The Best Resources for a Bird Themed Unit: art projects, products, and children’s literature

If you are a teacher, homeschool parent, or recently thrown into the role of teaching your children this spring due to Covid-19, the resources below will be your one stop for a bird theme unit. We are huge nature fans and love using birds as a source of inspiration for many of our art projects. […]

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25 Bird Art Projects and Activities

Many of our art projects revolve around nature’s free materials and diverse subject matter. Nature is such a great jumping off point for creating. There are so many areas to use for inspiration and learning! One of those areas I love is BIRDS. All things birds. Feathers, Nests, Eggs. So many things to use as […]

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Mixed Media Birds Using Upcycled Materials

It is officially SPRING and these mixed media birds are perfect to add to your lessons this season. I also love a good upcycle project that uses what you have on hand. In this case we used old denim and vintage maps. Dig around and see what materials you could reuse! This post contains affiliate […]

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Nature Bundles: 3 Festive Uses During the Holiday Season

Today is Day 2 of the 3rd annual CRAFTMAS collaboration on Instagram with the lovely ladies of craft. If you haven’t been following along in the past years, then get ready for a week of festive art and craft ideas for your family. See our past Craftmas shares: Miniature Walnut Ornaments: Craftmas 2018 and Kid Made Wrapping […]

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Nature Art: Painting Magnolia Seed Pods

Do you have magnolia trees where you are? We are in the deep south and these large, glorious smelling trees are abundant. The giant leaves make awesome canvases and they drop these interesting little seed pods, resembling pine cones. We love using nature‘s free art materials and decided to collect a few dozen of these […]

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Mixed Media Salt Dough Nests

We made mixed media nests several weeks ago and my girls REALLY enjoyed making them.  It was a perfect nature prompt for the spring season. My oldest kept saying how much fun she was having. Some of my projects are big flops with her so this was an art win!! This art invitation is a […]

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Process Art: Using Feathers for Art Making

We love making art on unusual or unconventional surfaces. Have you seen our Coffee Filter Butterflies or our plastic Milk Jug Faces? We also love using unconventional materials to use as a tool for art making! Want to know what I mean? See below how our feathers transformed from one process to another. Using a unique material to […]

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Paper Plate Nature Collages: a simple invitation using wilting flowers

Do you have a variety of colors and textures in your yard where you live? Do you have some leftover Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or “I’m Sorry” flowers? Use the wilting petals and nature items to make some lovely collages or mandalas on a simple paper plate. A paper plate changes things up a bit […]

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Top 25 Nature and Earth Day Books for Children

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! That is our jam. We love nature and get crafty with recyclables as much as possible…that’s why we are The Art Garden! I wanted to share with you this resource of nature and Earth Day related books that we love and use with many of our projects. We own about half of […]

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How to Make a Bird Softie: Sew A Softie 2018

July has been filled with several simple-to-sew ideas by craft bloggers around the world for #sewasoftie. Sew-A-Softie is a month long extravaganza that was organized by Trixi from Coloured Buttons. Be sure to visit Trixi’s Sew A Softie Facebook page for fun softie ideas that have been shared daily. Our contribution to Sew A Softie are these simple […]

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Nature Shadow Boxes Part 2!

One of my first blog posts on The Art Garden was this Nature Shadow Box Assemblage. It was a fun art, nature, and sensory experience that my girls and I really enjoyed. We decided to come back to this activity when we had some dying flowers in our garden and some wilted store-bought flowers. We […]

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