Artline Monday - Half term ideas

How are you enjoying half term? Are your children bored already? Well I’ve got a few ideas for you today to keep them busy until they go back to school!

Half term ideas - created with Artline pens

Rock painting

My girls love it when we paint rocks together!  Some of them we keep to hide around our garden and some we give to family and friends as little gifts, the rest of the rocks we take out with us to hide for anyone to find and we wonder about where they will end up.  There are quite a few posts on this blog about how to get started and ideas for things you can paint, you can find them all here.  If you want to know if anyone is painting and hiding rocks in your area check on Facebook to see if there is a local group and then you can go on a rock hunting adventure too!

Put up or make a tent

Some of my favourite childhood memories are of being in a tent in the back garden with my brother and our friends, if you have a tent why don't you pop it up outside?  If you don't have a tent it is fun to try and make one out of blankets, sheets and pegs, you just need to be creative with planning it out!

Have a pj day

PJ days are the best, especially if it is raining!  If you have a day where you don't need to leave the house this week then tell everyone to keep on their pjs and spend the day playing board games and watching your favourite films together.  Don't forget the snacks and a fluffy blanket if it's a bit chilly too!

Visit the library

If you are lucky enough to still have a local library, take advantage of it and go and choose some books to borrow!  There might even be some fun sessions on over the holiday so it's worth asking the staff if they have any children's activities taking place.

Do some baking

Even if you're no where near "Bake Off" standard it is still nice to get in the kitchen and make some thing together.  We quite often make fairy cakes and cupcakes using packet mixes and sometimes cookies out of a roll of premade dough, I'm not great in the kitchen but I try!

Arts and crafts

There are nearly two years worth of Artline arts and crafts posts on this blog, take a look through them and see what takes your fancy!  I think my all time favourite craft was the cute cloud bookmark but you can find all the other posts here.

Have I missed out your favourite holiday activity, let me know and maybe we can try it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Artline Monday - Easter holiday activity

The Easter break has started and any day now you will probably hear the dreaded words "I'm bored!" so today I have a fun and easy activity you can do with your children to keep them occupied for an hour or two.... potato printing Easter eggs!

Now, I thought every young child had done some potato printing in the early years of school but my daughter is nearly eight and she had no idea what I was on about when I mentioned this to her!  Maybe teachers don't have time to carve potatoes for a class of 30 children anymore?  Who knows!  But it is still a great activity to do at home.

Potato printing supplies

You will need:

• Lots of paper
• A potato or two
• Artline poster markers (the chalk markers work well too)
• A knife for carving
• Kitchen roll for blotting and cleaning

When you are selecting your potatoes try to find oval/egg shaped ones, you can cut and trim them into shape but it's easier to start with a basic egg shape.

Carve patterns

Hold your potato upright as if it was an egg in an egg cup and then slice it in half top to bottom.  You can either carve some Easter egg style patters into the potato flesh yourself or give them to your children and let them design their own with a child friendly knife.  We went with stripes and tried to make some flower shapes on our second potato but they ended up looking more like splodges!

Adding the colour

Once you have your carved potatoes, blot them with kitchen roll to pull out some of the moisture before adding the paint.

Then it is time for your children to get creative, pass them the poster markers and let them paint their designs onto the potatoes.  

Ready to print

When the potato is coloured in they can turn it over and print the image onto their paper. 

Printed Easter egg

The children can remove any excess paint from the potatoes with the kitchen roll and then paint them again in different colours and repeat the process over and over.

More printing

We made lots of different colour Easter eggs with our potato "stamps" and had a lot of fun!  You could cut out the prints and use them to make Easter cards or decorations or your children could draw in some more details and patterns using fineliners and pens once the paints have dried.  My daughter carried on printing without me and made sheets and sheets of eggs which she has stuck up on her bedroom wall to decorate the room for Easter.  

Our colourful Easter eggs

If you are looking for more arts and crafts to do over the holidays check out these previous Artline posts for more ideas.

Have a very happy Easter and thanks for stopping by!

Artline Monday - Easter eggs

Decorating eggs for Easter has become a bit of a tradition in our house over the years so I always look forward to getting creative with my girls and our stash of Artline pens when the holiday rolls around.

Our eggs and supplies

We started off with a basket of cooled hard boiled eggs and a selection of Artline products.

The first egg we made is.... can you guess?  It's Mike Wazowski from Monsters inc!  My youngest daughter loves this guy, he always makes her laugh when we watch the Monsters films!

Monsters inc egg

She painted the whole egg green with a poster marker and then left it to dry for about 5 minutes.  I helped her draw the eye with a white paint marker, a blue Supreme permanent marker and a black Artline 853 OHP pen and then she added the smile and popped him back into the egg carton to finish drying.

Kawaii ice cream egg

My eldest daughter made this sweet kawaii style ice cream egg.  She drew a waffle cone pattern on the bottom half of the egg using an orange Artline 853 OHP pen and then coloured in the top half of the egg with a purple chalk marker to look like a scoop of ice cream.  Once the chalk was dry she added eyes, rosy cheeks and smile using a white paint marker, another Artline 853 OHP pen in black and a pink Supreme marker.

Ladybird egg

I couldn't resist making a ladybird egg, the design is really easy to do but it looks great.  I painted the egg red with a poster marker and then helped my girls with their eggs while mine dried.  Once it was completely dry I added details like the head, wings and spots using a black water colour marker and a white paint marker for the eyes. 

Minimalist calligraphy eggs

All the other designs are quite colourful and vibrant so I wanted to do something different with the last of our eggs.  I thought it would be nice to do something simple and minimalist so I just used a white paint marker  on these two and wrote "hello" on one egg and "spring" on the other one.  I also added some spots and dots for the finishing touch, I think they would look nice as part of a table centre piece for Easter.

Last year we made chicks, a flower basket and even a unicorn with our eggs, you can see them here if you need more inspiration!  School breaks up on Friday so this is the perfect activity to keep your children busy while they count down the days until they can devour their chocolate eggs!

Thanks for stopping by!

Artline Monday - Spring home & garden organisation

Spring always gives me the motivation to get cracking on things like tidying up the gardens after winter and tackling my house with a big spring clean, it is the perfect time to get back to basics and concentrate on things around your home.  With this in mind I thought I would share a few Artline products in today's post that are really handy to have around the house.

Handy pen's to have in your home

If you love cooking up a storm in the kitchen then the Artline 770 freezer bag marker is the pen for you!  

Perfect for batch cooking

It is perfect for writing on, well freezer bags (of course!), sandwich bags and all kinds of packaging and boxes so whatever you want to mark up and pop into the deep freeze this pen has got you covered. The 770 also writes clearly on greasy surfaces and can withstand sub-zero storage unlike other pens.

When I get the chance I make up big batches of things like chilli and bolognese and then freeze them in smaller portions for when my kids all want something different to eat.  I use the freezer marker to label the bags with what is inside them and the date they were made and frozen.  It kind of makes me feel like a domestic goddess to look in the freezer and see bags of homemade food, even though I am really not one!

Getting the garden ready

If spring makes you want to get outside and enjoy the sunshine then doing some gardening is a good way to pass the time.  Whether you are planting seeds, bulbs, flowers or vegetables the Artline 780 garden marker is the right tool for the job.  It dries instantly and is waterproof and UV fade resistant so whatever the weather this ink can handle it all.  The pen can be used on lots of different surfaces too like plastic, wood, metal, glass and porcelain.

Keep your private information private

Do you receive a lot of junk mail in the post?  I feel like I am forever finding useless brochures and marketing materials being put through my door.  To make matters worse they all seem to have my full name and address on them so I can't just throw them into the recycling bin.  If you're in the same boat then you need one of these Artline secure markers to hide your personal information!  The black ink obscures anything you want to keep private and it is completely opaque once it has dried.  Scribble over the text you want to redact and then the paper can be recycled, problem solved!

Labelling with the Artline 750 Laundry marker

If you have children in school then this Artline 750 laundry marker is a godsend!  If you labelled all your children's uniform, PE kits, swim kits, bags and coats in September with this pen then they should all still be clear and readable, but if your children are anything like mine then they have probably lost or outgrown at least one or two pieces since the start of the school year.  If you have replaced anything grab this pen and write their names and classes etc on the labels and fingers crossed they will make it the end of the school year!

Which of these pens do you think would be the most useful for you?

Artline Monday - Mother's Day cards

It is Mother's Day this Sunday but don't worry if you're not prepared for it yet!  Last week we made a Mother's Day gift and today I'm going to show you a couple of simple but sweet card ideas I found on Pinterest.

Card making supplies

For the first card I folded a piece of A4 card in half and attached some green twine around the edges of the front of it, this gives the card a little bit of texture and makes it look more interesting.  If you don't have any twine then you could use some ribbon or washi tape instead or just skip this step altogether.

Making a basic card shape

I used a punch and some patterned scrap paper to make 15 heart shapes, then I wrote the letters for HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY onto the hearts using my black Supreme brush marker.

Writing my message

Once I had my message I played around with how I wanted to space the hearts out on the card, when I was happy with how they looked I glued them into place.

Drawing the strings

The last step for this card was to turn the hearts into a bunch of balloons by drawing strings to hold them together using an Artline 200 fineliner. 

The finished card

For the second card I used another piece of A4 card folded in half.

Card and Artline pens

Starting in the bottom left hand corner and working my way up towards the top right hand corner I wrote "happy Mother's Day" in cursive with my Artline pens

Happy Mother's Day

Then I added a large 3D butterfly sticker to the end of my message, as if it was the path the butterfly had just flown.  The card looked a little plain so I decided to use another couple of small butterfly stickers on it for some extra decoration.

3D butterfly stickers

I'm happy with how both cards turned out, I think they look cute and I would be happy to receive either of them this weekend!

Two cute and easy to make cards

Of course there is still time for you to pop out and buy your mum a card from the shops but I always think that a handmade card is nicer as it shows you've spent time making something to make them happy.  What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

Artline Monday - Mothers Day gift

Here is a quick reminder that it is Mothers Day on the last Sunday of the month and if you are short on ideas for what to get your lovely mum then how about making her a gift?

My youngest daughter and I have been making a present for my mum over the weekend, it is the perfect craft for little hands and there wasn't too much mess afterwards which is always a bonus in my book!

Supplies

For this craft you will need:

• A glass candle jar 
• A clean sponge
• Some Artline poster markers
• A small candle or tealight to go inside the jar

I brought this candle jar and holder as a set from Home Bargains, I thought it was sweet but needed some colour to make it a little more fun.  You can either buy something similar or just use a plain glass jar.

Once you have got your candle jar the first thing you need to do is select which colours you would like to use to decorate it, we chose red, pink, yellow, blue and white.

Adding our colours to the sponge

Use your poster markers to add sections of colour to the sponge, we did stripes but you can fill it in however you like.

Use the sponge to add colour to the jar

Then press the sponge onto the glass adding the colour onto the jar.

Our colourful jar

Cover the whole jar with the paint on the sponge.  Leave it to dry for about 20 minutes and then if you are happy with it put it to one side, if you want to add more colour/s then just put extra paint on the sponge and layer the colours on the jar.

My mum loves pink too

We decided to add some pink to the metal holder too, the poster markers work on lots of different types of surfaces so they are great for all kinds of craft and art projects.

Colour coordinated jar and holder

The candle jar looks more interesting in the daylight now it is not just plain glass but it looks really great in the evening when the candle is lit and it shows off the colours and patterns we created with the sponge.  I think my mum is going to really like it!

With the candle lit

Last year we made personalised mugs for Mothers Day, you can check that post out here and the whole of March is National Craft Month so if you're looking for things to do you can find lots of arts and crafts posts here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Artline Monday - Plant a flower day

Have you heard of Plant a flower day?  It is a great way to celebrate the upcoming spring and encourage people to try their hand at gardening.  It falls on the 12th of March each year and I thought it would be nice to get involved and test out my green thumbs!

Getting ready to plant some flowers

Before I started messing around with potting soil and seeds I wanted to decorate the terracotta pot I was going to use.  I knew it would take a while for my seeds to grow into a plant and flower so I wanted to add some colour to it for me to enjoy while I waited.

I tested out lots of different Artline pens on the bottom of the pot so I could see which ones stood out the best against the terracotta colour and decided to use my metallic poster markers as they went on smoothly and looked great.

Painting the top of the pot

I started out with the metallic blue colour and painted the top part of the pot...

Painting the edge of the pot

...and went around the edge of it too.

Adding more colour

Next I taped off sections of the pot with some skinny washi tape and filled them in with my silver, pink and blue poster markers.

Creating a pattern

The colours I chose kind of remind me of those Easter eggs you can get with pastel foil wrappers on them so they feel very spring like to me!

Finishing the design

The poster markers dried very quickly on the pot so it was easy to paint the whole way around it without worrying about smudges or ruining the sections I had already done.  Once I'd finished painting it I removed the strips of washi tape to reveal nice clean edges and stripes of terracotta to make my pattern.

Preparing my lolly stick

I thought I would colour coordinate my lolly stick with the pot so I painted it metallic blue as well and then wrote the name of the flowers on it with my trusty Garden marker.

Planting the seeds 

Once the pot was finished I filled it up with soil and planted some seeds, I really hope they grow!

My pretty pastel pot

While I'm waiting for Mother Nature to do her thing I've added a little pastel purple cactus garden ornament to the pot and one of my ladybird painted rocks just to make it look a bit more interesting.

A little ladybird is guarding my seeds

Last summer I decorated some outdoor garden pots and planters using Artline poster markers and they still look great now (even after being outside all over winter!) so if I need to move this pot outside once the seeds have sprouted I know it can withstand all kinds of weather!   

Will you be planting any flowers tomorrow?  Fingers crossed for a warm, sunny day!  

World Book Day craft with Artline pens

As today is World Book Day I really wanted to make something special to celebrate!  I absolutely love to read and think a day dedicated to encouraging children and adults to pick up a book and delve into new worlds is great fun.  

Memories box and Artline pens

Anyway, I was pottering around the shops last week looking for some crafting bits and pieces when I spotted this wooden memories box and thought it could look just like a book!  Even the hinges on the side of it looked like fancy patterns on the spine of an old book so I decided to buy one and turn it into a story themed keepsake box.

Alice in Wonderland

The first thing I did was design the front cover of my "book".  I cut out a piece of paper the same size as the photo area in the front of the box and then drew Alice from Alice in Wonderland using my Artline Stix drawing and brush pens.

Painting the cover

Next I painted the outside of the wooden box with a blue poster marker to look like the cover of a book and then left it to dry for about 15 minutes.  

Painting along the edges

I also painted along the edges of the box to complete the book look....

Adding the finishing touches

... and then coloured in the inside edges using an Artline Supreme brush marker as the nib was finer and easier to use on the smaller surface.

The spine of my "book"

Once all the paint was dry I added my drawing into the photo area.  I put it in upside down so it would look like Alice when she was falling down the rabbit hole which is why I drew her hair the way I did.

My Alice in Wonderland themed keepsake box

Doesn't it look just like a book?

Things that remind me of Alice in Wonderland

Now what would you put inside this keepsake box?  I have a few things that remind me of Alice like a blue flower hair clip the same colour as her dress and a red rose brooch.  I also have a couple of vintage style cards that I was given a long time ago which I kept because the girl and the rabbit on them gave me Wonderland vibes.  Lastly I have two pins with quotes on them from the book which I need to keep safe when I'm not wearing them because I would hate to loose either them!

Kept safe inside the box

The great thing about this is you can make it into any book you or your children love!  If you don't want to draw your own cover you could print off a picture instead or use a page from a colouring book and if you wanted to change the theme at any time it's as simple as changing the picture to something else!

Enjoy the rest of World Book Day and I hope you find some time today to sit down and read either an old favourite or a discover a new one!

See you again soon!