How to Set up an Art Cart

By Rachelle 17 Comments

If you’re looking for ways to organize your most frequently used art supplies, the rolling, portable art cart could be a great solution. While we haven’t always had an art cart, I now appreciate that our everyday supplies have their own place, and that the cart can roll around the house and park itself right next to wherever my children decide to make their mark.

What’s on the Art Cart?

There are three broad categories of materials that go onto our cart. You can fill your cart with exactly what you see here, or substitute some of the items for things that are used more frequently in your home. The materials on our cart reflect my kids’ daily interests in drawing and making 2-D art. While you won’t see building and paint supplies on our cart, we do store these other art-making supplies nearby.

Here’s what goes into our cart, for children ages 3 and 5

Top Shelf: Drawing and Cutting Tools

Washable Markers
Pencils and Colored Pencils
Crayons
Scissors
Paintbrushes

Middle Shelf: Attaching Tools

Tape: Colorful washi tapes, colored masking tape, and clear tape
Glue: White glue, colored glue, and glue sticks
String: baker’s twine, cotton twine
Stapler

Bottom shelf: Treasures

Stickers
Pom-poms
Sequins
Wiggly eyes
Buttons
Color coding labels
We sometimes store our sketchbooks on the bottom shelf too

Other ideas

Dough Tools: Sculpting Cart

Play dough
Play dough tools
Air dry clay
Mini muffin pan
Spoons and bowl

Building Tools: Tinkering Cart

Low-heat glue gun
Recyclables
Broken toys and appliances
Hammer
Tacks
Goggles
Duct Tape
Scissors
Screwdriver

Paint Tools: Painter’s Cart

Tempera Paint
Watercolors
Paintbrushes
Rags
Water containers
Apron
Paper

How the Art Cart Works

When my kids want to create something, the art cart is self-service. They can find what they need, remove it from the cart, and then put it back in its place when they’re done. These are some of the projects we’ve worked on with materials form our art cart (top to bottom):

Sequins, beads, and buttons stuck into dough
Homemade crown with Sharpies, glue stick, and scissors
Office stickers and Tape in paper frames
Paper doll with clear tape, stickers, and permanent marker

Where to buy an Art Cart

Ikea:

We love our Raskog Kitchen Cart. Like anything IKEA, you have to assemble it yourself, but it’s not a difficult assembly. The cart is sturdy (made of steel), the casters are solid, and I don’t imagine we’ll have to replace it any time soon.
As of this date, these come in turquoise, dark grey, and beige.

Amazon:

There are lots of choices on Amazon. We’re an affiliate and selected a few carts that look promising.

3-tray heavy duty steel, red workshop cart
This narrow cart with metal frame and plastic sliding rainbow-colored drawers
Heavy duty chrome utility cart with three shelves
Professional style studio art cart (I used one like this when I was a teacher)
Small studio art cart: a narrower version of the studio art cart (above)
Chrome commercial-grade utility cart like the kind you might see in restaurant

Do you like this post? Pop over here to see our Art Cart in Action

Paint Recipe for Kids |Homemade Finger Paint

By Rachelle 6 Comments

Today I’ll share how to make the easiest homemade finger paint from basic, edible ingredients: flour, water, and food coloring.

Do you ever worry about the ingredients that come in store-bought paint?

This is less of a concern now that my children no longer put everything they find in their mouths, but I thought about things like this when my kids were toddlers. Seeing the “non-toxic” label certainly helped, but it’s another thing to know that the ingredients in my art supplies are entirely edible.

Supplies for Homemade Finger Paint

The basic ratio is 1 flour: 2 water, so scale up or down according to how much paint you’d like to make. We used washable, non-toxic liquid watercolors to add color to the paint, but you could also use food coloring for a similar effect.

1/2 cup flour
1 cup water
pinch of salt (optional)
extra water
Food coloring or liquid watercolors (these link to two of our favorite supplies)

Directions

Pour flour and water into a pot.
Stir the ingredients over medium heat until it comes together like smooth, thick paste. The mixture will be lumpy along the way, but it all comes together.
When it starts to pull away from the pot, remove from the heat.
Add a pinch of salt. This helps keep the paint from spoiling if you don’t use it right away.
To reach the desired consistency, slowly add cold water to the mixture. I added about 1/4 cup water to our paint.
Divide the paint into bowls.
Squeeze food coloring or liquid watercolors into the flour mixture until you reach the desired color.
Store in a covered container in the fridge if you’re not planning to use this right away. It will keep indefinitely.

These liquid watercolor paints are washable and non-toxic, and my absolute favorite. The pack of eight colors (8 oz. each) is about $30, which makes each bottle just under $4. When you consider how much food coloring you get in a tiny bottle, these liquid watercolors are totally worth it, in my opinion. If the value-pack is out of stock or you’re not interested in committing to eight colors, you could also order these paint bottles individually.

Now the paint is ready to experiment with.

The texture is like pudding and feels nice on the hands. My kids enjoyed painting it on their hands to make hand prints, and they also used brushes to paint in a more traditional way.

The pigment of the paint won’t stick to the paper like poster paint will, so if your child wants brilliant colors to pop out, he or she will need to put the paint on extra thick. Like this…

My 5-year old made this painting, and the thickness of the paint meant that it took a solid 24-hours to dry. The thinner the paint is applied, the quicker it will dry.

The Pros and Cons of Homemade Finger Paint

One final word on the quality of this paint. The benefits of this homemade finger paint are plentiful. It’s:

Made from familiar ingredients
Non-toxic
Economical
Safe to eat

The cons are less troublesome, but worth mentioning nonetheless:

The paint is perfect for finger painting, but less than ideal for using a paintbrush. My kids didn’t seem to mind, but it’s something to consider if you’re looking for a traditional paint recipe.

The texture and quality of the paint make it ideal for finger painting, but my kids still loved it. Keep in mind that generally speaking, children are more interested in the process of making something than in the final outcome. I asked my children (ages 3 and 5) numerous times about the paint, and they agreed that this recipe is a keeper.

Other Art Activities and Recipes with Liquid Watercolors:

The BEST play dough recipe, seriously. It’s an amazing recipe that will keep for ages.

Marbleized Paper, this stuff is GORGEOUS!

Watercolor Painting — make these adorable watercolor bunnies.

Straw-blown watercolor painting — this is such a fun, all-in activity. W giggle every time we do it.

Glowing Playdough Recipe

By Rachelle 13 Comments

Today I’m joined by Tinkerlab reader Natasha Levochkina McCain, who’s sharing her glowing playdough recipe with us today. This is one of the coolest ways to update play dough, and I think you’ll get a kick out of it. We sure did.

Enjoy!

This play dough inspired my whole family.

Not just my two sons (three and five years old), but even a very busy and sometimes moderately grumpy Dad and our 15 year old.

Not only was it exciting for the kids to stay up after dark to play with the dough, but they also created space landscapes, alien creatures and even an alien alphabet. While it was not an entirely accidental invention, it was not too far from it.

glow playdough with handprints | tinkerlab.com

The intension was to make some fun looking play dough for a 6 year old boy as an impromptu present. His sister was going to receive some flower scented dough and I could think of nothing better than this for a boy.

I started mixing the ingredients before I realized that I only had unbleached whole wheat flour left.

Disaster? Not at all!

I decided to go ahead and to make the dough anyway. I used my favorite Tinkerlab play dough recipe (with exception to the whole wheat flour) for the playdough itself:

Glowing Play Dough Recipe

Recipe Type: Play Dough

Author: Natasha McCain | Tinkerlab

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Make traditional play dough…that also happens to glow!

Ingredients

5 cups water
2½ cups salt
3 tbsp. cream of tartar
10 tbsp. vegetable oil
5 cups flour
Food coloring or liquid watercolors (optional)
Glo Away by Plaid (glow in the dark paint via Amazon)
Black Light

Instructions

Mix everything but the food coloring and the glo-away together in a large pot until somewhat smooth. It will be lumpy. Not to worry, the dough will get smoother as it cooks.
Cook the dough over a low heat. Mix frequently. The water will slowly cook out of the mixture and you’ll notice it starts to take on a sticky dough appearance.
Before it gets too sticky add a few tablespoons of Glo Away
Keep mixing until the edges of the dough along the side and bottom of the pan appear dry. Pinch a piece of dough. If it’s not gooey, the dough is ready.
Place the dough on a counter top or large cutting board or cooking tray that can withstand a little food coloring.
Knead the warm dough until it’s smooth
Store the dough in a large Ziplock bag or sealed container. Unused, it should keep for months.
Turn the lights down low and illuminate the play dough with a black light.

Serving size: 10 Calories: 0 Fat: 0 Saturated fat: 0 Unsaturated fat: 0 Trans fat: 0 Carbohydrates: 0 Sugar: 0 Sodium: 0 Fiber: 0 Protein: 0 Cholesterol: 0

While cooking it and while the dough was still not solidified I added about 4 oz (1 small bottle) of Glo-Away glow in the dark gel by Plaid and continued mixing. The texture is rather coarse because of the type of flour but it provides a unique benefit in the end result.

The glowing particles distribute themselves differently because of the larger grain fragments. While kneading the dough on a plastic cutting board (to avoid stains) I added some green food coloring to it.

And of course, you’ll need a black light to illuminate the glowing dough.

Here’s what it looks like in the dark:

The next day I also made “regular” play dough with regular “white fluffy” flour. I added no color to it, just the Glo Away.

The glow pigment looks different in this one and it is fun to use them both for creating amazingly fun extraterrestrial creatures and landscapes.

About Glo Away: The manufacturer says that it’s “Safe to use on fabric, wood, glass, plastic and ceramics. Non permanent washes away with soap and water. Certified AP non-toxic. Great for decorating kids rooms and ceilings.”

Thanks for joining us today, Natasha! If you have a favorite art recipe to share, email us at rachelle at Tinkerlab.com.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, but we only share links to products that we adore or that we think you’ll find useful.

About Natasha Levochkina McCain.
I am a teacher and I love children, animals and living. My husband says I am strong and I think I am feminine. So, here I am.

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Evolution of the Art Table

By Rachelle 42 Comments

Over the course of a week, our art table gets worked pretty hard.

My kids begin almost every morning with some kind of making that may involve markers, colored pencils, tape, glue, or paint. And then there’s the occasional snack or meal that go along with art-making when my girls are too busy to stop the magic for food.

I thought it might be fun to take a look at how the table evolves throughout the week.

Here we go…

I’m attracted to the fresh start of clean, brown craft paper. Even though the surface of our art table is covered with paint stains, I find that the paper covering gives my children (and me) more freedom to drip paint, and along with that comes peace of mind.

I’m often asked about our craft paper — I pick it up at our oversized hardware store for about $14/roll. If you’d like to order some online, this craft paper on Amazon looks like it’s the same product.

Ah, isn’t that clean table-top lovely?!

A few days later, the table is covered with dry paint drips, watercolor splits, and pencil marks. My kids sometimes take this as an opportunity to use the craft paper itself as inspiration for new pieces of art.

At some point we deem that the soaked/torn/dirty craft paper has served us well and we roll it up to recycle. We then spend a day or two with dry media like markers, stickers, and crayons.

And breakfast. That’s important too.

Finally, we’re ready to get back to painting and otherwise mucky art, so I recover the table and make it an inviting scene once again.

A question for you…

How does your art table transform across a week? And do you cover your art table with paper?

If you liked this post, you might enjoy checking out the Creative Table Series and How to Organize a Self-Serve Art Space.

*this post contains affiliate links

Organize a Self-Serve Creativity Zone

By Rachelle 27 Comments

“The drive to master our environment is a basic human characteristic from the beginning — from birth.”

–-Jack P. Shonkoff, Harvard University (From Mind in the Making, Ellen Galinsky. New York: Harper Collins, 2010).

Do you have self-serve spaces in your home that are dedicated to creativity, art, science, and tinkering? Today I’m sharing our creative zone, the space where most of our art and creative explorations take place.

The key to this space is that it’s all self-serve. I jump in and participate, of course, but my kids know where everything is and it’s all accesible to their little hands. And they’re capable of cleaning it up when they’re ready to move on to the next thing.

We live in a small home, and I’m not suggesting that our plan will work for everyone, but the general spirit of it is something that I think we can all stand behind: when children can execute on their own ideas, it builds their confidence and encourages curiosity and a thirst for knowledge.

My objective is to give my children room to take charge of this space in order to test and follow through on their big ideas.

This space has moved all over our house, but for now it’s in our dining room space, just off the kitchen. It’s perfect for us because the light is the best in the house and there’s room for our self-serve art supply furniture. The table and chairs (Pottery Barn) are sturdy, meaning that grown-ups can comfortably sit in them and there’s plenty of natural and artificial light.

In order to execute on their ideas, children need to have access to creative materials, so all of ours are stored on low shelves where my kids can find them (and then, theoretically, put them away). Having a garbage can (Ikea) in the space is also key to keeping it neat. I don’t know why it took me so long to get a waste basket for this area!

Not all of our creative materials are stored here: I keep less-often-used materials like bottles of paint and play dough tools in a closet and the garage. I also introduce new materials when my children seem to tire of what’s in the space — maybe once a week. This week our table is consumed with a big batch of slime! If you’re interested, you can watch our video tutorial on how to make slime here.

There’s a letter writing center on top of one of the book shelves, which includes envelopes, cards, small homemade booklets, string + tape (both in action at the moment), a stapler, art dice, compass, and an address stamper. Next to this is a 3-tiered dessert tray, repurposed to hold collage materials and stamps.

Beneath this shelf is storage for clean recycled materials (including a phone book that just arrived — I can’t believe they still make these!), sketchbooks, a magnifying glass, and this hammering activity.

Next to the shelf is a unit of drawers, and one of them is dedicated to my kids and their creative pursuits. It’s filled with various tapes, extra clear tape (we race through this stuff), scissors, hole punchers, extra scissors (because mine constantly walk away, like socks in the laundry), my card readers, and a few other odds and ends. This drawer is in flux, but for now it’s working for us.

The other day I set out this invitation of pre-cut paper and a bowl of stickers to greet my kids when they woke up. So simple and it took me three minutes to arrange it. When my kids saw the table, their imaginations turned on and they got right to work, dreaming up all sorts of possibilities as they pulled various materials out to help them realize their visions.

More Creative Zone Inspiration

Organize your Art Station

New Creative Studio Corner

Art Supply Organization

Organizing Art Supplies: Day One

Organizing Art Supplies: Day Two

Organizing Art Supplies: Pantry Labels

Art Table in the Living Room

What are your self-serve tips and tricks?

Bonus: 50 Art Materials for Toddlers

50 Art Materials for Toddlers is a fun post that rounds up our favorite supplies for little hands. We asked our readers to share some of their favorites, which are added in the comments. See what you think!

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Organize Your Art Station

By Rachelle 3 Comments

Is your furniture constantly moving around your house, or are you the kind of person who finds the right place for something and it rarely moves?

Me, I’m a mover. My furniture may as well have wheels underneath it thanks to all moving it does.

And now I have one more excuse to rearrange my home…

My littlest is officially a toddler and I can finally get rid of the portable crib, rattles, baby carriers, and boxes upon boxes of baby clothes. It’s been bittersweet, but I’m happy to regain some space and enjoy a less cluttered home because of it.

The process of designing and redesigning our creative spaces has been going on for some time now. As my children change, we’ve shifted things around to accomodate our current needs. The creative zone has moved all over the house in search of the best light or to be closer to the kitchen so that I can chat with my kids while washing dishes.

I’ve purged our cabinets and consolidated materials that came into my house quicker than I could classify them, but I’m starting to see the light.

If you’d like to take a peek at the various organizing iterations, here’s a look-see.

New Creative Studio Corner

Art Supply Organization

Organizing Art Supplies: Day One

Organizing Art Supplies: Day Two

Organizing Art Supplies: Pantry Labels

Art Table in the Living Room

Check back next time for a look at our new + improved self-serve art station.

Other Updates:

I’m working with Art.com, and they have a Pinterest page! Be sure to follow them for good home decorating ideas. And, hint hint, they have a big shopping spree giveaway coming up that you won’t want to miss.

I’m planning to send out monthly newsletters (No more than that…promise. And if I do, go ahead and drop me) with fun creativity ideas that you won’t want to miss.

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