Growing up, I was always fascinated with what shadows I could make out of my hands. My brother and I would use a flashlight and try to make cool animals or shapes in the shadows. Today, I am going to take that a bit farther! We are going to shape our hands to make animal paintings (or drawings)!

I miss you all so much and truly hope you have enjoyed our activities this summer! This week is one of my very favorite activities that I have been saving up for you guys. ROCK PAINTING!

Everyone’s favorite snack on a hot day is a fresh, juicy watermelon! Well, I know it’s my favorite snack. After eating some this weekend, it got me thinking that a watermelon painting would be fun and cute, so that’s what I’ve brought you this week!

I am so excited to be back with you guys and teach your young artists another super cool project! This week, we are going to be creating what is called a “surprise expression”. This is a super simple concept that involves folding and drawing! 

To help make your Fourth of July a little more fun and a whole lot sweeter, I am bringing you a dessert this week!

I hope you all are having a great week and are excited to learn some new art!

This week, I am going to teach you how to draw some cool animals.

We are back with another drawing how-to! This week we are going to learn how to draw a proportional self-portrait! Why is this important you may ask? Well, there are a few reasons.

We are going to learn how to draw a landscape with perspective!! A “landscape portrait” is just a fun term for an outdoor scene. This is a super useful lesson because you don’t have to go far to find a landscape to paint or draw, you can just step outside! Your landscape creation can be of a pretty lighthouse while visiting the beach, a beautiful sunset, the tree in your backyard, or even something from your imagination. I hope with this knowledge, you all will begin to feel comfortable taking out a sketchbook next time you see some pretty scenery.

This week, I am going to be teaching you something that is one of my favorites: lettering! This is one of my favorite kinds of art because it is so useful and has given me the ability to decorate cards, home decor, and even gave me the opportunity to write my brother’s wedding invitations!

For next week’s class we will be learning about shading. Shading can turn any piece of artwork from flat 2D to an exciting 3D. We use shading in every art piece because when drawn, nothing is a flat color. All artwork is made up of lighting and shading, and when the light source is blocked, we see a shadow. We can look at any object in our house right now and see that the side closest to the window or a lamp is lighter in color than the opposite side.

I know some of these activities have required some crazy supplies, so this week, I am bringing you a simple “paint with me” that will have your little Picasso raving about their work! I don’t know about you all, but I have seen the Tape Painting trend going around, so I thought I would share a fun how-to. This week, we are making a fun tape painting that easy and quick!

What characteristics are most important to you when thinking about crafts you want to do with your kids? Would you prefer them to have minimal supplies? Keep them engaged for hours? Allow your children to complete the craft independently? Well, how about all of them! I’m bringing you a Cloud Dough craft is the definition of easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Has your family been able to make routines and schedules that decrease stress or do you still feel like you are hanging on by a thread with your stressed-out children? Well either way, we have a super easy stress ball craft for you that will help not just your kids, but also you! Now, before you think that stress balls are just more clutter for your house, they actually have quite a few proven benefits.

With today being April 22nd, I thought I would wish you all a HAPPY EARTH DAY! Earth day is one of my favorite days as we are able to celebrate this beautiful planet we live on and educate ourselves and others on how we can keep it clean. One of these ways is by recycling. Today I’m going to teach you a fun way to teach your kids about recycling by finding some things in your house to make a wind-chime!

We've all seen beautiful pictures of melted crayon art and thought, "that looks fun, but I don't have the time or energy for that." Well, now it's time to have your kids go find those old crayons and put them to good use!

I hope you all are having a good week so far. As I was looking around my own house for supplies to use for homemade crafts, I found something that I know everyone has plenty of: toilet paper rolls! After some hearty Pinterest scrolling, I have found that you can practically make anything out of toilet paper rolls. 

One of our favorite things to do at CSG is to have evening campfires. While it may be difficult to recreate a typical camping experience, we encourage you and your family to get creative and bring some aspects of camp into your home!