a piece of stiff card, some paper and pens and lots of bits and pieces to decorate the bubble car. I have a big box full of odds and ends of scraps of paper, fabric, sequins, ribbons.. ideal for this type of craft!

Draw or print a bubble car outline onto the card then cut it out.

Cut two window shapes for the window and then two round shapes for the car, I use this as an exercise to get the children drawing round a round object to leave a circle shape.

Have fun decorating and personalising your bubble car!

Egg box bus

I’d love to be able to take credit for this one but it’s not one of my own ideas – I found it on a fab site I came across while  browsing the internet called dlkt kids -  http://www.dltk-kids.com

Grab a large egg box, paint, some glue, paper (including black for the tyres) and pens/crayons. You might want also to use magazine pics for the passengers.

Firstly cut the lid off the egg box as that’s the bit you’re going to be using for the bus.  Cut out some squares along the egg box for the windows. Then let your little one paint it whichever colour he/she wants.

Cut some black circles out – these will be the wheels. Then cut out some magazine pics of faces and stick these on the bus behind the cut out windows for the passengers – or even better, get your child to draw their own passengers which you can then cut out and stick on the bus together!

Happy motoring!

Making a Magic Craft Box

If you plan on getting crafty with your kids at home then it's a great idea to make a designated craft box and stuff it full of craft essentials so you've got everything in one place ready for when you hear the cry "Mummy, I want to make something!".

As I hoard more and more stuff our Magic Craft Box has turned into the Magic Doodle Drawers (we nicked that term from Cbeebies Mr Maker LOL!) - a set of drawers I bought from Ikea which live in the playroom. I also love the idea of making the craft box itself from a plain cardboard box and getting your child to decorate and personalise it him/herself. We also have a little childrens table and stools in the playroom and all of the craft stuff is accessable for them to use whenever they like - apart from the glitter, I'm not brave enough to allow free reign with that!

Anyway, I thought it might be helpful to have a list of those bits and pieces that I think are essential if you're starting your own magic craft box at home......

1. Construction Paper (slighty rough surfaced coloured paper - cheap, buy in bulk, fab for childrens crafts)
2. Scissors
3. Glue - glue sticks and PVA glue
4. Sellotape
5. Things to write and draw with - felt tips, pencils, crayons, pastels..
6. Googly Eyes
7. White plain paper bags - can buy in bulk on ebay really cheaply
8. White Paper Cups - as above!
9. Lolly sticks
10. Pipe Cleaners
11. Stickers - what child doesn't love stickers?!
12. Bits of coloured wool
13. Cotton Balls
14. Paper Plates - I buy Smartprice ones from Asda
15. Ruler
16. Washable Paints - I buy the squeezy bottles
17. A variety of brushes and sponges
18. String and ribbon
19. Bits of fabric, tissue paper, foil, foam sheets, textured paper for collages
20. Empty cardboard tubes
21. Glitter/sequins to add a touch of sparkle

Whilst this list might seem long and expensive - lots of the stuff can be picked up really really cheaply, or for free by recycling! As you might have gathered I'm a bit of an ebay queen and I get a lot of my session materials via ebays Wholesale section as I'm buying in bulk for large numbers of children. Shops like Poundstretcher, the Pound Shop, B and M Homestores and good old Asda are also fantastic for crafty items at great prices. Google searches will  produce a vast list of online craft suppliers.

If you're a bit of a novice at childrens craft activities the list above should stand you in great stead and get you on your crafty way - you can begin to add to your magic craft box by saving everything from old magazines to yoghurt pots, cardboard boxes to egg boxes and then you'll never be stuck for things to do on a good old British rainy day!

Happy crafting! x

Yum Yum Yum - paper plate pizza craft!

Yum Yum Yum – paper plate pizza craft!

This craft was a great hit at a Food and Drink themed c raft session where we also did printing with various fruit and veg and decorated sensory gingerbread men (details to follow….!)

This is what you’ll need

-         White paper plate

-         Red paint

-         Sponge

-         Yellow tissue paper

-         Card or foam in different colours

-         Glue and scissors

-         Green glitter (optional)

First thing is to put the tomato sauce onto the pizza – when I do this craft I just squeeze the paint onto a big dinner plate and let the kids dip into the paint with sponges and sponge paint the paper plate (pizza base). Uses less paint than brushes and less chance of the plate going soggy – no one likes a soggy pizza!!

Whilst the paint is drying let the children rip up some pieces of yellow tissue paper – this will be the cheese. I always like to get the kids ripping their own sheets up – much more fun than adults sitting and cutting it out for them and I think a good exercise in coordination and strengthening those arm muscles for the littlest ones!

Then stick the cheese onto the pizza with the glue and begin to add the toppings using whatever card you’ve got or foam pieces. Pink can be ham, black = olives, green can be peppers (or peas!)….. a good chance to talk about likes and dislikes and even introduce the concept of a few things they mightn’t have tried before.

The pizza pictured is missing the Italian herbs – green glitter of course!

Happy pizza making!

Summer's here - a sandcastle craft!

It's a lovely June sunny morning, I opened my curtains this morning and the sea was sparkling and I'm feeling all summery! So what better than this fab and simple sandcastle craft activity  – grab yourselves the following

-         A piece of stiff A4 card (or bigger if you like!)

-         Some glue – PVA with a spreader or brush is best

-         Sand, either play sand or beach sand

-         Some small pebbles and shells

-         Lolly stick and card

If you’re lucky enough to be able to get to the beach it’s great to go out and collect all of the things you need for this craft together and then you can have tons of fun reminiscing and chatting about the beach when you do this craft. You can buy craft lollisticks (they’re dead cheap and useful for tons of different crafts) – but I prefer to use it as an excuse to get the ice lollies in!

Firstly, draw a simple sandcastle outline on the card. Now this is why the spready glue is better for this craft – get your little one to paint inside the shape with lots of glue. Good practice for older toddlers at trying to keep within the lines – but if they go outside of it no worries!!

Now for the fun/magic bit. Sprinkle lots of sand over the gluey area, count 1-2-3 then shake off the excess sand leaving a sandy sandcastle shape. Use the leftover glue to decorate the castle with the  pebbles and shells and make a flag using the lolly stick and some more card or paper.

For older kids adapt this craft by using kitchen roll tubes and a paper plate. Cover the tubes with glue and roll them in the sand so they're completely covered - then stick to the paper plate with sellotape. More glue and sand on the plate gives the sandcastle a sandy base, then decorate with stones, shells and a flag in the same way!

Happy sandcastle building!!!