Brazilian artist and designer, Andre Levy, will change the way you look at coins. His creative interventions in Tales You Lose, involve embellishing and transforming heads of state into popular characters and people, leaving you wondering why you never thought of doing that yourself! It may also leave you curious about who is chosen to be on a coin, and about the legalities of altering money, even for non-fraudulent purposes like art. In this case, the acrylic paint you’ll be using can easily be scraped away, allowing you to continue using your coins as legitimate currency. But if you prefer to save the Queen of England sporting a new, hot pink coiffe, you can do that too.
Tag Archives: arts and crafts for kids
Graffiti Name
Designing a graffiti name tag was one of my daughter’s recent assignments for her art class. It involved delving into the history of graffiti, exploring different styles, and learning about the terminology. Her design, above, involved chunky letters and a brightly coloured candy theme as fill. Loved it!
Filed under drawing, graffiti, Graffiti Art
Recycled House Paint Art
Artist, Cassandra Tondro, has come up with a fabulous, fun way of recycling house paint. She gives it a second life by using it to make abstract art, while at the same time, helping the environment. She’ll also be inadvertently helping you to clear out that little corner where you store your paint containers, because I can’t be the only one who hangs on to the stuff, but rarely ends up using it.
Frozen Soap Bubbles
I want nothing more than to hibernate until this second polar vortex comes to an end, but Angela Kelly’s stunning photos of frozen soap bubbles inspired me to come out and play.
Filed under winter fun
Salt Dough Valentine Cards
Filed under salt dough, Valentine's Day
Felted Santas
I’m not sure where the last 7 weeks went, but my unintentional break has finally come to an end – just in time to squeeze in some felted Santa ornaments, before the trees come down!
Halloween Planter Decorations
A few weeks spent going through twenty years worth of things stored in my basement, made me realize just how much crap we humans like to hang on to. I did come across a few salvageable items like these spiral obelisks, which were given a second life just in time for Halloween. A fresh coat of paint, a selection of skulls, and a nice assortment of bloody human parts did the trick.
Halloween Pins
This is an easy craft to help kids get in on all that Halloween action. They can choose to make traditional Halloween characters, or run wild with their imagination.
Halloween Collage Box
It’s never too early to begin thinking about Halloween (can you tell I love it), and making a special box for some of those wonderful treasures you’ve amassed over the years, is a wonderful way to start. A few drawings and images, a little Mod Podge, a trip to the dollar store, and you’re all set.
Filed under Halloween
Chalk Mandalas
Many cultures and religions throughout the world use Mandalas as spiritual teaching tools. Their use is rooted in eastern religious traditions, but has also been adopted by the west, as a way of focussing the mind, and encouraging transformation and healing.
Making a chalk mandala is my farewell to summer, and a reluctant welcome to the fall. It is also a wonderful form of creative self-expression, and hopefully something kids will explore on paper as well.
Filed under mandalas



















































