Recycled Summer Project: Water Bottle Fish

June 25, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

I posted about making this Water Bottle Fish Wall Hanging a couple years ago with my girls featuring a fun water bottle fish. I thought I would give an updated version since I brought this project back out for one final lesson with my students as the year was coming to an end. It was simple […]

Paper Plate Nature Collages: a simple invitation using wilting flowers

March 4, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

Have some leftover Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or “I’m Sorry” flowers? Use the wilting petals to make some lovely collages or mandalas on a simple paper plate. A paper plate changes things up a bit and makes the invitation a little more interesting than your conventional art surface. To make your Paper Plate Collages, only […]

Top 25 Nature and Earth Day Books for Children

February 26, 2019.Reading time 5 minutes.

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 […]

Monochromatic Collage: Red Study

January 29, 2019.Reading time 4 minutes.

Love is in the air! Valentine’s Day is around the corner so we have moved on from winter themed projects and are getting arty with all things pink and red. My girls, especially my youngest, love to cut and glue so we have had a lot of fun projects involving collage materials. You all may […]

Nature Shadow Boxes Part 2!

June 19, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

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 […]

15 Earth Day Activities and Crafts

March 26, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

I love nature about as much as I love art and the two work perfectly together. In celebration of Earth Day, I created a resource of 15 activities and crafts that use nature as a material, inspiration, or reuses items that would otherwise go to a landfill. Click on the links below for the full tutorials. […]

Milk Jug Faces

October 28, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

Create some fun masks or mythical creatures using a mix of recycled and various decorative items. These milk jugs are a perfect canvas for some 3-dimensional creativity! This post contains affiliate links. Supplies: Spray primer will help the paint adhere and not flake off. I use this a lot for plastic (and some cardboard projects) so […]

Upcycled Owls: Art Using Recycled Materials

September 21, 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

When I first started teaching art, I found very quickly that art budgets can be slim and teachers must get very creative and thrifty. Now that I am a stay-at-home-mom, it is still necessary for me to be frugal and cut costs where I can. A run to the craft store for one project can […]

Painted Doily Dreamcatchers

August 24, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

We recently acquired a large quantity of doilies and miscellaneous craft materials from a sweet family friend of mine, Jane, who blogs at janelazenbyart.com. She knows the girls and I stay busy with art projects and thought of us as she was de-cluttering and going through things she was holding on to. I was so excited […]

15 Earth Day Activities and Crafts

April 22, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.